Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Hello Faithful Readers!
Just wanted to prep the second book in the "Waves" series. Thank you to everyone who hopped onto this new ride. I adore surfing, the beach, and oceanography, so writing about Black surfers who exist all over the world has been so much fun. It's the fastest I've ever written, so I think maybe it needed to be told. I am grateful to all of you for taking the time as always to read my stuff. Writing in general, and writing during COVID-19 in particular has kept me mentally occupied in a good way. I hope spending time with these made-up people helps you all get away for a little bit too.
The second book will continue on where "Waves" will end soon. If you are caught up with the first book so far, then you already know things have leveled up for our two protagonists.
Also, why is Ebonee Davis so freaking gorgeous? Ugh, can't stand her! Lol.
I think once I committed to Ebonee being my faceclaim, Sugar just really came to life. What's funny is, I know she and Michael B. Jordan have crossed paths in person in real life. I came across a ton of pictures where they were at the same events, but I have yet to find any photos of them together that I can use. Dang it! In my head, they look like the perfect surfing couple for these books.
I have taken massive liberty with the actual Surfing Pro Tour schedule and what order it goes in real life for dramatic purposes. Meaning, in real life, the World Tour competitions and the WQS tours would not be held at the same time/place together. Also, countries have their own competitions at different times of the year because winter and summer is the opposite past the equator. So for any surfers reading this, I am well aware of real-life surf rules/times of year for real events etc. But in fiction, I can make it up to suit my story needs. Creative liberties/license yadda yadda.
On the flipside...
In 2016 the Olympic Committee voted to have surfing as an official summer Olympic sport in 2020. But of course, the pandemic postponed the event until 2021. Wanted to put that out there in case anyone is a nerd like me and looks up stuff they've read that sounds interesting to see who past Olympic winners were. There are none because of COVID-19.
Here's a nice video on another real-life Black woman surfer, Danielle Lyons and redefining what a female surfer looks like:
Author update. 7/26/22:
So the above was written 2 years ago. The Olympics happened in 2021, and surfing was added as a sport. A Hawaiin woman, Carissa Moore won for the female division, and my boy, Ítalo Ferreira (Brazil), won for the men's in the first appearance of Olympic surfing ever! This changed parts of the second book (Sugar was supposed to be the first woman to win, lol!)
I am still going to eventually publish "Waves" and "Beyond the Waves" as indie books, but it's fun to share the first drafts here!
