I started a blog for the first Street Stories suspense novel well before it was published. Click the image to the right to visit the site and read little tidbits like excerpts, character details and the real life inspirations behind the book.

Since one of the main characters in the book is graffiti artist CRY, I tried to give the blog a look to match, complete with slang terms related to the graffti culture.

Some examples of the terms I used:

heaven spots (or shorter as heavens)

Pieces that are painted in hard-to-reach places such as rooftops and freeway signs, thus making them hard to remove. Such pieces, by the nature of the spot, often pose dangerous challenges to execute, but may increase an artist’s notoriety. This term also encompasses a double-meaning as the locations are often very dangerous to paint there and it may lead to death, thus, going to heaven (also known as “hitting up the heavens”).

via Glossary of graffiti – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

crew (A short bio of each character)

A crew, krew, or cru is a group of associated writers or graffiti artists that often work together. Some crews are members of gangs or are associated with gangs (sometimes for procurement of art materials or for protection while painting), but most crews are unaffiliated with gangs. Any group of friends can quickly and informally form a crew if they are interested in graffiti and want to start collaborating. There is a smaller risk of being held responsible for crew works if a single member gets arrested. From a legal point of view, the name could have been painted by anyone in the group.

black book (blog postings)

A graffiti artist’s sketchbook. Often used to sketch out and plan potential graffiti, and to collect tags from other writers. It is a writer’s most valuable property, containing all or a majority of the person’s sketches and pieces. A writer’s sketchbook is carefully guarded from the police and other authorities, as it can be used as material evidence in a graffiti vandalism case and link a writer to previous illicit works.

one-liner (A sample of the first chapter)

A tag written with a marker or mop in one constant motion. The tip of the writing implement does not lift from the canvas until the tag is complete.

Graff Pieces

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