Nikki Ling is half black and Japanese. Shes independent, street-smart and the daughter of a prostitute. Living in the mean streets of East New York and Bedford Stuyvesant Brooklyn shes forced to make a living the only what she knows how. When a wealthy, South African diplomat asks for her hand in marriage things seem to get brighter. Until she realizes that the soft-spoken, reserved, gentleman is pathological, kinky, and sadistic. One day she meets a mysterious stranger who approaches her with the Criss Cross. Is the Criss Cross her ticket to a better life? Or will the Criss Cross ultimately become the double cross? Wait! The Criss Cross isnt done yet! The old gang from Life, Love Loneliness have some unfinished business to resolve. In this page-turning novel see how the drama unfolds for Lyric, Lacey, Madison, Joshua, and Estelle.
Brooklyn-born author, Crystal Lacey Winslow, began writing creatively at an early age.
At the fledgling age of eight, beating out the entire school as her competition, she won her first journalist contest. It was at that very moment she realized she had a gift for writing and continued honing her craft writing poetry/prose. She soon decided she wanted to do something "more adult" so at the age of fourteen, she wrote her very first unpublished novel.
Crystal Lacey Winslow, a very diverse and multi-talented individual, has lived in various cities. She has moved from Virginia, to Maryland, then to Washington, D.C. before returning to her native New York City. Through the course of her living experiences and other travels, she has enjoyed all aspects of her surroundings -- the serenity of the suburbs, where she learned to swim, play the flute, archery and horseback riding; to the pulse of the inner city where she delighted in playing scully, hop-scotch, tag and touch football. Having encountered many colorful people along the way, she draws on both her human and environmental experiences that have become the inspirations for her writings. The result is a unique and melodramatic storytelling technique, which is evident in her writing style.
Crystal Lacey Winslow earned her baccalaureate degree in Legal Assistant Studies and worked for one of the largest law firms in the country. She soon realized her passion for creative writing was undying and therefore published Melodrama, a poetry chapbook in 2000. Soon after in 2001, Ms. Winslow founded her own publishing company, Melodrama Publishing, and opened her first bookstore, Melodrama Books & Things in 2003 in Far Rockaway, NY - the first bookstore in that neighborhood in over 30 years.
Ms. Winslow is as ambitious and driven as the characters of whom she so vividly writes and has successfully carved out a place for her Melodrama Publishing (MP) imprint in the literary world. She was the recipient of Black Issues Book Review's 2004 Self-Publisher of the Year award and has rapidly grown to an international publishing company.
Crystal continues to entertain and inspire thousands of avid readers, aspiring writers and entrepreneurs. She shows no signs of slowing down and you can believe there will be many more magnificent works to come from this magnificently talented young woman!
