Monday, May 30, 2022

Happy Book Birthday to Blue Haven by Lisa King!

 



We're thrilled to announce the release of Lisa King's Blue Haven (The Story Plant) today! To help celebrate, we are asking our readers if you can please pretty please pick up a copy at Amazon and come back and tell us how you liked it? Or, leave a review at Amazon

Congratulations, Lisa, on your adult scifi new release, Blue Haven!















Welcome to Blue Haven, the world’s most lucrative condo corporation—so exclusive that only five lucky residents live in this lush, tropical paradise, housed in a top-secret location.

Among them is twenty-five-year-old Aloe Malone, an introvert and former waitress who traded bussing tables for lengthy sleep-ins, ocean dips, Michelin-star restaurants, spectacular sunsets, and unlikely new friends—all thanks to a spurious lottery win.

Life’s good.

Damn good.

That is, until Aloe discovers a journal.

Seemingly left by a past resident named Eloise whose entries are both sad and evoking, Aloe quickly suspects there’s more to Blue Haven than meets the eye.

Her suspicions are confirmed when visions arise, gruesome hallucinations she can’t understand, followed by a strange yet familiar man lurking in places he shouldn’t. Something’s wrong. Or maybe it’s all in her head. Regardless, she vows to uncover the truth.

Except someone wants to keep her quiet, and it’s the last person she ever suspected.

Blue Haven is a science-fiction thriller that explores what innovation can achieve—and destroy—despite the best intentions. King’s imaginative world building and use of moral ambiguity make this page-turning novel a thought-provoking thrill that’s impossible to put down.

Book Information

Release Date: May 31, 2022

Publisher:  The Story Plant

Soft Cover: ISBN: 978-1611883206; 336 pages; $26.95; E-Book, $7.49

Book Trailer https://youtu.be/DgnqxcZLRcg

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3LVsZB0

Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/3waPpHv  

Indigo: https://bit.ly/3MWRayO

IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781611883206

Book Depository: https://bit.ly/3kNK4kk


About the Author



Lisa King
 is a Canadian fiction author and researcher whose work on veteran mental health has been published in numerous academic journals. She holds degrees in psychology and neuroscience, both from Western University. Aside from writing, she enjoys family outings, ample coffee, and unapologetic napping. She lives in London, Ontario with her husband, daughter, and wonky-eyed cat.

Her latest book is the adult science fiction/psychological thriller, Blue Haven.

You can vist her website at www.AuthorLisaKing.com or connect with her on Twitter and Instagram.

 





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Friday, May 27, 2022

⭐INTERVIEW⭐WILLIAM JOSEPH HILL AUTHOR OF CYBER FIGHTER


When interviewed, the author tells us his life story, “I’ve actually been writing since elementary school.  I always liked writing my own science-fiction stories, though my early work was derivative of TV shows I loved like SPACE: 1999 and the 1970s version of Buck Rogers.  When my family moved to Hawaii (my Dad was a Captain in the U.S. Navy), I started making my own movies first with a Super-8 camera and then our family’s VHS camcorder.  In high school I wrote, directed, and starred in my very first feature Law of the Ninja, with my siblings as co-stars and the neighborhood kids as background actors.

When I came to Hollywood, I not only continued with my acting career, but also used my writing skills to pen some screenplays, a few of which I was hired to write from an indie producer.  CYBER FIGHTER was originally intended as a vehicle for my acting career, but gradually developed into a bigger story which my debut novel tells.  It is my very first book that I’ve ever published.

My wife Pamela and I started our own production company Four Scorpio Productions, and we have our own YouTube channel where we began making short films and then developed our own web series sitcom That Darn Girlfriend which is in its third season.  It’s a quirky fun parody of classic 1960s/1970s sitcoms, done in that style as well.  We’ve built an audience of over 3,500 subscribers.  I also share my filmmaking/VFX knowledge with a tutorial series that I produce and host on the channel as well:  https://williamjosephhill.com/  and http://fourscorpio.com/  and  https://www.youtube.com/fourscorpio.


Thank you for this interview!  I’d like to know more about you as a person first.  What do you do when you’re not writing?

I love training in martial arts, specifically karate and kickboxing, which are the core arts that I started taking while growing up in Hawaii.  Summertime, I love going to the beach and boogie boarding.  Southern CA is great for this, though I miss the Hawaiian waves.

When did you start writing?

