St. Pete Catalyst; Published By Mark Parker
While the historically significant area around St. Petersburg’s 22nd Street South – the Deuces – is undergoing a renaissance, a local author highlights its recent, grittier past.
Charles Davis is now “99.8%” done with his second book revolving around the troubled life of its eponymous protagonist, Tyrone Jenkins. Davis self-published the series’ first entry, Tyrone I Din Do Nuffin, in 2019.
The book is semi-autobiographical fiction, based on a teen auto theft ring in St. Petersburg in the early 1990s. Davis, 32, lives in a trailer custom-wrapped to promote his book, while he saves money for a house
“I’m still blessed,” Davis said. “But at the same time, it’s a struggle. To be honest with you, I do get depressed sometimes about being in this situation.”
Davis started writing I Din Do Nuffin in 2018. Its setting is “Pineburg,” an amalgamation of Pinellas County and St. Petersburg.
As noted in the book’s Amazon description, Tyrone, 13, frequently finds himself on the wrong side of the law. In addition, teachers “hate him” and “his mama can’t stand ’em.”
Tyrone doesn’t fit in with his peers, and the neighborhood’s older drug dealers don’t like him. Even the local radio hosts have dubbed the character a societal menace.
Davis said he writes from experience and believes many young people “are out of control.”
“I put my blood, sweat and tears in this book,” he added. “I’ve been getting pretty good feedback from it, not everybody. If they ain’t into cursing and stuff like that, then my book is not for them.
“It’s a lot of cussing in that book, but I’m just talking about what’s going on in the city.” Read more
