Young Loc’s On The Westside

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Those of us who grew up on the West side of Los Angeles, during the 80's crack era, can relate to this compelling hood story. Ali Shabbazz's raw and rugged writing style, keeps the reader enthralled with its clever euphemisms and street savvy lingo. A must read that will not disappoint. ~ Review by karen smih

From the Press Release – Intended for an adult audience.

Cult California Author's Work Now Back in Print in New Expanded Edition, as “Young Loc's On The Westside” Arrives On Amazon.com

The writings of The Legendary Experience have been favored by readers of urban literature for years, and have been republished after experiencing cult appeal in the 1980's and 1990's.

LA, CA, January 27, 2015 – Certain African-American authors have managed to stand out in the publishing world and capture the voice of a generation. Among these authors are literary stars like Donald Goines, Richard Wright, Iceberg Slim, and now, The Legendary Experience. This street author has been captivating both young and old with an authentic Los Angeles voice for over 20 years.

In the late 1990's, readers passed worn copies of his limited-run paperbacks to friends, family, and cellmates, and now these beloved stories are back. The first, Young Loc's On the Westside, captures the inner world of a cold and vicious street gang, and was written at the height of the Los Angeles gang phenomenon.

Readers couldn't get enough of The Legendary’ s Experience's words, and can now enjoy them once again, as Young Loc's on the Westside will take them back to the 1980's era on the streets of Los Angeles, when crack was king. It's the author's very skill at evoking that sordid and intense time that gave him the name “The Legendary Experience.”

Young Loc's On the Westside features the story of kids that live on the Westside of the city, and lived outside the stereotype of other gangbangers in the city. Instead of bandanas, these gangsters wear preppy brands, but brandish cold steel. “I wrote Young Loc's On the Westside for straight-up shock value. America has a sick fascination with sex, money and murder”.

I decided to take readers on a journey down this path filled with lustful innuendos and let them experience it in a gritty visceral way. I'm going to give it to them uncut, raw, and straight with no chaser. That fantasy has now been changed into a very sexy and gritty reality,” says Legendary.

Young Loc's On the Westside is now available in paperback on Amazon.com and Overtheedgebooks.com it will soon be followed up the other books in the series.

The author has several books to his name, including Moral Dilemma, Dubie the Hustler, A Hip-Hop Love Story, and Water the Bush, and lists Sidney Sheldon as one of his literary influences, alongside Sister Souljah, Goines, and Richard Beck. When he's not writing, he's volunteering his time as Director of Operations for Go beyond the G.A.M.E. Student Athlete Mentoring Program.

 

Young Loc's On the Westside

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Urban Removal: Westside Chicago is an excellent play

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Reviewed by Opal Freeman from Windy City Reviews

Urban Removal: Westside Chicago is an excellent play written about the facts and figures of Westside Chicago. Using a historical platform, John Robert Bland creatively connects the elements of Chicago’s history, people, events, music, and education into an engaging and fun experience. The succession of each scene in the play captures the reader’s attention and embraces the views and values of long-time residents as they share individual life experiences of the neighborhood and surrounding communities.

Bland’s five characters are a unique blend of people who respect and admire each other a great deal. Their daily meeting place, a local bus shelter, provides an environment where the characters are able to have an open forum about any and every subject. The various conversations are filled with passion and pride, and they provide the reader a non-traditional education of the community where the characters live. In discussing the economic, demographic, and financial challenges of their neighborhood, this group of characters is able to provide solutions to matters that touch their hearts and sustain themselves with a spirit of survival.

John Robert Bland has written a play that allows the reader and audience to not only reflect on decades of the rise and fall of Westside Chicago, but he also confirms, through the creation of the play, the existence of humankind and community spirit. Thanks for the history. I really enjoyed the play.

See previous posting for more about: Urban Removal

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The Wrong Man

The Wrong Man

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Publisher Page - gutterbooks.com

To say that this story kept me on the edge of my seat - my car seat, that is - would NOT be an exaggeration! From the moment you meet the protagonist, the story line takes hold of you and does not let go until the very end. Sam, who could be anyone you've ever known, has made the decision to turn his life around - but he forgets the cardinal rule of redemption: Lose the loser friends. ~ Excerpt of Review by Dana Esquer

Book Description:

A novel of unforgettable characters, surprising twists and satisfying payoff, The Wrong Man will stay with you long after you've read the final sentence.
Sam Schuler is starting a new family, trying to begin a respectable life, and trying to extricate himself from the seedy people he once knew.

But when his former best friend involves him in a petty drug theft, a local street gang is stirred to action and Sam finds himself the target of harassment from the gang's leader.

