The Tribulations of Triangles Featuring Charmaine Leticia Wilcox

This episode features our conversation with Charmaine Letitcia Wilcox, which was live-streamed on February 10, 2026.

Charmaine Leticia Wilcox is an author, independent publisher, and the creative engine behind Triangles Publishing. Based in Las Vegas, she specializes in multi-genre narratives that bridge the gap between gritty reality and vivid imagination. From the high-stakes emotional drama of the Triangles series to the world-building depths of her fantasy work, Charmaine’s stories are defined by complex characters who refuse to be defined by their pasts. When she isn’t crafting new worlds or navigating the rigors of nursing school, she is dedicated to empowering the next generation of storytellers.

During this episode, Charmaine shared an excerpt from her book,  For the Sake of Love, which is the second book of the Triangles Series. 

Learn more about Charmaine, her work, and Triangles Publishing here.

Mentioned during the episode:

Black Romance Book Fest, which is scheduled for this year from May 29 - May 31 in Atlanta, GA (it is an annual convening that usually takes place at the end of May)

Find Charmaine Leticia Wilcox on Instagram: @charmainetheauthor

Find Black Writers Read on Instagram: @blackwritersread

Find Black Writers Read online: https://blackwritersread.com/

Support Black Writers Read on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/blackwritersread

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:07

A lot of my work is inspired by like my actual life, and uh for a long time um I felt like I had a lot of regrets. Like I didn't get to medical school, or I didn't do this, or this relationship didn't pan out the way that I thought it should pan out, and my life is not looking the way that I thought it was gonna look when I was 15 and I planned out my whole future, or I didn't pass this class, or whatever the case may be. Um, but I think not being defined by your past allows you to actually take the time to look at your past, see what you actually did to contribute to those things being that way, and how to fix it moving forward. Um, as I feel like if you don't, then you just kind of live with regrets. And I don't want to do that. I don't want my character to do that. So I feel like you have to address your mistakes and the things that have happened before in order to be better. Even when you have characters, right? Especially when I have built these characters off of real people, they are defined by who they were in that moment in my life. But if I don't allow them to address their past, even as a character, I can't develop them further than that. They stay stagnant in this person that they are. So I've basically just written a whole like piece on just like bashing somebody, which is not the goal, right? Like you might be inspired by someone who hurt me, but that person who hurt me is not entirely a bad person, or that situation was not entirely that person's fault. Like, what did I do in that situation or how did I contribute to it? Um, and I try to show that in my characters, but it's also been very cathartic and emotional because, like I said, when you're writing about, you know, exes or childhood bullies, what's up, girl? Um you know, it's very cathartic to finally get off the page because, like, do I really want to be 30 mad at you because you told me you didn't want to be my friend in the first grade? No, but am I gonna write about you, get out my system, and then kill you off? Yes, because now I don't have to deal with it anymore. I've addressed the trauma that is this person, and now I can move on.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Hello, and welcome to Black Writers Read. My name is Nicole Young Martin, and I'm the founder, producer, and host of this podcast. Thank you for tuning in for episode 17 of season six of the series. Launched on Juneteenth, 2020. Black Writers Read was created as a platform to showcase, celebrate, and honor the words, work, and traditions of Black writers from across the country, across genres, across experiences, and across the Afghan diaspora. Black Writers Read is a behind-the-scenes conversation into the crash and what it means to create as a black author in today's society. Since starting the series during the summer of 2020, we've hosted almost 100 authors representing 15 plus genres from six countries and 27 states. This episode features our conversation with Charmaine Letitia Wilcox, which was live streamed on February 10th, 2026. Charmaine Leticia Wilcox is an author, independent publisher, and the creative engine behind Triangles Publishing. Based in Las Vegas, she specializes in multi-genre narratives that bridge the gap between gritty reality and vivid imagination. From the high-stakes emotional drama of the Triangle series to the world-building depths of her fantasy work, Charmaine's stories are defined by complex characters who refuse to be defined by their past. When she isn't crafting new worlds or navigating the rigors of nursing school, she is dedicated to empowering the next generation of storytellers. During this episode, Charmaine shared excerpts from her book For the Sake of Love, which is the second book of the Triangle series. For the Sake of Love centers around Jamie Langley, Brian Evans, and Aaliyah Brooks. After a difficult year of recovery, Janice is trying to rebuild a new life for herself. When lying boyfriends, backstabbing friends, and sneaky co-workers come out to play, Janice must decide who she can trust and who she can cut out of her life. Brian doesn't want any problems. He just wants to live his new life with Janice and enjoy the peace and happiness that comes along with it. However, when your past comes back to bite him in the ass, he is not sure how to move forward and to let things go. Everything is going wrong, and Aaliyah starts to spin out of control. Will she be able to pull herself together before it's too late and she loses everything that means something to her? What will they do when they have their backs pushed against a wall? What will they do for the sake of love? I had so much fun chatting with Charmaine. So much fun. I learned, and this happens with every author, no matter the genre. I learned more about the contemporary romance genre in particular. I learned about the importance of first-person narrative and writing for multiple character voices, as her book does so brilliantly. I also learned about her own journey as an author. If you Google her, some of the first things you'll see is fantasy. But here she's listed as a contemporary romance author. I hope you do have an opportunity to dig deep into her large catalog of work, for she is a very brilliant and very inventive writer. Please visit the show notes on how to find Charmaine and her work online. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode, and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did. Hi, how are you? I'm good. It's so great to finally have you on. Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's because I can't remember when we touched base, but I remember you reached out probably about a year ago or so to be on the fall of last year when I reached out. I'm so excited to have you on because you're such a very savvy writer.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

Oh, I try.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Yes. Yes. I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to you to read. Um, I will be back shortly in happy reading.

