Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog on Blogger. My name is Yani and I am a new author from Philadelphia. My debut novel is apart of the urban fiction or street lit genre and it is called A Thug's Redemption. I wrote this book when I was 15 years old. It originally was not supposed to be a book. The prologue was just a short story that I wrote after a friend of mine was accidentally killed by his friend who was playing with a gun. My friends in my 9th grade class liked it so much that they insisted I add more to it. So every day in class or while I was at home, I would write a little more and then read it to them. Back during that time, my mother did not have money to buy me a computer or a laptop so I hand wrote the book. I started it May 1999 and finished it January 31, 2000. All together, the book was 896 handwritten pages. I used numerous 5 section notebooks, 1 section notebooks, packs of paper (LOL) and kept it all in this large, white, three ring binder. Normally, I can't keep up with anything; I lose my keys, I lose my phone, I lose my debit cards. But that book, I kept up with every single page and when I was finished writing it, I was never more proud or felt like I had accomplished anything more significant in my 15 years of living.
What came next after I finished A Thug's Redemption? Well...I was only 15 at the time and had no idea how to get published. I sat it to the side for a moment even though I longed for it to be published, I secretly wanted to self-publish and dreamed of my novel being turned into a Block Buster Motion Picture Movie thinking, "How cool would it be if John Singleton came across my book and was interested enough in turning it into a great movie like one of my favorites of his such as Poetic Justice with Tupac Shakur and Janet Jackson, or Boyz N Da Hood with Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Morris Chestnut! But since I was just a kid and didn't really have the resources to seek out a publisher, I sat it to the side and developed a writers block that lasted more than 10 years! I started three great books that were equally as great as A Thug's Redemption, but I couldn't seem to form ideas as I did with my first book and those were set aside as well.
Eventually, I was published through Publish America in 2007 but they just weren't the publishing company for me. My book was being sold at a ridiculously high price ($30) yet my royalty check was barely $2.00 from each book and I just didn't see myself going far with them. After four years of being under them and my writing career pretty much going no-where, I purchased my rights back and set out to self-publish my book.
Once I had my rights back, I began making new edits and necessary changes to my book and a year later on September 4, 2012, it was released under my publishing company, Anitbeet Productions. The first 50 copies that I had printed through Lightning Press sold out in under 72 hours! At this time, my book is available for purchase through my personal website, www.anitbeetproductions.net/purchase.html with links to Paypal to purchase directly through me with free shipping, Amazon.com for soft cover format as well as Kindle, smashwords.com, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Google Books as wells as the Google Play Store. So far I have been featured on Yo! Raps Magazine's website and an interview on Black Urban News by Joey Pinkney was done as well. The best part so far is when Omar Tyree, author of Flyy Girl responded to my e-mail and requested a copy of my book so he could give me a review. He was indeed one of my favorites to read when I was growing up and a review from him would mean more to me than anything at this time.
So what is A Thug's Redemption about? It is about a young man named Jamal who decides to take matters into his own hands by avenging his
best friend's murder. He is then forced into the street life, forever in debt
to his cousin Samir, one of Philadelphia's biggest drug lords. After
finding love, separating himself from the game and turning his life
around, fate comes into play when a desperate act by his younger brother
Shawn, brings back the haunting night from Jamal's past. Secrets are
revealed and Jamal is forced back into the street life to save his
brother, as well as himself. In this story about friendship, love and
the dangers of North Philly streets, Jamal will soon learn that mistakes
are hard to clean up and will cost him dearly in the end.
If you would like to read a free preview of A Thug's Redemption you can visit my website www.anitbeetproductions.net/previews.html where not only will you get a free preview of my first novel, but its sequel, A Thug's Redemption 2: Jamal's Return which I just completed and will be released Summer 2013. You can also preview another novel that I am currently working on, Obsessive Intimacies. To check out when I will be doing book signings in your area, you can check back on my website under events and book signing or if you would like to request that I do a book signing in your area, send an email to info@anitbeetproductions.net and we will gladly work something out. I also have a YouTube channel that will be displaying my poetry as well as other clips. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog!
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