How an Iconic Horror Author Saved Me From the Streets and Inspired a Full-Time Writing Career
I was convinced I would end up in prison, or worse.
I was raised by two loving and supportive parents in the Sheepshead Bay Projects of Brooklyn, New York. Unfortunately, from the year of my birth in 1964 to 1971 when we relocated to Aurora, Colorado, mine was a life of frequent hospitalization.
I was severely asthmatic; my parents moved me and my two brothers to Colorado in an effort to save my life due to the state’s more favorable climate for those with respiratory illnesses.
Four years later, when I was 11, my paternal grandfather suffered a near-fatal heart attack. My dad immediately flew to New York upon hearing the news, and planned to return to Colorado two weeks later.
My mom, my two brothers, and I spoke on the phone to my dad daily when he was away. One evening, he stunned me when he said my best friend from Brooklyn — we’ll call that friend Jeff for this purpose (not his real name) — was placed in a juvenile detention center for selling drugs in our former Sheepshead Bay Projects park.
Jeff was my age, all of 11.
I was initially stunned, but on second thought I realized Jeff was always something of a troublemaker…
