I want to thank you for your interest in my first novel
"Hunger of The Pine"
I want to take some time today to tell you a little bit about this book,
as well as what inspired me to write it.
To be completely honest with you
this storyline is something that came through me.
Consider it a stroke of insight.
And it came to me several years ago.
It sort of feels like the story in this book
wanted to be written by something bigger than me.
As far as how I personally got interested in this topic in general
of homelessness and of the foster care system
and children who are part of the foster care system,
that really started in childhood,
because I spent a lot of my time in childhood
around children who were part of that foster care system.
I remember being a child in these circumstances
and being completely shocked
that the kinds of things that I was seeing
is something that could just go on.
It was obvious to me as a child, based on a lot of my experiences
that there were a lot of holes in the foster care system.
And of course, as I grew older
that turned into seeing that there are a lot of holes within society in general.
If there weren't these holes, you couldn't see people
sleeping out on the streets.
So I became really curious
as to the "why" behind homelessness
and the "why" behind kids ending up in the foster care system,
and the "why"
behind the foster system's many failures.
What this book is designed to do,
is to give you that picture of "why".
But from a first person perspective.
I understand that teaching,
telling someone about a subject, only goes so far.
And it doesn't come close to first-hand experience.
So...
What I came up with,
is this idea of putting people in the shoes of a homeless youth.
And looking through the eyes of a homeless youth,
to get a snapshot of american homelessness.
You will notice that every character
that this main character meets,
represents a certain demographic of individual
that happens to struggle with homelessness.
Hunger of the pine is really a compelling story
about one woman, young woman's,
struggle with homelessness.
And homelessness as seen through the eyes
of somebody who is living on the street.
Our main character Aria Abbott,
never had a home.
She's been struggling within the foster care system
and in group homes
for most of her life.
Now she finds herself in one such foster situation
that becomes so unbearable,
that she, like many other homeless youth,
decides to run away.
So this chronicle is first her experience living on the street
in the east coast, in chicago...
But it is at this point in the story
that we meet Taylor,
who is a charismatic
LGBTQ youth
who has this dream for fame and fortune.
And most people don't know, but...
Perhaps the demographic of youth
that is the most predisposed to homelessness,
or the most at risk,
is LGBTQ.
So, taylor convinces Aria to follow his dream,
which should be her dream.
For fame and fortune,
by going to hollywood.
And so, the two board a bus to hollywood.
To Los Angeles, California.
Expecting of course, this overlay experience
or this fantasy reality
to be awaiting them there.
Instead, what awaits them
is the reality of homelessness in Los Angeles.
It is in this world,
this world of life on the streets in Los Angeles
that Aria begins to meet
all these characters that represent
a demographic of homelessness
in the United States of America.
And she meets them in an abandoned car lot,
which becomes really the center of this novel.
All these people are homeless for different reasons
and here they are living out their lives
in the forgotten margins of society.
Spoiler alert...
On top of figuring out the harsh reality of american homelessness,
first hand and taking you along for the ride...
Our main character Aria
also finds herself in an incredibly steamy love story.
In an interracial relationship.
And that's all i'm going to say,
because I don't want to ruin the plot for you.
I don't want to ruin you experiencing this book for yourself.
Some of you who know me may know this already,
and some of you may not.
But what really began my journey as an author, in general
(this is book number six)
is actually a homeless man.
I was stopped in a car at a stoplight
and I remember looking right
and there was a man who was digging around in a trash can
and I remember thinking:
"How can I get the information that I know as a spiritual teacher,
as a new thought leader...
into that man's hands."
I realized that one place
that homeless people love to hang out,
is public libraries.
Because there they have access to many resources.
So I remember thinking:
"If I wrote a book, at least somebody could rent it
or check out that book."
So it's rather ironic that my first novel
is pretty full circle
as to how I became an author in the first place.
I became really interested
in all of these causes or the "why" behind homelessness.
Why youth homelessness?
Because it's an epidemic
and most people don't realize that.
And because most of us
because of our, you know, stigmatization
and our marginalization of homelessness,
don't realize
that this archetypal picture we have of a homeless person,
does not represent the reality of homelessness.
And in fact,
homeless youth are often the hardest to recognize.
Because of their youth,
they are less disheveled.
You may pass them on a street and just think it's somebody
that is going from school to home,
when that's not the reality.
