My integrity is so important to me because it is the backbone of who I am as well as what I strive to be in this industry.
I have two books in my queue this year. The first is somewhat autobiographical, aimed at encouraging and motivating my brothers within the LGBT Community. The book is entitled, "45 Years of Darkness" and chronicles what I went through (and to some degree continue to experience) as a sexual abuse survivor.
I had to dig deep for this. It was painful in some ways and liberating in others. Some will come away enlightened while others will think that I got what I deserved. It wasn't written for sympathy. It was written for a group of people who may be hurting and not even know they are. I make no apologies for this. As a survivor, I shouldn't have to.
The second book is entitled, "Second Chances." It wraps up the "Bruthas" family saga. In this last book we find out what really happened to Nate (the youngest brother), what's going on with Jai (the oldest brother) and if Ryan's relationship with Ethan will survive the trials and tribulations of issues from Ryan's past that have come home to roost. Once again, it is tied around another murder mystery taking place in Philadelphia. Who shot and killed Ryan's upstairs womanizing neighbor to death?
I'm getting ready to change the website carrier for Four Brothers Publications. With that being said, it may be down for a little while. But rest assured that it will be back up with a new look that will compliment the direction that I choose to take my company in.
EXCERPT FROM "SECOND CHANCES"
“Second Chances and Do Overs”
Chapter One
The thumping was faint initially, like the bass in a
car’s stereo system that cruised by with the windows rolled down. Ryan turned onto his side while scratching
his clean-shaven head absently. He
glanced at the digital clock on his side of the bed. It was just a little after four in the
morning. He yawned, which gave way to a
series of unexpected coughs, and then he fluffed his pillow in the hopes of
trying to find a comfortable position that would allow him to go back to sleep.
“You okay?” The male voice said drowsily from beside
him.
Ryan turned onto his back, glanced in Ethans
direction but could barely see him.
Ethan was on his stomach, his face buried into his pillow, but the
spikes of his reddish hair stood out, begging for a comb and some styling gel
later that morning.
“Yeah babe.” Ryan ran his hand over his own muscular
chest. “Just this damn cold. Go back to
sleep.”
“Alright.” Ethan reached for him absently and rested
his hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “If you need something…” He stifled a yawn.”
Ryan glanced down at Ethans hand, a stark contrast
against his brown skin. He smiled to
himself. They didn’t come any whiter
than Ethan and they didn’t come any better.
The
thumping sounded again, louder this time.
A man’s voice yelling something inaudible made Ryan sit up
abruptly. Ethan turned on the lamp that
sat on his side of the bed and rolled over onto his back. A woman’s voice shouted something back at the
man but they couldn’t tell if what they were hearing was fear or anger.
“The bullshit’s starting again.” Ethan said with a
glance at Ryan who had already bolted out of the bed and was rapidly pulling on
a pair of jeans. “Rye, you can’t just go over there and stop the asshole from
beating up on this …”
“Baby, I can do anything I want. You just call the cops.” Ryan said as he
buttoned the top of his jeans and reached for a tee shirt in the closet. “This
bullshit’s gotta stop and it’s ending tonight.”
“Fuck!” Ethan swore under his breath as he reached
for the phone that sat beside the king sized bed that they both slept in. The king sized comforter slipped down to his
hips as he reached for the phone, dialing 9-1-1 frantically. The woman’s shouting became louder, but the
mans voice rolled over hers like black thunder.
Ryan whipped open the front door of his apartment
and raced barefoot down the steps taking them two at a time until he reached
the first floor landing. He rushed down
the concrete walkway, making a sharp left before he hit the sidewalk, cutting
across the lawn that been so meticulously kept by the owner of the twin duplex
that he lived in. His eyes fell on the
small form of a woman standing in the middle of the adjacent walkway looking up
at the window of the second floor apartment.
Ryan recognized her as his neighbor that lived on the first floor of the
twin. She lived underneath the couple
that was fighting. Now what was her
name? Charmaine? Shelby?
It didn’t come to mind.
“Did you call the cops?” She asked as he neared her.
She was shorter than he remembered. Short hair cut close to the scalp…almost
boyish. It kind of reminded him of Jada
Pinkett-Smith in the earlier stages of her career. She was small, maybe all of five foot three
if that. But there was something about
her that made him think that she wasn’t someone to mess with. It was in the eyes. Her eyes were huge, doe-like but full of
expression topped with long lashes that gave her a soft femininity that her
wiry body betrayed. She was wearing a
pair of flannel lounge pants, pink slippers and frilly tank-top underneath a
nearly floor length peach colored bathrobe.
“My buddy did.” He said and then looked
upwards. The man was yelling at the top
of his lungs and the only thing that they heard was the words. “fuck” and “bitch”.
“Fuck this shit!” the woman marched towards the side
entrance and began to ring the bell.
Before giving the couple a chance to answer, she began banging on the
door. Ryan rushed to her side in case
the man came downstairs and wanted to swing on someone. Since he obviously didn’t have a problem with
hitting his girlfriend, he probably wouldn’t have a problem popping his
neighbor; that’s if she didn’t pop him first.
Still, if he was going to hit someone, then he
wanted him to try his luck with him. He
would quickly find out that Ryan wasn’t some little woman that would take his
punches without giving one back. And no
matter how hard he thought the little woman that was banging on the door could
hit, he was certain that he could do more damage than her.
“Open the fuckin’ door!” The woman yelled as the
thumping from upstairs increased.
Ryan
glanced at his neighbor and then at the upstairs window. As if by magic, the thumping and the cursing
stopped.
“Yeah, I thought so.” The neighbor muttered under
her breath, and then she took a step back from the front door as she listened
to the upstairs door open. “Punk bitch only likes hittin’ on women. I got sumthin’ for him.”
The tread of heavy feet echoed in the hallway and
then the front door whipped open. For a
second, no one said anything. The man
stood big, shirtless and angry. He stood
all of six foot four with a clean-shaven head and a thick bush of beard that
fell to just about an inch beneath his chin.
His small eyes blazed hatred, but Ryan’s neighbor seemed to be
completely unfazed. Time seem to stand
still for all of them as they each regarded each other. The man was huge, muscular and he had a
tattoo of several bullets over his abdomen.
His huge hands flexed as if he wanted to grab someone by the
throat. The woman looked at him thinking
that he probably already did that to her neighbor at some point in the morning.
“What the fuck you want!! Bangin’ on my door at this hour in the
muthafuckin’ mornin!” He growled.
“So, I finally get to see for myself what a woman
basher looks like up close and personal!” The woman snapped while looking him
up and down. “I’m not impressed. I
expected more.”
Ryan
cut her a look and then turned his attention immediately back to the man that
stood in the doorway. He didn’t know
what the man was going to do, but whenever he made his move, he knew for a fact
that he wouldn’t give no kind of warning.
“Bitch, I’ll fuck you up!” He took a step out of the
doorway and Ryan stepped forward at the same time that the woman stepped back,
reaching under her robe . “Oh, you the punk bitch that live next door!” The man
looked at Ryan.
“And I’m the bitch that lives down stairs, now you
want to come for me?” The woman whipped out a straight edged razor. “’Cause
I’ve danced with niggas bigger and badder than you!”
"Second Chances" is due out in late Spring 2014
~ J.L. Whitehead
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