Fiction & Literature on page 4

Cheryl is a young mother raising two teenagers in one of the toughest communities of Alphabet City. She struggles to make ends meet working doubles at her job and leaving her oldest son to take care of his younger sister. With the streets calling the boy's name of fast cash, cars and gang life, Cheryl has to make a lot of sacrifices to protect her kids from that lifestyle. It's a life of struggle as a single mother but she has to fight and keep going from day to day.

Kendra is a drug addict and escort in Alphabet City. She’s all about showing a man a good time and living life vicariously. The only thing is a horrific event as a child changed the landscape of her life and she does all that she can to block it out. It’s not until she one day has no more money or access to promiscuous men and drugs where she’s forced to deal with her childhood memories of pain, anguish and sorrow. Will Kendra turn her life around? Time will tell but in a community of negativity, it won’t be easy.

Tiffani grew up in Alphabet City with aspirations of making this community better. She starts a juice shop to promote a healthy lifestyle and bring people together through her connections. What she soon learns is that the community she’s lived in all of her life is built on putting people in their graves sooner than the average person. Fast food restaurants, liquor stores, funeral homes, cheap clothing stores and bodegas are all that’s around her. While she fights to grow her business and thrive, there are people telling her to pack it up and go to the suburbs. The question is will she give up on her community or fight to get people to make healthier choices so they live longer.

Kevon is well-known in certain parts of Alphabet City but not in a good way. He’s the big time drug dealer that supplies drugs to the recreational users and the hardcore drug addicts that wait for his new supply weekly. He talks about the destruction of the community but he is out to make his money, live a comfortable life and enjoy the fruits of his labor. With Kevon having to constantly be on the lookout for police, law enforcement agencies and enemies, the day to day life is never easy. Will Kevon survive this dangerous game where any day he can be taken out?

Ms. Evelyn Bates is the matriarch of Alphabet City. She moved to Alphabet City as a young girl and has seen it all. She pens her life from the beginnings of this community to what it is currently. As a woman in her 80s, everyone in the neighborhood knows and respects her no matter where she goes. Evelyn pens her story from marriage, to raising children during the crack epidemic in the 80s and seeing the neighborhood that has made her the woman she is, going down in the shambles. Her life has been nothing short of amazing as she has hope that the community can get back to what it once was, thriving and at peace.

To receive his master's degree in history, a young man chooses World War II as his subject matter. To gain more insight on the subject, he convinces his grandfather, who served in World War II, to share some of his experiences and gets back more than just historical facts and statistics.

America, A Country Divided is a book that delves into some of the major societal issues that’s going on in America. From abortion and birth control to the race war and police brutality, those are a few topics of many that are discussed in this book that talk about what’s going on in the country. America has been divided for decades but the country is back to a place where there is racial tension and social divide among citizens. The question that always remains is how did we get to this place, what can be done to resolve these issues, and what does the future hold for this country? A book that will make you think about what’s going on around us and what we can do as a nation to make it a ...

Can Professor Moriarty blackmail Sherlock Holmes? He has evidence that the examination of a cosmic string by StarTrek’s Mr. Spock went horribly awry, and stranded him in Victorian England. In his new home, a surprise onset of Pon Farr leads to an encounter with a Wold Newton descendant - Violet Rutherford, a progressive English adventuress with eclectic interests and friends. Their relationship stretches the Prime Directive to the breaking point and leads to the birth of both Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes. It could explain so much. Logic in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.