Street Chronicles Girls in the Game (35 page)
Read Street Chronicles Girls in the Game Online
Authors: Nikki Turner
A
fter my girl Nikki and the sistas on her team put it down in this book, are you still thinking about, dreaming about, and grooming yourselves for the game? Before you go putting yourself out there, know this: The game doesn't play fair, and the majority of you players end up
losing. Losing
to a busta-ass nigga who leaves you holding the dope, then swears on the Holy Bible in front of a judge that it was all yours.
Losing
to the stripper's fantasy:
I'm hot. I'ma work this body just long enough to get on my feet, save for college, get me a car, blah, blah, blah. …
Three to five years later you still gettin’ thigh burns from slidin’ down the pole. And what? You're no longer hot, and that new young bitch done stole your spot in the VIP room.
Losing
to snaggin’ that big balla shot caller or any dude with lonnng dough: He's gonna take care of you for the rest of your life. You chase, you chase, you chase, and chase. You go through one, then another and another, just to discover that you were chasing an illusion. Temporary happiness and satisfaction.
Losing
to gettin’ that fast money … fast! By any means necessary.
The bottom line is … do
you!
Who better than yourself can take care of you? Educate you? Better you?
Do you
and you'll find that everything you're seeking will come to you in abundance! I'm not trying to put any of my sisters down, because I know how it is. I'm doing a ten-year bid as we speak. Some of you get out of the game before the game gets you, but the majority of us don't.
The game sits back and smiles at the sistas who are locked down, the chicks whose bodies are no longer eye candy at the gentlemen's club. The game smiles and lusts after the sista who was determined to snag that balla. But when she looks up, the years have run by and she's still looking, all alone, with nothing to fall back on. The game drools over the sistas chasing that fast money. Running credit card, bank, and checkbook scams. Again, it's all an illusion.
I hope the reader appreciates the message in each of these stories and knows that the game is just that—a game. An illusion that is rarely won by the opponent.
Stay up and focused on reality!
Bis-Mi-Illah.
Author of
Thugs and the Women Who Love Them
Every Thug Needs a Lady
Payback Is a Mutha
—Wahida Clark, Queen of Thug Love Fiction
L
AKESA
C
OX:
First and foremost, I would like to thank God for ALL that he has done and will continue to do for me. Thanks to my hubby, Mike, for all the support and to my three kids who are the motivation behind all that I do. Thanks to my mom and also to my second mom, Patricia and Joan, respectively. Last but not least, to Ms. Nikki Turner, my homegirl who has graciously put her stamp on the world in this street lit game, I appreciate you and sincerely thank you for the opportunity! God bless!
C
HUNICHI
: AS always, I would like to thank God for blessing me with such a wonderful talent. To my fans, thanks for your support; without you there's no me! To my homegirl, my literary big sis, my agent, Nikki Turner, thanks for giving me so many opportunities to shine. To my parents and my family, you're my inspiration. To my husband, thanks for being my ultimate support. To my friends, keep the drama coming—it makes for great material. To the baby mothers holding it down, do your damn thang! This one's for y'all. And last but not least, thanks to the streets, you made this possible! The streets have given me wisdom that no Ivy League school or college textbook could have ever given. To anybody I forgot … blame Nikki Turner for giving me only one paragraph for my acknowledgments!
M
EISHA
H
OLMES:
I'd like to thank God for his countless blessings. Thank you, Nikki Turner, for reaching out to me so I could be a
part of this
hot
project! Thanks to Nancy Flowers for her recommendation, my daughter, Kayla Lyric, for keeping me focused, and the rest of my family and friends for encouraging me to keep on writing. Final thanks go out to all the readers who purchased my novel
Brooklyn Jewelry Exchange,
I appreciate you spreading the word—and the prequel will be coming soon!
T
YSHA:
First and foremost, I give thanks to God for each blessing I receive. I would like to thank my husband, Vincent, for all the love, support, protection, and encouragement he gives me every day. Mommy, thank you for believing in me and being the strong woman you are. To my sister Tracey and brother Jae-Jay, no big sister could love you more than I do. Y'all are in my heart. To the rest of my family, there are far too many to name. I love you all and thank you for supporting my dreams. I give a heartfelt thanks to both Nikki Turner and JOY. I could not have asked for better mentors in this business. Finally, I dedicate this work to my grandparents, John and Ruby Hill. Thanks to your love and guidance, I know for sure that I can do anything I choose in life.
J
OY:
I would like to acknowledge all of the many readers who have supported my JOY projects, both full-length novels and anthology contributions. What an amazing literary ride it has been. Although I have answered my calling to write stories of a different nature, I do hope you will continue to keep in touch by visiting me at
www.joylynnjossel.com
. Peace and blessings.
MEISHA C. HOLMES puts it down in
Street Chronicles 2,
earning her crown as the “Countess of Street Lit.” But even before her appearance in
SC2,
Meisha proved she was worthy of her title with her stellar novel
Brooklyn Jewelry Exchange.
CHUNICHI, reigning in Atlanta, Georgia, is the “Diva of Street Lit,” putting it down with the most divalicious tales from the infamous
A Gangstds Girl
and
Married to the Game
to her short story featured in
Girls from Da Hood
and her now blazing contribution to
Street Chronicles 2.
JOY, also known as Joylynn M. Jossel, is a seasoned vet and known in the industry as the “Empress of All Trades,” mastering the different literary genres, from the contemporary drama-filled chick lit she projected in her debut novel,
The Root of All Evil,
to the steamy erotica she pumped out in
An All Night Man,
and the gritty street tale she penned in
If I Ruled the World.
LAKESA COX has self-published two drama-filled tales titled
After the Storm
and
Water in My Eyes.
In the underground literary world, LaKesa has been crowned the “Countess of Urban Drama.” Ready to carry her title mainstream, she is currently seeking a book deal for her next novel.
TYSHA is a new author to the literary game. Early in 2002, a mysterious illness began attacking Tysha's body, forcing her to resign from her job and pick up an old habit of journal writing, which turned into a short story and then into a novel that will be coming to a bookstore soon!
Girls in the Game
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,
and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or
are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2007 by Nikki Turner
Street Chronicles
copyright © 2006 by Nikki Turner
Introduction copyright © 2007 by Free
“Crowning Miss Baby Mama” copyright © 2007 by The People's Choice
“Power” copyright © 2007 by LaKesa Cox
“Bossy” copyright © 2007 by Tysha
“Game Face” copyright © 2007 by Meisha C. Holmes
“Beyatch!!!” copyright © 2007 by Joy
“When the Dust Settles” copyright © 2007 by Wahida Clark
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by One World Books,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of
Random House, Inc., New York.
O
NE
W
ORLD
is a registered trademark and the One World colophon is a
trademark of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-307-49568-6
v3.0
