Not #samplesunday

Hi kids, it's me, Nicole. So...listen right...

All of my best stories start with those three words, haha. If you'll notice it's been a couple weeks since i've done a Sample Sunday. It wasn't purposeful, but it wasn't happenstance either. See for the past few weeks I've put together a little writing schedule for myself that includes daily and weekly word count goals and I've been toiling tirelessly to adhere to those goals. But then the day after Labor Day my last class in my graduate school program began--the capstone. A goal I've been working toward sine July 2015 was finally here...and coinciding with the same period in which I promised myself that I would complete and release a book.

Talk about bad luck. Sheesh.

So...I was all discombobulated, y'all. Off my game and completely unsure that I would finish this book on the time table that I'd given myself given that I was certain that this capstone will monopolize my time. Hell I still am certain that it will, but I decided to dedicate this weekend to adding a sizable amount of words to my current in progress doc. On Thursday I told myself that I wanted to write ten thousand words by Sunday evening. Then on Friday I went over to my best friend's house and watched Greenleaf while drinking red wine and scotch. Clearly I wasn't about that life.

But Saturday morning I woke up with renewed purpose. I told a couple friends who checked in on me intermittently. Then of course I got on my instastories being ridiculous as I raced toward the first day's finish line of five thousand words. It was a hard fought battle, but I emerged victorious. I woke up this morning with...a lack of the same fighting spirit that I'd had on Saturday. I even lamented that I'd probably fall short of my goal because I had lost my way a bit and wasn't sure where this story was going. 

I went outside, groced some groceries, and then came back in the house to settle into this word doc. I sat here for about two hours and bupkis. I grew irritated quickly, mind shifting completely from the positive can do spirit to negative down talk about how I was stupid to even try to challenge myself to do such a thing. Before Saturday, the most words I'd written in one day was somewhere around the twenty-six hundred mark and those were hard wrought. Instead of celebrating the victory of having smoked my previous one day word count record, I stewed in the pit of possibility that I wouldn't make the big goal I'd set for myself on the outset.

But then I remembered the words of a friend about the way we approach tasks and how our mindset actively affects the manner in which we tackle challenges. (Shoutout to Sarah!) I kept the Word doc open, sang along to the Wine and Dine playlist on spotify and slowly, the words began to trickle in. Five hundred words turned to one thousand which turned to three thousand which turned to forty seven hundred words written and I saw that finish line so close that I could taste it and I persevered.

And then I made it. I wrote ten thousand words in two days. What the eff is my life even about right now? I'm exhilarated and feeling invincible. Y'all, this book...these characters, I like them a lot. Really like them. And I hope y'all do, too. Because I have taken careful consideration in crafting their story, the choices made within and the consequences of those decisions. I'm striving to write a book that is filled with not only the patented Nicole Falls humor, but also a bit more depth than previous works as I work tirelessly to make each book better than the last.

I ain't done with it quite yet. These folks are still talking. But today I leveled up as a writer. And I'm just riding high off the feeling of accomplishment and wanted to share it with y'all. Sorry there's no sample this week, maybe next Sunday will be the jam and the samples will commence. We shall see. : )

Til then...

#SampleSunday: Girl Talk

 Unedited and subject to change...y'all know what this is...enjoy!

“Thank you, mama,” PJ said, smothering me with hugs and kisses.

I soaked it up knowing that my time before he became a too cool teen boy would come too quickly and I should relish the affection while he gave it freely. PJ ran off, to call Danny and confirm that their plan had worked, no doubt and I grabbed my tablet to make a FaceTime call. As I waited for it to connect, I examined my face in the screen—taking note of the formerly fine lines around my eyes that seemed to have deepened overnight. Thirty-fine was quickly giving way to the rapidly approaching forty and I was feeling…a bit put out by it all. Not that I minded aging because I’m definitely like a fine wine, but as the years progressed, I found myself deeply reevaluating some of my life’s choices and wondering if I made the right ones. Before I could get too far down the rabbit hole of those thoughts, the FaceTime call connected.

“So did you join?”

“Hey Raq. How are you?”

