Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I began to write. I limited myself to short sketches, then song lyrics, then short stories. I wanted to leave Los Angeles and move to New York, where I could find my own niche and become a success. #2 I met my mother in 1959 in Fresno, California. She was wearing her Dobbs hat and tan suede suit. I was scared of how people would react to me, but she assured me that they were just ugly and made me stop and think. #3 My mother was afraid of white people, and she made it known. She had a dark-blue German Luger hidden under her wallet, and she was ready for the Desert Hotel if they didn't integrate. #4 I met a writer, John Killens, who invited me to New York. I wanted to write, and he invited me to New York. I planned for him to stay with the man I was leaving. Mother had left me and my brother for 10 years to be raised by our paternal grandmother.