SPEAKER_03 6:39

Okay. Okay, so this is an excerpt from um one of the chapters in For the Sake of Love, which which me and my co-author, Akira Tane Ford, will be releasing very, very soon this year. Um, so this is from the character Brian's point of view. I've never been a betting man, but when it came to Janice, I always knew I'd win. Loving her wasn't a gamble, it was a calculated risk I took with my whole chest. And yeah, the last year had been a wild ride, fights, tears, moments that nearly broke us, but I'd do it all again if it brought me right here. Tonight wasn't about fixing anything, it was a it was about reminding her of what we'd already built. The condo smelt like rosemary, garlic, and lemon, the kind of scent that made a space feel like a home. I stood barefoot in the kitchen wearing a black rib tank and loose charcoal gray sweatpants that sat just right on my hips. My chain caught the overhead light every time I moved, and the cuff on my watch tapped gently against the edge of the wine glass I was swirling. Cabernet, full body, bold, and just slightly too heavy for Lam, but it was what she liked. I had the playlist low in the background, her favorite mix, the Sade, Erica, and that moody Daniel Caesar joint. She always hummed when she was deep in thought. The lights were dim, golden under the pendant bulbs I had installed when I first moved in. I liked things warm, clean, intentional. On the stove, the herb-crusted rack of lamb was finishing up in the oven, sizzling gently under a fine embroil to crisp the edges. The brussels sprouts had been roasted in balsamic and maple shaped just with bits of turkey bacon tossed in. The quinoa was fluffed and seasoned with lemon zest, parsley, and just a little garlic powder because Janice hated it when it tasted like beige nothingness. Tonight was simple but thoughtful, her kind of night, comfortful with a little elegance, and of course, Harry Potter. I never gave a damn about wizards or magic growing up, but she did. The woman could recite whole lines from the prisoner of Oscar band like it was scripture. We'd made it to Gobble the Fire now, and she'd warned that this is where things got real. She said it every time, but this time I actually believed her. I checked the time, 6 47 p.m. She was usually 10 minutes late on a good day. 15 if she was coming from a client meeting. I wasn't rushing her. If anything, I liked the quiet moments before she arrived. Gave me time to prepare, to hope. Because no matter how good we'd been lately, I knew love, real love, wasn't about dinner or movies. It was about staying when things weren't perfect. And I was ready to stay. Just as I was plating the lamb, the front door opened. Hey babe, how was work and lunch with the girls? I called out, keeping my eyes on the plate as I laid the lamb across a bed of saute spinach and spooned the sprouts beside it with precision. And her silence made me pause. And when I finally looked up, the fork slipped right from my hand. The plate slipped from my hand and clattered into the sink. Janice stood in the doorway, kings dangling from one hand, her tote half off her shoulder, her long straight weave was frizzy and lopsided under a silk scarf that looked like it had been yanked, her blouse was wrinkled, half untucked, and there was a deep, angry scratch slicing across her right cheek. But it was her eyes that stopped me cold, bloodshot, glassy, rimmed and red. She looked like she'd been crying for hours and hadn't slept in days. Janice, I crossed the kitchen fast, wiping my hands on a towel as I moved. What the hell happened? She sat her keys down like they weighed a hundred pounds inside, deep and ragged. Work was chill, lunch with the girls was amazing, she said flatly, like she was reading from a script. Then her voice cracked. What happened after was a fucking shit show, baby. My chest tightened. I reached for her face, gently brushing my thumb across the cut without touching it. Jan, you're bleeding. She pulled away slightly, heading toward the bathroom. It's nothing. I already grabbed the peroxide out your cabinet. Nothing. Your face is scratched, your hair's all over the place, your eyes. What the hell is going on? She paused in the doorway, then turned to face me. I went to Nathan's. The words hit like a slap. I had to pick up a file I left at his place. I figured he wouldn't be home. I was gonna grab it and leave the key in the mailbox, be done. My jaw clinched. You still have a key to that man's house? She ignored that, kept going, but his new chick was there. The same girl who cheated on me with before, I went to Napa with you. She came at me sideways the second I walked through the door. I followed her into the bathroom, leaning against the frame as she dabbed the wound with the cotton pad soaked in peroxide. She said I was pathetic, that I couldn't keep a man, that she fucks with him better than I ever did. And I tried, Brian. I really tried to walk out. But when she said that last part, I snapped. She flinched slightly as her as the peroxide bubbled against her skin. So what, you fought her? I asked, trying to keep my voice level. She came at me first, she said quickly, tried to block the door, got in my face. I didn't throw the first punch, but I for sure as hell threw the last one. She tossed the cotton pad in the trash and started rifling through my medicine cabinet for neosporin. I didn't speak up right away. I couldn't. My heart was racing, my jaw was tight, my head, my hands were clenched at my sides. I love this woman. I'd done everything I could to show her she didn't have to be in survival mode anymore, that she didn't have to swing first, that she could be safe with me. And yet here she was, still holding on to the past, still brute from battles that had nothing to do with us. Janice, I started, but my throat fell tight. Why didn't you just ask Candace or Tessa to grab the file? She shrugged like it was nothing, didn't want to bother them. I figured I'd be in and out. Quick. I nodded, more to myself than her. She was now undressing in front of me like nothing had happened, tossing her top into the hamper and stepping out of her pants with the same grace that she used to drive me crazy. But tonight it didn't feel sexy. It felt careless, detached. The sound of the shower starting snapped me out of my daze. I backed away slowly out of the bathroom and made my way to the living room. I needed air. I needed to sit down before I said something I couldn't take back. Twenty minutes passed, the wine was warm, untouched, the lamb sat under foil, still perfect but forgotten. The weight in my chest grew heavier and every tick of the clock. And when Janice walked back into the room wearing nothing but one of my white t-shirts, face clean, hair pulled into a loose bun, her smile, normally my uh undoing, felt like salt in a fresh moon. I stared at her, glass in hand, my heart pounding in my ears, because as much as I loved her, I wasn't sure how many more hits we could take. She walked into the room smiling like we were good, like she wasn't just in a fight over the man she claimed to be done with. She looked soft, beautiful, and completely unaware that my heart was cracking in two. I didn't say anything right away, just sipped my wine, stared at her like I was seeing her for the first time, but the words were already boiling in my chest. Janice, I said slowly, why would you walk into my house smiling after you just told me you fought another woman at your ex's house? Her smile faltered. No, hold up. I cut in, standing now, my voice low but tight. Why didn't you tell me you still had a key to Nathan's place? Why didn't you tell me you were going over there at all? Better yet, why did you feel the need to go at all? I wasn't trying to hide anything, she said, blinking fast. It wasn't a big deal. I needed a file. And you couldn't ask your assistant to grab it. You couldn't send an email. She folded her arms across her chest. I didn't want to make it a thing. Well, congratulations, Janice. It's a thing now. Her shoulders stiffened, but she didn't say anything. I kept going. And let's talk about what you said when you walked in. It's bad enough, sheep, my nigga. Your words. I didn't mean it like that, but you said it like that. I stepped closer, my voice rising. You called Nathan your nigga. So what am I, Janice? What the hell am I doing here if you still talking about him like he's yours? Brian, stop yelling at me, she snapped. You know, I didn't mean it like that. I was venting. No, you were exposing yourself, I cut in, because that man doesn't mean anything to you. Why in the hell are you still fighting over him? Why are you pulling up to this house with Key, stepping to his girl like it's still your turf? I didn't step to her. Her voice broke. She stepped to me. I was disrespected. And you let it pull you in. I shook my head, jaw tight. You let that girl drag you right back into some old mess. And now I'm supposed to sit here, cook you dinner, and act like you didn't just throw away all the trust we've been trying to build. Her hands dropped to her sides, defeated. Brian, I didn't mean to fight over him. I fought her because she disrespected me. There's a difference. You want to talk about differences, I snap. When I fought Nathan, it was for you. I fought that man because he hurt you, because you were in pain, and I wanted to defend your name. You fought a woman because she hit a nerve but a man you claim you're done with. The silence that followed was sharp. Janet's bottom lip trembled slightly, but she held us together, barely. I didn't want to keep going. I didn't want to break her down, but the weight in my chest wouldn't let me stop. I've done everything I can to be better for you, I said. Voice quieter now, but still hot. I was there when you couldn't walk. I stayed up with you during the panic attacks. I helped rebuild your business plan. I helped you rebuild. And now I'm out here looking stupid because the one my woman is out in the city fighting dusty ass chicks over her ex. Her breath caught. I added, but I'll be damned if I stay in something where I'm the one doing all the work while you're still holding on to someone else. Her eyes filled and she took a small step back, like my words hit harder than my silence ever could. I never meant to disrespect you, she whispered. I swear, Brian, I wasn't thinking. That's the problem, I said. You weren't thinking about me. She turned her head, wiping her face, and I could still I could feel the shift, the breakdown after the blow. I wanted to hold her, but I also wanted space. And that tension, loving someone be while being afraid of them hurting you again, was the kind of heartbreak I hadn't prepared for. I didn't say another word, I just walked down the hall. The silence between us thick and loud, swallowing up the music and the scent of roasted garlic that still hung in the air like a memory I couldn't reach anymore. Janice, I said quietly, I'm sorry for yelling. That's not who I want to be with you. But this tonight is deeper than that. I brought up things I haven't dealt with, things I've pushed down so I could show up for you. Her eyes flicked. She knew what it meant. The baby, the accident, the weight I carried that I never said out loud. I need a little space, I continued. Just a couple days. I'm not leaving you. I just need to breathe.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

