For entertainment purposes, I am posting this blog in response to my release-date anniversary from decades spent inside the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons (08/18/1988-08/28/2018).
As I carve my way into a bright future, I continue to think of ways to generate funds for survival and to pass along to others when my time expires in this thing we know as life.
Making movies come to mind, writing or having a screenplay written from my books, since numerous people who read UNKNOWN INNOCENCE, UNDER PRESSURE by Mr. D., and ESSAYS & MORE STRAIGHT FROM THE PENhave commented that their content is what movies are made from, which is true.
And then I find this old draft with the Movie Money photo and decide to use this as an opportunity to promote my books with the hope that someone with connections into the movie industry will pick one up to make a few million. 🙂
Story Behind the Movie Money
Sunshine illuminated the path as I walked down a street in McDonough, Georgia, on August 28, 2019, one year after I had walked out of the prison gates to begin my new life.
One day while shopping with a sister at a Walmart and in need of money, I found a one hundred dollar bill. That was a couple of months before the bright and sunshiny day upon which I strolled along, pleasant as a peacock.
When I looked down and saw another one hundred-dollar bill laying on the ground, I thought, This is My Lucky Day! I couldn’t believe I had been so lucky to have found, not one, but two one hundred dollar bills within a matter of months.
The bill looked faded but I decided that was because it had laid in the sun too long, unlike me, whom would have turned red instead of whiter.
When I saw the written words on the bill, “For Motion Picture Purposes,” I thought, Tyler Perry and Madea were here again.
Maybe the money had floated around town since the 2013 making of A Madea Christmas, or from some other filming, but I do wish it had been a real one hundred dollar bill that I could have used.
THE END ONCE AGAIN or IS THIS WHERE THE STORY BEGINS?
UNKNOWN INNOCENCE consumed my first novel, UNDER PRESSURE by Mr. D, and part of my second book published by Midnight Express Books (UNDER PRESSURE–MOTIVATIONAL VERSION). What separated the second novel from the first was the addition of “The Story Behind the Novel” and the addition of the first two chapters of UNKNOWN INNOCENCE.
After writing the sequel, I decided to give readers a better value by allowing the sequel to consume the original novel.
For this blog post, I’m providing a peek into the most important part of the Motivational Version (The Story Behind the Novel ), and one randomly selected chapter that shows one aspect of prison life in some of the more dangerous prison settings, Chapter #6, Let It Go.
Warning: Not Politically Correct! Contains Violence, Profanity
Let It Go
Months later, on a cool spring morning, Stan
and Bobby returned from the yard and took their showers before being counted at
10 A.M. Shortly thereafter, they went to eat Spanish omelets, oatmeal, biscuits
and gravy for brunch. That afternoon, Stan sat near the center of the TV room
watching VH1. The TV room was on the walkway at the rear of the cellblock that
joined the tiers. Terry, Jake, and three of Jake’s friends were huddled in the
back corner. Two Jamaicans, who were acquaintances of Stan, sat closest to the
only door, talking. Stan lowered the volume on his Walkman to hear Jake and
Terry’s conversation. A few minutes later his suspicion was confirmed: Terry
still planned to involve Wendy.
“She’s coming over the holiday weekend in
July and I’ll talk her into bringing in the package,” Terry said.
Stan stood and turned to face all five in
the corner. “Keep my sister’s name out of your mouth,” he said.
“Keep out of my business, boy,” Jake said.
Him and his three friends stood. Terry stayed seated.
“Don’t try fucking with this boy!” Stan said.
Terry stood. “I won’t let anything happen to
her, dude,” he said, his voice a high-pitched tone, almost a shrill.
Rastaman stepped out the door and cleared
the corner of the tier to get Big Bobby. At the same moment, Bobby walked out
of his cell to go get some hot water. Rastaman saw him and yelled in his
Jamaican accent. “Yo, mon, Stan need you.” Bobby slung the cup in his cell.
One of Jake’s partners positioned himself
near the door by the other Jamaican, who sat looking toward the television with
a know-nothing stare on his face.
“You’re damn right you’re not because you’re
not going to pull her into your shit,” Stan said. “Find another way to feed
your habit.”
Jake’s other partners tried to position
themselves behind Stan, who turned to put the wall behind him. Jake moved
closer to him and said, “What’s up? You want to get this out of the way, right
now?”
“Smash that punk!” the one by the door said.
