GRIND (The Silver Nitrate Series Book 1)
Written by Tiana Laveen
Edited by Natalie G. Owens
Cover: Travis Pennington
Model: Mateo Manny
Photographer: Eli ‘Nonchalant’ Joseph
Artwork and Sketches: Tiana Laveen
Copyright © 2015 by Tiana Laveen
Kindle Edition
All rights reserved.
Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
IN OTHER WORDS: If you do any of the above, the karma bus is waiting for you. If you steal this author’s work and illegally loan and/or share it, request illegal/free copies online and/or in printed version, you are no better than a burglar that breaks into someone’s house while you think they are away. You are a criminal. A thief. A cheat. You don’t work for free, so why should authors?! WE WORK HARD. SHOW SOME APPRECIATION.
Drum Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed under CC BY 3.0
IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ.
PLEASE NOTE: This is the FIRST BOOK of a two-part series (The Silver Nitrate series):
1. Grind
2. Grit
The book had to be divided due to a high page count.
However, the SECOND BOOK, ‘Grit’, is being simultaneously released with ‘Grind’.
Therefore, there is
no wait time
for the reader and no lingering cliffhanger. Thank you.
Skilled welder by day and drummer by night, Zenith Taylor has inherited a healthy self-confidence and an enviable work ethic from his Iroquois grandparents. Yet, past suffering stops him from forming emotional ties and seeking meaningful connections.
Such as love for a woman…
Enter Silver Faye, a top notch professional with a zesty personality. Recent grief has left her feeling emotional and guilty to the point where she’s built a wall around her heart. One evening though, Fate brings her face to face with Zenith…
Silver and Zenith share a love for repairing the seemingly unfixable. The attraction is undeniable, and as they begin to forge a friendship, deeper feelings set in. The past is hard to overcome… but eventually, long-held beliefs, pain and trauma are exposed, explored, and released, creating a healing that only they can provide for one another.
GRIND (Book 1 of The Silver Nitrate Series) is a tale of true love, of two souls lost finding their path, of getting out of one’s way and becoming bigger and better than one could ever imagine.
GRIND is a gritty urban love story where bad boy meets bad girl—and they become something good, TOGETHER.
This is a warning to all loyal readers, potential readers, and new readers alike regarding the content of ‘Grind’ and ‘Grit’, parts 1 and 2 respectively of ‘The Silver Nitrate’ series. Some believe a warning to readers in a novel to be unnecessary, but I’ve found that to be the farthest thing from the truth. I encourage everyone to read author warnings in books. They are there for a reason. We want you to appreciate our work, and reading should be an enjoyable process. Therefore, if there is a particular subject matter you are not particularly fond of exploring right now, that is your right. Thus, it is my obligation to tell you what you can expect in this book so that there are no surprises, disappointments, etc.
This series delves into the following subject matters that the reader may find offensive or objectionable:
1. Death of a loved one
2. Depression/Mental illness
3. Elder abuse/violence
4. Dementia/Alzheimer’s
5. Gratuitous Profanity… let me repeat that. GRATUITOUS profanity.
6. Smoking – tobacco and marijuana
7. Detailed, explicit sexual encounters
8. Occasional racial slurs
9. Disease/Physical ailments
10. Intermittent violence
Thank you for taking the time to read this list and understand it. I greatly appreciate it! Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, shall we continue? I certainly hope so. :)
This book is dedicated to my grandfather, Ray Paul, who passed away in March, 2000. He was the editor of the Cincinnati Herald, as well as a revered Civil Rights Activist in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. My family and I (my mother, deceased grandmother – Apple Smith (RIP), aunts, cousins, etc.) watched him go from a college education to a successful life he carved out for himself, despite a childhood of poverty and an existence filled with racism. He rose out of ‘nothing’ and turned it into ‘something.’ In his later years, he suffered at the hands of the cruel illness of dementia and Alzheimer’s. He’d been quite active up until that point, but then there were days when he didn’t recognize me and many others. Regardless, that’s not the memory I choose to keep close to my heart when I think of my grandfather.
Instead, I hold steadfast to memories of his humor, his at times rough around the edges delivery of truth, and the motorcycle rides he’d take me on up and down the streets of North Avondale. I remember the Oreo cookies, the smell of his pipe, him purchasing me a violin to help foster my creativity, and giggling into my hands as a little child when he began to lose his hearing. He’d yell loud and I remember the funny way he’d mishear things, causing comedic relief unintentionally. Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying, but one thing was for certain, he touched many hearts and had the type of inner strength that countless people admired. I pray he is at peace, and that he’s proud of me. I know he has watched over me, for I’ve smelled his cherry cigars and pipes on more than one occasion during trying times in my life. I love and miss you, Grandpa.
And I’ll never forget you.
Love,
Your granddaughter