My New Book "Paper Squares & Purple Stars: My Life As A Rave Outlaw" Is Finally Out!

For the past few years I have been working on my memoir and it is finally out! I have been posting about it on steemit for a while now, so if you keep up my posts, you may have heard about it a few times.

I have a website up for the book at www.raveoutlaw.com which takes you to the amazon link where it is available. It isn't currently available through search for some reason.

I am also throwing a rave in Baltimore as a release party this June, you can find tickets on the website linked above too.

WWW.RAVEOUTLAW.COM

Below is the synopsis and forward for the book:

 

Paper Squares & Purple Stars: My Life as a Rave Outlaw by John Vibes

SYNOPSIS

The year was 2007, I had just turned 21, and I was struggling to find my place in a world that I didn’t understand. I spent most of my life as an outcast because I refused to conform with the expectations of mainstream society, but that summer, everything changed when I went to a rave and discovered an underground culture where I was finally accepted, where there were people just like me. 

It was like stumbling down a rabbit hole into a magical land of peace, love, and freedom. It really did feel like there was some type of magic in the air back in those days, because my life changed so quickly. In just a few months, I went from a common hustler and a nervous wallflower to a major promoter who organized and supplied some of the most notorious underground events on the east coast.

I found meaning in my life, and I even found love, but I also found a dark side, which would threaten everything I gained. I ended up in a unique position to witness some of the wildest things that this underworld has to offer, experiencing some very extreme highs and lows of my own along the way. Years later, I reflected on what I saw and what I learned during those crazy times, and now I am ready to tell my story.

PREFACE

Throughout the years, my mind would sometimes drift toward the idea of writing a sort of memoir. After all, I did spend a fair amount of time deep in a mysterious underworld, where I was in a rare position to peek behind the curtains and see how it all worked. I never got around to this project though. There were always more pressing matters at hand, more important projects demanding my time and energy, things that needed my immediate attention.

Then one day everything stopped.

I was diagnosed with cancer, and I found myself no longer worrying about the next big project, but instead, fighting to stay alive. When things were at their worst, I was truly unsure whether or not I was going to make it. Suddenly, that memoir was no longer a passing thought in the back of my mind, it was an absolute necessity. If I wasn't going to make it, at the very least, I wanted my story to be immortalized.

Each week, as I suffered through my treatments, I would take my laptop to every appointment, and keep it by me at home, so I was able to work on the book every moment that I had enough strength. Luckily, I made it through the experience healthier than I ever was before. By the time I began to recover, I found I was almost finished telling my story. What I ended up with was the book that you are about to read, Paper Squares & Purple Stars: My Life As A Rave Outlaw, tales from my most interesting years...so far.

This book is based on a true story, but some of the names and other details have been changed. I also used composite characters and condensed timelines for the ease of storytelling. There are some elements of fiction in this book, and any likeness or similarities to real-life individuals is purely coincidental.

Remember that this is a story of growth and learning, and you may disagree with many of the decision that my character makes in this story. There are many things about myself and my career that I am not proud of, but these darker aspects of my story carry valuable lessons with them. Besides, what you are about to read wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if I didn't include those details.

WWW.RAVEOUTLAW.COM