Terry edged closer to the door. “Y’all cut
this bullshit out, dudes,” he said. “We’ll all go to the hole.”
Jake moved within arm’s reach. Stan shoved
him in the chest with both palms. “Get off me, punk,” he said.
Jake stumbled backward. He regained his
balance and rushed back to get in Stan’s face. “Want some of this,” he said,
and pushed him back.
“Don’t take that from that cunt,” another
yelled. “Hit him!”
The one by the door pulled a shank from his
waistband. “Let’s stick this bitch,” he said, his back a foot from the door.
Everything changed fast: Big Bobby barged
into the room. The door smacked the doorman holding the shank, knocked him into
Terry, who shot to the wall near Bobby.
“Hey,” the doorman shouted, as he turned to
see who had hit him with the door. His face paled when he saw Bobby. He hurried
beside Jake, faced Bobby.
Jake had moved to the corner when Bobby
rushed into the room. “What’s up?” Bobby said, his voice coarse.
The two who had surrounded Stan moved with
Jake. Terry stood against the wall with his arms crossed. Bobby moved within
striking distance of the doorman.
“Let it go, man,” he said. Rastaman had
followed him into the room. The other Jamaican stood and positioned himself
beside his partner and Bobby.
Stan eyed the two who tried getting behind
him, and then he moved near Bobby and the Jamaicans. He looked at the one with
the shank. “Put that up before I stick it up your ass,” he said.
“You got the easy part done,” the doorman
said.
“Cut the bullshit,” Terry said.
Still winded from rushing down the tier,
Bobby said, “All of you need to put this on ice. Nothing good’s going to come from
us going to war over whatever the hell y’all got going on in here.”
Jake took a step closer to them. “Tell your
boy to keep out of my business, big guy.”
Bobby started to speak. Stan pointed at
Terry. “I’ve done told that idiot I didn’t want him involving my sister in your
business, buddy,” he said. “If you can’t respect that, we’ve got big problems.”
“You’ve got big problems with all that
mouth,” the doorman said. Seconds earlier, he had slipped the blade of the
shank in the front pocket of his pants and covered its handle with his hand.
“Look, man, my problem’s not with you but we can make it that way if you don’t back off,” Stan said. He moved closer to him. “I don’t give a damn about you having a shank.”
Bobby stepped between Stan, Jake, and the
doorman. The Jamaicans stayed in the background, propped against the wall by
the door where Terry stood. The doorman jerked out the shank. Before Bobby
could stop him, Stan maneuvered around him and grabbed the doorman’s wrist
holding the shank. In a continuous motion, he twisted it behind the man’s back
and yanked it to the base of the neck, as he forced him against the rear wall. “What
you want to do now, bitch?” Stan growled, keeping the pressure on the back of
his prey.
Jake advanced toward Stan. Bobby grabbed him
by the shoulders and slung him against the wall, and then turned his head to
glance at the other two, making sure they weren’t getting involved. “Stay out
of it!” he said.
The Jamaicans, who were much larger than
either of the two they faced, had moved between them and Bobby. Both Jamaicans
had their arms spread, angled toward the floor, palms opened, inviting war or
peace. “We don’t want no trouble,” one of the other two said.
After he had failed to free himself from Stan’s hold, the doorman dropped the shank. It clanged as it struck the floor. “All right, man. You got it,” he said, his voice strained from stress.
Jake stayed still against the wall; fear
written on his forehead: Bobby’s massive chest six inches from his nose.
Stan used his foot to slide the shank to the
far side of the room. Then he released his hold and stepped away from the
doorman. “Let’s all let this shit go and get the fuck out of here before the
hacks come and slam us in the hole,” he said.
Everyone exited the television room; their
eyes darting one from another, sweat dotting their foreheads. Stan waited until
last to leave, motioning for the doorman to get his shank and go. He did so
silently, his head held low.
Five minutes after leaving the TV room, Stan
had told Bobby all that had gone down before he walked into the drama. They sat
in Stan’s cell with their arms crossed, sodas sitting on the floor by each of
their legs. Neither one uncrossed their arms except to take a sip from their
sodas.
“What you think about it?” Stan said. “You
think they’re going to let it go or what?”
Bobby cleared his throat and repositioned himself on the toilet bowl where he sat. “I’d like to think they’ll let it go and leave us alone, but you know how things go in these places. They may claim a truce only to gain an edge for an attack. I’m going to keep an eye on ‘em, for sure.”
“You know I’ll keep an eye on them. And if
Terry and Jake don’t leave Wendy out of their plans, they’d better keep an eye
on me,” Stan said, and then got up from the edge of his bed. “I’m telling you,
man, if they don’t, it’s going to be bad. Wendy may become a widow before it’s
over with if they don’t.”
“Well, … we’ll just have to play the cards
dealt and play the game well. Let it go if you can,” Bobby said. Then he rose
and patted Stan on the back. “Gotta go, Pal. Keep your eyes open. Yell if you
need me, okay?”
“Okay, man. I’m sorry I got you into this
bullshit.”
“Don’t sweat it. It’ll all work itself out
however the hell it’s supposed to turn out.” Then he ducked to leave the cell.
He stopped on the tier.
“See you later,” he said and threw up his
hand before walking back to his cell.
The Story Behind the Novel
[Updated
August 14, 2019: This novel was published while I was in prison and most
content remains the same; however, on May 8, 2019, I was released from the
custody and control of the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons. I removed some
of the original content from “The Story Behind the Novel” because it became outdated.]
The
story behind the novel may surprise you because I wrote it while serving a 420-month
federal prison sentence. Mr. D.” is the pseudonym I used for my first book to
avoid any confusion associated with my writings. I am a writer of many genres
and am aware that some readers are “profanity-sensitive”; I don’t want anyone
to be confused when purchasing my books, essays or short stories. Though not
used frequently, profanity is often necessary to capture the personality of a
character or to make a scene or setting more realistic; especially, when writing
about prison life. A person allergic to profanity may safely read most of my
personal essays (inspirational, political, creative nonfiction), but may break
out into a rash or go into anaphylactic shock when reading what I write as “Mr.
D,” a pseudonym I chose based upon the song, Dancing with Mr. D., by the
Rolling Stones, and because my last name begins with “D” and some people call
me Mr. D.
Why
should the reader find motivation by reading this? It came from the confines of
a prison. If I wrote this from inside, without an electronic data storage
system, and without access to the Internet, someone “out there” with all of the
available technology and resources can really work some magic. This is the
story behind the novel:
I
am a federal prisoner serving a lengthy prison sentence; to be precise,
thirty-five-years, without parole, for armed bank robbery and associated
charges. I started on August 18, 1988. I have never used the Internet or seen a
cell phone, other than in magazines or on television. I’m somewhat prehistoric,
a relic.
In
prison, our movement and activities are limited. For instance, I only have until
7:45 pm, Monday through Thursday evenings, to type at the library, which does
not begin until my living unit gets released for chow (usually by 6:00 pm). At
the library, I use a dumbed-down, AlphaSmart, word processor to type with until
the library closes [AlphaSmarts were removed from the library before my release
and replaced with the worst typewriters available, with no memory recall
capabilities].
Normally, a writer using an AlphaSmart would have an interface cord to connect to their PC to upload what they typed on the AlphaSmart, and would then make modifications to the text in their PC; e.g., change line spacing, font size or style, underline words or adjust margins. I don’t have a PC to upload what I have typed and cannot modify what I have written, other than typical editing functions, such as copying and pasting and using spellcheck to correct misspelled words (program does not check grammar or punctuation). Fortunately, the presets include double line spacing, one-inch top, left and right margins, and a 12-pt Times New Roman font. If I want to add an underline to a word or a case cite when doing legal work, I have to create a separate file, count spaces, and then use the underscore key to create an underline. Then I have to run the original document back through a low-quality printer to complete the process.
That gives you an idea of what limited capabilities are when writing and typing from inside a prison (and I am fortunate to be able to do what I do). Some prisons only have ancient typewriters, with no memory storage capabilities. (I authored Under Pressure on such a primitive device.) The only other day I have to work on my writing is on Saturday because the library does not open on Sunday or holidays. During the morning I skip going to eat to type from 7:30 am (or whenever the door opens) until 9:15 am. Then I have to return to the cellblock to be counted. Yes, all of us men must stand up and be counted at 10:00 am, 4:00 pm, and 10:00 pm on weekends and holidays. The 10:00 am Count is a special event: we don’t have one during the week. I often use the break for the count to proofread what I’ve written, or to prepare for what I will write.
Once the count clears and the prison staff begins feeding the noon meal, I often skip chow to go type some more. I am usually typing by 11:30 am until I have to turn in the AlphaSmart at 3:15 pm. Fridays and Sundays are my days of forced rest from typing at the library: the only place I can type personal projects.
Where am I during the week when not at the library? Working. I work as the document control clerk in a textile factory of the Federal Prison Industries, Inc., trade name UNICOR. My meager MONTHLY salary averages near $200.00. I used that income to pay for my enrollment in the Long Ridge Writers Group on January 8, 2007. The course is outlined for completion within two years. On July 7, 2008, I graduated. During the same time that I was taking their writing course, I wrote the short story, “Under Pressure.” I attempted its publication by submitting my 6,158-word manuscript (typed on the ancient typewriter mentioned earlier), to various magazines, college literary journals, and entered it in PEN’s Prison Writing Contest. It didn’t win. Then on January 1, 2012, my ambition was born to convert the short story into a novel, the hard way, almost five years from the date of when I enrolled in the Long Ridge Writers Group to learn how to write and market short stories and essays. One year after I decided to turn the short story into a novel, it was available worldwide.
My
biggest problem in getting started with converting the short story into a novel
came from not having any way to electronically store data. When I finished
typing at the prison library to return to the cellblock, everything I had typed
was deleted according to policy. I knew having memory storage would ease the
pain of the revision process (some pages I retyped up to five times to correct
a typo, verb tense, or to replace or to add “one” word). I solicited help from
my family and friends to have my manuscript scanned and stored on a disk or CD
as a word.doc format for the manipulation of data. One of my two sisters, who
was not real computer savvy, did go to different places attempting to find what
I needed, but the best she could find was someone to scan and save it as a pdf
file, which I didn’t think would allow her to alter the text back then (now
converters are available that allows a person to modify Portable Document Format
files).
I began the conversion process in light of the troubled waters ahead before I learned about the publisher, Midnight Express Books (MEB). Approximately six months after I had surrendered the idea of finding an easier, softer way to write the novel, I discovered MEB through an ad in the Education Behind Bars Newsletter (EBBN). EBBN ran an ad in Prison Legal News and asked for submissions. I submitted an essay and began receiving complimentary copies of the newsletter. In the last issue I received, I noticed an ad for MEB, who works exclusively with prisoners seeking publication [the publisher retired].
At
that point, I had decided to go the traditional publishing route, so I passed
along the information to another aspiring writer. MEB sent him a brochure. He
asked me to read it and asked that I give him my opinion. I was sold when I
read about MEB’s optical character reader and computer program for scanning
manuscripts, and then being able to digitally alter the text. I immediately
added their contact information to the system provided for e-mailing and
recording addresses (TRULINCS & www.corrlinks.com). Thus, began the
correspondence that lead to MEB helping me publish my first novel.
On January 14, 2013,
CreateSpace.com released UNDER PRESSURE for sale to the public as a print-on-demand
book. [Note: Amazon closed CreateSpace,
which was a self-publishing division for paperback books. Now authors must use Kindle
Direct Publishing and pay Amazon twice the amount of commission for books sales.]
The
following day Amazon.com posted UNDER PRESSURE. Now it is available worldwide
upon demand through the following sources:
Amazon Books
[Link removed due to agreement with Amazon KDP Select program]
[10/26/2020: Removed several links where sold. eBook sold on Amazon contains all links in updated version, August 14, 2019, NOT original version]
[THE POINT IS] If the product in your hands (or before your eyes) came from inside a federal prison, with the assistance of MEB, imagine what you can do “out there” with all of the available technology.
Maybe one day I will find out. For you, though, if you are an aspiring writer or just a reader with ambitions, apply yourself to the task and reach for your dreams: they may be closer than you imagine.
Perseverance
Pays!
Best
regards,
Wayne
T. Dowdy aka, “Mr. D.”
I welcome all comments and will respond to all questions as soon as possible, which may vary according to the number received, but I will respond.
02/21/2021, Update: I continue to be grateful to my former publisher, Midnight Express Books, for helping me put my books on the market while serving a 420-month federal prison sentence. On August 28, 2018, I walked outside into the free world for the first-time in thirty-years and ten-days, without having handcuffs and leg shackles on courtesy of the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons.
