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5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Joseph Henderson, author of I Don’t Want to Die Alone

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JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Joseph Henderson, author of I Don’t Want to Die All Alone
(AuthorHouse)

joseph henderson headshot i dont want to die alone book cover

(click on the pictures to see reviews of this book on Amazon.com)

Joseph, the sixth child of nine children, describes a sad but shockingly true story of growing up on the streets at a young age. After a life filled with crime, drugs, money, cars, and women, Joe realizes that life and time is catching up to him. He shares with the readers his days of living in below zero temperatures in Michigan with no heat; nightly pit stops through ice and snow to raid the supermarket garbage dumpsters. He talk of feasting on goldfish, turtles, and mallard ducks from the neighborhood park pond.

Journey with Joe as he tells an all out, no holds barred tale of physical, mental, and sexual abuse. He tells of living in a household where discipline consisted of holding encyclopedias in each hand while balancing on one foot and whippings with electrical cords, brooms, two-by-fours, and garden hoses. After being shot on a street corner, later escaping a drive by shooting, then the subsequent brutal murder of his sixteen year old brother, feel the passion with Joe, as he explains several suicide attempts his family never knew about.

Feeling he would ‘die all alone,’ Joe makes a desperate and emotional attempt to apologize and ask forgiveness from family, friends, and foes that suffered during his reign of torment.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write I Don’t Want to Die All Alone?

Joseph Henderson: This is an interesting question. I Don’t Want to Die All Alone was never meant to be a book. It was a college classmate that informed me I had a lot of interesting developments in my life and people need to know them. When I left Michigan and moved to Mississippi she asked if I would write a book. It never crossed my mind, and no promise was ever made.

After being in Mississippi for a while, by then my sister and mother had already moved there, I began to verbally ask questions about our upbringing. Members of my family would always say let the past stay in the past, or I was starting trouble bringing up old history. When that did not work, I began to write down thoughts for them to read. Sentences became paragraphs, and paragraphs became chapters. Before you knew it, the majority of my life was on hundreds of pages.

I let a pen pal from California read the rough draft. She was so inspired by it. It brought tears to her. Copies were given to my family. Because of the nature of the contents, they actually contemplated legal action. Before my family even read the book, they immediately said it was a book full of lies.

The rough draft stayed on the shelf for a while without getting published. My wife said the dream would not be complete until the rough draft is in book form. I told my family if they read it and find me telling one lie, the book would never be published. They read it, and needless to say, I Don’t Want to Die All Alone was born.

JP: This memoir has experiences that are tremendous gems of hope to the millions of children and young adults that get very little positive attention. What do you do to get this story in the hands of the people who can benefit from it?

JH: To get this into the hands of those it would benefit I would make this required reading. Have everyone from juvenile delinquents, prison inmates, parolees and felons to understand they also can be something in life. Give it to the ones that have not subscribed to gang or criminal activity but may be inclined to do so.

You can’t have the counselors and social workers that went to the finer schools in life to educate the youth and young adults that have been educated on the streets. Most guidance counselors and social workers have successful college educated parents. What can a social worker say to a gang member? Don’t be in one or you will go to jail. How can a counselor relate to a drug dealer?

Kids that grew up in gangs and the street life cannot understand what it’s like to have a two parent working or middle class family. They need someone that have been to the bottomless pit and have crawled out for kids to understand there’s hope.

JP: Gangs are known to be very possessive and families are notoriously secretive. Have you had any backlash from your family or the streets for opening your life to public discussion?

JH: This is a tough question. First of all, when you take your oath and pledge your allegiance, that gang becomes your new family. That’s how we are lured in and are taught to lure others into the gang.

They paint a picture of this vainglorious life of glamor to pit you against your family. When they see you are in a vulnerable state, they snatch you up and fill your head with fairy tales. Have you to believe your family members are the lowest of the low. Have you to believe your family does not care and could care less if you live or die. Telling you they will take care of you. Give you a place to stay, feed you, and if you go to jail they will get you out.