That was oh my god. Like I off camera, I was just like, oh what snap? What? Just a couple of things before I launch into the question. So one of the things that your work recalls for me is like old school early Joe Scott poetry. Oh, really? It does. It does. I love how like vivid you are in terms of your descriptions. And I love the lead-ins that you have to like the next interactions with people and like the descriptions of the food and also to the interiority, the interior and the inner monologue that folks are having with themselves. I was like, oh, I'm hearing like literally, it sounds like very I'm like, am I watching Deaf Poetry Jam with Jill Scott? It sounds very much like that. So I don't know if she's like an inspiration for you or but I definitely heard it.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

I mean, I I love Jill Scott first and foremost. Uh grew up with my mom playing music by her and like various artists. Um so I could for sure see how that could be like an influence in the way that I write. Um what I will say is um for the sake of love, this rewrite um was for sure written after I started um going into the realm of fantasy with my fantasy series. And I learned while writing that series um that you just have to be very detailed um in order to actually world build and character build. So I brought a lot of that into this new version of For the Sake of Love.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Nice. So let's go ahead and launch into the questions because I do, which now it makes sense because when I was doing research on you, I saw some of your earlier books, and the covers are so fascinating, and I was like, but that's not romance though. So you did fantasy before.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Um, yes, we started I started with contemporary romance with triangles, which I wrote with my co-author, Akira, and then um after um that first book was written, I dealt with like some health issues, and after that, um I started writing again. Um, and when I started writing again, I just I desired to write fantasy. Those are like the books that I really grew up reading for me. Like I was very much so the Harry Potter Percy Jackson girl. So I wanted to kind of dabble in that and create something from there. And as I as I was working on that, um my boyfriend, he like got me into like anime and so like kind of trying to help me with like world building and character building and that aspect. So um I tried to like pull a lot of that into my fantasy, and so when Akira and I made a decision to actually move forward and rewrite for the sake of love and possibly expand the series past that, I brought a lot of those skills that I've been developing while writing fantasy into it.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Nice. I want to thank your boyfriend for expanding your your reach. Thank you. I'm gonna tell him you said that. Yes, please do, which by the way, folks, you don't need an MFA to do writing. You literally could tap into your community because you never know what because you said he's an anime. What nerds are out there that can help you build your yes. So the first question I have for you, Charmaine, is when did you discover your gift of writing?

