Boog DeNiro
I’m known by friends and introduce myself to people I encounter as boog, a name given to me when I was about 12. I am more of the Bronx than the than I am from the Bronx. The BX is in my DNA. Growing up I never liked school, so I never did rise in the academic ranks, and most of the knowledge acquired in my 33years was hard earned.
I started writing to escape reality, release repressed thoughts, to penetrate my imagination. After a while I started getting creative with it, dancing along that line that separates sanity and insanity. And the challenges of balancing it all out are what fun became to me for a while.
But RESPECT THE STRUGGLE, just one of many of my works of fiction, was written in a reflection of, and an ode to, my generation. One morning the winter of 2004 I woke up wondering where my youth had gone. “Back In The Days” just so happened to be on the radio, and for a split second I wished I were a kid again. RESPECT THE STRUGGLE reflects how kids in the struggle, in the 80s and 90s, came up, what was going on in the ‘hood, the hallways, and the homes of New York ghettos. What love, life, and living in the struggle was. The things that really go on in the confines of those governmental experiments called projects and the neighboring streets. And I use characters the readers can relate to. I’ve had cats tell me I wrote their life story.
In that particular excerpt that I chose, it’s a scene in the home of a young girl, where she’s suppose to be safe, a scene in which a mother literally hands her daughter’s well fare over to a young thug barely caring for himself in return for his financial assistance. Not only a heavy burden for the li’l homie, but for li’l mama too. They’re both under pressure to produce. Basically, a recipe for disaster.
I believe I was qualified to write this story because I’m from the struggle, so I know the nuances of that world. I’ve been in love at a tender age, in the streets since a youngster, heavy in nearly every aspect of the game. I’ve experienced the successes just as I’ve reaped the repercussions that come with that way of life. I’ve dated gorgeous women of many races, and I’ve had my heart broken. In no way do I promote that decadent lifestyle, however as a writer you’re taught to write what you know. Therefore, when writing, I become a reporter, and the streets seem to be rhapsodized. Overall, my hope is that the readers view success and failure with the same intensity, and never sever the ties of the kinship.
Of all the books I’ve written, I’ve only submitted one to a publishing house, RESPECT THE STRUGGLE, and that was Triple Crown some years ago. I got a call back saying my script was one of two of 20 to be considered for publishing, that only one would be published. To this day I don’t know who I was up against, but I’m glad I got rejected, because I went back in the lab and wrote Street Generals, which will most definitely be one of the hardest joints to ever hit shelves. To clarify that time of rejection a little better…
See, a general, if he’s to be successful, must experience rejection, he must have those alone moments where he ponders, plans, strategizes and contemplates, deprives himself of warm, tender emotions. He has to develop a cold, concrete inner sanctuary of selfish peace. That’s where I write. And when I leave that space I feel like not only did I produce my best, but I leave that selfish, alone state with a more energized passion.
As far as what I’m reading or read. I like Zane, read a lot of her stuff. I read all of Donald Goines’ novels. Sidney Sheldon, I enjoy his work. I’m really into Eric Jerome Dicky right now. Read a lot of his stuff and I think he’s an exceptional author.
I’m currently working on “TRUE STORY, soul of a hustler” and you can read excerpts from true story, as well as well as respect the struggle and street generals at https://www.facebook.com/S.G.PUBLISHING . My latest release is can't stop won't stop the latest novel in the STREET GENERALS series and shortly after the sequel to Respect the Struggle will follow.
