The Voice

Issue date: 2/12/07 Section: Inside WCC

Media Credit: Jennifer DeMoss

In the month of October 2006, success was marked for Derek Vitatoe, an instructor of labor-management relations and supervisory management at Washtenaw Community College, when his first book, With These Hands, was published. "I am a local author and I hope that reviews on Amazon can showcase my talent," said Vitatoe.

The hardest part about writing his book was "breaking into the industry. I had to take a million rejections," said Vitatoe. "I was waiting for opportunity to set me apart from the mediocrity writers to the elite writers."

Vitatoe wrote an urban fiction tale-a new genre taking off in the literary world-about a Detroit detective, Madeline Harris, who crossed paths with Brooks Tarver, a mentally challenged young man who is haunted by horrible incidents of his aunt molesting him.

As a former Eastern Michigan University football team captain, Vitatoe picked up the knack for writing while he acquired a bachelor's degree in sociology. With the help of a sociology instructor at EMU, Anthony Adams, Vitatoe was encouraged to take his ability to write more seriously.

Though writing his book started off as a game, Vitatoe finally finished it. His writing struck Kwan Foye's interest, best selling author of Hoodlum, Sweet Dreams, Eve, and Hood Rat, and founder of Black Dawn Books, and he soon published Vitatoe's work.

The ambitions that drove Vitatoe to write the story of a troubled young man and a determined female detective reflected a game of football. As a writer, it taught him to be competitive in nature. "I also learned to start whatever I finished," he explained.

Vitatoe explained that it is important for local students to read his book because they have a personal connection to the setting. "It's like reading about a specific street in a book and actually knowing that you've been there that makes it so special," he said.

Omar Tyree, a more famous African-American author, is whom Vitatoe most benefited from through e-mail, though he connected more with James Patterson. In contrast, Patterson's books take place in Ann Arbor and are contemporary mystery from a man's point of view, whereas Vitatoe writes an urban mystery from a woman's point of view.

As a former football star from EMU, Vitatoe took advantage of the gossip that flew through the locker room, stories from colleagues, and "testimonials" from college students, to inspire him to write With These Hands, and the sequel, The Deacon's Circle, a story about the child sex trade in Detroit.

For anyone who is interested in purchasing or reading With These Hands, students can look to the campus bookstore located on the first floor of the Student Center building, on his website, www.derekvitatoe.com, on Amazon.com, and by request at the Border's or Barnes and Noble website.

"What I want to accomplish is to get a national audience to read urban mystery and to kick off a wave of literature called African-American literature," he said. "I tried to make the ending something the readers will beg for more."

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