“Yeah yeah hoe, pleasantries and all that. Did. You. Join?”

I nodded once and Raquel squealed in delight.

“I didn’t think you had it in you! My girl,” she said, jigging a little in her seat.

“You didn’t think I had what in me? Did you forget Tim?”

“Oh girl please, Tim was happenstance. Before him, your girl had cobwebs on her. You didn’t even bring my godson into the world via the old fashioned way and the last time you steadily talked about getting dicked down LBJ was in office, so…”

I tried, but failed to hold back a shriek of laughter at her ridiculousness. Raquel and I went back like four flats on a Cadillac. She had been my very best friend since we met in Kindergarten in Mrs. Papadopoulos’ class. She had a Care Bears backpack and Rainbow Brite lunchbox; I had a Rainbow Brite backpack and a Care Bears lunchbox so in a stroke of brilliance she convinced me to exchange lunchboxes so that we wouldn’t be mismatched. My mama tanned my hide when I got home, but it was worth it. Raq and I had been thick as thieves ever since. She knew almost all of my secrets and where most of the bodies were hidden. Outside of my sister, she was the one constant in my life that I could always count on.

“You know I can’t stand your ass, right?”

“But you love me,” she replied without missing a beat.

That was for sure. She was on a short list of few for whom I’d take a bullet.

“So you ever gonna tell me how you really found out about JON.com or are we making up a new lie on today?”

Raquel laughed and quickly averted her eyes asking, “Where’s my godson?”

Patrick happened to be walking into the kitchen when she inquired so he yelled out, “Hey Auntie Rocky” as he made his way, undoubtedly, to eat up all the snacks. I swear it felt like I was going grocery shopping every three days messing around with his hungry behind.

“Hey, my love. Come over here so I can see how much you’ve grown since I saw you last.”

“You aint slick,” I said lowly, “And you haven’t sidestepped my questions so as soon as you’re done with your fake fawning…”

“Sweet Sister Patty Cake, why don’t you know how to let things go?”

“Raquel Rachelle, why do you keep trying to hold onto secrets from me? You know it’ll all come out eventually.”

“Exactly, so exercise some patience, my good sis. You’ll find out sooner or later.”

I rolled my eyes and kept the conversation moving in another direction. She was being purposefully cagey, which let me know that when the bomb was eventually dropped it’d likely be extinction level event. That was just Raq’s way. She loved to keep things bottled, then over process, and finally talk things through with me way after the fact. She always needed that space to work things out and I normally granted it, but with this site, I knew whatever it was had to be juicy. Our conversation quickly came to a close, with Raq making me promise to hit her up the minute my profile was approved so we could go through my matches together.

#RomanceAwarenessMonth: Week 3.5 -- BONUS

This is a special guest post from K. Sadee, author of the Robinson Sisters series. I'd initially asked her to contribute to last Friday's post, but she sent me something that was well beyond what I'd even envisioned and I knew I had to gon' head and bless y'all with the young long form. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

xoxo,

Nic

************************************************

When I was asked to write a few words for #RomanceAwarenessMonth, I started out thinking that I was going to write about my favorite romantic moments in television or movies. I have a few like when Dwayne Wayne broke up Whitley’s wedding to Papa Pope (imagine telling your kids that the love was rekindled when their daddy fought off groomsmen and security? Swoon, friends. Swoon.) Or that airplane scene in Beyond the Lights (a curse on Nate Parker’s peanut head). But the more I thought about that, the more I thought about the scenes that I wish I could see.

     From my books (MVP Daddy, Hot 16, Alternative Endings—shameless plug) it’s probably easy to see that I love Black History. Love it. The National Museum of African American History and Culture is my new happy place and I send tithes and offering to it every month because of how deep my love for Black History goes. But, sadly the Black historical options on television and film tend to not feature very much Black love. They feature black suffering and even righteous black defiance, but except for a few notable exceptions—the recent Roots, Hidden Figures, and Underground—there hasn’t been very much revolutionary, historical Black love.

