5 Books Published by Old Gold Soul on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Justin Kena never knew his own strength. He was an average guy stuck working at a mediocre nonprofit in Washington, DC, unsure exactly where his next professional steps would take him. He was awkward, bored, lonely, and bordering on depression. With nothing to lose, he accepts a proposition from his friendly neighborhood corner boy that forever transforms his life. A guru and a hustler all at once, Dante earns Justin’s trust and ushers him into a new and terrifying world just under the surface of the one he’s always known. In this world, men and women are nothing more than food for daywalking vampires and housing for sinister demons. This lifestyle consumes Justin until he’s not even sure he could turn back—or if he even wants to.Over the span of centuries and thousands of miles, from slave coffles in West Africa to the antebellum South; from the black sand beaches of Dominica to the back alleys of the nation’s capital, Justin and Dante will live by the precepts of justice and redemption while satisfying their most carnal urges:A lust for blood…and a thirst for life.This is the Birth of a Dark Nation.

ISAIAH is head over heels in love with his boyfriend and isn’t afraid to let the world know it. His unwavering love threatens his future as a professional basketball player. Though he is being forced to choose between the love of his life and his career, it appears that he could be making a decision which could irrevocably affect his future. Meanwhile, ADRIAN has unfinished fraternity business. As a Big Brother for the first time, he has an obligation to uphold the chapter’s sacred traditions, yet feels a responsibility to end the cycle of violence. Friendships will dissolve. Rivals will return. Secrets buried in LAZARUS and maintained in COVENANT will finally explode in EPIPHANY.

Who will be the first to break? ADRIAN is on a mission to heal himself from his emotional wounds. Though he is fresh off the “burning sands” of Beta Chi Phi, he suddenly finds himself alone. He sets himself to the task of reconciling with his parents while forging his own path as a newly “out” man on campus – no easy feat when some fraternity brothers still harbor animosity toward him. ISAIAH is struggling to redefine himself. He is a student, basketball player, and boyfriend to a beautiful young lady. But who does he want to be? Isaiah’s friendship with Adrian awakens new feelings within him – feelings that are both exciting and terrifying. Over the course of one summer these two men are united as friends - and more. What happens between them is kept secret, even from their closest friends. As they cross each other’s paths on the close-knit campus, they both long to finish what they started during that long, humid summer. Still, they made a promise…

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SAVION CORTEZ is the debut volume of poetry presented by Rashid Darden on the topics of love and loss.

ADRIAN is handsome, brilliant, and devoted to serving others. Under the cool exterior, however, he is tormented and unfulfilled. Abandoned by his father and emotionally distant from his mother, he feels alone – adrift on campus - until he meets SAVION. With rhymes dripping from his lips like honey, Savion has just what Adrian needs: stability, maturity, and love. Although their friendship is filled with peaks and valleys, their relationship is threatened by Adrian’s biggest challenge: BETA CHI PHI. Finding the appeal of pledging his father’s fraternity irresistible, Adrian decides to take the plunge and pledge Beta Chi Phi in an attempt to fill the void in his heart, even after his relationship with Savion blossoms. Almost immediately, Adrian is thrust headlong into a world of mind games, controlled behavior, and strokes from the paddle—tempered with the brotherhood that bonds men in times of adversity. Adrian knows that he must keep his relationship with Savion a secret at all costs, for if his new-found family were to learn the truth, he may have to choose… The one he loves…or his brothers.