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Former Youngstown resident pens his first novel
YOUNGSTOWN
A 45-year-old man who once called Youngstown his home has penned a book that he hopes entertains the masses and teaches young men how to treat women.
Frederick Taylor II was born in Alabama, spent time as a child in California, moved to New York, then spent several college years in Youngstown attending Youngstown State University. He began writing when he was a young child, finishing his first short story at 11.
Taylor, who now lives in Columbus, said a good friend of his encouraged him to attempt publishing a novel, which led to the writing of his first published novel “Disillusioned.”
The book follows a young man who adopts an “I-don’t-care” attitude toward women after a major heartbreak and plunges into a lifestyle of womanizing and deceit while wrestling with the Christian values taught to him as a child.
The story is personal to Taylor, because it is loosely based on his own life and personal experiences.
The book deals with Taylor’s treatment of women from the time he started dating until the present.
He deals with things he says he did as a younger man such as playing with the emotions of females, inventing insulting names for women he and his friends dated, and even making bets with friends on who would leave a dance club with the most- and least-attractive woman.
Women, Taylor said, often learned of his games and deceit and were hurt by his actions, but he learned to ignore their pain to obtain his own personal pleasure.
“It was easy to fall into this type of behavior because of my earliest memories of my dad dressing in front of a mirror on a Friday night ready to go out. I was taken by that, and so I wanted to embrace that,” he said. “I was also introduced to sex at the early age of 12 — and not by choice.”
A lot of those things took place during the 10 years Taylor spent in the Youngstown area.
“When I moved to Youngstown, I had freedom for the first time. I had my own apartment for the first time, so a lot of what I went through took place in Youngstown,” Taylor said.
Taylor looks back on those situations detailed in the book as learning experiences and he hopes they can serve the same purpose for young men reading the book.
“My journey from point A to point B is nothing short of remarkable,” he said. “I wrote this not to glorify the things I have done, but to show that there are consequences in everything you do. ... I am still paying for some of the wrong I have done. I want to tell readers, especially young men, not to go down this road. I went down this road so they don’t have to.”
The book, Taylor said, can also be a teaching tool for young women just entering the dating world.
Taylor is still single, but said he has given his life to serving Jesus Christ and embraced the Christian values instilled in him as a child. He now spends his time dedicated to raising his three children and writing.