So I am running a Rude Ass T-Shirt giveaway.
Let me tell you the story about the shirt that can be blamed for Rude Boy USA catching fire in the last month. Yep it’s this one that I am wearing.
Back in January 2016 on my personal page on Facebook, I received troll comments about my book. The poster used an obvious fake profile to do so. They claimed that they were from France but I would think that the French are more clever than that.
I at one point had my comments section open for anyone to comment because I am personable you know. Well this person did not like that I did this book, Rude Boy USA. His or her (for the sake of returning the shade I will now refer to them as “it” or “troll”) reasons were not exact except to say that “It” did not like who I used as inspiration for the book.
I have never been quiet about the inspiration behind the characters. For example, I modeled John LeBlanc’s character (in looks and mannerisms) after New York Knicks legend John Starks. Ben Berardi’s character was modeled (in looks) after Milo Ventimiglia. James Franco could also play him. Jerome Dexter was modeled (in looks) after Michael B. Jordan. Bernie Banks (in theory) could be modeled after Donald Sutherland. Celia “Bunny” Jones, well that is up for interpretation. She has a lot of my personality and sometimes poor decision making in her but as far as looks are concerned, I haven’t picked anyone yet. She is my favorite character so I am a bit picky about who represents her. Overall, I think that this is a good looking group of people.
I modeled the entire group after SKA legends The Specials. I like that they were a group that was multi-cultural so naturally the characters in the story ran along the same lines. The well-known Mob families back then were all Italian and Irish. I wanted to take that concept and twist it.
They are gangsters because the theming of a lot of SKA/Rocksteady in the 50-60-70’s (Jamaica and UK) were fashioned after the theme of the Rude Boy (hence the title.) Their dress influenced by famous jazz musicians and of course their unruly behavior influenced by the famous mafia groups in the U.S. Their musical tastes are a fusion of Jamaican, Jazz and Punk.
Anyway, said troll did not like how I fashioned my characters. “It” said that the book was a “trap book”, “ruse” to get someone. Now, I hadn’t thought about that before, however it gives me ideas.
Did I pick certain people because I had crushes on them? Yeah. It makes it easy to character build that way. I admit that. I only want what’s going to mesh right with my story.
“It” wrote some very juvenile insults full of curse words. If you have read any of my stories, you know I do not shy away from profanity. I do not curse in normal everyday conversation so I have to let all of that out someplace.
Most people would not entertain a troll but like many writers, I pull inspiration from experiences. Therefore I engaged in interesting conversation with this troll to see what I could get out of them. They obliged. This was a big opportunity for me capitalize on the attempt to shed a negative light on my work. Since the title of the series begins with the word “Rude” I figured that this will fit right in. I was working on BunnyWine at the time and the rant that “It” provided helped me when I was writing conflict between two people in the story. Honestly, “It” could not have appeared at a better time. I held on to it until it was time for me to promote the release of BunnyWine.
Because I do have petty bones in my body, I decided that it would be hilarious to put those angry non-curse words on a t-shirt and give it away, so that is what I am doing. It was designed to upset the troll but to make a point. The point is that no matter what people have to say about what you are doing, don’t take it to heart. Find a way to make it work for you.
If you would like a chance to win, Click on the link at the top of the page to enter. I will give away a size medium Hanes no-tag shirt along with a copy of both Rude Boy USA and BunnyWine to the winner. There will be only one winner. I may do this again later.
Victoria Bolton 