My Friend, My Hero (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781546480563)

Jerald L. Hoover is multi-talented, and his creativity in the literary and entertainment worlds have garnered abundant success and multiple accolades. In 1993, he was awarded Best New Male Writer of the Year by the Literary Society in Virginia for his novella My Friend, My Hero. For this book, Jerald was also listed as a bestselling author among black writers, from 1994 - 1996, in various African-American publications. In 1995, he was awarded with the WritersCorp Award by president Bill Clinton. In 1998, Jerald was inducted into the Mount Vernon Boy's and Girl's Club Hall of Fame. This is the same club in which Denzel Washington grew up and gives back to in. In 2003, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion awarded Jerald with the Citation of Merit award for his work with the youth of Bronx elementary and middle schools. In 2007, Basketball Hall of Fame and New York Post writer Peter Vecsey featured Jerald in a Sunday story, recognizing him for his first documentary, Four Square Miles to Glory. And in 2011, Jerald was nominated honorable mention for the Best Sportswriter of Year Award, by Black Press Radio. Also in 2011, Jerald's My Friend, My Hero screenplay was a semi-finalist in the Gotham Screenplay Contest. Jerald is a sportswriter who has covered the New York Knicks and the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets for the Black Athlete Sports Network, The Network Journal, Sportstyle New York, Pure Sports New York, and BustaSports.com. Hoover teaches at Long Island University as an adjunct Sports Communication professor. He directed documentaries on Kool Moe Dee and Felipe Lopez for the Life in the Day series. Jerald has directed plays for his church's annual convocation for the past eight years. He is also an in-demand motivational speaker who overcame a speech impediment he suffered during childhood. My Friend, My Hero is the first of a four-part series. It took nine years to get published after forty rejections and sixty drafts. The first nine drafts were written by hand because he couldn't afford a typewriter or computer.