Stories that stay with you

Golden Bruises: A Memoir of Surviving Childhood

Memoir • Paul's First Book

Thirty years in the making, Golden Bruises revisits a childhood shaped by hardship and instability in Pomona, California, during the 1980s — a time marked by crack cocaine, gang violence, and communities struggling under circumstances beyond any child's control. Through the eyes of a boy forced to confront adult realities far too soon, it explores family, belonging, and the longing to feel safe in a world that offers few guarantees.

Raw, intimate, and brave, it is an honest examination of childhood trauma, resilience, and the enduring search for self-worth — not a neat story of redemption, but a reminder that the marks left by our past are only part of the story of who we are.

Golden Bruises: A Memoir of Surviving Childhood

Memoir • Paul's First Book — 30 Years in the Making

What happens to a child when the people and places meant to offer protection become sources of pain? How does a young person learn to survive in a world that seems determined to teach him that he is worth less than everyone else? And what remains of childhood when survival becomes its defining lesson?

In Golden Bruises, Paul Gillispie revisits a childhood shaped by hardship, instability, and the harsh realities of growing up in Pomona, California, during the 1980s — a time marked by crack cocaine, gang violence, and communities struggling under the weight of circumstances beyond any child's control. Through the eyes of a boy forced to confront adult realities far too soon, Gillispie explores the complicated landscape of family, belonging, and the longing to feel safe in a world that offers few guarantees.

This is a story about the wounds that cannot always be seen, the lessons children learn when they have no choice but to grow up quickly, and the ways painful experiences can shape a person long after childhood has ended. Raw, intimate, and unflinching, Golden Bruises offers an honest examination of childhood trauma, resilience, and the enduring search for self-worth — not as a neat story of redemption, but as a reminder that the marks left by our past are only part of the story of who we are.

My Particular Shade of Green: A Collection of Real Feelings & Words

Poetry • In English, Spanish & French

Is there a particular shade of one color that belongs to each of us — a color shaped by memory, longing, love, and the experiences that leave their mark on our lives?

My Particular Shade of Green is an intimate collection of poetry exploring the complexities of identity, the persistence of memory, and the emotions that often resist easy explanation. These are poems that sprang from the creation of Paul's memoir over the years — moving through nostalgia, relationships, self-discovery, and belonging, and giving language to the moments that shape us.

Through language that crosses English, Spanish, and French, the collection embraces the ways words, culture, and expression shape our understanding of ourselves and one another. Reflective, personal, and emotionally candid, it invites readers to recognize something of themselves in the spaces between its lines — because no two people experience the world in precisely the same way, and each of us carries a particular shade of green all our own.

Saleema DiQuiqua & Azahlee

Historical Fiction Novella

Set in the early 1940s in Wilmington, Delaware, Saleema DiQuiqua & Azahlee is rooted in the lives of Black families whose strength is found not only in what they endure, but in the lives they build together. Against the backdrop of a close-knit church community, the Keys sisters navigate the expectations of family, the traditions that bind generations, and the complicated realities of a world that offers no easy assurances.

The novella grew out of Paul's own family history — its title comes from the nicknames his grandmother and her sisters called one another as children. Through strong bonds of family, the familiarity of church gatherings, and everyday exchanges that make a community feel like home, the story explores what it means to belong to a family, how the stories we inherit shape the people we become, and how ordinary moments become the memories that endure.

A heartfelt portrait of Black life in midcentury America, rich in human connection and grounded in the traditions that sustain us — where family is both an inheritance and a responsibility.

Clean and Clear: 31 Days of Sober Affirmations

Affirmations • For the Sober Living Community

Thirty-one days of sober affirmations written for the sober living community — a daily companion for people doing the work of recovery, one day and one honest page at a time.

Rise, Shine, Slay: 31 Affirmations of Fabulosity

Affirmations • For the LGBTQIA+ Community

Thirty-one affirmations of fabulosity for the LGBTQIA+ community — daily reminders to rise, shine, and take up space exactly as you are.

Still Standing Strong: 31 Days of Affirmations for People Living with PTSD

Affirmations • For People Living with PTSD

Thirty-one days of affirmations for people living with forms of PTSD — steady, grounding words for the days when simply still standing is its own kind of strength.

Goodbye Chaveilah

Memoir • Forthcoming

Coming Soon — Not Yet on Sale

A forthcoming memoir about Paul's grandmother's passing — about family, caregiving, love, and the difficult work of saying goodbye. It asks the question at the heart of so many family stories: what do we owe family that has failed us over the years?