I started writing in second grade.  My teacher had the class do creative writing and I’d start writing my own science fiction adventures which were derived from episodes of Space: 1999.  (This was before I saw Star Wars.)  So, it took me a while to develop my own voice.  At age 11, I got a typewriter for Christmas and that was when I started writing my own movie screenplays.  I started my writing life as a screenwriter, first by writing scripts that I produced and acted in myself, and then as a hired writer from indie producers to write their screenplays.

As a published author, what would you say was the most pivotal point of your writing life?

I’d have to say the process of self-publishing was a major pivoting point.  Converting the screenplay for CYBER FIGHTER to a novel, creating the book cover design and artwork, publishing on Amazon; the process was very empowering.  I first published at the end of 2019, right before the pandemic shut-down.  I produced and performed the audiobook for the novel as well as doing a comic book adaptation during quarantine.  After also self-publishing a hardback version, it’s inspired me to write more books for the series.  

If you could go anywhere in the world to start writing your next book, where would that be and why?

I’ve always wanted to travel to Japan, specifically Okinawa (which is the birthplace of karate) to level-up my martial arts training.  I think somewhere in Naha with access to the beach would be great.  I’m used to tropical humidity, but would definitely be running the air conditioner!

If you had 4 hours of extra time today, what would you do?

Definitely work on the next CYBER FIGHTER book.  I’m still working out the plot and storyline right now.  I have several ideas of where the story can go.  I’m also penning a short story prequel that takes place in the 1980s, more as a character development exercise, but I will probably publish that as well.

Where would you like to set a story that you haven’t done yet?

I’d really like to write an epic science fiction space opera type adventure.  A story that takes place sometime in the distant future where humanity has begun colonizing the cosmos.  I loved seeing concept art for torus-shaped space colonies and imagined what it might be like living there.

Back to your present book, CYBER FIGHTER, how did you publish it?

I self-published on Amazon, using the Kindle Create software to format it.  That was great for not only the Kindle e-book, but I was also able to format my paperback and hardcover too.

In writing your book, did you travel anywhere for research?

Thanks to Wikipedia and the Internet, I didn’t have to!  Whenever I had a technical question about computer science or military procedures and weapons, I’d Google it to find the answer.  The trick is to double-check references to make sure you’re getting accurate information.

Why was writing CYBER FIGHTER so important to you?

The story originated as a feature film project that I was working on as a vehicle for my acting career.  Over the years of development, the story evolved into the multi-layered adventure that is in the novel now.  Back in 2018, I decided that I could write the novelization first, getting the story out there to build an audience who would want to see the movie.  So it’s definitely important as I see the story ultimately as a movie series, and writing the book has brought it into the public eye, instead of hiding in development and turnaround.

Where do you get your best ideas and why do you think that is?

I never know where or when my best ideas will hit me.  A lot of times, I get inspired by stories I’ve read or movies/TV shows I’ve seen, and that’s where a new plot angle or idea will hit me.  As a kid, I would take these ideas and do something that was an obvious knock-off, and so the challenge now is to be sure to find a way to make it my own.  I think the reason that movies and TV are an influence is because it goes back to my origins as a filmmaker.  I love cinema and definitely visualize things that way.  I love novel writing as it lets me get into my characters’ heads and explore what they’re thinking about; something you can’t do in a screenplay.

Any final words?

You know, even though I’ve mentioned being inspired by cinema a lot growing up, I was also a voracious reader from childhood.  I always loved reading books.  I remember in elementary school reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlotte’s Web, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Those books really stuck with me, especially the world-building of C.S. Lewis and Roald Dahl.  I think that if you want to become a writer, a love of reading really helps. 

Thank you for the interview!


William Joseph Hill’s book CYBER FIGHTER, with its big screen adaptation underway, is a sci-fi/martial arts/action-adventure story that will engage readers in this action-packed “page turner.”

Said the author Mr. Hill, “I’m hoping that my CYBER FIGHTER readers have fun with the story and have a few good laughs, along with being thrilled by the action sequences I have in the story. I’d also like them to think about the scientific possibilities that the story explores.  As we spend more and more of our lives online, the idea that you could learn skills via Virtual Reality is becoming less science fiction and closer to actuality.”

Cyber Fighter is the story of a clumsy temp Brian Baldwin who takes a job at defense contractor Kirkman Enterprises, where he volunteers to test their latest software program on himself by getting black belt fighting skills downloaded directly to his brain via a Virtual Reality immersive experience, turning him into a human weapon.  

