Once considered a troubled youth, the author/publisher, Shadrach Linscomb was born and raised in San Francisco. He is definitely a delight to the Bay Area. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University in 1995, he moved to Oakland. Taking different alternatives classes in college, Shadrach found out that he loves to write and often wrote short stories to share among family and friends.
In the fall of 1996, Mr. Linscomb started working for a youth development program (a small non-profit) that provided supportive services to disadvantaged youths at a targeted middle school in San Francisco. As a counselor at the school based program, Shadrach has often written small plays for children to perform as a means of teaching them important historical lessons or offering them alternative ways of dealing with problems. While working at the youth development program, Shadrach furthered his education at San Francisco State University by entering a graduate program. In 1997, he received master’s degree in Social Work.
In 1997, he started his own publishing company, View House Publishing. In 1998, he published his first title, One Day in the Life of Zechariah, which was a novella about a young African American male in an interracial relationship dealing with his own personal demons. The novella was a story that Shadrach had written a couple years prior publication.
Shadrach Linscomb continued to work as a counselor at the school based program, but unfortunately in the end of 1998, Shadrach left the program due to rumors of the non-profit losing its funding. Soon afterwards, he started working at a similar program in Richmond, California in addition to working part-time at a residential group home for boys.
In 1999, he started to work on his next book, Brother Status and discontinued his work with the school program in Richmond and the residential program for boys. Also 1999, he started working at San Francisco Department of Human Services, Child Protective Services. Finally, he finished and published Brothers Status in the year 2000, which is a story about a street-wise teenager and all of the colorful characters in his neighborhood.
While trying to obtain book sales in 2001, Shadrach started working on his next title, Sex, Guns and a Barber (A Shelton Parker Mystery). In the end of 2001, he finished the first rough draft of Sex, Guns and a Barber. The hard pressures of being a professional social worker and his frustrations with the literary world (publishing) took a toll on Shadrach. In 2002, he decided to give up on his writing and focus only on social work. He closed down his publishing company.
Approximately, two years later from the decision of giving up on his writing and publishing, he was convinced by a friend to continue with his writing. Shadrach re-opened his publishing company and continued to work on the book, Sex, Guns and a Barber (A Shelton Parker Mystery). Also, from 2003, to 2004, Shadrach studied and consulted with the great playwright, Paul Weisser, PhD. Shadrach finally finished his next project in 2004 and released his next title, Sex, Guns, and a Barber (A Shelton Parker Mystery) on February 20, 2005. The book won a Best 2006 Book Award (USA Book News) for African American Fiction (Finalist) and was distributed by Baker & Taylor, a large book distributor.
Shadrach was back at it again in the writing lab and started working on his next title, Player Related, which is about the romantic affairs of an African American man who spent his childhood in the foster care system. The story is emotional and entertaining at the same time. He released Player Related in February 2008. The book, Player Related has already received great reviews. In addition to that, Shadrach has recently produced a jigsaw puzzle for children which is titled, A Family Dinner. At this junction, he is focusing on helping others to publish their work and also producing educational materials. Mr. Linscomb is dedicated to publishing quality books that speak to human experiences and themes that are often overlooked. Currently, he is a doctoral student at the University of San Francisco in the School of Education, Organization and Leadership Department.
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Independent Book Publishers Association (formerly PMA)