THE UP-SIDE OF *DOWN* IS AUTHOR EXPERIENCE!

BeWrite Books today (May 25) releases Mark Adam Kaplan’s new novel, DOWN. And the book shows just how much an author’s personal experience really can count … even in fiction.

For decades Kaplan has been working with at-risk youngsters and those whose tough childhoods scarred them and blighted their future. In the 1980s, he taught creative writing in a maximum security prison in Michigan, he was a public high school teacher in New York City for four years (including a stint as dean in a Brooklyn high school), and nine years later he taught in an East Los Angeles middle school.

He’s been around the block a time or two.

As an at-risk kid himself in his childhood and youth, Kaplan understands the challenges facing inner-city young adults today, both from their point of view and that of those appointed to care for them. He brings this unique blend of life-from-both-sides experience to bear in his second novel, DOWN.

Here’s what it’s all about …

***

Leon Mendoza starts the school year badly … with an electronic ankle monitor and a court date.

He’s determined to stay out of even deeper trouble. But the chances are slim with the pending charges against him, his probation officer breathing down his neck, a father in jail, a mother sunk in deep depression, and the local homeboys pressuring him to quietly take the rap and save their skins.

Will the attention of an attractive girl, the support of a caring teacher and a part-time restaurant job be enough to save Leon, or is he destined to follow in his father’s dead-beat footsteps and spend his life in and out of prison?

It all hangs on one fateful night; a night when Leon must risk his own life and the lives of others to break free of the streets or succumb to the violence and passions poised to drag him DOWN.

***

Author Mark Adam Kaplan

Kaplan is a husband and father, an internationally produced screenwriter, and a children’s book author.

He earned his Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan, a Master of Fine Arts from The American Film Institute’s Center for Film and Television Studies, and a Master of Arts in School Administration from California State University, Northridge.

His first novel, A THOUSAND BEAUTIES, was published by Bewrite Books in 2009. Kaplan released his first children’s book, MONSTERS DO UGLY THINGS, in 2011, and is the co-founder with Glenn Scano of MONSTERS UNBOUND. You can find more information about his work with a visit to HIS WEBSITE.

DOWN is now available in all digital formats from all online ebook stores for reading on all electronic platforms from PCs and laptops, through the full range of ebook-dedicated devices, tablets and smart phones. It’s also available from the BeWrite Books BOOKSTORE.

There’s a free forty-page DOWN browsing brochure, including chapter one, HERE.

For those interested in the detail – Author: Mark Adam Kaplan. Editor: Hugh McCracken. Cover, text design and technical preparation: Tony Szmuk. Distribuition: BeWrite Books Digital Distribution Division. Additional input: The BeWrite Books in-house team.

Best wishes for good reading and a happy weekend. Neil, Tony, Hugh, Sam et al at BB