Till Death

Here is my latest tale of love, lust, and deception, Till Death! This story started out as a screenplay, which we will be shooting in the spring, but I thought that it would also go over well as a short story. So I invite you to come with me on a chapter by chapter look in to the lives of newlyweds Aaron and Kelly Corbin.

Chapter 1

"I'd like to make a toast," Brian shouted over the chatter of the slightly intoxicated wedding guests.
The night that they had all been waiting for had finally arrived. Aaron Corbin and Kelly Reddick were finally making it official. She was stunning in her traditional but not-so-traditional wedding dress, and he was every woman's fantasy as he stood in his tailor fitted tuxedo beaming at his new bride. Their new life together was going to be perfect.
Brian waited patiently for the noise to die down before continuing with the speech he had been practicing all week.
"I would like to raise a toast to my best friend, mentor... my brother Aaron and his beautiful wife, Kelly. May God smile upon your marriage and grant you many blessings. He couldn't have brought two more perfect people together. May all your days be happy and all your kids look like Kelly, cuz man, you are one ugly mother fu...,"
"Brian!" Chantel yelled.
"Oh," Brian laughed, "my bad, Mrs. C! Anyway, congratulations, man. I love you."
The audience applauded uncertainly, as they looked around at each other. The band broke out into jazz rendition of "Ribbon in the Sky" to ease the tension, and Aaron shot Brian a look of warning as he made his way to Kelly's side.
"May I have this dance?" he asked kissing her hand softly.
"But of course," she responded gliding gracefully into his arms.
"So how does it feel to officially be 'Mrs. Aaron Corbin'?" he whispered in her ear.
"I've been waiting for this day for a very long time," she responded with a smile.
"You ready to blow this popsicle stand and start our honeymoon?"
"I thought you'd never ask. Let's say our goodbyes first and then we'll go."
"Ok."
Taking Aaron by the hand like the social princess that she was, Kelly took the lead as they worked the room and said their goodbyes. When they finally made it into the limousine, Kelly slid into Aaron’s arms and kissed him deeply.
“I love you, Aaron Corbin, and this is the happiest day of my life,” she said.
He smiled back at her and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. Just as he opened his mouth to say the words that he knew she was waiting to hear, the blare of his cell phone cut him off. A guilty look crept across his fax as he reached into his lapel to grab the phone and check the display.
“I’m sorry baby, I have to take this call,” he apologized.
Before Aaron could connect the call, Kelly swiftly snatched the phone out of his hand, disconnected the battery, and threw the handset and battery in opposite directions.
“Wait a minute!” Aaron yelled.
“Wait my ass!” Kelly retorted, “This is our wedding night and I want your undivided attention. You promised me that you would not conduct any business until we got back from our honeymoon, and I’m holding you to that!”
“Ok, ok,” he laughed, “a promise is a promise. So, what are you going to do to keep me busy in the meantime?”
“Oh…you ain’t said nothing but a word,” she replied seductively, as she slid into his lap and began to do all the things that once again confirm for him that this was indeed the woman that was destined to be his wife.

Domestic Violence; Is there ever an excuse?

In my book "The Breaking Point" I touch on the subject of domestic violence in a scenario where the wife murders her husband. In this particular story, the husband was not abusive which is normally the case. After writing the fiction story "The Breaking Point", I did a little research on women in prison and found that an alarming amount of them are there due to crimes of passion, and more alarmingly the majority of the inmates are African-American. I found that to be very sad. Women as a people tend to be very emotional beings, we are also very strong in the way that we love hard and will go to any lengths to protect (or in some instances keep) the ones that we love. We will often stay in unhealthy relationships because we believe if we hang in there and love just a little harder then things will change or get better. Unfortunately, that better day rarely ever comes and then that's when bad things start to happen. At one of my booksignings, I met a young woman who told me about her friend that was incarcerated for murdering her husband. Intrigued, I asked her why her friend murdered her husband. The story was that the husband had been abusing her for many years and she would not leave for fear that he would kill her and her children. Then one day, the woman's pregnant sister was over visiting when he began asaulting her. The sister tried to break it up and the man then turned on her. In effort to protect her pregnant sister, the young woman stabbed her husband and killed him. She was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Was that a justifiable sentence for the crime? Should one penalty fit every crime or should the circumstances evaluated case by case? What do you think?

The Mind of a Killer...what lies beneath?

My name is Janaya Black and I have started a series called the "Prison Chronicles" that takes a deep look into the life stories of 3 different women in the same prison, to see what drove them to the various extremes that landed them in prison.

In my first book, The Breaking Point, I wrote about Marion Hayes who was imprisoned for murdering her loving husband and childhood sweetheart. This story is not the typical illustration of a battered woman who woke up one morning and decided that she wasn't going to take it anymore. It is more of a tale that illustrates how someone who is continuously beaten down by life and all of its unforeseen circumstances can endure, and then in the heat of a moment one thing can drive them over the edge past the point of return. It is a sad and relentless story of a woman who has the best of intentions but just can never seem to get ahead.

My second book, As Told By the Other Woman, tells the story of a young girl name Timberlynn Crawford, a young woman who unknowingly gets involved with a married man and ends up murdering his wife. This story is another example of how people can get caught up in emotional situations that drive them to violent extremes.

Why did I choose to go this route with my debut series? I often find myself wondering why and how people can commit the horrific atrocities that we see on the news everyday, so in order to derive some sort of understanding of what I saw I began to write stories of fictional people to bring myself some sort of insight as to what might drive an individual to murder.

So...with that said, I invite you to journey with me into the depths of my mind to find out what I will come up with next! For those who know my work...there is a lot more to look forward to. And for those who don't know my work, please check me out...I promise you won't be disappointed.

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