Kevon Gulley’s ‘Just Like Compton’

FROM INMATE TO AUTHOR…

Compton’s Kevon Gulley Hosts First Book Signing for His New Novel ‘Just Like Compton’

Foster Child, Juvenile Delinquent, Prison Inmate, and Now Author, at 34, Compton native Kevon Gulley is Trying to Reclaim his Life and Write his Way out of Becoming a Three-Striker

Compton native and recent parolee Kevin Gulley will host his first booking signing for his new novel Just Like Compton on Saturday, December 18 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Smiley’s Bookstore (20220 South Avalon Blvd. Carson).

Kevon, 34, was recently released from Kern Valley State Prison after serving 80% of an 8-year sentence for fraud and receiving stolen property. While incarcerated and with the assistance of his fellow block mates who traded their writing paper in return for magazines and the opportunity to read Kevon’s novel chapter by chapter, Just Like Compton was completed in 93 days.

Having spent the majority of his in life in and out of one system or another, Kevon, a former foster child whose heroin addicted mother left him alone for almost three months in Watts’ Imperial Courts Projects until his grandmother rescued him and moved him to Compton with her, became a ward of the State of California after his grandmother’s death and was placed in numerous group homes and foster homes until he was finally emancipated.

A former Centennial High School student, Kevon was sentenced to ten years as a juvenile in California’s Youth Authority for carjacking and kidnapping. 2003 found him facing 150 years for fraud and receiving stolen property that was eventually plead down to 8 years because all of his crimes to date had been as a juvenile.

After obtaining a Liberal Arts Associates Degree in prison, Kevon decided to start planning for his life on the “outside” to ensure that when he was released this time, he wouldn’t be coming back.

About The Book

Just Like Compton is the first installment in Kevon’s new gritty urban series about life on the streets of Los Angeles.

A fictional novel where the names have been changed to protect the guilty, Just Like Compton has the grit of Monster Cody’s Monster, the intrigue and mystery of a James Patterson novel, complete with the kind of sex scenes that rival acclaimed author Zane.

Just Like Compton gives readers a strikingly real portrayal of gang life in Los Angeles. Nothing is off limits or too graphic when it comes to telling it like it is for this first time author who admits that for his first novel he drew a lot from his personal life.

For those who have ever wondered about what goes on in the head in those who bang or what it’s like to do time in a California prison as a Black man today where Blacks are outnumbered 2 to 1 by Latinos in an increasingly hostile and race fueled environment, Just Like Compton does an incredible job of breaking down the inexplicable violence, revenge, betrayal, racism, drugs, love and loyalty to a color, neighborhood block, and gang family that many have a hard time understanding. Just Like Compton is the perfect blend of real life—straight up with no chaser complete with baby mama drama, a chick on the side drama, hood drama, and the drama behind the walls.

Self-published, self-edited, and self-promoted, Kevon hopes that sales of his book and a full-time job will help keep him and his family afloat and afford him the opportunity to start writing the second novel in his street lit series where he wants to create more characters that feel like real people, going through real life situations, right here in Los Angeles.

Just Like Compton, $21.99, is currently available online at Amazon.com, local bookstores, including Eso Won in Leimert Park, Smiley’s in Carson, Zahra’s Books N Things in Inglewood, Shades of Afrika in Long Beach and keeping it real Kevon says, at the Slauson Swapmeet in Amina’s. The book can also be ordered directly through his website at www.justlikecompton.com.

For more information on Kevon Gulley and his novel Just Like Compton, please log onto www.justlikecompton.com.

Book Signing

Saturday, December 18, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Smiley’s Bookstore, 20220 South Avalon Boulevard Carson, CA

For more information and to buy the book, please log onto www.justlikecompton.com.