SPEAKER_03 21:25

Um, so this would have been like around COVID, like COVID, a little bit more post-COVID, like when you could like go out again. And so um, me and um Akira, we spent a lot of time at a local coffee shop here in Vegas called Grouchy Johns. Um, and we were like, I was studying for the MCAT, she was studying for the LSAT. So uh and we would always just like talk and laugh, just you know, as friends do about things going on, relationship problems, problems, drama, family drama, et cetera. Um, and we were laughing. Like, oh, our life could be a movie. And we just like, why don't we just write it? And we were bored and we just started writing. Um, and we actually tapped into like our own community of like friends, sorority sisters, um, her fraternity brothers and sorority sisters, and that network, and we got some of our people to kind of read our work and do interviews like once a month, and then we culminate that into like a big panel um about two months after we launched the book. So that is kind of where it all transpired. We were just like, our life is a movie, and no one's really gonna believe we're dealing with the stuff that we're dealing with.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

I love how y'all came up with this idea while y'all were studying for the MCATS and the LSAT.

SPEAKER_03 22:43

It's procrastination at its finest. I ain't gonna hold you.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Yes, which brings back because I did the um the GRE, which brings which those tests are fucking ridiculous. Yeah, it brings back memories. I'm gonna shout out um very close friend of mine, Christopher Hubanks, who now lives in Oregon. We we studied and took our GREs together, and we like spent a lot of that time studying at a Barnes Noble talking about RB rather than work.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

See, everything but what we were supposed to be doing, because I was supposed to be understanding how these elements are supposed to be connecting and all that other stuff again. Like I didn't spend my whole life learning it. But when it comes to those tests, you forget real quick.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

You do, and you forget like it it and you said that you've you know worked really hard on world building, those exams will like build a world and tear you apart, like just very quickly. Yes, very quickly, and speaking of world building, I'd love to know what is the origin story of the triangle series and how does the story continue in For the Sake of Love, which is book two.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

Um, so for both of us, me and Akira, we based characters in the book around ourselves. So I am Janice, she is Aaliyah, and then the people that are like close to them, like these love interests or these friends or coworkers, for the most part, are inspired by the people that we dealt with. So uh Brian and Nathan were inspired by people I dated, uh Jason was inspired by people a person she dated. Um, and then we just kind of built it from there. So we're we literally took what we were dealing with and like the shenanigans that we caused ourselves, but also like brought to our doorsteps and wrote about it. So there is is a bit dramatized, but for the most part, the bones of that storyline, this these love triangles, that is exactly what happened to us.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

You are proof just like me as a writer. You are proof that people need to be careful what they do around writers because you will serve as source material.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

In my defense, I told everyone I wrote about them. Yes, everyone I wrote about them. Um, even in my fantasy series, if there's a character in my fantasy series and it is based off of I think pretty much everyone has been notified that there's a character based off of you. And yeah, I know I ain't seen you since I was in middle school, but you served as the source material for this character. Um and it just kind of bloomed from there. Um, I will say that for for the sake of love, it's not so much based on our lives now. We are just kind of letting the characters kind of speak to us, speak to us, and they're living their own lives now. So they still have a hint of our personalities for sure, but like Janice is her own person and Brian is his own person.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

So this leads so nicely into the next question, especially. I'm actually gonna skip a question and come back to it. So for the sake of love, highlights the journeys of Janice Langley, Brian Evans, and Aaliyah Brooks. Three characters. Can you talk about writing for three central characters? Which, when I mentioned earlier in the intro, writing for one is hard. So writing from three voices has to be a challenge. What are some advantages of writing from three voice for three voices? And then what are some challenges?

SPEAKER_03 26:21

Um, but I'll say is the advantage is I don't know, uh, you as an author could probably attest to this, but like sometimes the characters don't speak to you.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

Like you're not really getting what you're trying to get out of a scene or out of a chapter. So writing from multiple points of views kind of allows me for sure to kind of bounce between them. And so right now, Brian is speaking to me the most. So I'm gonna write Brian's chapter, or Janice is speaking to me the most, so I'm gonna write Janice's chapter. Um, I will say that I think because Akira and I, both of our backgrounds, um, require us to be like kind of very analytical of things. So she might be breaking down a case, whereas I might be trying to figure out the diagnosis of something. Um, we tend to like outline everything as much as we can and then build the chapter from that outline. But like our outline would be very detailed, especially for me. I'll probably have whole parts of a chapter in an outline. That's how my mind works. I know that I want to convey this here to kind of help me prevent the writer's block that you might I might normally experience. Um, but I think it just stops you from being like so fatigued. I like writing from Jana's perspective 24-7. She's gonna start sounding like a whiny asshole at some point. And so now I just need to get up out of there and go write for someone else. Um, and I think that's just kind of how I've navigated it for myself.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Yeah, thank you for that. And also thank you too for a tactic on how to move through writer's block, and that is outlining. Because I know for myself, like when I get stuck, I just like leave it alone, I don't touch it again. And some people are like, You need to write all the time. And I'm like, But I am not inspired. So you gave me another framework to write. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Of course, of course. Also, you do not have to write all the time. If you write all the time, your writing is not gonna be good because you're just gonna be writing stuff, and you're just gonna go back and delete it anyways because you're not gonna like it. And so I say take your time with it. It it I don't you don't have to churn out seven books in a year. You know what I'm saying? If you want to drop one every two years, that's that's I'm cool with that. And I think that's how it should be. You don't have to, you're not in a rush. I tell my writers who are assigned to triangles, like, this is not a sprint, this is a marathon. So, no, you're not gonna come over here and write a book and it's out tomorrow and it's all Gucci, and you're now New York Time bestseller. Like it's going to take a lot of time, and you don't realize how long that writing and editing process even takes. And you look up, it's been two years that you're working on this project, especially when you get into these stories that are like fantasy and paranormal. You can easily be spending two, three years writing a story to make it good.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Nice, which is like you just gave me another question to ask. Um, what is the difference between fantasy and paranormal? Because that's a world, because I'm my favorite genres are like memoir, nonfiction, and then I'm mainly playwriting and poetry. Okay. So, yeah, if you can talk a little bit about what the differences between fantasy and paranormal are.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

Um, I think fantasy, um, you're getting into like your witches and your vampires and your werewolves, maybe some Fae, stuff like that. Uh, paranormal, from what I've seen, especially from like a lot of black authors, you get it's like the the characters who can shift and turn into other beings. Um, stuff like that. They kind of intermingle, in my personal opinion. There's for sure an overlap. Um I have been like very like fantasy and high fantasy driven and like the things that I like to read. Um, or I go like complete 180 and I'll hit you with contemporary romance. Um, because you know, I used to read the the click series when I was a kid, and I did the Twilight series and kind of the back and forth between those two realms. Um, but I feel like paranormal and fantasy for me overlap, and I think it's kind of more so subjective in what the real difference is between them. But I think paranormal might be a little bit more dark. Um, fantasy doesn't have to be dark, um, but paranormal I think can get dark very quickly. I don't think there's a problem with it, but I think they kind of intermingle.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

From prior conversations with other romance authors, we've talked about books being in a series. Have you always intended to write the triangle series? Or did it come about as you were writing? And as a contemporary romance author, why write books in a series?

