Urban Fiction Road .

Urban Fiction fans… hello!, let’s get this show on the road. As an author of the Urban genre I primarily built this site to help others along on their  road to success. Well, perhaps help get them on the on ramp to the road anyway.

I have a passionate love for urban literature. Second, I had this site designed by my manager Bruce Dugan as a vehicle to help promote the work of myself and others who need a platform in which to introduce themselves among Urban Fiction readers. That big slider isn’t there for me alone. Remember, we are all in this struggle together.

When I first published my novel Who Am I? The Chronicles of Cain I realized that there were very few sites that featured Urban Fiction as it’s own category and a singular genre. I also noticed that most sites which do feature Urban literature make it very difficult for upcoming authors to have their work featured through advertising.

Building a site is rather reasonable in most cases, depending on the extent of programming involved in addition to monthly overhead costs; hosting, SEO, social media promotion. and advertising. Taking this into consideration, beforehand I was clueless to the behind-the-scene mechanics involved in running a website. I found the online prices for ads to be almost unbelievable; especially for those of us who have already spent a few grand going through the self-publishing process. The saddest part about my entire experience was that I found it hard to believe that we all had to pay several hundred dollars just to have our cover shown larger than a postage stamp.

I’ve have learned a lot throughout the process of my own journey.  When it comes to making a purchase people are reluctant to purchase something unknown. The more people know about you as an author the better off you are. But you don’t know me either. However, I am here to extend a helping hand to you. You can take a chance with me — someone who truly empathizes with your situation — or you can continue to other sites which only care about fattening their own pockets. On dioncheese.com you will not find run-of-the mill book reviews, copy or paste articles, boiler-plate-generic questions, etc.

No, what you will find is unique content shared by either myself, other authors, or by the readers who have something to share.

Growing up I read a lot. My mother Joyce Cheese encouraged me to read as much as possible because I suffered from asthma and couldn’t be a physically active as my brothers and sisters. Growing up poor in a rough camp, Potters “Pottis” Crossing projects in Edison, I later moved to Plainfield at the very young age of nine. I was always considered the nerd of the family, but fighting was an important aspect of my life.

Not only did I have to deal with the common ongoing struggles that plague most of us as African-Americans, but we often had to fight physically as well. Even each other…lol. As the name “Urban”  implies is simply means “characteristic of city life…” according to etymonline.com. It came into gradual use in the 1610s (but was rarely used before 1830s). The word derives from the Latin urbanus meaning “of or pertaining to a city or city life,” as a noun, “city dweller,” which can refer to anyone of any race. Urbanus coming from urbs (genitive urbis) “city,” of unknown origin. This word eventually incrementally transpired in this sense of urbane soon became restricted to manners and styles of expression. Accordingly, the Wikipedia concurs with this previous assessment stating:

“Urban fiction, also known as street lit, is a literary genre set, as the name implies, in a city landscape; however, the genre is as much defined by the socio-economic realities and culture of its characters as the urban setting. The tone for urban fiction is usually dark, focusing on the underside of city living. Profanity, sex, and violence are usually explicit, with the writer not shying away from or watering-down the material.”

In late 1920s American English gradually began using the expression “African-American.” Urban renewal, euphemistic for “slum clearance,” gained traction in the 1950s;  Urban sprawl was recorded by 1958; Urban legend by the 1980s.Urban Fiction is coming along stronger than ever, millions of books are being sold every year and yet the mainstream industry is trying to downplay urban fiction as just another passing fad just like that tried to do with Hip-Hop. yeah, they got that one wrong.

Listen up world! Fasten your seat belts because we’re going on a long ride. Dioncheese.com, iurban.org, i-Urban-Books.com, and Urban Fiction News Magazine will present to you the latest and hottest urban books to hit the scene. We are about getting our message out by all means necessary (No offense Malcolm). Therefore don’t sit back, get up and spread the word, and if anyone has suggestions please feel free to contact me and we will get back to you asap.

Thanks!