When Brian discovers that the eccentric main programmer Humbert Cloogey has sold him off to the Army for induction, he makes his escape, assisted by his only ally Dr. Kate Rand, a neuroscientist who works for the company, but who has some secrets herself.

Simultaneously as Brian is undergoing the experiment, a Triad crime boss and part-time cloning engineer Lau Xiaoming, operating out of North Korea, hacks into the U.S. server hosting the software, planting a Trojan program into Brian’s brain that holds the secret to “Project Starfish”, his plan for world domination.

Brian finds himself pursued by not only the U.S. Army, and FBI, but also by Xiaoming and his minions, all looking to grab him for their own exploits.

The core of my story is Brian’s journey, going from a middle-aged man who gave up on his dreams, to suddenly finding himself empowered with skills he never thought he’d ever achieve.  Almost overnight he acquires a superhero status.  But he discovers that he apparently hasn’t achieved any more control over his life than before.  In fact, his life seems pretty much out of control now. 

Plans for a CYBER FIGHTER feature length movie from William Hill lie ahead. He said, “I am also developing CYBER FIGHTER into a feature film.  Part of that process includes doing a short film version for a proof-of-concept for my vision of the full feature.  I am hoping to produce and shoot the short film this summer and have it go to festivals.  I also did a comic book adaptation of that short film version that is also for sale on Amazon.  Learn more at this link:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZL6X6W6

“Cyber Fighter is a fun and engaging read…Multiple strands and characters -as well as many pop culture and martial arts references…”
“Cyber Fighter takes you on a wild ride that is funny and a wonderful escape from all that is currently going on in the world. “
“The Matrix on steroids!!!”
“For fans of Sci-Fi, a-la Monty Python”
“A great read for the Martial Artist”
“It’s Matrix meets Die Hard, and definitely keeps the action going”

Book Information:

Release Date: Updated February 2022; originally Published November 21, 2019.

Publisher: Independent

Number of pagesHard Cover/206 pages/ASIN: B09QP6QPG8 ISBN-13: 979-8727262665, Paperback/284 pages/ASIN: 1082737933-ISBN-10: 9781082737930-ISBN-13:19781082737930Kindle e-book/286 pages. Kindle — ASIN: B081SJRMJ1

Amazon Link:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081SJRMJ1

Audio version Links:  Apple:  https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/cyber-fighter-unabridged/id1531248640?uo=4&mt=3; Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Cyber-Fighter-Audiobook/B08DJBL4WX

Social Mediahttps://www.facebook.com/CyberFighterMovie  Twitter: https://twitter.com/cyberfightermov  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/williamjosephhill/




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Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Book Blast: Almost an Army Cadet, Always a Forester by K C Linggi and Laing Imang

 

 







Title: Almost an Army Cadet, Always a Forester
Author: K C Linggi and Laing Imang
Publisher: Partridge Singapore
Genre: Autobiography/Biography General
Format: Ebook
The book is about the trials and tribulations of Laing as a forest surveyor and partly as a community officer dealing with local forest people. In his works, he encountered the Penans and related some anecdotes of Penans and white men. He talked about the dialogue with Kayan, Kenyah and Penan; Long Moh Agreement which excluded the Penans. He was involved with Baram Operation Master Plan and witnessed subsequent blockades by Penans against logging. Penan blockades at Layun, "Blockade Satan" and Sebatu brought fame to environmental activitists like Bruno Manser, Harrison Ngau and Anderson Mutang. He oversaw heli-logging, ISO9001 documentation and sustainable forest management certification. He was able to share his experience and knowledge with interns and under-graduates who chose forestry as a career. His more than two decades of working in the forest has enhanced his appreciation of nature conservation and cordial engagement with Penans.


PURCHASE HERE
K C Linggi is a professional forestry graduate from Universiti Pertanian Malaysia. He was project manager for Bridge & Infrastructure Unit. Laing Imang is a trained forest surveyor in the Survey and Engineering Unit. Both worked in the same timber company for almost two decades and shared many trials and tribulations together.


K C Linggi and Laing Imang are GIVING AWAY A $25 GIFT CARD!

  
Terms & Conditions:
  • By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
  • One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one $25 Gift Certificate to the e-retailer of your choice
  • This giveaway begins May 16 and ends on May 27.
  • Winners will be contacted via email on May 28.
  • Winner has 48 hours to reply.
Good luck everyone! 