     And I want to see it there. I need to see it there. Not because I need to have Hollywood affirm me or the wonder that is healing Negro Nosed Romance, but because I want to get my historical swoon on to people who look like me and my loved ones. With all due respect to Jane Austen and no desire to upset her altar, I want to see someone other than Darcy and Lizzie fall in love over and over.  I say this as I wonder where my BBC DVDs are so I can binge on Colin Firth’s Darcy, but still.

     Ok, semi-rant over. Let’s get to the good stuff. The love stories I want to see that have already been written. This list is not all of the books that I want filmed, but I did choose my top choices so that this post did not become as long as a text book. It was close. The cuts I had to make to it had me pacing.

This list would not be complete without the Queen of Historical Romance and Literary Lovin’ That’s Good Like Cornbread, Beverly Jenkins. I have several, several options here for the books of hers that I pray get turned into movies or short series. I know Black Jesus is tired of getting my praymails about this, but I’m going to choose my Top Two.

1)           Indigo: This will probably be my longest referral because this book is my literary Beyonce. I’m going to stan. Listen beloveds, there are several reasons why Indigo is a book that I need the literary gods to put on screen. The first is the heroine, Hester Wyatt. She’s an invaluable part of the Underground Railroad in Michigan, and our brave couple met when she was nursing him back to health. Listen.  She’s basically real fearless goals. She faces down things and people in the book that would have made me hide behind her. She’s the kind of heroine that you not only want to be friends with, but you want to emulate.

And, because it’s an important part of the story and another reason that I really want this book to be a movie, she’s dark skinned. And no, not dusky skinned. Not smedium caramel with an extra dust of cinnamon, but dark. And our brave hero (more on that later), Galen ADORES it. He describes her as having skin that “looked like the gift of an African night goddess.” Swoon. Do you hear me? Get the church ushers to heft me up and carry me away. I’m not going to do a colorism rant, but do you know how wonderful this was? The cover here is the cover I first read this book under (I had no business reading that at the time, but I already took that up with Black Jesus) and for a darker girl, this was LIFE. We rarely, if ever see a black man pursuing and loving on a dark woman in movies. At least we don’t see the healthy, “she’s not my mule and I adore every pigment in her skin” love. This book‘s heroine wasn’t runner up or second choice love (that happens with women outside of “beauty standards” typically darker or bigger women) either. She was his first and only choice and he made that clear to her and the whole town. I love a hero who is sprung like a gymnast at Olympic try outs. I’m mad at myself for losing this physical book (I have the ebook, of course) because honestly, I don’t even remember seeing women her shade on covers often, but that’s another post.

Let’s get to the hero, Galen Vachon. Honey child goin’ wild. Listen. Even outside of how he adores the heroine, the brother is IT. He was a lover AND a fighter in all the best ways. He was a rich black man who uses that privilege to be an infamous freedom fighter and lead enslaved people to freedom under the name Black Daniel. You can swoon right there. I’ll wait. He’s bout it. I’m trying not to spoil it, but “Never Scared” was written for and about this man. They just didn’t know it. And again, I’m not going to spoil it, but that moment at the end where he’s sitting on a horse with a gun and gold ready to defend his love is better than diamonds and roses. I deserve to see it on my big screen too. And when he defended Hester from colorism in his family, I hit my best shout. Put that on my big screen and collect my money.

2) Topaz: I said that I was going to stick to two novels from the Empress of Romantic Black History and while it was hard to decide on the second novel, after much prayer, fasting (I didn’t eat my afternoon bag of chips yet), and deliberation I finally decided. I wish I could do a drum roll, but the tech geniuses haven’t figured that out yet, but I decided it would be this one.

          I always semi-jokingly say that if it wasn’t for Beverly Jenkins, I wouldn’t know that black people had been in the West as anything but enslaved people and Buffalo Soldiers. Pray for the children and our schools, y’all. Anyway, I would have had no beginning clue of how extensive that history was or had the desire to look further. But, let’s get into this book and why this book should be on screen.

       This book while it does touch on racism and the effect that it can have on black people and other people of color—the Black Seminoles and all the reasons Andrew Jackson is probably roasting below are mentioned in it—a lot of it is just black and Native people thriving and dealing with intracommunity issues. We don’t see that in historical movies often if ever. I’m ready to see a black cowboy win his lady journalist, newspaper owner (this is important. SO much love for the Black Press in this book) love in a POC community that was thriving.

