This month, new author Jeff Rivera’s first book, Forever My Lady, about a young delinquent trying to turn his life around, will be widely released. Much of its buzz stems from this unlikely author’s appearances before Rotary clubs in Florida, USA.

In 1996, Rivera was a homeless teen, living with his mother and younger brother out of a Buick on the streets of Las Vegas after Rivera’s mother fled an abusive relationship. The situation lasted only a few weeks, but “it felt like a lifetime,” Rivera, 30, told the Rotary Club of Homestead, Fla., in September.

To eat, the family members would ask restaurants for food scraps and show up at grocery stores for free samples. Eventually, a family services organization placed them in an apartment, and Rivera took a job at the local Kmart.

There, he met a young man whose story inspired him to start writing a screenplay about a troubled Latino teen involved with gangs but struggling to change. Rivera included elements of his own experience and worked on the story for 10 years. When Hollywood didn’t respond to it as a screenplay, he started reshaping it as a novel.

Rivera worked a string of odd jobs while he pitched his story. He left Las Vegas in 2003, drifting to Orlando, Fla., and Boston, then to Miami, where he still works as a pool attendant.

With only $200 in savings, he self-published 25 copies of his book, promoted it online, and slowly developed an underground following. By November 2005, Rivera, who only has a high school diploma, had hired an agent and was being courted by Warner Books.

“I created my own break,” he says. “I built the buzz through online promotion. That’s actually how I met the person who booked me for my first Rotary club presentation: Ron Lieberman.” Since Lieberman asked him to speak at the Rotary Club of Miami Dadeland-Pinecrest, Rivera has appeared before six other Rotary clubs.

“He shows how people can come from nothing and work their way up,” says Chris Doherty, of the Homestead club. And Lydia White, of the Rotary Club of South Miami, called him “a good example of how determination and imagination can help you through rough times.”

Rivera is currently raising money to do a high school book tour to promote literacy.