American Addict

My name is Brett. I'm a college-educated man who was once a husband of 26 years with two children, three businesses, and a large home with an actual white picket fence. I'm also a drug addict. And I have a tale to tell. It's about the despair of addiction and the absolute certainty that it can be overcome. Recovery is not simply abstinence, but a process of growing up. I spent my entire life searching for the key to long-term sobriety. I would like to share with you what I have learned.

The most incredible true story ever told. Stephen, aged 14, addicted to amphetamine, became the apprentice to Gentleman George, the legendary jewel thief. A massive crime at the age of 20 financed 10 years of millionaire-drugged lunacy. Swallowing 100 tablets a day, he lost everything, ending up on the streets and sleeping in shop doorways for five years. A German student student rescued him. They married and had children. It looked like a fairy-tale end for Stephen - when his life exploded big-time! Devastated, he returned to London to execute the biggest robbery of all time.

When Kelsey Owens returns home to Dallas, she is a changed woman. After months of training with Marcus Vorenus, she has more control over her abilities. She’s ready to start her new job, even if it means dealing with the King of All Vampires and his partner, Devinshea Quinn. Her first assignment, however, will force her to face her past. Grayson Sloane is in trouble and she has to find him.

When forced to make an impossible choice, would you sacrifice your pride or your morals? I’m Amorette Monet Black, and I was abducted. Funny thing, I have a choice. One that most women don’t get. I could stay here and be forced to share my body... Or, I could let four questionable men take me away. Only there’s a price. It doesn't matter how much time I don't have, the choice is slipping through my fingers.

Sam Louie grew up torn between cultures as part of a first-generation Chinese immigrant family from Hong Kong living in a predominantly African American neighborhood in the United States. He experienced the duality of existence with the tension of two vastly different worldviews, his identity intertwined with the country he lives in and his ancestral ties. What traditions and cultural beliefs get preserved, what gets discarded, and what gets lost in translation? Beneath it all was the presence of three generations of addiction, trauma, and shame.

Atlanta's mayor, The Honorable Josiah J. Bishop, has an addiction to his wife, Mink, that is just as powerful as her toxic love affair with heroin. As her life spirals out of control due to her obsession with the needle, his love and devotion to her is slowly shredding his soul into tiny pieces. But he just can't let her go. The brotha's loyalty to the love of his life and the mother of his two young, adorable daughters is deeper than any ocean.