     Second, it’s just funny. Not many depictions of Black people in the past on film are (purposefully) funny like this. The heroine, Kate Love and the hero, a black lawman named Dix come together in an arranged marriage and their immediate reactions to each other and the realistic difficulties their two strong personalities have joining their lives deserve to flicker across my screen. The heroine and her women friends/co-conspirators have to deal with sexism from the men in their lives and the method is hilarious in a way that again, black women in historical films are rarely depicted. Come on Hollywood and indie producers, give me my movie!

3)          Be Not Afraid: This one is a little darker and shorter than my other choices, but I think it is important to see more images of black people during the Revolutionary War. So many movies, plays, and History Channel specials—when they take a break from aliens—are based on the Founding Fathers and other rich, influential men during the Revolutionary War. So, so, many. I’d like to see more about how regular people got along and survived one of the few wars on our soil. And more than that, I’d like to see more about how black people lived and loved then and the difficult decisions they made to protect their lives and loved ones. Alyssa Cole provided the blueprint here for that kind of exploration on film with this book.

     The hero, Elijah Sutton is an enslaved man fighting for the Patriots to gain his freedom and the heroine is on the other side trying to escape America, slavery, and some truly awful memories. The two of them are complex characters and with the right actors could truly show the tensions that black people have felt with loyalty and this country since before the Declaration was signed.

(Sidenote: Look at this cover. Who wouldn’t want to ride up to the Regal Movie Theatre and see this plastered against the wall?)

4 and 5 Taffy and Songbird: I’m putting these two together because I feel that I’m being my late father’s daughter and getting lengthy. I love a good old family tale. Give me familial love and family tension with my romance and I’m sold. Take all my little money. Both these books give me that and both of them should be on the big screen.

     Suzette Harrison’s Taffy is a love story between Taffy Bledsoe Freeman who has The Sight and Roam Ellis who is a Pullman porter in 1935. Roam Ellis, a Pullman porter. I hope you got that faster than I did the first time I read it, but it was 2 am so all slow on the uptake sins are washed away. There isn’t much I can say without giving it all away and when I say “all,” I mean ALL. The secrets in the Bledsoe family are juicy, but so is the love. Think 1935 Hope Floats without the characters that sound like they benefited from Jim Crow. Don’t get me wrong, I love the movie but we’ve seen this kind of story so many times with white characters that I’m ready to see it with black characters. And honestly, no shade. The only real comparison is that the heroine in Hope Floats and Taffy are both escaping philandering husbands and find love in a hopeless place (cue Rihanna!). But thassit. This book is full of so much more than that. The Knowing (read the book) could have its own movie.  Give me family drama! Give me a loving hero who wades through allllll of that to be with his love! Toward the end of the book Roam says to Taffy, “I never wanted another woman until I couldn’t have you. But I couldn’t taste another woman now with you all over my tongue even if I wanted to.” The heart eyes I felt reading that after all they had been through? Give me lights, camera, and action!

Also, Bledsoe was the town that the characters lived in and as the author puts it, “Ain’t nothing white here ‘cept milk and teeth.” I said take my ticket, subscription money already right? Let me say it again. Take all my baby money. Here. Make the film.

Songbird is a multigenerational novel with three books by three different authors Iris Bolling, Piper Huguley, and Deborah Fletcher-Mello. So we could get a series or at least a made for television limited special. The story starts with the deathbed of the matriarch, Sparrow. Don’t let that slow you down like it did me (I’m the happy ending queen), there’s more loving than sorrow in this book. And each of the characters including the matriarch Sparrow have their own journey to love that could easily translate to film.

