Up On Amazon!

It's up on Amazon (under pen name JP Meads), the book I've been working on a llllllooooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg time, Power Forward: a fast-paced story about the pressures of being a basketball blue chip in a small California town.

Here's the description:

“It wasn’t about the money. It was never about the money…”

Basketball Blue Chip Josh Lockett is a big deal in a small town.

He's headed to the University of North Carolina on a full-ride—if he can handle the ball, and the pressure.

Because being the hero of Oakvale, California, isn’t easy.

If J-Lock wants everyone off his back, he has to raise his scoring average, keep his 4.74 GPA, make the All-American Team… and stay abstinent.

Survival is anybody’s game.


An important story that ends with three small words, Power Forward will captivate teens, parents, coaches, and communities who live for sports—and those who don’t—by taking a hard look at the other side of high school athletics, and calculating its cost.

Here's where you can check out the cool cover and the first few pages.

Please! Email, text, tweet, Facebook: Share with all your friends! And tell me what you think of the story.

Blanca

Blanca sits on the bleachers
of her cholo's basketball game,
men's D-league.
Thursday night.
She sits
between two brown-eyed babies,
Blanca,
a baby herself.

Blanca,
toenails red,
black stilettos.
No ring on her finger.

She's the same as she was
in eighth grade English:
liquid eyeliner on her lids
full lips
long legs.

Blanca,
then,
talking and laughing during Anne Frank.
Getting referrals to the dean.
Getting detention.

Blanca,
then,
in short, swishy skirts.
Popping gum in the hallway:
"An' I tell him, if he gonna treat me that way, uh uh."

She's the same as she was,
only different, now, too.
The fire in her eyes,
gone,
even when her cholo dunks.

Blanca,
now,
in a too-tight pea coat,
tied hard around her.
Now,
with sippy cups,
with binkies and bills,
and after the two, with birth control.
Dios knows the cholo isn't worried about that.

Blanca,
checking outside the gym.
Where did they go, those babies?
Where did they disappear?
Blanca,
finding them again.

She sits in the bleachers,
center-left,
by the open door.
While her cholo drives the ball down,
right into the White Team,
fouls.

She sits.
Her babies,
talking,laughing, outside.
She sits,
checking her phone,
waiting.
She doesn't know for what.