ENTER TO WIN!a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Sunday, May 22, 2022

The Sunday Post (4)

 

 

It's been a somewhat stressful time lately and I don't see that changing any time soon. Work is not what I want it to be and am hoping that it improves. But, the biggest thing happening is my oldest is graduating from high school in a few days. I am not sure where the time has gone and while I am so proud of her, I am sad knowing that my little girl is really not so little anymore. Add that to the fact that my Mom s not here for it, it just makes it that much harder. 

I also feel like I am in a reading slump lately - also not normal for me. I am currently reading Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. It is good and I am interested in the plot. It's not them, it's me for sure. 

Currently reading (Netgalley) 





The Dinner by Herman Koch (paperback)



I haven't started this one and have read mixed reviews but think it sounds good. 

Can't wait to see what you are reading or are going to be reading!

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Tuesday, May 17, 2022

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: GRANDMA'S & GRANDPA'S TALES BY CHERYL CARPINELLO

 




Grandma and Grandpa’s Tales books 1-3 encourage early readers with fun stories incorporating difference aspects of nature. Book 1, Wild Creatures In My Neighborhood and What if I Went to the Circus, explores the wildlife around neighborhoods and introduces decision-making. Book 2Singers of Songs and The Not Too Stubborn Humpback, explores a common, but not so common insect, and lets readers see that being stubborn isn’t always good. Book 3Vampires in the Backyard and A Fish Tale, introduces readers to an extended metaphor and lets them decide if the fish story is real.

Book Information

Release Date: Grandma’s Tales #1 (2016), Grandma’s Tales #2 (2018), Grandma’s Tales #3 (2021), Grandpa’s Tales #1 (2016), Grandpa’s Tales #2 (2018), Grandpa’s Tales #3 (2021)

Publisher:  Silver Quill Publishing

Soft Cover: Grandma’s Tales #1 – 39 pages; $9.99

Grandma’s Tales #2 – 66 pages; $13.99

Grandma’s Tales #3 – 64 pages; $14.99

Grandpa’s Tales #1 – 39 pages; $9.99

Grandpa’s Tales #2 – 66 pages; $13.99

Grandpa’s Tales #3 – 64 pages; $14.99

Amazon Ma 1:  https://amzn.to/3374bEX

Amazon Pa 1:  https://amzn.to/3uHMKpA

Amazon Ma 2:  https://amzn.to/3Jan0X5

Amazon Pa 2: https://amzn.to/34HGt2g

Amazon Ma 3: https://amzn.to/3wELnJj

Amazon Pa 3: https://amzn.to/3GyXTLJ










Cheryl Carpinello taught high school English for 25 years. During that time, she worked with numerous students who didn’t like to read for a variety of reasons. However, she discovered that even the most reluctant readers became engaged in the classroom and in reading when she introduced units on King Arthur and the works of ancient world writers. Upon retiring, she set out to write fast-paced, action-filled stories in these setting to encourage young readers to read more. Her success with readers aged 8-16 led her to reach out to the youngest of readers and those readers just starting out. Revising stories she had written for her own children, she created Grandma/Grandpa’s Tales for ages 4-7.  Her four grandchildren’s conversations created the stories in Book 3 of this series.

Visit her on Twitter and Facebook.






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Monday, May 16, 2022

READ AN EXCERPT: MENDEL BY DAMONE BESTER #BOOKEXCERPT #MENDEL @damonebester

 


Title
: MENDEL
Author: Damone Bester
Publisher: The Story Plant
Pages: 288
Genre: Urban Fiction

BOOK BLURB:

Imagine the mid 1980’s, last day of school, summer break. A teen rushes to meet his mother, who is being released from the hospital after cancer surgery. When the teen arrives, he finds out his mother is dead, but his ex-gangbanging dad, who has been in jail the last seven years, is at the hospital ready to take the teen home.

Mendel, is a coming-of-age story about a senior at Chicago’s legendary Mendel High who must learn how to forgive as he navigates life without his mother. Things come to a head when the teen accidentally finds his mom’s diary. In the journal, he discovers his mother’s dreams of becoming a collegiate track star were derailed due to getting pregnant with him. To honor his mother, he joins Mendel’s track team and excels, but before he can cash in on any scholarship offers, his father’s thuggish past catches up with them when a gun toting nemesis comes seeking revenge. The teen must decide between saving his own life or sacrificing it all to save his estranged father.

