📚 A Bookish Chat with 'Mendel' Author Damone Bester | Author Interview | @damonebester #AuthorInterview #BlogTour #Interview
Damone Bester was born and raised on Chicago’s Southside to blue-collar parents who were married 49 years, and one older brother, whose backyard scuffles taught Damone one lesson: “Never quit.” He wasn’t just a student at Mendel; he lived and breathed “Blue Smoke,” the mantra of his track team brethren. A brief conversation with another Mendel alum stoked the fire to pen his first novel about the school he so loved.
Damone is an author, poet, aspiring screenwriter, and voiceover artist. He has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Illinois State University and has spent most of his profession in the Social Services sector. He currently lives in the Twin Cities area and enjoys fishing, bowling, basketball (watching, not playing), bean bags, and bragging about his nephew and nieces.
You can visit his website at www.DamoneBester.com or connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
TWL: Welcome to The Writer's Life! How did you come up with the idea to write your book?
Damone: Thanks for having me. I love track and field. And, I love movies. One of my best friends from high school and I were reminiscing over our “glory days” running track. We discussed how there were so many movies and books about baseball, football, basketball, even hockey, but there weren’t any that we could think of about track. One of the most popular sports on the highest stage of the Olympics was track and field and we couldn’t readily name one movie or book about it. The closest we could think of was the awesome film, Cool Runnings that had a sliver of track scenes. So, from that conversation, the idea of Mendel came about in the year of 2009.
TWL: Can you give us a short excerpt?
Damone: Love is sacrificial and often comes at great cost. My parents taught me that through their own sacrifices. It took me a while to learn it, but once I did, it was a lesson I have never forgotten. One doesn’t simply live in my hood; you survive. Yet not everyone can survive growing up the Chicago way. It takes a certain kind of toughness, tenacity, grit. Some people fold, others break; few survive. Survival looks different to many people. For a young Black male living on the South Side of Chicago, survival isn’t guaranteed. That’s why my story’s atypical, and maybe by sharing my story I can help other kids my age too. My life in Chicago was—I loved Chicago. I still do. The neighborhoods, the parties, the music, my family, friends, enemies, even the gangs, all had a part in raising me. Everything about Chicago—especially my old high school, Mendel—shaped me into the person I am today.
TWL: What part of the book was the most fun to write?
Damone: The most fun yet most challenging parts of the book to write were the action sequences during the track meets. It was exciting to come up with different ways to describe teenaged boys running around an oval. I had to dig deep into that creative well to build excitement and drag out suspense, all the while making sure that the reader who is not the track aficionado could keep pace through all the track terminology. It was a blast.
TWL: What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?
Damone: That Mendel was a real high school. I ran track there. Mendel was founded in 1951 and closed its doors in 1988. Mendel is not a memoir. It is a fictional story with a real setting. In fact, I recently attended Mendel’s first “All Class Reunion” a few weeks ago on April 8th – April 9th, 2022. There were 375 of us in attendance! Consider that with me for a moment. Mendel Catholic College Prep has been closed Thirty-Four years and Three Hundred and Seventy-Five of us came back to the South Side of Chicago to feel that brotherhood once again. I hope that qualifies as surprising.
TWL: What other books are you working on and when will they be published?
Damone: I am currently under contract to write a sequel to Mendel. I can’t say for certain when it will be published but I’ve turned in the first 7 chapters which my publisher, The Story Plant, has already approved.
TWL: Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?
Damone: The overarching message is that love is sacrificial. This book deals with topics of forgiveness, redemption, manhood, family & teamwork. None of these come easily. We must work hard for them. To keep with the sports theme, some would say you have to have “some skin in the game.” If we are to be a society that loves one another, willing sacrifices are the only currency. We have to be willing to lose something, to put ourselves out there in order to love one another, forgive one another, live with one another.
TWL: Do you have any final words?
Damone: Sure…love is sacrificial and often comes at great cost. What are you willing to pay?
Title: MENDEL
Author: Damone Bester
Publisher: The Story Plant
Genre: Urban Fiction
BOOK BLURB:
Imagine the mid 1980’s, last day of school, summer break. A teen rushes to meet his mother, who is being released from the hospital after cancer surgery. When the teen arrives, he finds out his mother is dead, but his ex-gangbanging dad, who has been in jail the last seven years, is at the hospital ready to take the teen home.
Mendel, is a coming-of-age story about a senior at Chicago’s legendary Mendel High who must learn how to forgive as he navigates life without his mother. Things come to a head when the teen accidentally finds his mom’s diary. In the journal, he discovers his mother’s dreams of becoming a collegiate track star were derailed due to getting pregnant with him. To honor his mother, he joins Mendel’s track team and excels, but before he can cash in on any scholarship offers, his father’s thuggish past catches up with them when a gun toting nemesis comes seeking revenge. The teen must decide between saving his own life or sacrificing it all to save his estranged father.
Book Information
Release Date: April 26, 2022
Publisher: The Story Plant
Soft Cover: ISBN: 978-1611883268; 288 pages; $16.95; E-Book, $7.99
Amazon: https://amzn.to/37qfkCC
Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/3NYZ0cS
Indigo: https://bit.ly/37qF69y
Indiebound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781611883268
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Mendel-Damone-Bester/9781611883268
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