SPEAKER_03 30:58

Um, so I think for us, when we wrote Triangles, it just kind of took on a life of its own. And as we were writing it, it was getting longer and longer. And I think for us, um, it being like the first book we wrote, we didn't really know how long it should be, what the word count should be, how do I format the book, how do we make a book cover, you know, all those like little things that you kind of don't think about when you're initially writing a book. Um, so for um, I think it just kind of took on a life of its own. And when we decided to end the book, the first one on a cliffhanger, we're like, well, I guess we're gonna have to write a second one. And the same thing has kind of happened as we've been rewriting for the sake of love. As we get further and further into the book, we're like, well, this story doesn't end right here. So we're gonna have to pick it up in another book. Um, but there are some stories that I've written that I'm like, I intend for this to be a series, whereas there are other books. Um, I have a book called Uh The Poet and the Author, um written by me and a poet. And that that's my that's my ex. Um great guy, but we were better off as friends. And um, but we wrote a book together, and we are in the process of trying to get it released this month. Um, but that book is a standalone book. We didn't intend for it to be anything more than what it is.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

I love how you took that long pause before mentioning poet, and I was just like, uh oh. And you're like, yeah, it's an ex.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

And I'm like, he's a great guy, you know. Yeah, yeah, just he was not for me. That was all.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

Nice. So y'all can be in business together, but not anything. That business together.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

Exactly, exactly, exactly. We we both get on each other's nerves, so um it just wasn't gonna work.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Yes, I love it. So, this is a question from my associate producer, Candace. I can't I yeah, and I yeah, and I love this question so much. The theme of refusing to be defined by their past is in your writing very heavily. I would love to know why, and then what is it about the past and being haunted by or running away from it that makes it so alluring to continue to explore in writing?

SPEAKER_03 33:26

Um, well, um, what I'll say is for sure for me. Um, like I said, a lot of my work is inspired by like my actual life. And uh for a long time, um, I felt like I had a lot of regrets. Like I didn't get to medical school or I didn't do this, or this relationship didn't pan out the way that I thought it should pan out. And my life is not looking the way that I thought it was gonna look when I was 15 and I planned out my whole future, or I didn't pass this class, or whatever the case may be. Um, but I think not being defined by your past allows you to actually take the time to look at your past, see what you actually did to contribute to those things being that way and how to fix it moving forward. Um, as I feel like if you don't, then you just kind of live with regrets. And I don't want to do that. And I don't want my character to do that. So I feel like you have to address your mistakes and the things that have happened before in order to be better.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Yeah, and that's something that comes up in memoir writing when I've had memoir writers on and also exploring it myself, where it's just like you have to, there are things that you have to work out from your past to be able to script them on the page. And to be completely honest, and I'm gonna be meeting probably with my book coach soon. That's been the struggle for me to put my story on the page, is that I don't want it to be a blame fest of people for my past. I want to be able to take accountability for what I've done. And so that's why writing for that has been really hard. Writing memoir has been really hard because of that.

SPEAKER_03 35:03

I for sure understand that, but I think that even when you have characters, right? Especially when I have built these characters off of real people, they are defined by who they were in that moment in my life. But if I don't allow them to address their past even as a character, I can't develop them further than that. They stay stagnant in this person that they are. So I've basically just written a whole like piece on just like bashing somebody, which is not the goal, right? Like you, you might be inspired by someone who hurt me, but that person who hurt me is not entirely a bad person, or that situation was not entirely that person's fault. Like, what did I do in that situation or how did I contribute to it? Um, and I try to show that in my characters, but it's also been very cathartic and emotional because, like I said, when you're writing about, you know, exes or childhood bullies.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

What's up, girl?

SPEAKER_03 35:58

Um, it's very cathartic to finally get off the page because, like, do I really want to be 30 mad at you because you told me you didn't want to be my friend in the first grade? No, but am I gonna write about you, get out my system, and then kill you off? Yes, because now I don't have to deal with it anymore. I've addressed the trauma that is this person, and now I can move on.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Yes, oh my god, I cannot wait to like to read the rewrite for the sake of just based on this conversation.

SPEAKER_03 36:32

Which when does it come out? The rewrite? Um, we are working on finalizing that date. Um, it might even be a surprise drop, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

Oh, you never know.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

You might just wake up and it is out. We will see. We're working on getting like the final edits and everything done so we can release it.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Nice. Prior to having our guests on Black Writers Read, we asked each of them why they write. Here's an excerpt of what you offered, which was so brilliant. And you mentioned a little bit of this in earlier responses to questions. Being an author in 2026 means being a bridge builder. In a world that feels increasingly digital and curated, an author's job is to provide something tactile and real. It's about taking the chaos of our modern lives, the balancing of the balancing acts of careers, family, and passion, and giving it a home on the page. To be an author right now is to be a guardian of the unfiltered, refusing to settle for the safe version of a story when the complicated one is so much more powerful. As a contemporary romance author, what is your duty to your readers, to yourself as a writer, and then to the genre?

