A precocious youth grows up in a family prone to extreme violence. His parents are drug and alcohol addicts who find relief from poverty by torturing him. Despite this, school became his safe place, and he found himself receiving almost straight As throughout his primary and secondary education. As a teenager he was placed in foster homes, but at age seventeen, figured out how to "work the system" and became an emancipated minor - thanks to clever ingenuity while living in a Christian prison half-way house run by his uncle. Married at 19, he attended community college. Divorced at 23, he soared academically at UCLA. This led to a fellowship at Columbia University: the abused child had made good, and had a new wife in tow. After the birth of his first son, his wife left with the baby, and he found himself quickly caught up in the entertainment industry. Today he has songs on network television, has spoken to hundreds of audiences. He was at one point a tenured professor of philosophy. Aching for family ties, his abusive father contacted him. Reconciliation with his father constitutes the heart of this redemption story.

Paperback - 446 pages - 2011