hurston and gwendolyn brooks. nick gillani. i know my title, tantrum, which is a very gritty, dark fiction sort of political thriller, a lot of that was inspired by derrick bell's, faces at the bottom of the well. i remember reading bad as a young lad and just the way he wanted to make some really clear points about american law, about american politics through these conversations he was having with his main female protagonist, geneva. i was just like wow, i would love to write a book like this so tantrum is a lot of that. tantrum is essentially taking all of these various characters that we have all grown up with. i grew up in north philadelphia and we used to call them storefront creatures, from the preachers to the strong sister trying to raise her child or children in trying to make it made to those brothers that were like uncles to me, that i grew up with on the corner of logan in north philly and also the corrupt politicians that made philly what it is still today, unfortunately, to all sorts of other characters, black-an