SPEAKER_03 37:46

Um I think my duty to my readers is to entertain you. Um, I want to make you laugh, I want to make you cry. Um, I want you to yell at the book like you would at the TV screen when somebody, like, why are you running in there? Don't go in there. Like, that's what I kind of want from um a reader's perspective when they pick up one of my books. You know what I'm saying? So whether it's the contemporary romance series or it's a standalone book or it's the fantasy series, I want you to be like engulfed in this story. I want you to smell the food, I want you to see the room, I want you to feel their pain. I want you to laugh when they laugh or cry when they cry. Um, that I think that's my duty as an author to my readers, um, to myself. I think it's what I used to say is to just be authentically noir. Um, I had another company. Well, I still have that company. Um, let's not set myself short. But my other, my first business I ever created was called Noir Steam Pro. And this was a platform to help connect people who look like me in the world of STEM, science, technology, engineering, math, right? Because a lot of us, we go to these schools, whether they be a PWI or HBCU, we get the degree, but we don't have the proper mentoring and proper connections to move past that. How do I get into medical school? How do I get preceptorships in nursing school? How do I navigate getting into a research lab? How do I do all these things that other people they just know how to do? Or the school gives them the information first before they even get it to you. So I created that, and one arm of that was actually working with kids in my community and teaching them about science, saying, hey, there are people who look like you who are biologists, who are engineers, who are mathematicians, who are doctors and nurses, um, and we literally all came together, electricians, and during the summer, we spent several weeks in summer doing hands-on science experiments with them.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 39:55

Thank you. So I always said to be authentically noir, which to me means just to be authentically myself. I don't want to put out anything that I just don't think is good. Um, but I also don't want to, I don't want to write characters that I feel like are bland or are lying or not relatable. So my job to myself is to create something that I would want to read, something that I love. And then to the genre, I think is just to push it forward. It doesn't have to be the cookie-cutter hallmark story when it comes to contemporary romance. Um, and it's not cut and dry. Romance is a lot of things. Romance is beautiful and it's loving and all of that, but it's also painful and there's a lot of heartache and bumps and bruises that I want my characters to actually go through and people can actually relate to it.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

Yeah, and thank you for mentioning like the Hallmark thing because that's one of back, back, back, back, way back in the day. Even though I was, you know, a kid and reading Danielle Steele and all of those, I always questioned romance as a genre because I was just like, oh my god, it's so formulaic. Oh my god, all these tropes. And it felt like there was like one foundational writer, and then everyone just copy, copy, copy, copy, copy. But then as I've gotten older and more so talking with romance authors here on this series, many of y'all talk about like how do you take foundations of romance and build upon it so that because a lot of romance readers, from what I've heard, they like the predictable, but also they like the surprise. And so it keeps your readers even more hooked because one, you're loyal to the genre, but also you're loyal to yourself as a writer, and that you get to experiment, you get to really put your touch on it.

SPEAKER_03 41:48

Yeah, um, I I don't think there's anything wrong with the cookie cutter, the Hallmark stories. Like we literally will binge watch Hallmark stories every Christmas season. We love them for a reason because they're comforting and we know what's gonna happen, and she's gonna go back home and he's gonna all of a sudden be filthy rich and they're gonna get together and they're gonna live happily ever after. We know what to expect. Our heart is warm and it's full. Um, but I think the reason I gravitated towards contemporary romance is that it doesn't have to be that. It doesn't have to be boy meets a girl, boy falls hard, boys pursue girls, girl says, eh, but she really falls for him, and then they live happily ever after. And then, oh my god, did he cheat? Did he not cheat? But no, we're not gonna act like that happened, and then they're just together. It doesn't have to be that. Um, it can be more than that, it can be relatable. Um, it can inspire and like run up all those different emotions besides just that heartwarming feeling.

unknown 42:42

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

And then continuing from your response to the question, why do you write? which you wrote some, you shared some really brilliant and like very brilliant insight. Put my glass back on. You mentioned that sharing my work through Triangles Publishing is about community and resilience. We share our words that some so that someone else sitting in their own quiet room realizes they aren't alone in their struggle or their desire. By putting these stories out into the world, especially through intimate spaces like pillow talk, we turn private healing into a collective strength. Oh my god, you're such a great writer. We share, we share so that we can stop being dolls and start being the architects of our own destinies. So I would love for you to talk a little bit about your business Triangles Publishing. What has the business of publishing taught you about writing?

SPEAKER_03 43:42

Um there's a lot. I think that um when you're an indie author, right, and you say, okay, I'm just gonna do this independent. Either no one wants to pick up my work and I know it's good, or they want to pick up my work and it's not worth me giving them the rights to based off what they're offering. Um You all of a sudden have to figure out how to format a book, how to make a book cover, how to make sure it's presentable, how to get a headshot done, how to get an author page, how to market on social media, how to get into book events, how to do all of the things that you didn't really think mattered until you decided to actually do that and pursue it. And it's a huge learning curve, I feel. And just like with any industry where there are not a lot of black voices for whatever reason, or there are not a lot of women voices, or whatever minority is not present for whatever reason, um, we still need the resources to make it happen. Because just because it's not being done or not being done on a large scale doesn't mean it doesn't need to be done on that large scale. Um, and if we're not creating spaces where we help each other get there, then we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing. Um I feel like I've been very privileged in the career choices I have made in life. Um, even when I was going pre-med, like my parents were absolutely amazing and helping me through college. And even now, as I went back to school to get my BSN, absolutely amazing. They helped me. They helped me with my daughter. My sisters are absolutely amazing. Um, because you can't say nothing about that. My baby's Auntie and her TT, they locked in, okay? From taking her to Girl Scouts on Sundays because I got to be a clinical for 12 hours, to just picking her up when I needed her to pick up, or just watching her because I wanted a night out and I don't get them as much anymore. Whatever the case may be, my family has been supportive. So I have had the privilege to go to nursing school in my, I'm 30, about to be 31. So my late 20s, I was privileged enough to start over with the child, and she doesn't have to live a difficult life because of it. So I can explore all these things. I can explore writing and how to publish and how to put all these things together, and other people don't have that privilege. So I want to give them that access. And I also want people who usually wouldn't get those deals, give them a deal and make it worth their while while also building them so that they can be better than they ever thought was possible. Because writing is great and it's all fun and games until you want to make money from your writing. And then you realize how hard it is to make money from your writing because you didn't realize how much it actually costs to print a book. You didn't realize how much graphic designers cost, you didn't realize how much editor costs and everything under the sun. Oh, you need an author banner, you need a tablecloth, and you didn't realize that that would be such a big expense until you actually looked at how much an X banner costs and how to get the graphic board made. And then is it gonna ship in time? And do I go with KDP? Do I go with Barnes Noble? Do I go Income Sparks? Do I get my own ISBN number or do I use the one from Amazon? All these different things, you wouldn't know them if you're not in this world. So the whole point of Triangles Publishing is to give people access to that. Whether you want to go and just be an independent author and you want me to help you set up, I'll help you set up. It's a fee, but I'll help you set up. If you want to be an actual tri-pub author, you know, you can submit your work. I will review it, me and the team, and we'll say, okay, hey, we think you're a fit, or hey, we don't, but just because you're not a fit, you might connect better with this person. You might connect better with this company. I don't want to leave anyone hanging. But if you ask me to publish a nonfiction book, I'm probably not your girl. I'm probably not, I'm not gonna be, and I can say I can try, but I don't want to try and not do what you need me to do. I've made that mistake before. I have over-promised on things thinking I could deliver when in reality life is just not where it needs to be for me to do that. So um it's just about creating a space where they have the opportunity to actually do it and do it correctly. Which Charming, yes, man.

