Tiān Yòu | THE HARSH TRUTH OF THE CAMERA EYE | @ Sidetrack

Sidetrack Bookshop presents author Cedric Drake, writing under the pen name Tiān Yòu, to chat about his new novel.

Date: Saturday, November 14, 2026, 6:30pm - 8pm. