The Brief Story Behind My Debut Novel
“…how different can I be from two white men from the 1920s?”
Taken from the preface of The Pike Boys, released on 01/22/24.
(Read to the end to learn how to get a signed copy, or how to purchase the ebook and paperback online.)
I came up with this book when I was about 20 years old, and finished it about 4 years ago. I was in college when I started, and the nation at the time seemed to be preparing to boil over in ways a 20-year-old had never fathomed. Racial tension seemed (at that point) to be the highest I’d seen in my young life. It was hard to sit down at a keyboard when mounting anxiety from tests and figuring out who I was, along with feelings of existential dread, got in the way. It got hard trying to reconcile that I lived in a nation that sometimes felt hostile to my existence. It was all made harder by the fact I had no words in my lexicon to describe what I felt. (Writers like James Baldwin would later clear this up for me).
So I instead generated an idea so far removed from myself — something I wanted to use to hide away from any existential dread — and invented a comic book character called Jesse “Quick Draw” Pike, a gun-slinging cowboy, and Claude (he would later become Clyde), a random 1920s gangster.
That’s where this book started: an attempt by a 20-year-old who wanted to escape and get transported into a world different from his. And how different can I be from two white men from the 1920s? Then over time, the two characters became brothers, and then I added a brother, a sister, and a childhood best friend. Then I realized I invented a gang.
I had always loved crime fiction, whether it be prose or television. Everything from Sons of Anarchy and Breaking Bad to Don Winslow’s Cartel Series lived rent-free in my mind. Also, when visiting my parents, my dad would sometimes have on a true crime show of some form, which deepened my interest in wanting to explore the criminal element. So, I took this family that I was so different from and created the Pike Boys.
Writing this book was beyond daunting. So daunting to the point that I asked a friend to help me write it because I didn’t think I could do it alone. Once he said no, I figured I’d use the novel as a chance to improve my writing skills, and not a venture to take seriously. I had read that all first books are bad, so when you’re done your first one, you should throw it in a trunk and work on the next. But along the way… I fell in love with the characters. I couldn’t abandon it.
Hours upon hours were spent at my dorm room’s uncomfortable ass desk and in the school library, where I’d sit by the window and watch my peers congregate while I wrote and rewrote this damn book. Then later, once I got to grad school, I’d sit in my apartment, attempting to build the world within this book, all while stressing over classes like finance or statistics. Once I was done with the book, I was about 24 or 25 or so, and I told myself I’d submit it to agents to see what happened.
But life happened.
Some bouts with depression, namely because I struggled to find work after graduate school despite promises from teachers that the more education I got, the easier finding a job would be. I worked some temp jobs and even drove Uber and Lyft. All throughout these incidents in my life, I tried to keep my mind on this book, but I got distracted. It’s hard to focus on writing about fake people when you got real shit going on.
I took a break from this book for a time to see if I was skilled enough to write for large publications. I honed my skills through blogging, but I would eventually end up in national outlets like Buzzfeed News (RIP), The Daily Beast, and Politico, where I wrote stories with racial and socio-political commentary. I’ve also written for award-winning fiction magazines, like Fiyah Literary Magazine and Apex Magazine. (I’ve also had a few stories go viral and semi-viral, as well as one story end up on multiple “end of year” best stories lists, but who’s keeping track?)
No matter what happened in my life, the Pike family was always there, over my shoulder, reminding me where this dream of mine all got started: with them, right in that small ass dorm room at Southeastern Louisiana University.
Why do I tell you this?
I tell you this because I want you to know that this book means so much to me in ways that I’ll never be able to explore within this preface. I tell you this because I want you to know that for me, this ain’t just a book, but a testament to the fact that I was able to make it through all of my worst days, and stayed focused on a promise I made to myself nearly a decade ago.
When I recently read through this book, I remember writing some of these chapters at both my lowest and highest moments, including writing and revising some chapters in spare moments before I went pregame with my college friends for a night out in Downtown Hammond, or while sitting in my car while waiting for my next Uber ride.
This book was written by a younger me that was raw and finding his voice and exploring big themes I didn’t have words for yet, and it’s the messiness of it and its imperfections that make me love it all the more. Whether this book sells 5 or 500 copies, or gets 0 or 5 stars, I am profoundly proud of it, and I want you to know I appreciate you reading it, even if you don’t finish. (But please do finish it.)
Now without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to the Pike Boys.
Continue the story by ordering the book at one of the retailers listed in this link! To be notified when the audiobook is published (and to receive a 70 page digital preview of the book) sign up for my mailing list @ bigeasypress.substack.com
For a signed copy, please reach out to Blue Cypress Books:
Call and/or email:
504.352.0096
team@bluecypressbooks.com
Follow me @ twitter/bluesky/tiktok/instagram @ deecherrywriter