SPEAKER_01 47:53

Question for you, but I'm about to throw this one in here. How in the world, and I only know this because my husband, he's a professor in health sciences. How in the hell do you balance being in a nursing program clinicals, have a small young child? Well, you have a very, you know, engaged and helpful family, which thank you for helping her raise her daughter. And then you support other authors and you do your own writing. Like how? Because I know clinics is hard.

SPEAKER_03 48:27

Oh, 10, 12 hours of unpaid labor, you know? Um right. Is I'm gonna be honest, me personally, I've always been a person who likes to be like in the thick of it. When I am having to juggle a lot of things, I feel like I like I'm under that stress. So I perform better because I have to perform better, which is probably not the healthiest thing in the world, but it is what I tend to do. Um, but I will say I honestly wouldn't be able to do this without my mother, without my father, Mary Letitia Wilcox, Jermaine Anti Wilcox. I love them down. My sisters, Jasmine, Renee Wilcox, Drew Maindale, Jean Wilcox, I love them to death. Even my daughter, Olivia Letitia Wilcox, is my heart. She helps me. My man helps me a lot. Trust me. Before I read to y'all, I promise you, I read that chapter to him about 50 times. Or I sent him the link to my right. Look, I need you to go in there and read this. And he don't want nothing to do with it right now because I know he's tired because he just went off work, but he's he does that. He stays up with me until one or two in the morning to study before an exam. I have amazing people in my corner, and that is the only reason why I'm able to do what I do. I got God in my corner, and without all of that, without those blessings, those people that he's giving me, I wouldn't, I couldn't. So I'm not even gonna act like there's some magic formula. I am just extremely blessed. I can tell you you could be organized and get you a planner because I do got a planner. I love my planner, but even I can write that down in my planner. I have my school calendar linked to my iPhone. Oh, look, that's my baby. Um uh everything so that I can get as many notifications as possible. But I there have been times where I forgot to submit assignments for a whole night, and I looked up, I was 10 assignments behind. And I had to spend the whole week catching up on those assignments while also doing the ones for this week and also studying for an exam, etc. etc. So there's no cookie cutter. This is what you do. I'm just very blessed.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

And thank you for shouting out your family and your community because that's one of the other things, too, that helps with success. You don't, you can't do this alone. Like, and I love your boyfriend.

SPEAKER_03 50:51

You're like, can you read this? He's like, ah, I listen. I'll be stressed. I know I stress him out. I know I stress him out, but he has made me a better writer. I will be honest with you, he has made me a better writer. My daughter will literally say, mommy, good luck on your test day, and it's okay if you're not if you don't do perfect. I still love you. And I'll be like, okay, not going safety because I gotta go. But yeah, but now um my sister, Jazzy, she's already a nurse and absolutely amazing nurse. And honestly, without her pushing me, I would have never gotten into nursing. My baby sister is absolutely amazing. And when it's my baby's birthday, I need a cake made. She's gonna go in that kitchen and whip up one of them professional cakes that I totally could not afford right now, but she does it for me every year. You know what I'm saying? My mom flew with me and my child to Atlanta to be at Black Romans Book Festival last year. She helped me set up my table. We got the room, we look all those. Like, I wouldn't be doing any of this without them, all these amazing people.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

Which, oh my god, I want to get to that book set so bad because I've had other authors on who are bad. How like I know it's huge.

SPEAKER_03 52:02

It was huge. I was I I am not a very social person. I know I seem like it, but I'm not, you know what I'm saying? I'm very, very shy if I'm like put in the thick of it. And look, the sorority girl in my head is not clicking that I am. Shout out to aka Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorry Incorporated, you know what I'm saying? But if it's not like business, I can be very, very shy. So I was like overwhelmed with the number of people physically at that event, and to be invited back this year to go again is absolutely amazing, and it's gonna be even bigger. So it was like 1500 people there last year. Yeah, and what I'll say is I think that because I've been invited or participated in a lot of events, but I think that they are very well ran. And then when you compare that to um, there was another fantasy festival later in last year, and they had a lot of drama with like participants doing very obscene things, you know, at the event and grabbing onto the male people dressed as the book characters and stuff like that. Like, there was nothing of that nature going on at Black Romans Book Festival, and they really create an event for us by us.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 53:21

I've heard so like and and I remember that's right, I heard about it from Reese Ryan, and I that's how I found out about all the genres. She was like, Yeah, I'm gonna be at this, and then I googled it and I was like, Oh, I want to go. And this was like five or six months before, and it was like we sold out already.