     We go through decades starting with the 1960s and the authors do not shirk from the difficulties that the characters would encounter in these decades, but like black people in real life (where else are all these beautiful brown babies coming from?) they were still able to get some lovin’ in between and some music. Music.     Obviously from my Robinson series and if you follow me on any social media, it’s obvious how much I love music. The voice is my favorite instrument and Sparrow, Lark, and Dove are highly gifted vocal musicians. You KNOW I’m willing to pay for my ticket or rush to my television right now or in the words of an old deacon somewhere ‘raht nah.” Give me a musical, Hollywood! If I can hear flat singing in La La Land, I can get some Black church humming and sweet harmonizing with Songbird. And some heroes with more to contend with than saving a musical genre that never asked to be saved.

There’s a rant there, but now is not the time. It’s all Black love right now. Anyway, this is the kind of movie that I need right now. Give me black love throughout the decades! Give me endurance and joy on the screen!

On a related note, since we know that American history is not taught well, not to mention Black History, seeing these historical novels on film could help a little with that. These ladies did their due diligent research ok? Ms. Beverly Jenkins stays with a smooth bibliography in a book and Piper Huguley is DOCTOR Piper Huguley a history professor at Spelman, ladies and gents. The work is done and it should be seen on the screen. There are no white saviors. Halleloo. Just us. Doing what we need to do FOR us.

And maybe someone will be inspired by the history they see. For instance, until Indigo, I did not know about Ellen and William Craft. Those real life events are a movie. A feature film. In 1846, Ellen Craft who was so light she could pass, dressed as a young white man and traveled with her dark husband posed as her manservant from Georgia to Philly on trains and steamboats for freedom. From Georgia to Philly. Pretending to be a man. Training herself not to give her husband any of the loving looks a woman gives her man and her husband training himself not to think of her as his wife. Listen. That’s a movie. An Academy Award winning film. And maybe if we watch Hester and Galen discuss the events on screen, someone will realize it. It’s better than Rose not scooting over two inches for Jack anyway.

#RomanceAwarenessMonth: Week 3

I missed week two. I was too busy doing hood rat tings with my faves in Noo Yawk! But now I'm back like I never left, lol. So this week I wanted to explore some dope romantic moments in TV/film and...well y'all...being perfectly honest? My television gets turned on once every fortnight, LOL. I used to be big into tv/movies, but within like the past five years that interest has waned mightily. So I employed the help of some of my faves to share some of their fave moments with y'all! 

First up is my girl, B. Fel, author of Ready:

Double or nothing - Love & Basketball. I understand the odds of you reading this and hating the movie are high, but an important note: I didn't watch this every time it played on BET, and I'd probably watch anything with Gina Prince-Bythewood's name on it. This scene and movie set the tone for me in terms of love stories well before I knew I wanted to tell them. Bless my eight-year-old heart though, because I was shook when I thought Q was truly going to give up on Monica and marry Tyra Banks' character. Wonderful.

Grumpy Old Man - Living Single. Max and Kyle were my favorite couple on this show. You remember that episode where Kyle's upset about turning 30 and Max struggled to comfort him? As an adult, my favorite scene is watching Max, who sat on a washing machine with a red bow tied around her neck, give herself to Kyle while he sulked in a laundromat and said "Happy Birthday, cheer the hell up." It's their type of romance, that no one else would/could understand, and that's why I love it.

The First Adventure, S1, E5 - FIRST (web series). This episode is the sweetest, cutest ever. Basically, a camping trip Charlie tries to take Robin on goes wrong and he makes up for it by moving the campsite into his living room. As she's reading an excerpt from Alex Elle's book, he kisses her. And as Extraordinary Love by Stacy Barthe plays, they make love. This series made me want to create a web series of my own. The characters are vulnerable, developed, and basically everything you want to see while watching a modern black love story on screen.

Next is the homie Chencia, author of the JustOneNight.com series

My favorite romantic moment comes from the popular Bollywood film Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. There is a scene where Rahul sees Anjali dancing in the street and being an all-around carefree brown girl and as soon as his eyes find her in the crowd, everything slows down. It's that moment that we see in films all the time to let us know that something significant is happening. It's as if time stops for Rahul as he sees the woman that he knows he can't live without. He is thunderstruck by her smile, by her liveliness, and that's when he realizes that she will be his wife.