You believe all of this until the novelty wears off. Now you have to put in work. That could consist of being a look out while others do dirt. And after doing that for a while you could get promoted where you are now involved in handling illegal merchandise. This could go on for a day, a week, a month, or even years. The longer you are in the gang the more loyal you become to them.

OK, what if you want to get out? Now you are considered to be disloyal. You are called a sellout, a fake and untrustworthy even after all you have committed yourself to doing. And most of the time, you can’t just easily walk away. You allegiance and oath are considered to them to be lifetime, even if the chain of command changes.

Because of my rank in the gang life, I was one of the lucky ones to be ‘pardoned.’ When the backlash started, I left the state. The gang life is so possessive there are serious consequences and repercussions if you pursue to exit.

As for my immediate family, I face scrutiny all the time. I would not call what we have as secretive. This was and is a way for me to understand where I have been, to conclude where I am going. Only one family member has actually have been behind me since day one, but the others, I have to find myself defending what was written all the time.

JP: What would you say to that person who might not get to read I Don’t Want to Die All Alone but could benefit from your wisdom?

JH: If someone does not get a chance to read I Don’t Want to Die All Alone, I would tell them do not despair and give up hope. Always believe in yourself even when you feel no one else will. Whatever pitfalls and downfalls you experience in life, there’s always a way out of no way. When someone say to you, “You are nothing”, show them you are something. When someone say to you, “You will be nothing”, become something.

Even before this Yes We Can slogan became a household name, I was telling kids to say to themselves, “Yes I can, Yes I will, and Yes I did”. This is to show them they can do what they put their minds to. It keeps them motivated to believe they will continue their goals. It also has them to say they did it after each and every goal is completed.

JP: What’s next for Joseph Henderson?

JH: What’s next for me is to get everyone to read the book. But seriously, I really don’t know what’s next for me. Continue to help kids. They are reaching out, but many of us as adults do not have the heart to help them.

I will continue to promote I Don’t Want to Die All Alone to youth and young adults as well as anyone that needs to read an inspiring story. I guess I will still lecture on gang prevention and why not to get involved in drugs whether it is through use or selling. I will continue to educate on why education and knowledge is the cornerstone of success.

www.joseph-henderson.com
www.donotdiealone.com

P.S. Join the Joey Reviews Newsletter at joeypinkney.com/joey-reviews-newsletter.html

P.S.S. If you want to be feature in a 5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… series, email me at joey.pinkney@gmail.com or myspace.com/joeyreviews

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5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Moses Miller, author of The Trifling Times of… and The Game of Trife

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JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Moses Miller, author of Nan: The Trifling Times of Nathan Jones and Nan: The Game of Trife
(Mind Candy Media)


the trifling times of moses miller headshot the game of trife book cover

(click on the pictures to either go to see each book’s review on Amazon.com or to go to Mind Candy Media’s website)

Nan: The Trifling Times of Nathan Jones Synopsis:

The story is labeled fiction, but his truth is the reality of many young Black males.

On Christmas Eve 1985, young Nathan “Nan” Jones and his parents were headed home from a day of last minute shopping when tragedy struck. A few blocks away, a crazed drug addict on a PCP fueled rush had committed a double homicide and was frantically fleeing the scene of the crime. As the police pursued, he made a desperate attempt to evade them, which sent his car careening into a sea of unsuspecting pedestrians.

As EMS workers arrived on the scene, they noticed a thirteen year old boy standing alone in the middle of the street, his facial expression emotionless. In less than a New York minute, his life had tragically changed.

Nathan would spend the rest of his teenage years in an orphanage, where he befriended another teen named, Joseph Hayes. They share an unfortunate similarity. On the same fateful night, the same man murdered both of their parents. As future prospects began to look more promising for both youths, tragedy rears its ugly head once again.

