"[6] Jenkins read widely at her local library, everything from Alice in Wonderland to Dune to Zane Gray to early romance writers like Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart & Phyllis Whitney.

Eventually, Jenkins and her husband moved to Ypsilanti, where she worked at the Parke Davis Pharmaceuticals' reference desk and began writing romance novels for fun.

Jenkins uses her books to weave the quilt back together by revealing patches of black history that are rarely taught in school.

For example, her first three novels, Night Song, Vivid and Indigo, feature characters such as a schoolteacher, a cavalry officer, a female doctor and Underground Railroad heroes.

First, she read a news article about a high-end African American-run hotel that was uncovered during an archaeological dig in Virginia City.

[6] She also heard a story about a man seeing a black woman walking through the desert with a cook stove balanced on her head.