This morning, as I sipped my coffee, I thought back to 2005. I was a single dad then, crisscrossing the West Coast to make every one of my son’s basketball games. Life was measured in miles and motel check-ins, and every weekend ended with me back in my car, alone with my thoughts.
When my son left for prep school in New England, chasing his dream, I was left with a question: what now? I remember saying to myself, almost as a dare, I’ll write a book. I had no idea what that meant—how lonely and transformative that road would be.
Over the last twenty years, writing has been my quiet revolution. Mining the subconscious day after day for truth changed me. Wrestling with questions—what is moral? what is honest? what is true?—forced me to hold a mirror to my own beliefs. I didn’t just write stories; I rewrote myself.
I am a better husband, father, friend, and neighbor because of the work I’ve done on the page. Writing stripped me down and built me back up, word by word.
The novel that emerged is steeped in the traditions of noir—gritty streets, moral gray zones, characters who dare to confront power. But it is also undeniably my own: a story told through the lens of a proud, unapologetic Black man, one that questions who gets to be the hero in a world that too often casts us as suspects.
And now, with my debut set to launch in a year, I’m hearing something from publishers that humbles me: they can’t stop thinking about this book. They call it an emotional journey—one that lingers long after the last page, the way the best stories do.
I wonder: what would the world look like if everyone took a similar journey—if we all spent twenty years digging into our own truths?
I like to think it would be a kinder, braver place.
This book is more than a story. It’s a marker of who I’ve become—and maybe, a mirror for those who read it.
Andre Hardy is a former NFL running back. His debut novel, Playing Coltrane, will be published by Grand Central Publishing in July 2026.
🔗 www.andrehardy.com
❤️❤️❤️this is wonderful Andre!!!