Preston L. Allen grew up in Boston and Miami, where as a
latchkey older brother of four younger siblings he learned to tell stories
to entertain the others and keep them from bouncing off the walls and
hurting themselves while their parents were at work.
Jesus
Boy
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Paperback: 364 pages
Publisher: Akashic Books (April 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1936070049
ISBN-13: 978-1936070046
Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.1 x 1.3 inch
“Like Dostoyevsky, Allen colorfully evokes the gambling milieu—the
chained (mis)fortunes of the players, their vanities and grotesqueries,
their quasi-philosophical ruminations on chance. Like Burroughs, he is a
dispassionate chronicler of the addict’s daily ritual, neither glorifying
nor vilifying the matter at hand.”—The New York Times Book Review, on All or
Nothing
Into an austere community of Christian believers at the Church of Our
Blessed Redeemer Who Walked Upon the Waters come the star-crossed African
American Romeo and Juliet. In the world of Jesus Boy, Romeo is
sixteen-year-old Elwyn Parker, a devout and sincere piano prodigy who learns
too late that the saintly girl he has had a crush on all his life is
inexplicably pregnant and soon to be wed. Juliet is the beautiful widow,
Sister Morrisohn, age forty-two, who, in the pain and confused emotions of
her grieving, ends up in Elwyn’s arms.
Despite the problems posed by their age difference and the strict
prohibitions of their strong religious beliefs, Elwyn and Sister Morrisohn’s
love is true, and as it grows among the ascetics, abstainers, and holy ghost
rollers of their church, it exposes with wit, poignancy, and insight the
dark secrets and ancient crimes of the pious. In Jesus Boy, Elwyn learns
through tragedy and epiphany that the holy are no different from the rest of
us.
All or Nothing
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Paperback: 280 pages
Publisher: Akashic Books (November 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1933354410
ISBN-13: 978-1933354415
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
Preston L. Allen's witty, charming, and very likable school bus
driver--named P--is a desperate gambler. He has blown the hundred thousand
dollars he won at the casino six months ago, but his wife and family still
think he's loaded. P spins out of control on the addict's downward spiral of
dependency, paranoia, and depression, as he must find ways to keep coming up
with the money to fool his family and fund his growing addiction. The bets
get bigger and bigger, until finally, faced with the ultimate financial
crisis, he hits it really big. Yet winning, he soon learns, is just the
beginning of a deeper problem.
The one constant for P--who rises from wage-earner to millionaire and back
again in his roller-coaster-ride of a life--is that he must gamble. That his
son has died, that his wife is leaving him, that his girlfriend has been
arrested, that he has no money, that he has more money than he could ever
have dreamed--are all lesser concerns for P as he constantly seeks out new
gambling opportunities.
While other books on gambling seek either to sermonize on the addiction or
to glorify it by highlighting its few prosperous celebrities, All or
Nothing is an honest, straightforward account of what it is like to live
as a gambler--whether a high-rolling millionaire playing $1,000-ante poker
in Las Vegas or a regular guy at the local Indian casino praying for a
miracle as he feeds his meager life savings into the unforgiving slot
machine. All or Nothing is the first novel to dig beneath the veneer
to explore the gambler's unique and complex relationship with money. If
you've ever wanted to get into the heart and psyche of a compulsive gambler,
here is your chance.
Come With Me, Sheba
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Paperback: 296 pages
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (June 8, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0595321097
ISBN-13: 978-0595321094
Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
Sheba Mathis seems to have it all. A handsome fiancé and a successful business in an upscale Miami mall. But all is not as it seems. Sheba's fiancé is anything but faithful. Worse yet, he scarcely conceals his contempt for her poetry (in her notebooks and in her heart).
Along comes the lowly Sol, who dares to woo the beautiful but sad businesswoman by reciting her own poetry to her. When her fiancé finds out, he uses his influence to get Sol fired from his job as a mall security guard.
Much to everyone's surprise, Sol returns the next day as the manager of the shoe store across from Sheba's shop and begins to charm her again. And again, her fiancé gets him fired.
When Sol returns a few days later, as manager of the blue jeans store, Sheba is definitely intrigued. He is handsome, intelligent, and persistent. But the mysterious air around him makes her cautious.
What is his connection to the rich entrepreneur Michael Montel? To the street thug Lethal Coon? How does he know so much about her? How can he recite poems she has never shown him--poems she has never shown anyone?
"Come with me, Sheba," Sol invites. "Come to my world for just one night, and you shall have all your answers."
Sheba accepts. And the trouble begins.
Bounce
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Paperback: 114 pages
Publisher: iuniverse (October 6, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0595298710
ISBN-13: 978-0595298716
Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
Welcome to the bright red bouncing-ball world of Cindique Sanders-Lassiter in this slick, sleak, sexy tale from the undisputed master of literary erotica, Preston L. Allen.
Cindique is in love with Roderick Redd, the cutest phone pro at McDarc Inc., but can she save him from the clutches of their boss, Groan of Dark? In the meantime, Cindique herself is being pursued by the violent wildman with the pretty, pretty shoes, who still holds the key to her apartment and her heart.
Bounce is rejection and reversal. Bounce is making love to words. Bounce is the one who'll always be there for you. Bounce is the day he fails to show up. Bounce is the ball, which like our heart, is made of rubber so we scarcely feel it when we hit the wall over and over again.
Churchboys & Other Sinners
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Paperback: 152 pages
Publisher: Carolina Wren Press; 1st edition (August 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0932112447
ISBN-13: 978-0932112446
Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
Preston Allen's stories explore the boundary between boy and man, church and smut shack in spare, deadpan prose. This collection won the Carolina Wren Press's Sonja H.Stone contest for fiction writing.
Hoochie Mama
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Paperback: 344 pages
Publisher: Writer's Club Press (November 14, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0595207863
ISBN-13: 978-0595207862
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
All that homicide detective M Gantry needs in order to solve the most gruesome murders in Miami history is the answer to a simple question. Who is the cigarette smoker? Who is the serial killer leaving the half-smoked Camels butts at the scene of each crime?
The problem is the vicious killer might be linked to her own murky past,
and her future.