Book Information

Release Date: April 26, 2022

Publisher:  The Story Plant

Soft Cover: ISBN: 978-1611883268; 288 pages; $16.95; E-Book, $7.99

Amazon: https://amzn.to/37qfkCC

Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/3NYZ0cS

Indigo: https://bit.ly/37qF69y

Indiebound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781611883268

Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Mendel-Damone-Bester/9781611883268

Book Excerpt:

Love is sacrificial and often comes at great cost. My parents taught me that through their own sacrifices. It took me a while to learn it, but once I did, it was a lesson I have never forgotten. One doesn’t simply live in my hood; you survive.


Yet not everyone can survive growing up the Chicago way. It takes a certain kind of toughness, tenacity, grit. Some people fold, others break; few survive. Survival looks different to many people. For a young Black male living on the South Side of Chicago, survival isn’t guaranteed. That’s why my story’s atypical, and maybe by sharing my story I can help other kids my age too.


My life in Chicago was—I loved Chicago. I still do. The neighborhoods, the parties, the music, my family, friends, enemies, even the gangs, all had a part in raising me. Everything about Chicago—especially my old high school, Mendel—shaped me into the person I am today.


Founded back in the fall of 1951, Mendel was run by the Augustinians. It was named after Gregor Mendel, who was called the Father of Genetics. My old high school sat on a luxurious plot of land nearing forty acres.


During the spring and summertime, Mendel looked like it had been plopped down in the middle of a plush forest. Green was everywhere. Huge shrubs and sky-scraping evergreens stretched for blocks, encircling the monstrous campus.


Bordering the prickly pines was a continuous chain-linked fence topped with barbwire that surrounded the entire school. The never-ending fence was about eight feet tall and was so close to the trees that the brush needles protruded out the mesh gate. This made Mendel look more like an impenetrable fortress than an inner- city high school.


People constantly joked that I attended high school on a college campus. Mendel even had a pond smack dab in front of the school’s main building. It was rumored the pond was originally made to look like the capital letter P for Pullman. That was the name of the school before it was Mendel, Pullman Tech. I believed the rumors were true because there was an old, corroded patch of land at the north end of the pond. It was clear to me that this “island” probably served as the hollowed-out portion of the capital letter P. Over the years, the apparently once beautiful pond morphed into the shimmering gray puddle that we were stuck with.


During my tenure at Mendel, many freshmen got dumped into the school’s pond. It was almost like a rite of passage for seniors to dunk the freshman. Thankfully, I never had the privilege of being dunked. Neither did I attempt to drown any freshman. Although, there were a couple that I wanted to humiliate in the waters of “Lake Mendel,” like when Prince embarrassed Apollonia in Purple Rain. But I didn’t want to get suspended.


On either side of the main building, where most of the classes were held, were two other buildings. The tan brick building to the left was Mendel’s gymnasium and cafeteria. That’s where all the good grub, exciting hoop squad games, and after parties went down.


The one on the right was the school’s monastery. That’s where the chemistry lab, the art classes, and the band practices were held. Not to mention where we would congregate for Mass every week like clockwork. Mendel was a Catholic college preparatory school situated in the Roseland community on the city’s South Side. Unfortunately, my neighborhood gained the notoriety of being called the Wild-Wild or as others called it The Wild Hundreds. Not the kind of monikers you want your community to be known for, being wild.


Yet on Mendel’s campus, my crew and I always felt safe. We were a city unto ourselves, the students, faculty, and staff. Within Mendel’s “city” gates, both the teachers and students strived for excellence. That was their reputation way before I got there. In fact, many of the teachers at Mendel were once students. That showed how special of a place Mendel really was to have former students come back there to teach. The Mendel community had always been a close-knit family.
And in every family, there’s a history that laid the foundation for the future.

One of the things I loved about Mendel was they didn’t have the same old classes that every other school had: English 101, Intermediate Algebra, Geography. Boring! We had classes like Life Skills, the private school’s version of Home Economics. Life Skills was taught by Brother Tyler. In that class, we learned how to balance a checkbook, create a budget, shop for groceries, even change a tire.


In Mrs. Epps class, My Own Biz, for juniors and seniors, we learned how to set up a business plan, learned whether to become a sole proprietor or an LLC, learned
how to invest in real estate, and learned how to gauge if a business would turn a profit or fold in the first two years.