So it's a topic that I wanted to draw a lot of attention to.
It's also this assumption that people in society make
that that stuff isn't happening.
There's no possible way that there's a bunch of kids
that are just wandering around on the streets with no home.
Especially in an industrialized country.
That seems like something that,
you know, everybody thinks is somebody's responsibility.
And yet, there are these major fissures and cracks
in the system itself,
within western society.
Not to mention the other countries in the world
that make this kind of thing possible.
And I really do want people to gain understanding and awareness
around those cracks and fissures.
A lot of people are going to ask me:
"Why a novel?"
I've got two answers for this;
The first is that
as a teacher in general,
I am acutely aware of the fact that
you can talk to a lot of people about situations, but that doesn't mean
they're going to have a full understanding of what's going on.
It is the first person experience
that helps people to relate
and helps people to really grasp
what is happening at a ground level.
So I knew that I could accomplish
a hell of a lot more understanding of this topic in general,
if I put people in first-person perspective as a homeless person,
than if I talk about homelessness.
The second reason is...
i'm a writer.
Now here's the thing about writing,
what I usually write is in the self-help genre.
That's informational writing,
which I love, don't get me wrong.
But the skill of writing is really about descriptive writing.
I consider myself, first and foremost
a descriptive writer.
So this is my first way
of really putting myself out there in the world
as a writer
with a skill of writing,
not just using writing
to convey information.
So you can get a taste of this novel,
I'm going to be reading you an excerpt from the book itself.
The reason that i've selected this particular part of the book,
is that it explains the title.
They were in the deserted doorways,
their cardboard boxes erected like monuments
to commemorate their anguish.
The irony of their lives written in the sign on those boxes
reading "this side up".
Their thirst could not be quenched by the water they didn't have.
Their hunger could not be satiated
by the food they could not afford to buy.
No one thinks they will end up like this.
No little five-year-old boy or girl
sits on the carpet of their kindergarten class during sharing time
and says they want to be homeless when they grow up.
Before Aria had become one of them,
she had always looked at homeless people
like they were "those people".
Now, she understood that a life on the streets
was just a hair's width away from almost anyone.
Given the right cocktail of conditions,
anyone could find themselves here.
They were not a different species,
even though it comforted people to think of them that way.
To separate themselves from those people who were homeless,
made folks feel further away from being homeless themselves.
But the truth is those people
were people just like you or me.
They, the outcasts of mankind's ambition,
the carriers of the shadows that no one truly wants to face.
There was a pining in their movements,
a boundless yearning for a kindness
they had either tasted, or never tasted.
A deep hunger for love they might or might not ever find.
Their lives were the hunger of the pine.
The first step to ending homelessness,
is to demarginalize homeless people.
To destigmatize it.
And to bring this topic closer to home.
Homelessness is going to continue to be an issue
as long as we continue to make it an issue that "those people" face.
If we don't identify with,
and really understand people who struggle with homelessness,
we're going to always consider it not our problem.
It is my sincerest wish
that you enjoy the characters in the story, the storyline itself,
the writing that conveys all of it,
and the messages inherent in this book.
And with it that you come away with a true understanding
of homelessness in America.
It is my sincerest wish that you will participate
in the pre-ordering of this book.
If you do pre-order this book,
it's going to ship out on the very first day that it's released.
The day this gets shipped,
the day this is released is october 13th,
which by the way, is my own father's birthday.
I didn't pick it, the universe did.
~ Laughter ~
This includes special special offers
for businesses who want to order a high volume of this book.
Another reason for this is that I want to put this topic of homelessness
and the various systemic failures that lead to homelessness,
in the public eye.
The way to do that, is with pre-sales.
Pre-orders is what leads to best seller lists.
Best seller lists, is what leads to interviews.
Interviews is how I can have a conversation
with the general public about homelessness.
The third reason that I want you to pre-order this book,
is because I am personally donating
all of my personal profits
from the pre-order,
directly to youth homelessness.
So if after all of this
you want to jump on board,
I want you to head over to hungerofthepine.com
And I want to personally thank you for your interest in my first novel.
Feels nice and juicy as an author.
I also want to thank you for caring.
I want to thank you for your courage
to dive into the first person perspective
of american homelessness.
Have a good day.
Subtitles by: Tanya Duarte