10 Things You Didn’t Know About: Choosing Us

Hi everyone and Happy Monday! To celebrate my upcoming release, Choosing Us, I have almost a week long posts before the story is release.

Today, is my favorite post, which explain some thing behind the makings of the story. I like doing these because it does give readers a behind- the-scenes look of my thoughts while writing each story, as they’re fun to reveal.

So, let’s get started! :-)

10. Gina and Grant’s story was never going to happen.

When I had thoughts of doing spin-offs, I never imagined writing a story for Gina and Grant. In fact, I was never going to put them as a couple, nor were going to give them a bigger presence in the series. They were pretty much recurring characters, Grant was Marcus’ right-hand man at Phoenix Houston and Gina was Cheryl’s classmate and friend. But I saw potential in the two, and wanted them to have a bigger presence in other stories, particularly in Gina’s sister’s Kayla’s story with Drew in Only You. I saw the bigger picture with the two and potentially a story, that’s why one was created with Choosing Us.

9. Choosing Us was not going to be spin-off being released this soon.

Considering my ideas for spin-offs, I wasn’t planning to release Choosing Us this soon, especially since it wasn’t on my list of books to write. In fact, I was considering either Love, Life, & Happiness Homecoming or a potential spin-off featuring Nathan and Rachel (which will be explained later in Choosing Us). However, when the story premise came to mind, I decided to give it a try.

8. There will be other spin-offs coming soon.

Speaking of Nathan and Rachel, this won’t be the only spin-off released this year. I’ve been contemplating writing another book with Nathan for years, as I believed he has a lot of stories yet to be told. Now, it’s time to bring these stories to life, and I’ll be announcing the details of this book in the coming months. Additionally, there’s another spin-off in the works, but it won’t be just a standalone story. Instead, it’ll be a five-part series, which will be revealed at the conclusion of Choosing Us.

7. There will be a few Easter eggs in Choosing Us.

From the potential storyline for Love, Life, & Happiness Homecoming, to a surprise character returning to the crew, to even characters from other stories appearing, there are a lot of surprises revealed in the new story.

6. The story will be focusing on Gina and Grant’s relationship more than their careers. To a certain extent.

In Choosing Us, the storyline will primarily revolve around Gina and Grant as they navigate their relationship, unlike Drew’s story in Only You, which centered around the hospital. While the hospital will be mentioned in Choosing Us and Gina will be mentioned as being at work, there won’t be any specific patients that Gina will be involved with, as there were in Drew’s story.

5. The original crew is mainly in Choosing Us.

Throughout various stories, I had other characters within the stories, from Carla, Mika, and Devin, but I only have the original LL&H crew in the story. The only other person you will mainly read is Kevin, since he’s co-partner of The Phoenix. It’s also good to have updates on the original characters as well. 😁

4. Grant’s family history will be reveled more than Gina’s.

Grant’s family history is mentioned more prominently due to his divorce. His sister will also be involved, as the narrative will focus on the two of them and the reasons behind their strained relationship. Gina’s family history is briefly mentioned, but it doesn’t have as significant an impact on the story as Grant’s will.

3. The reason behind Grant’s living situation will be revealed

In previous stories, it was mentioned why Grant was living with a roommate for so long. That will finally be revealed in Choosing Us.

2. Jay and Brit are back!

Jayden and Britney’s permanent return to Houston will have a lasting impact on everyone involved.

1. Elis and Preston are still kids!

This one was a bit of a dilemma for me, mainly due to the book-to-year timeline. I genuinely wanted to age both Elis and Preston to teenagers because it’s been nine years since Believe In Love was released, and that was the last time readers even heard about them. Yes, they were briefly mentioned in Only You, but it was just a brief mention. Since this is supposed to be a continuation of the other spin-offs, the two are believed to be around 7 years old, not in actual years, but 14 (the last time I even mentioned their ages was in Love, Life, & Happiness Christmas, which was released in 2016 and they were five years old). I was even considering a time jump and having them become teenagers, but after thinking about it and knowing that the events in Only You were supposed to have happened a few months earlier, I couldn’t do it. So, I decided to keep them at 7.

There you have it, the thoughts that were going through my mind while writing Choosing Us. I didn’t want to reveal too much, especially considering the surprise and crossover characters in the story. You’ll have to read the story to discover who they could be.

Check back tomorrow as I revealed the playlist for the story.

Until then, happy reading! :-)