Arlene Brathwaite, raised in Albany, New York, is a wife and a mother. She left her job with the State of New York to focus on starting and operating her own business, Variety A+ Beauty Supplies & More. As an author, she has propelled herself into the literary world with her debut novel, Youngin’, and has continued her upward momentum with the follow-up, Ol’Timer. As a publisher, she also owns and operates Brathwaite Publishing. A company she created and designed specifically to assist aspiring writers to get their books into print and distributed across the country. Through her writing she has transformed her loss-pain into the will to expose the nightmares of street dreams. The nightmares hustlers seldom talk about. The nightmares that got two of the people she loved life bids in prison.  “My first two books entitled Youngin & the sequel to Youngin’ entitled Ol’Timer was inspired by one of the many tragic events in my life that has led many teens to prison. These books were so real to me in more ways than one. In the near future, I will be publishing a general fiction novel entitled Butta Cutz (Brathwaite Publishing July 2008), followed by Devon, Soul Dancing and an autobiography entitled I’ll take you there. In writing these books, I was able to showcase my versatility in three different genres (Urban Fiction, Romance, and Non Fiction), because I believe an author shouldn’t pigeon hole him/her self. We should allow our inner selves to be free to express whatever needs to come to the surface”.