 

But my all-time favorite class was Morality & Ethics, taught, oddly enough by Mrs. Morales. Mrs. Morales was a gorgeous, fiery Latina. My boys and I loved Morality & Ethics class because we could argue at the top of our lungs when debating our point.


The way Mrs. Morales’ class worked was she would introduce a topic at the beginning of class. Then we had ten minutes to come up with our arguments as to why the topic was or was not morally ethical and we’d discuss the topic for the majority of the class. During the last five to ten minutes, Mrs. Morales would give her supposition of the topic. It was great. Sometimes she would break us up into teams, other times, she’d have us fend for ourselves, individually.


But it was midterms; that meant we had to write out our answers in essay form. I had already zipped through my exam and was daydreaming about how horrible Christmas break was going to be when the school bell rudely interrupted.


I whipped my head around. A parade of classmates passed my desk donning their mandatory private-school dress code attire. The girls in their white, pink, or pastel blue blouses with black or gray skirts. Guys with our gray, black, or navy-blue slacks and cardigans along with white or pastel button-down shirts. We were already looked at a bit differently by our public-school friends for going to private school so, most of us felt that we were branded by having to wear uniforms on top of it.


Since Mendel’s inception, we had been an all-boy’s school. Yet due to increasing financial woes, we turned co-ed that semester to expand admissions, which made for a pleasant experience.


The hallways suddenly smelled fresh and perfumy. Guys didn’t beef as much anymore because they wanted to show how popular and cool they were. The girls at Mendel were attracted to a smidgen of bad boy. No one really wanted an outright hoodlum. And for some reason, even most of the teachers seemed nicer once the girls arrived.


We descended upon Mrs. Morales’ desk like a gaggle of geese being fed Ritz crackers. I was last in line to hand in my exam. I placed my test on the desk and turned to leave. Mrs. Morales’ accented shriek stopped me dead in my tracks. I looked back over my shoulder.


Mrs. Morales waved me over.


I huffed out a sigh and obeyed her command. Her eyes peered at me over the top of her wire rimmed glasses as I approached. She waited patiently for the last student to exit.

“Thought about what we discussed?”


“Some,” I answered respectfully unenthused.


“Well?”


“I. . .I don’t know.”


Mrs. Morales sighed a deep sigh and leaned back in her chair, “See the nine o’clock news last night?”


“No.”


“There was a student, graduated from Julian last year,” she sat up again. “He wasn’t working. Didn’t go to college. Just hanging around taking the year to decide what he wanted to do with his life, family says. He was shot in the head yesterday, died on the spot. You know why?”


“Any number of reasons. Owed somebody money, disrespected someone, um—”


“No. He didn’t have a plan. You only have one semester left, BJ. What’s your plan?”


“I don’t know Mrs. Morales.”


“Armed forces?”


“No.”


“College?”


“No.”


“Why not?”


“Who has the money for that?”


“Get a scholarship.”


“A scholarship? Doing what?”


“I don’t care. Anything Brandon.”


Mrs. Morales took a deep breath turning her head slightly. She removed her glasses. Looking up at me genuinely, calmly, she said, “You need to come up with a plan for your life, BJ, or you’ll be the next person shot ‘for any number of reasons.’ Comprende?”


I nodded.


“Now, go on. You don’t want to be late picking up Monica.”


Even though she dismissed me, I knew she wasn’t finished with this discussion by a long shot.


“Have a good Christmas,” I said softly.


“Mm-Hmm, you too,” Mrs. Morales replied scooping up the test papers. I could tell by the way she banged the exams on the desk straightening them into a pile she was slightly annoyed with me. I wish I cared more than I did. Truth was, I didn’t know what the future held for me. I didn’t care whether I lived or died.


 About the Author


Damone Bester was born and raised on Chicago’s Southside to blue-collar parents who were married 49 years, and one older brother, whose backyard scuffles taught Damone one lesson: “Never quit.” He wasn’t just a student at Mendel; he lived and breathed “Blue Smoke,” the mantra of his track team brethren. A brief conversation with another Mendel alum stoked the fire to pen his first novel about the school he so loved.

Damone is an author, poet, aspiring screenwriter, and voiceover artist. He has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Illinois State University and has spent most of his profession in the Social Services sector. He currently lives in the Twin Cities area and enjoys fishing, bowling, basketball (watching, not playing), bean bags, and bragging about his nephew and nieces.

You can visit his website at www.DamoneBester.com or connect with him on TwitterFacebook and LinkedIn.

 

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