Next up is my fave the uuuuber talented Christina C. Jones, author of 5011 novels, including her latest release Determining Possession

I’ve watched a lot of black ass movies. A lot of black ass romantic movies. So, choosing a specific favorite romantic scene is a hard task, but, BUT, I think I have it. The lovely Ava Duvernay has done a lot of great things for the culture, but I have to specifically point out the quiet romance of this scene in I Will Follow between Omari Hardwick and Salli Richardson. The movie itself is very quiet – some might even say boring – but for my little romance author heart, this was very much a high point for me. The simplicity of helping her move, playing on the swings, laying out on that old mattress… it’s #romancegoals. We’ll ignore that the “hero” is kinda trash and focus on the good stuff.

Here's a little clip from that scene. https://www.youtube.com/embed/zt9pWMHM7vg?rel=0" 

And finally is my girl, International Al aka Alexandra Warren, author of over 16 novels including her latest release If Only for the Summer

So I have a TON of favorite romantic movie/TV moments, but the one that came to mind first was the scene in Brown Sugar when Dre calls during Sidney’s interview with the radio station, and then shows up to the studio with the checkbox yes/no/maybe love letter of our time. *swoon* . Friends-to-Lovers is such a tricky, complicated, and sometimes downright messy dynamic, but I loved Dre and Sid’s relationship and was SO happy when they finally stopped playing and got together. Also, shoutout to Angie Martinez for gassing them up. lol :) [Ed. Note: This movie is one of my all-time faves and low-key was the inspiration for a particular scene in my first novella!]

#behindthepen17: see what had happened was. . .

I should have done this on Sunday. My memory is such trash and this will probably not even fully encapsulate everything that I wanted it to and it's probably gonna be all over the place, but y'all...

So Indie Love did a very good job at preparing me for the feels I'd have meeting readers of my work who showered me with praise. I learned to graciously accept compliments and deftly dodge the "when????"s, hahaha. So I went into Behind the Pen feeling like I knew what I was doing. I had a plan, a very good friend by my side, and all of the books to unload, hahaha. I was still a little nervous because I didn't know what the day would bring, but overall felt really good.

I walked over to the venue with my friend Sarah and the Joneses--Christina and her hub Byron. As soon as we walked up, Alex Warren and her bae Donte were pulling up. Seeing all of those friendly faces immediately brought my anxiety down as we walked into the venue and got everything all set up. I was a little nervous about the circular tables, but I was actually able to get my set up brackin' rather nicely and actually took a photo of the table! LOL During set up time, I was able to chat it up a little with a couple of authors and volunteers before it was showtime.

My table set up.

Wait...let me back up a little. Y'all...the space where the event was being held? Honeyyyyyyy...The sistah Girls had it decorated so dopely! There was so much glitter and pink and my heart just about exploded. The aesthetic was hella in line with my personal values and I was super here for it. There was a bevy of food, beverages, and sweet treats arranged so artfully. I'm sure y'all have seen some pics by now, but I was super in love with those sparkly champers bottles. After a pep talk from Puff Mommy aka Sharee, the doors were opened and we were off.

I'd initially planned to sit down and greet folks as they walked up, but after about 5 minutes of that I Was like "nope! that ain't gonna work!" I was up and moving around, grooving to the dope ass playlist that was piped through the sound system and living my best life. I got to meet so many people that I knew from Facebook and/or Twitter and/or Instagram and hug so many of y'alls necks. So...a confession: I don't look at avatars or profile pictures that often, my mind always hyperfocuses on words. I promise, I feel like my brain doesn't process pictures well, but those names are firmly cemented in my mind and as soon as I started writing, it clicked for me. I know that a few times I was like midway through signing a book before being like "OMG IT'S YOU!!!" for a few of y'all LOL. 

There were a few times I just took a moment to glance around the room and I know I was probably grinning like a loon, but it was just so invigorating. Every single sista came to slay...there was so much beauty in that room. The love was palpable. The energy was electric and my entire life was given.

Readers of Black indie romance are the best people on Earth, I'll tell you this. I had more than one of you say to me, "I know you got some stuff going on sis, but whenever you ready--we ready!" And that...y'all I appreciate it more than words can accurately portray. This weekend was amazing and Behind The Pen was certainly a highlight. 