Traps are set, lives are lost and hidden agendas will be revealed.

Nan: The Game of Trife Synopsis:

In the city that never sleeps, Nathan “Nan” Jones, a young man that never slept, just survived a vicious assassination attempt on his life. On the same cold streets of Brooklyn, Jada Dupri, a Black girl lost, desperately searches for some meaning to her convoluted life.

Nan’s execution was sanctioned by the criminal underworld, in an elaborate plot to be carried out by a corrupt group of bloodthirsty NYPD killer cops. Even though he barely lived through the attack by the skin of his teeth, everything that meant something to him was stolen away in less than a New York minute. He had survived-but, his mere existence may only be short lived. A massive manhunt has ensued, and the word has been put out on the streets to bring him in dead or alive. The clock is ticking, and he’s living on borrowed time.

Since Jada’s birth, the beauty of her skin has been her sin…over time it became both a gift and a curse. She yearns to find the father she has never known, to develop a relationship with her mother that she has never had and to feel the unconditional love that she so desperately needs.

Even though these two individuals will never meet, and their paths will only cross on one fateful night, the critical decisions they both make will greatly impact the lives of one another.

After all, just like you and me, they are both merely pieces in The Game of Trife.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Nan: The Trifling Times of Nathan Jones and Nan: The Game of Trife?

Moses Miller: Death actually spawned the life of that story. A teenager named Timothy Stansbury was murdered in cold blood by police the night I started writing The Trifling Times of Nathan Jones. Even though the story has nothing to do with him or his life, it did inspire my creative juices. Actually, I guess they both do have one similarity when I think of the influence that the police played in both of their lives. There’s definitely the element of victimization there. The Game of Trife was just a natural continuation of the first story. Readers of part one knew that there had to be a sequel. They demanded it.

JP: What sets the Nan series apart from other novels in its genre?

MM: I don’t really compare my books to any other in any genre. From the gate I purposely established my own lane. I said, “I write Intelligent Urban Fiction,” which is the tag line for my company Mind Candy. I will say that what separates me from many authors is that I don’t allow my books to be constrained by events that I personally experienced or just hood stories that were passed on to me.

Every book signing I do somebody comes up to me and says, “I got some stories from my hood. I just need to write it.” It never fails. But the thing about it is that everyone knows a hood story. As a matter of fact, a lot of us know some of the same stories, or stories that are similar with the only differentiator being the name of the characters. That’s why there’s some that feel that originality is lacking in the genre.

I challenge myself and my readers, and I draw heavily on my imagination and the exposure I’ve received from traveling the United States and abroad when I write. I refuse to put myself in a box. My characters are multi-dimensional and my story lines are also multi-layered.

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that led to the Nan series getting out to the public?

MM: Persistence. It starts with a good product. You have to know how to structure a story, develop characters, strong plots and memorable scenes. I always knew I had a good story, so all it would take would be for someone to read it. Word of mouth does the rest. I push my books by any means into the hands of readers. I have full confidence that once they read one of my books they’ll be supporters of everything I publish thereafter. I give them more than their money’s worth.

I also have put out some of the most original book trailers up to this point for an author of any genre. As a small press and a new author I was fortunate enough to have my trailers spread virally and be viewed by over twenty thousand people on the web alone. I understand that this is a business and I manage it as such. I’m an author, but my business requires me to wear many hats, and I make certain all of them fit.

JP: As an author, what is your writing process? What did you learn in doing The Trifling Times of Nathan Jones and lead you to do something different for The Game of Trife?

MM: I write what I want to read, and I write everyday. With me, it’s all about quality and consistency. I can write no matter what’s going on around me. As a matter of fact, the other day I was writing on the highway while I was stuck in traffic on the way to a book signing. However, I don’t rush the creative process. I’ll write a book and let it sit for a year just so I can read it from the perspective of a new reader.