When the situation escalates from threats to violence to the worst transgression imaginable, Sam's reality is warped beyond recognition. Rules of conduct are forgotten and laws lose meaning as the young man attempts to salvage his sanity, his male pride and his family-to-be.

I read as a writer and believe me, an entire class could be profitably taught using just this novel. The fictive dream is established immediately and there’s no departure point where the reader can leave. Matthew Louis has crafted one of the best, most interesting, best-paced and plotted novels I’ve read in a long, long time, and I just hope he keeps cranking ‘em out as fast as he can.

—Les Edgerton, author of The Rapist, The Bitch and the forthcoming, The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping

The Wrong Man

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Publisher Page - gutterbooks.com

Urban Removal

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“It's interesting how you have these very lively and charismatic characters congregate at a bus stop talking 'barbershop trash'. But in fact they're very bright by the very nature of their well grounded and insightful commentary on the state of world affairs.” Dr. Roland Jefferson - Psychiatrist and Author

Book Description:

Urban Removal is an engaging play based on the degrading life on the Westside of Chicago, a place where both population and communities have gradually but surely disappeared to be replaced with a different demographic and upscale real estate.

Meanwhile, long time residents and survivors Can Man, the colorful self-anointed neighborhood mayor; Ili, the entrepreneur; Fenny, the commonsense blind guitarist; god fearing Alberta, and young Jamal join wits at a daily ritual bus stop corner encounter to discuss the neighborhood’s events and problems of the world.

This work is good story telling based on both fact and fiction.

“It goes a step beyond "The Help." in that it is contemporary and universal.” Doug Casement - UIC Project Upward Bound English Teacher

Author: John Robert Bland

MUP, city planner, playwright, songwriter, and poet.

Excerpt (written in a play format and so this is a line from character Can Man)

Can Man
But let me tell you something. This here drugs they got on the streets ain’t like reefer. This is the knockout punch and it will destroy all of us whether you use it or not. You gonna lose your children, your house, your money, and your mind. You better listen to me.

*****

“Thanks for the journey back to our youth because this is the only way we will have to remember it since the neighborhood and soon our old high school will be no more, so the written and spoken word is the vehicle we will use to pass our legacies on and though you can remove the buildings they will never be able to touch the memories of those times.” Ernest Pettis - Chicago's Crane High School Basketball Standout

Urban Removal

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Moon Tortured

On Sale for 99 cents! 

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Good Read, Engaging Characters ~ Excerpt of review by lovetoread
The characters were dark, but likable. I wasn't sure who to trust, and throughout the book I kept wondering who the good and bad guys/women were, and I loved that! I hate a generic/predictable story. I liked the chemistry between Skyler, Josh, and his brother Ethan. I couldn't decide which one I would rather have her end up with. I went back and forth a few times trying to decide if I wanted her to end up with the sexy witch or the ruthless wolf with questionable ethics.
Most books, I can predict what will happen and they usually have a stock happy ending. Moon Tortured didn't give you that, but it offered a very satisfying read with an unexpected ending that left me wanting the next book to be available.

Book Description:
Skylar’s death came not at the end, after a long fulfilling existence, not in the middle, as a result of an untimely tragic event—but at the beginning, with her birth.
As a final effort to save her dying unborn child, Skylar’s pregnant mother, a witch, sacrificed herself by invoking a powerful spirit shade to inhabit Skylar’s body, imbuing her with life. For twenty-three years, Skylar lived a life of oblivion, content with her simple job, loving adoptive mother and the monthly inconvenience of a full moon hangover after being sedated and caged when she changed into a wolf. It wasn’t exciting but it was her life until one night, she woke up in a strange room in the middle of rural Illinois—bruised and with jumbled memories of her mother’s death from a vampire attack. The Midwest pack comes to her rescue. Known for being more ruthless than altruistic she doesn’t know if she can trust them.
But after an assassination attempt by a necromancer, an abduction attempt by a mercenary, and more aggressive and violent attacks by the vampires, she has no other choice but to accept their help. The Midwest pack quickly discover that Skylar is the host to a spirit shade, who gives her magical abilities, that make her as much of a danger as an asset and that she is the key to the vampires’ plan to perform a ritual that will give them unrestricted power. Tension rises as the pack become divided between those who think her life is worth protecting as a potential ally and those who believe she is too dangerous to live. In the end, Skylar finds herself fighting for her life—a life that may be tragically taken too soon.
A Must Read! ~ By Tndix10
“I really appreciated the plot development and good solid writing. It was also a breath of fresh air to see that not everyone needed to be "coupled up", or have a" love interest", like in most Urban Fantasy books. This book focused more on getting to know the characters and their non romantic relationships with each other. I give it two thumbs up!”

 

Moon Tortured (Sky Brooks Series Book 1)

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