SPEAKER_03 53:37

It was like yeah, they sold literally, they dropped them tickets and they were sold out. I got my whoever's gonna be my assistant these this year. That's it. I don't even got tickets to see Lloyd, and I'm trying to figure out how I can get in there, and you know what I'm saying? Because I want to see Lloyd at Book Cella, but I didn't even get tickets to that part, so it's it's an absolutely amazing event. And then, like, even smaller events like Boozy Book Tour is absolutely amazing. Um, they do a great job creating like this safe space for authors and readers. Um, and I'll be going to their event here in Vegas in a couple weeks. So um, they're absolutely amazing as well.

SPEAKER_01 54:14

Nice. And speaking of which, I would like to close out with what is next for you and how can a Black Writers Read community support you on this journey?

SPEAKER_03 54:23

Um, so this year, um, I'm actually in the process of graduating from nursing school in August. So um I have a very busy like six, seven months left in my life right now. Um, but I will be doing a lot of surprise releases. I'm sitting on a lot of work. I'm sitting on the next book in my fantasy series. I'm finishing up for the sake of love. I got a book called Royals, I got the poet and the author, I got choices. All these books I have kind of been sitting on for like the past almost three years that I've been in nursing school because I just haven't quite perfected them quite yet. But my goal this year is to just do a bunch of random surprise drops and then start 2027 fresh. So um follow me at Charmaine the Author on Instagram, um, at Triangles Publishing on Instagram, um, I'm also Charmaine the Author on TikTok. You can follow me there. Um, I have not been the most consistent with the social media. You look, something has to give, and for me, it's been the social media, okay? I had to be like Dean's list nursing student, or social media queen. And I have the the other one that it won. So I'm trying to do better, get back on posting more consistently. Um, but follow me there because that's where I will announce all of my surprise drops.

SPEAKER_01 55:46

Why am I not surprised that you're on the dean's list?

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Like I just because high scholastic standards, ma'am, that's why. What surprise? I work very hard, trust me. I work very, very hard. Um, I want to be an example in whatever I do. Um, and I think that my first time going through undergrad, I didn't have that mindset of being the example for people who were looking at me. Um, and although I can be very charismatic and there are people who love and support me and support my vision, because I wasn't willing to like be the best that I could be and be an example, I didn't succeed. So now I'm making those changes. I have been the president of the student nursing association. I sit on the state board of the student nursing association now. Um, I'm just trying to be the best that I can be. So yeah. You can follow me there because all my stuff is there, my book stuff, my nursing stuff, um, my kids stuff, all that. It's all the year.

SPEAKER_01 56:46

Yes, which by the way, I want to shout out your daughter has a book too.

SPEAKER_03 56:50

Yes, my little Olivia. Um, I kind of gave her my love of science too. So her book is called Um Olivia the Scientist Goes on a Safari and it follows Olivia and Professor uh Roof, who is actually based off of her two little English Bulldogs that passed away. I'm sad that they passed away. I was getting all excited. Like Roxy and Draco, they were real ones, you know. Um but um yeah, um, but she actually wants to write a fantasy book, um, a spin-off from my fantasy series called Natura. So that is also something that maybe during the summer we'll start working on um and letting her kind of further explore that.

SPEAKER_01 57:35

Nice. Thank you. And then also thank you for inspiring another black girl in STEM. So I I'm not in STEM, but I am one of the statistics. I heard that there's a statistic about girls in general in STEM. We can lose our interest by like middle school, high school because um faculty and teachers put all of their energy into the boys in STEM. And I was one of those. I was in like a citywide science and engineering program in middle school. I like built like a water distilled distillation system for one of my science for projects in seventh grade and all these things. And then I got to high school. I did really well in like physics and then biology, and it just like all the energy I saw went into the boys, and I was just like, okay. And I just like, you know, I'm now in the arts and the humanities. And I every time I'm like, can I return? And I try to remember stuff and I can't.

SPEAKER_03 58:35

You can't. You can't, you can't. It's it's a lot of it is memorization, it's picking back up what you you forgot, you know what I'm saying? Of course, it takes time, but if you love STEM and you love science, there's always a way to be involved in it, and there's always a way to inspire somebody else to be involved in it, you know? Um, and that statistic is unfortunately that's for like kids in general. They actually drop off from STEM after about seventh grade, sixth, seventh grade. Um, especially kids who look like us, unfortunately. So um there's a a lot of work to be done, but there are some amazing people like um Dr. Julio Hayes, he actually co-founded my company, No R Steam Pro with me. Um, it just he's absolutely amazing, has a book out. Um, he's working in like hydrogen right now and like energy. And you could, I just he's like he was he's like literally a child genius, okay? Like the man is just brilliant. Um, but an amazing person, and to see like all the work he does in his community to inspire kids too, amazing.

SPEAKER_01 59:42

Nice, thank you. Oh my gosh, and thank you for the recommendation. Absolutely, yeah. So, Charmaine, thank you so much for being on this. Well, it's turning slowly into your evening here at seven o'clock and where you are. I think it's like four.

SPEAKER_03 59:58

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:01

Yeah, so thank you so much for being on. I look forward to reading the rewrite of For the Sake of Love and seeing your fantasy book and also celebrating when you finish Nursing School in August. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:16

Yes, yes. I will keep everybody up to date. I promise I'll do better with like sharing my life on social media. I will get I'll get it together. Like not this week, but next week. I will get it together. Um, and I will promote more. But yeah, like I said, surprise launches throughout the year, um, and just a year of just having a good time. That's what the goal is this time.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:39

Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Black Riders Read. Black Riders Read is available on all platforms. Please be sure to subscribe to Black Riders Read wherever you listen to your podcasts to receive each new episode once they are released. And after you've listened to this episode of subscribe to the podcast, I would appreciate so very much if you could also leave a review as your feedback helps me to curate the series and it helps others to find us. I hope that you are so moved and encouraged to take your support of Blackwriters Read one step further and join us on Patreon. Thank you for championing this work and helping to sustain this award winning, independently produced virtual platform. To learn more, please visit BlackWriters Reef.com. Thanks again for your support and for ensuring that Black Writers continue to matter.