Press Release
🔗 http://newsblaze.com/story/2011071508070200001.pr/topstory.html
Story Behind The Book
When I was nine years old I picked up a lead pipe and prepared to hit my fourteen-year-old half brother in case he did something to my mother. That brother died two hours after my twenty-ninth birthday when he was only thirty-four. Throughout the years, I often thought about how he shaped who I eventually became as a person. I was always the good kid, straight A's, never getting into trouble and very bent on being a productive part of society — the opposite of the older brother I had when most young boys want to try and emulate that older sibling. But later in life I began to think about what life must have been like for him. I had always thought he was offered the same opportunities I had been given from our parents but he still had a very difficult life that I never could fully comprehend as a child. I decided to try and get inside of my brother's skin to write this memoir of his life. My brother’s life was a novelette — too long to be considered a short story and too short to be a novel.
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Reviews
<span style="font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><div style="line-height:normal;">"A nitty-gritty, cathartic, page-turner that is a must read. Caution: It's a rough read. Rough in that it doesn't hold anything back. But ultimately, throughout this roller-coaster ride of a memoir told in the most non-traditional voice - I honestly believe - love wins in the end."</div><div style="line-height:normal;">-Arthur Wooten</div><div style="line-height:normal;">author of</div><div style="line-height:normal;"><em>Birthday Pie </em></div><div style="line-height:normal;"><br /></div><div style="line-height:normal;">"As a therapist, I would recommend this book to my clients who are struggling with addiction or who have an addicted family member as well as any person who wants to think deeply about the value of all human beings. This story shows the power of human empathy...it illustrates the depth of compassion and profound kindness... looks beyond Right v. Wrong, Good v. Bad and sees into the human heart, searching for peace and love regardless of judgment, merit, or personal cost."</div><div style="line-height:normal;">-P. Milam, MA, LPC</div><div style="line-height:normal;"><br /></div><div style="line-height:normal;">"Gregory G. Allen has taken on two challenges for an author - writing in another's voice and writing about a life emotionally inter-connected with his own. He succeeds admirably on both counts. The most gripping aspect is hearing the story from the lips of the very one whose life was so bruised by circumstance and who hurt so many others in his struggle to define himself. It is deeply moving to listen to his personal history and his own death-bed reflections on the trajectory that led him to this early demise. <em>Proud Pants</em> is raw, tragic, and ultimately redemptive."</div><div style="line-height:normal;">-David G. Hallman </div><div style="line-height:normal;">author of </div><div style="line-height:normal;"><em>August Farewell</em></div><div style="line-height:normal;"><br /></div><div><div><span>“<em>Proud Pants</em> is a short read yet is powerful in its brevity. Mr. Allen's talent - to draw the reader into the story using the language of the common folk, laced with crystal clear insight. There are many books written in this style (the addicted and emotionally broken looking back at a lifetime of mistakes), but none can match the convincing writing in <em>Proud Pants</em>.”</span></div><div><span>Joanne Huspek</span></div><div><span>Blogcritics</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>“This book is a terrific read. Were I to sum it up in three words I'd say: How. It's. Done. It's funny and not, tragic and not. Scary, brutally honest, deeply human, and, ultimately, moving as hell. Get a Kindle or download the PC version, but get a copy of <em>Proud Pants</em> and a quiet room to read it in.”</span></div><div><span>Scott Morgan</span></div><div><span>author of</span></div><div><span><em>Character Development from the Inside Out</em></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>“This novelette is very interesting and had me captivated from the very first page as Johnny explains his thoughts from his death bed – a very well written, deep, poignant memoir that I highly recommend to readers of all ages.”</span></div><div><span>Book Vacations</span></div></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span></span><div>"The tale is told in an interesting fashion, moving around from the present to the past and then back again. All young people should read this memoir as it clearly shows that the life you create is based on the decisions you make."</div><div>Linda Purcell</div><div>Treasure or Trash </div><br /></div>