Saida & Sharee: You ladies set out to make an event that would keep the streets buzzing and represent y'alls city to the fullest and Y'ALL DID THAT. Thank you for the intense amounts of care you put into ensuring this event would not only be great for the readers, but equally awesome for the authors participating. Y'alls dedication to providing a space for black indies to flourish is greatly appreciated. A huge thank you to y'all and the rest of the SGBC crew for a fabulous event.

Me with the head sistah girls in charge, Sharee and Saida!

#RomanceAwarenessMonth Week 1: Favorite Love Songs

So I learned that August was Romance Awareness Month on the first and I thought, "oh how apropos!" August is also the month in which we celebrate the anniversary of my birth, so it is as perfect a marriage as possible. For as long as I can remember, I've loved a good love story. On my personal blog, I spoken at length about my obsession with love in its many forms, by romance holds a special place in my heart because witnessing true romance blossom is an amazing sight to withhold. 

I've been to my fair share of weddings and I tell people my favorite part is always the bride's processional. Most eyes are keenly focused upon the woman—a vision of beauty in white (or mother of pearl *wink*), but I always ALWAYS have kept my attention on the groom. Men are schooled to keep a tight rein on their emotions, but on his wedding day every man I have witnessed during this event loses all control of that when he sees his lady for the first time on that day. No matter how long the couple has been together, there is a certain sparkle in the man's eye that screams "DAMN...THAT'S ALL ME. HOW DID I EVER...?!" The adoration for their beloved is tangible and really beautiful to behold. 

The only other time I've witnessed such raw emotion displayed was while witnessing parents shortly after the birth of a child. Anyway...I digress. So with it being #romanceawarenessmonth and all, I figured I'd make all of you guys aware of some of my favorite things that are related to the many different aspects of romance. Today's selection will be a smattering of some of my favorite love songs. I have hundreds I could list, but for the sake of brevity I'm going to keep this list to five. 

Excuse Me x Jazmine Sullivan: Every time I hear this song, my soul is stirred. First of all, Jazmine is singing from the deepest craters of her uterus on this jawn, from the top to the bottom. She comes out the gate swinging with the vocals and if you're unpartnered will have you singing it to the nearest inanimate object that you love more than anything. Favorite Lines: "and just to see you smiling at me/ don't care what the task be if it makes you happy..." 

As x Stevie Wonder: Another one of those that from note one puts me on the train to Feelstown. Stevie Wonder is a masterful songwriter and if my forever love doesn't make me feel half as good as this song does, he gotta step his cookies up. Favorite lines: THE WHOLE DAMN SONG. STEVELAND MORRIS DID THAT. 

Meant to Be x Melissa Polinar: I always say this is going to be my first dance song at my wedding. Melissa's voice sounds like true love feels--clear, warm, full & just damn good. Favorite lines: "new day comes/ as our life's just begun/ you're now mine..."

Contigo en la Distancia x Christina Aguilera: I had no idea what the hell Chrissy was singing on this jawn the first time I heard it, but I just thought it was such a pretty melody. So used to hearing her go for the power notes and growls, this song finds her singing notes that are sweet and delicate as they ride over a flamenco seasoned guitar. I had to travel over and see my good sis google translate to see what she was singing about tho and once I did I was like "OMGISSOBEAUTIFUL". Favorite lines: "el mundo parace distinto/ cuando no estas junto a mi/no hay bella melodia/ en que no surjas tu/ y no quiero escucharla/ si no la escuchas tu..." which essentially says shit don't feel right unless you're with me. and girl. LISSEN. 

I Can't Help It x Michael Joseph Jackson: This is my all-time favorite Michael song. I normally cannot choose a definitive favorite from any of those that I hold in as high regard as I do MJJ, but this song just makes me feel so good. It is nearly impossible for me to get through the first verse without my face splitting wide open with a toothy grin. Favorite lines: "Love came and possessed you/bringing sparkles to your eyes..."

What are some of y’all’s favorite love tunes? Lemme know in the comments!

xoxo,

Nicole