title: Black: A Love Story
author: Clarence Birdsong III
description: Born in Memphis,TN I was adopted at an early age. Growing up without truly knowing my mother and father shaped my character. From the beginning, because my complexion was darker than most internally I felt like an outsider. I went through puberty early so my face was covered with pimples,combine that with the fact we were poorer than the other kids the kids would tease me. To escape the pain and the loneliness I turned to sports and writing. Although, I was very good at sports nothing compared to the freedom and the escapability I felt when I was writing. I wrote my first poem at seven and my first full story at nine. As I got older I wrote less, I only wrote if it involved getting a girl. Despite being very good I still hadnt truly realized that writing was a true gift. Normally we think of gifts as singing or being musically gifted,telling jokes acting, or playing sports. I began to run the streets with the wrong crowd even found myself a teenage father and homeless as 17 and 18 year old once a gain writing became my escape seeing my friends go to jail and die around me, even experiencing getting stabbed several times myself and shot. The military was my only way out of the hood. This change in life allowed me to lose focus on writing because my life was better. It wasnt until I lost everything that I found my escape again. From 2015 to 2016 I had lost everything no home car totaled due to a wreck. This wreck severely hurt my back. I was out of work for several months, because I had limited range of motion. After getting my truck out of the shop I would park in the hospital parking lot and go to sleep, wake up go to the truck stop use my CDL license to shower and go out and search for work. When I made enough money I would stay in weekly stay hotels. When I didnt I stayed in my truck or vacant apartments, because I worked as a maintenance supervisor in apartment complexes. It was during these times during what I call Gods process that I rediscovered my love for writing and I found my purpose. I vowed and made the decision in that moment that I would never be in that situation again, and leaving a legacy for my kids became my main priority. Thus Birdsong Home Services (Heating and Air) was born and so was my writing career.
zlib_text: ESCAPE
   
  Blackstone Series, Book 2
   
  J.L. Drake
   
  
   
  ESCAPE
   
  Copyright © 2016 by J.L. Drake.
  All rights reserved.
  First Print Edition: June 2016
   
   
  Limitless Publishing, LLC
  Kailua, HI 96734
  www.limitlesspublishing.com
   
  Formatting: Limitless Publishing
   
  ISBN-13: 978-1-68058-690-9
  ISBN-10: 1-68058-690-4
   
  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any
  printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or
  encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
   
  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are
  the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
  resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—
  living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
  
   
  DEDICATION
   
  To my stepfather, Gordon. You are a kind, loving, giving man who came
  into our family with an open heart, and we love 