Location: Delaware, USA
Originally From: Carenage, Trinidad
Education: Eastern Boys Gov't School, St. Mary's College, North Carolina A&T State University
Profession: Chemical Engineer, Writer
Contact: Andy.D.Slater@usa.dupont.com


More about Andy...
Andy is an outdoor person who works out and plays football regularly. He also likes mountain biking and anything in the water. He enjoys writing and spends time capturing many of his childhood memories from growing up in Trinidad.

Andy also played intercol for CIC, spent one year in the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard, migrated to the US in 1988 and spent 6 years in the US Army, serving in the first Gulf War. His first published book is called Breaking the Curse and according to Andy, "It is a very entertaining piece of work that covers my life and experiences."

It is available online at Amazon.com and bn.com (Barnes & Noble). It is also available and much cheaper at the publisher's website, Authorhouse.com.

Breaking The Curse is an exciting, fast-paced, gripping, odyssey that starts in a rural village on the island of Trinidad. It takes you on a journey through New York City, Los Angeles, Germany and through the Persian Gulf War in Iraq. It ends in the quiet Southern states of Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.

It chronicles the effects of "The Curse", promiscuity and recklessness, on a young man, causing him to leave 5 illegitimate children in his wake. It also reveals the AWESOME POWER of a Praying Mother, and how prayers managed to portect her boy in the midst of trials and tribulations, and danger. Finally, it is 'A Mother's Prayer' that brings a man to confront "The Curse" and enable him to turn his life around.

*Click here to read Not no more doh another short story by Andy
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Breaking The Curse (Excerpt)

... my mother became more lenient in dealing with me. But at the same time, she employed another tactic. She became a prayer warrior and she unleashed prayers on me. She prayed night and day, loud, long prayers and her prayers were ten times more effective than any whipping or chastisement could have ever been. No, they didn't keep me from making my mistakes and messing up, BUT THEY KEPT ME...

...my mother stated frequently that the Schearers, my father's family, were cursed. I had a difficult time understanding that. What did she mean by that? Was she serious? Could it be that she really believed that? She always said it with strong conviction though. It confused me. It bothered me. And sometimes, it angered me... we weren't cursed,  were ordinary, everyday, normal people... I interpreted 'cursed' to mean damned or condemned. But from my limited interpretation and minute understanding, I expected certain physical manifestations for a curse to be present. I expected something in the form of a plague or disease like leprosy, sores, or some type of 'physical' deformity. I expected death to be prevalent, wreaking havoc in and amongst the cursed, striking the children, causing pain and suffering among the elderly. I expected grief and sorrow. Nothing close to that affected the Schearers as far as I could tell, nothing out of the ordinary, so we could not have been cursed. My mother was wrong on that one. She had to be...

...One of her favorite songs was 'Rock of Ages' and that is exactly how I thought of her. To me, she was my rock, of all ages. The rock of ages, she explained to me when I was still a little boy, is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So Jesus 'is' The Rock of Ages. But, at the risk of committing heresy, my mother 'was' My Rock of Ages...

... When my mother got down on her knees to pray, it seemed like she prayed for the world. No joke, she prayed for hours. And there was no particular time or pattern to when and how she prayed. She just did, un-hesitantly, whenever and wherever she felt like it. If she wasn't praying it seemed she was reading her bible.

... She said, " son, when people think of a curse, we seem to think only of famine and pestilence, plagues, drought, diseases, sores and parasites, the Old Testament way. What we don't think about are some of the things that plague our lives on a daily continuous basis; some of the subtle things that seem a part of normal, everyday life. We don't think about pre-nuptial sex. We don't think about multiple children by different women and children out of wedlock. We don't think about abstinence from marriage and sinful cohabitation. We don't think about negligence of parental responsibilities. We don't think about perversions such as drugs, alcohol, vice and sexual promiscuity. We don't think about violence, domestic and otherwise. Why aren't we progressing? Why aren't we succeeding? Why is it our children aren't excelling? Why is it we seem to be stuck in time and place? These things and their seeds have so become a part of our lives that we don't recognize them for what they really are. We accept them as though they are normal, as though they are meant to be. We have accepted all these lies. But the truth is that they are not what God intended for us. They are not a part of God's plan. They are curses and are borne out of curses, and everyone that perpetuate them in their lives, in so doing, is cursed..."
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