A story needs to excite me and leave me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. If it doesn’t, my readers will never see it. They’ll never get the chance to critique it, because I’m my worst critic. I write intuitively. Most of the time I know how the story begins and ends, however the path I’ll take to guide you there develops as I write. I may even write two or three different “middle” sections to my stories and then decide later what is the most consistent with the story and the characters I created. I did that with The Game of Trife.

Now as far as learning new things from Trifling Times to The Game of Trife, that’s an interview in itself. I learned many things, from marketing to continuing to develop my craft in order to get better.

JP: What’s next for Moses Miller?

MM: As always, I’ll continue to promote literacy in our communities, working with teenagers and young adults. It’s always important to me to give back and pull others forward. As far as writing, I’m developing screenplays. I have a few books that I’ll be publishing as well, but I’m really excited about the inquiries I’ve been getting to have Nathan Jones’ story portrayed on the big screen.

I would also like to put out novels by other authors, but I haven’t read anything that has really excited me lately. I’ve come across a lot of manuscripts that are similar to stories I’ve read before. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they would sell if they’re published. However, I’m looking for something special. With me, it’s all about building a brand with novels that consistently raise the bar. When I find the right author, I’ll know it.

www.MindCandyMedia.com
www.TriflingTimes.org
www.Myspace.com/TriflingTimes

Awards and Accomplishments of Moses Miller:
Most Outstanding Rising Urban Novelist, YOUnity Guild 2007
Best New Author, Infini Awards 2008
Most Underrated Author’s List, Urban Book Source 2008

Awards and Accomplishments of Nan: The Trifling Times of Nathan Jones
5 out of 5 Top Shelf Rating, UrbanReviews.com
Best Characters, Infini Awards 2008
Best Street/Urban Fiction Novel, Afr’Am Fest’s Literary Awards 2008

P.S. Join the Joey Reviews Newsletter at joeypinkney.com/joey-reviews-newsletter.html

P.S.S. If you want to be feature in a 5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… series, email me at joey.pinkney@gmail.com or myspace.com/joeyreviews

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Book Review: Torn by Keisha Ervin for Triple Crown Publications

(Hover cursor over book cover to see the Amazon.com prices.)

Torn follows the bittersweet relationship between lovestruck Mo and eternal-playboy Quan. The line between right and wrong in their relationship is hazy because Mo and Quan have invested nearly a decade of love, time and money in each other. Although the fruits of Quan’s hustling is visible in the expensive house, cars and clothes, Mo would trade it all for a true bond of love from his heart to hers.

Mo’s father and her friends, Quan’s mother, and even Mo’s own intuition tell her to move on, but her desire for Quan controls her actions. Quan, on the other hand, knows he isn’t right, yet explodes at the very thought of Mo possibly being unfaithful. Their relationship is simultaneously passionate and pathetic, keeping you absorbed page after page. While they are saying “Yes, yes, yes!”, you will be cringing and saying, “No, no, no!” When you add baby-momma-drama, shady friends and other love interests, Mo and Quan are forced to make life-changing decisions that will test whether or not they are soul mates.

Keisha Ervin’s latest spin on love, life and lies is nothing less than incredible. Torn is street literature in its finest form. Keisha Ervin has written a story transcends its environment. Gunshots, crackheads and drug lords have been replaced with the sleepless nights, the phone calls that need to be taken in private and heart-to-heart advice that may hit home for some of the readers. There is even guest appearances by sisters Mina and Meesa, from Keisha Ervins’s National Best Selling Novels Mina’s Joint and Me & My Boyfriend respectively.

Keisha Ervin’s Torn has added on to her remarkable repertoire and is a yet another Best Seller in the making, following Chyna Black, Me & My Boyfriend, Mina’s Joint and Hold U Down. If you came across “After The Storm” in Triple Crown’s second anthology Street Love, Torn is the breathtaking expansion on that short story. This is not book for quick consumption like an item off the dollar menu. Instead, this book is full of substance, a tale that you will not mind taking time to read and digest.