UNKNOWN INNOCENCE BY WAYNE T. DOWDY
Numbers and the way things work out sometimes amazes me. Reorganizing UNKNOWN INNOCENCE to make it wrap around UNDER PRESSURE proved to do so after I had moved and renumbered chapters and pages to make the plots coincide. The way things worked out made me feel I had indeed created a Masterpiece, a true work of art. I love how it turned out and will share an unusual aspect of the writing process with you for entertainment purposes. I don’t know what any of it means, or if it means anything, other than just the way the numbers fell.
What I experienced during the reorganization process falls into the categories of numerology and synchronicity, with synchronicity being defined by Merriam Webster as the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seems related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of casualty — used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung.
I wrote UNKNOWN INNOCENCE in five parts; some parts I wrote about Big Bobby as a prequel to UNDER PRESSURE and the other parts as the sequel. UNDER PRESSURE by Mr. D contained four untitled parts and fourteen titled chapters, whereas UNKNOWN INNOCENCE contained five titled parts (Part I: Ladies & Lust; Part II: Ten Years After; Part III: Innocence Jailed; Part IV: Betrayal; Part V: Justice Delayed), and twenty-five titled chapters.
CHANGES: The logical sequence of events required Parts I and III of UNKNOWN INNOCENCE to go before the plot in UNDER PRESSURE, and for Parts II, IV and V to follow the four Parts of UNDER PRESSURE for me to create a happy ending.
In the writing stage I did not envision doing as I have done. That thought sprouted and blossomed into what has surely become the making of a masterpiece. As I was doing the final touches on the manuscript to submit it the publisher, the thought occurred that lead to the change. A mental image of a thicker and better novel flashed inside my brain. I saw a different cover with Wayne T. Dowdy on it and an opportunity to make a better product by improving on the plot by combining the two stories. (The paperback cover did not have my name on it.) Word count was another factor. Thirty-five thousand words versus eighty-five thousand, for a modest price increase seemed a better value for my readers and a prime opportunity for me to do what I had wanted to do for months: change the most popular part of UNDER PRESSURE, the synopsis and opening chapter.
WHY CHANGE? The story begins hard, too hard for some, I imagine, with the protagonist (Stan Mason) sitting in the United States Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, plotting the murder of another prisoner, Jake Stephens. The synopsis leads one to believe the book about prison, as does the Prelude and opening chapter (“The Shank”). The opening scene and setting is in prison and captures the true essence of life inside some of the most dangerous ones, but the story contains much more than prison scenes: love, companionship, life on the outside, legal issues, politics, living in a dysfunctional family, etc.
THE COVER & CONTENT: Given that everyone who read it said it was a page turner and kept them wanting to find out what would happen next, I knew I had a good story. But when sales figures indicated that 1) it lacked something; 2) needed more marketing, or 3), that I needed to find a way to put it in the hands of more readers, I started looking into other areas to identify possible factors interfering with sales. The cover elicited numerous favorable comments, so I didn’t think cover design was the problem. Then I discussed the issue with fellow writer, Jeffery Frye, who suggested I change the synopsis on the paperback. Then with some of my more “saintly” readers commenting on the violence and profanity, I thought about how it began and then identified that as another potential source that hindered sales. Knowing that the start is substantially different than the rest of the story, I concluded that the synopsis and opening chapter gave a false impression about what was contained between the covers. I assumed that the free preview on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com left potential customers with the wrong impression. At that point, I began thinking about combining UNDER PRESSURE with UNKNOWN INNOCENCE, which was completed but needed reviewed again to make sure it was publication ready. Within three weeks of focusing on it, I knew I was onto a worthwhile project, and so here I am today wondering just what is really going on with this mysterious adventure I found myself playing the lead role in. This is where it gets weird.
WORKSHEET: I do not have a typical computer to work with (read “The Story Behind the Novel” in UNDER PRESSURE-MOTIVATIONAL VERSION by Mr. D, which you can do for free on Smashwords.com or Amazon.com or by purchasing the magazine, and you will understand my situation). Because I do not have an electronic file, I kept a typewritten table of contents (TOC) to make notes on and to help me organize the structure by listing chapters, page numbers, and the parts I named as I constructed the novel. The TOC became my worksheet for the reconstruction project. I will ask the publisher to post a copy of the worksheet in this blog. These are the current chapter titles in UNDER PRESSURE since the book is still pending processing:
PART I: 1) The Shank; 2) The Oasis; 3) Enough; 4) Temporary Absolution; PART II: 5) Wendy; 6) Let It Go; 7) Big Bobby; 8) Stan; 9) Jake; PART III: 10) Vengeance; 11) Deceit; 12) Mercy; 13) Karma; PART IV: Freedom.
