Promo text for Kirkus Review of Books
This is promotional text I wrote for Kirkus Review. The job was to “read” the book (skim, get a general idea for) then produce copy as dictated below.
PROMOTIONAL TEXT
Title: Young Junius
Author: Seth Harwood
Sentence Description (200 characters including spaces)
The drug-dealing streets of Cambridge, Mass, are home to Junius Posey, a young man determined to find out who killed his brother and deliver justice the way only a kid from the street can.
Product Description (2,000 characters including spaces)
Junius Posey runs on the streets of Cambridge, Mass, in the shadow of low-rent towers that house the center of power for the crack-dealing gangs that call the shots. After seeing his brother's dead corpse in a casket and no one receiving the blame, he sets out to do the job on his own. When his best friend is faced with serious action, Junius is caught at the firing end of a pistol that kills a dangerously connected gangster, leaving him unguarded and open to retribution, a mark on his head. His mother begs him to run but the young Junius is growing up quickly - he knows he must avenge his brother. Junius surges into the middle of warring gangs, hard cops, and ultimately into the one place you don't want to go: the towers. No one gets out alive.
Much like the critically-acclaimed "The Wire" gave us the point of view from the streets of Baltimore, Young Junius takes a wide-angle view of the rugged streets of Cambridge, Mass-- that part of town most folks don't want to go to. Through Junius, we see a world of addiction, desperation, friendship, betrayal and, most importantly, love.
Back Cover Text (150 words)
"Forgotten civic duties" sums up the project towers of Cambridge, Mass, where crack cocaine and feuding gangs rule the streets. It's here that young Junius Posey is faced with the corpse of his slain brother, Temple, and it's here that young Junius will grow up. Quickly. He's out for revenge and not even a mother's love will stop him.
Tec. 9. Black Jesus. Gat. Roughneck. Milk. Hammer. Elf. Drugs, guns, people– everything has a different name in Young Junius, but it's only code for the anger and despair that trolls the streets around the project towers. If "The Wire" were made into a novel, this would be it.
Author Biography (1,000 characters including spaces)
From the author of "Jack Wakes Up" and "A Long Way From Disney", Seth Harwood delivers "Young Junius", a gritty and unsettling look at the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, through the eyes of a young man named Junius Posey, a boy who will very quickly be a man. Harwood, who grew up on the streets of Cambridge, brings his feet-on-the-ground view of a calloused city life. A former competitive boxer and now a creative writing professor at Stanford University, Harwood can be found from time to time on a California playground basketball court. Otherwise, his hands are on the keyboard.
Author Biography (HTML)
Advance Reader Copy Text (200 words)
It was beautiful in its own way. It was beautiful, the thing that would probably kill them.
By popular demand, Seth Harwood spotlights Junius Posey
In the tradition of the work of Don Winslow, Elmore Leonard, and Ray Banks, "Big Maria" is an extreme twist on the American dream. Three degenerates in the Southwest United States find that the only way to better their desperate situation is to set off on a desert safari in search of a gold mine that may or may not exist – they won't know until they brave wild animals, ruthless drug addicts, an underwater ghost town, an unforgiving terrain, the U.S. Army, a hot, HOT, gun range, and a pair of burros who, at times, seem to be calling the shots. This is their best option. In life.
Johnny Shaw's latest work, "Big Maria", is a rollercoaster of dark comedy and the smartly unsophisticated. His novel reads like a Coen Brothers' humorous, nightmarish film, a quality learned from his MFA from the UCLA Film School. He's the author of "Dove Season: A Jimmy Veeder Fiasco" and the editor of the online fiction quarterly named "Blood & Tacos".