Happy Wednesday, Bestseller Champs,

Today, I want to share a novel that is worthy to be read--The End Justifies The Means by TArik Moore. If we want to stop the killings in our streets, stop our kids from joining gangs, hanging out in harms way, then we have to change our reading habits and start sharing the information "WE" read with our children as early as five years old.  Even when we're telling them bedtime stories, add in your version.  I am proud to have been the story editor of this novel, and I'm  proud of the content--the story this young man told.

It is the "hoods" Catcher in the Rye--one of the most impactful coming-of-age stories ever told.  Hey, you guys, we've got to give our children a wider range of content. If we are stuck in the ghetto, that's fine, just help make it better.  Help build character in our children. BET is not going to do it!!! (I'm on my soapbox this morning because I have to be). Yesterday, a fine school went to play football with another school and one boy ended up stabbed in the back and another in the back of the head. Perhaps you saw it on TV--here in Los Angeles.

While there is some violence in this novel, it is focused more on the intense effort of          the main character to improve his life and all of his cousins who are in gangs.  It gives a realistic setting of our boys growing up in the hood. It's gripping.  It's about surving until you can thrive. It's about a mother who took no mess. It's a mystery of the most realistic kind. We always have to ask the question, how can he ever get out of that?  will he end up in a gang?

I'm taken by this novel because I was a mayor's wife and I saw those characters at so many funerals.  It seemed strange to me that the young mothers of the recently deceased never seemed to learn what caused her child's death. In a year or two, another of her children had taken revenge, and the bad blood went on. My husband, in real life, was a dentist, a minister and a mayor.  He was able to communicate with the gangs and they trusted him.  Our city came to a calm period for about ten years.  Now that my husband  is passed on, the truce has been broken and the war is on again.  I ask myself what responsiblity do us writers and wise ones have in this age of communications? Us writers must use our skills and professions to remind the young mothers that BET won't save their children's lives in such a unique, compelling way that they get it. That they see we are telling the truth and believe us. In fact, I fault BET openly for so many of the woes of young mothers, being taught the mentality of the Video Vixen--thinking they're still young and have to get their groove on.

The best thing they can do is keep those kids under their wings at the YWCA, YMCA, and find wise Christian counselors who care. Get grounded in a good local, Bible based church like the young mother in "The End Justifies The Means." 

Every young man who made it out, almost exclusively, had someone to mentor him, keep up with him, encourage him.  That's what is in this book. In a very compelling way.  That kid isn't perfect either, like most of our children.  Like us.  The story opens with him in such an intense predictament that you sympathize with him right away.  From then on, I wanted to make sure he was OK.  Just give this book a read and you will be changed. This is the kind of reading we should be doing to assure the future of African American generations.

Synopsis:
“The End Justifies the Means” is a gritty and
uplifting coming-of-age story, where the re-occurring
theme of self-sacrifice and unselfish living provides
a family from Camden, New Jersey with a more
advantageous lifestyle in a city where opportunities
and advantages are few and far in between. The main character has                                     a tough road to walk if he is to survive and thrive.

This story has multiple elements of treachery, bribery
and money laundering that reaches outside the family and seeks revenge
against the city criminal elements and political
elite.  But it is the evolution of the main
characters, ‘Jalen’ and ‘Kevin,’ which sets this story
apart from the stereotypical ‘shoot-‘em-up’ stories we
all have grown accustomed to.

This story is NOT autobiographical, but it is an
honest representation of many young men and women's
journey through the inner city environment.

www.thmoorenovels.com

Bestseller writer circle members, take a look at this novel. We are about reading each others works, as I have chosen them for quality, timeless topic and word-of-mouth     praise. We are about supporting each other's signings.  Just take a look, and buy to          support our future generations.

Today, remember our race, our children, our community and set out to make them              better. Here is my next tool to improve your writing:

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You are welcome to publish this article in its entirety, electronically, or in print free of charge, as long as you include my full signature file for ezines and my website address in hyperlink for other sites. Please send a courtesy link of email where you publish:

bestsellercircle@zinester.com,

www.urbanclassicbooks.com

Thank you.

Martha “Marti” Tucker

www.urbanclassicbooks.com

      Who is the Bigger-Than-Life Character in Your Bestseller-Kind-Of-Novel?