If anyone has any suggestions for names of the four Parts in UNDER PRESSURE, please send your suggestion before October 15, 2015, to waynedowdy@straightfromthepen.com. [Too late! :-)]
These are the chapter titles for UNKNOWN INNOCENCE. The number to the left of the title is current. The one in parenthesis is the former. All of Part I remained the same. The five Parts are as they will now appear.
PART I, Ladies & Lust: 1) Sheila; 2) The Feds; 3) Life In a Jail Cell; 4) Initial Appearance; 5) Zachariah Zambroski; 6) Looking for Ladies; 7) Delilah; PART II, Innocence Jailed: 8 (11) Plea for Your Life; 9 (12) What Now?; 10 (13) Disappearing Witness; 11 (14) Morality; 12 (15) On the Road; 13 (16) The Trial; PART III, Betrayal: 14 (17) Sting An Attorney; 15 (18) Working It Off; 16 (19) Dirty Deeds. UNDER PRESSURE now comprises PARTS IV-VII (chapters 17-30 and pages 134-280) of UNKNOWN INNOCENCE. PART VIII, Ten Years After: 31 (8) Romance on the Wire; 32 (9) Looking for Sheila; 33 (10) Trouble with Ladies; PART IX, Justice Delayed: 34 (20) The Hunt; 35 (21) The Visit; 36 (22) Perfect Timing; 37 (23) Going Home; 38 (24) Things Change; 39 (25) Justice.
Now for the significance of all the above. Notice the “8s” in the numbers. After the Reconstruction era, I saw how the former chapter sixteen (page 112) had become chapter thirteen and began on page 88. The title: “The Trial.” I went to trial on November 7-10, 1988. The jury found me guilty of all four counts alleged in the indictment for armed bank robbery and associated charges. The former chapter eight that began on page 88 was “Plea for Your Life.” I refused to plead guilty for 120-months with a consecutive 60-months. The court sentenced me to 420-months after I went to trial and lost while exercising my right to a trial by a jury.
Okay, seeing all of that got my attention. Then on August 31st, my case manager called me in to get a financial form that the United States Pardon Attorney wanted me to complete. In June of 2014, I had applied to the President of the United States for a commutation of the remainder of my sentence and $25,000.00 restitution order. My older brother’s birthday is 08/31/53. He died from a drug overdose on August 6, 1978, twenty-five days before he turned twenty-five. Many years later, his death become a motivating factor for me to help others live without using drugs and alcohol. (After his death I was arrested in Lebanon, Kentucky on 08/28/78, for robbing three drug stores at gunpoint.) On this sentence I was arrested on 08/18/88, and was in pretrial status for 188-days before the Judge pronounced my sentence on February 22, 1989.
Two days before I turned thirty-seven, I stopped using mind-altering substance and started trying to regain control of my life to become a better human being. When I saw my case manager on Stanley’s birthday, I requested an updated progress report. A few hours later, I noticed the 188-jail credits and that the title of Chapter Thirty-seven was “Going Home,” which had previously began on page 188.
GOING HOME: Now I “know” I will be going home before my tentative release date of April 24, 2019; I don’t know if it will be due to legislative changes, receiving the commutation of sentence or what, but I am sure I will be released early. In 1983, while serving time in the State of Georgia, I told my fellow prisoners I would make parole. “You’re crazier than hell,” was typical response. All of them knew I used to be rowdy and disruptive. In 1981 I was convicted of Mutiny in a Penal Institute, before being involved in taking over a prison to escape with ten others. I miraculously paroled on August 1, 1985. (Read “Fence Rows & The Price of Change” ($0.99) if you want to know about those incidents. Individual essay only available in eBook from all major eBook retailers. For the print version, please purchase ESSAYS & MORE STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN, $8.95, USD.)
I read something years ago that claimed the number “8” was a lucky number for me due to the day I was born. To be arrested and denied important important motions filed in court, and to have experienced so much pain and agony during the eighth month did not make me feel eight was a lucky number. But the truth is that if I had not been arrested and locked away in a box for decades of my life, I would not be alive and you would not be reading about the making of my masterpiece, or this strange telling of how the numbers fell.
________________________ 02/21/2021 Update: Order my eBooks and essays from my author’s page at Smashwords.com or your favorite eBookstore. Buy UNKNOWN INNOCENCE now.
