ThE hEArt oF a StePfAtheR: BeHinD tHe CuRTaiN

Fam,

You know I shoot straight with you every chance I get. This won't be any different. This book was and is my baby. It is the first true and authentic writing that I have ever done. I've written hundreds of poems, short stories, and a heaping handful of manuscripts, television scripts, movie ideas, and practically most anything you can think of. You name it, I tried to or did write it.

This was my first of its kind. It was not fiction that came from the creative and sometimes off the wall mind of a wannabe author. The way I choose to describe this work is this: This was my literal heart spread out on pages. I took two decades of pain, shame, agony, heartbreak, fear, betrayal, embarrassment, wisdom, courage, inspiration, victory, unconditional love, and personal and spiritual growth and sprawled it out onto 194 pages for the whole world to see. Every person that intentionally screwed me over, tried to get me arrested, wanted me dead, hoped to see my ministry obliterated, left me hanging, turned their backs on me, as well as everyone who was there for me all had a front row seat to the biggest and lowest moments of my life.

I was as transparent as I'd ever been in ever. The only areas that I held back anything in this book was to protect innocent people or to simply to protect my family from going through more than they needed to. My friends that were so happy I wrote a book hid themselves when I needed their support but I kept writing. Some of my family that knew what I wrote was true threatened to harm me or sue me or both. They wanted to destroy me for telling my own story. I would have had more respect if they wrote their own book. It would probably be a best seller because it would have been full of lies. I'm the only fool that writes a book that makes him look bad. LOL.

I was supposed to be happy and excited, not fearful and intimidated. Ha! I was happy and excited and not fearful or intimidated one bit. I'm too stupid to understand that bad things could've happened to me. I ran headlong into this with a reckless abandon. I refused to be denied. I was introduced to the "third largest Christian publisher in the world" and they wanted my book and they wanted it now. Wow. I was giddy and nervous about that.

Long story shortened, they hooked me up with a television appearance on ABC Charleston's "Low Country Live" (I would guess you can still view it online if you care to) and they didn't do one thing since. No promotion. No website until two months ago. No events or book signings. And most egregiously, no royalties after selling hundreds of books. I found out at a book signing I arranged for myself last month that the company closed in January. If you googled them by now, you should be in for a juicy and shocking set of articles. I'm not trying to talk about that here. Read that for yourself.

From the beginning, the company tried to strong arm me and paint me into a corner. Any of my friends know the creative, wildly imaginative, vision-oriented person that I am and when I do something, it's usually out of the box and it's normally unique. It's not cookie cutter. The company wanted me to be in a box of their choosing. They wanted me to fit their narrative and be as vanilla as possible. Hence, the book cover you see before you. No offense to my Caucasian brothers and sisters. This isn't about you but it's more about being pigeon-holed and not being able to be the butterfly you were made to be. I'm positive that you can all relate to being held back when you know you must soar. This was my life but I keep writing and I kept fighting. Trying to get a book signing event, Trying to get likes and re-tweets and comments and just anything that says "Yusef, this book is good".

I got heartfelt letters, tear stained messages, phone calls, home visits, emails, hugs, and every thing an author could need for validation that his work made a difference to someone somewhere. For me, that was more important than any royalty or any financial donation or any support from a pulpit or from the hands of so-called supporters. I knew it made an impact on someone and that was what it was all about. That's why I wanted this book seen. That's why this book had to be written.

I strongly recommend that you don't go to the online outlets and purchase this book unless you are just in need of reading this and want to support the book but please know, I get nothing out of those transactions. I never have. The company in question will profit in some way but I will not. I'm okay with that because I have made my peace. If you can do that, by all means, purchase the book and enjoy the chronicles of my life. I only hope that the book is actually shipped to you. I have heard that people are still ordering but no one is receiving. Just sayin'.

I will be re-publishing this book with a cover and some content of my own choosing. It will be revamped to say the least. If you want to support it, cool. If not, I totally understand. My second book is nearly finished but I can't bring it out of the shadows until this book has completed its intended work. Stay tuned for The Heart of The Stepfather or some version of this name but on a whole other level. Again, I thank you for your support of someone who believes they were born to preach, who believes they were born to teach, but also believes they were born to write books.

Several folks have asked about this and why I started writing and a host of other questions like who was the target of this book and how long it took to write it (which no one believes when I tell them). I'll be glad to answer them all if I can in the comment section. Thank you guys.