The main characters in the bestseller-kind-of novel are bigger-than-life. No wimps here.  You can’t just tell us what they do; you have to show us what they do. Prove that they’ve bigger-than-life.  These are people who find ways to solve the problems around them. They outsmart the bad guys. The bigger-than-life character overwhelms the enemy, somehow.  They blow up blockade, so to speak—literally or emotionally.

Here are your examples:  In the Godfather, everyone knows that he can fix any man’s problems.  His people already know that; we’re just being introduced to him, though. The undertaker comes to him seeking revenge on the well-to-do white boys that tried to rape and beat his only daughter. If the undertaker takes revenge, he knows the police will find out and jail him.  So he comes to godfather and asks the request. Godfather has his foot soldiers to take care of it.  The pizza baker wants his daughter to be married to the baker boy who is about to be deported to Italy by immigration.  Godfather has his concierge to talk to his politicians and stop the deportation.  His godson comes in crying about a movie that the big time Hollywood producer won’t give to him.  Godfather assures him he will fix it. The producer says he’ll never get that part.  Godfather makes him an offer he can’t refuse. Through his unlimited connections, the producer finds his prized and protected horse’s head in his bed. Producer’s scream can be heard a mile away.

Even in death, he has outwitted the bad guys. He grooms the son Michael to carry on, and drummed into his head the plot the enemy will use to kill him. He accurately predicts who would be the traitor after his death.  Godfather was larger than life and he has out lasted the author, Mario Puzo.

Godfather executed the death of the Italian Don, who had killed his father.  As his mother begged for his life, the mob boss shot her.  The boy escaped and came to America.  He did crime to keep his people from suffering injustice.  That was larger-than-himself, larger than life.

GONE WITH THE WIND—Near the end of the war, Scarlett comes home to Tara and finds it in disarray.  Her mother is dead, the cotton fields are waiting to be tended, her father is losing his memory and two lazy sisters are complaining.  Scarlett put on her bonnet and worked the field and whipped the sisters in line to do the same. When a Yankee soldier comes into her house, she shoots and kills him, then drags him out and buries him. Scarlett was a bestseller-kind of character—larger than life.

The Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires—Indigo Tate is wired to make things happen. The story opens with her scheming to get her husband into congress.  She was ladylike and all cosmopolitan in the right circles. When she’s trying to get her “Camelot” status for Compton. But near the climax, when she is locked in a safe house, under the guardianship of a six-foot-nine giant and pressured, she tamed her guardian to have pity on her. She had the cool presence of mind, like Michael, to push the right buttons. The head enemy approaches, and when he is caught off guard, she battles him down with a broken chair leg—like Scarlett when the Yankee tries to invade her home.  She runs and jumps off a high porch with two pit bulls baring teeth and chasing in close pursuit.  She sprang on top of a six-foot fence, dislocating her arm and leg, but she keeps running to the highway, to freedom. No one can say anything but that Indigo Tate is a larger-than-life-character. She is the African American heroine who’s name will be just as well known as  Scarlett’s.

Write 20 characteristics of your bigger-than-life character. If you notice, there are no wimps in even a love story.

                                                                      * * *

Bio:  Martha Tucker is an author, story editor, publisher, and speaker

The Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires is a breakthrough romantic urban thriller

http://www.urbanclassicbooks.com/

FREE NEWSLETTER:  The bestseller-kind-of-novel

Sign up today: BestSellerCircle@zinester.com

A free novel will be given to the person who can quickly name a female heroine of a Black novel.  Just off the top of your head.  Mail it in by midnight Thursday. No fair going back to look her up.

A free novel to be given to the person who can quickly name a male hero of a Black novel.  Same rules apply.

www.thmoorenovels.com

 Synopsis: “The End Justifies the Means” is a gritty and uplifting coming of age story, where a re-occurring theme of self-sacrifice and unselfish living provides a family from Camden, New Jersey with a more advantageous lifestyle in a city where opportunities and advantages are few and far in between. This story is NOT autobiographical, but it is an honest representation of many young men and women journey being raised in an inner city environment. This story has multiple elements of treachery, bribery and money laundering to fuel this family’s revenge against the city criminal elements and political elite. But it is the evolution of the main characters, ‘Jalen’ and ‘Kevin,’ which sets this story apart from the stereotypical ‘shoot-‘em-up’ stories we all have grown accustomed to.

www.thmoorenovels.com

Love ya,

 Marti Tucker

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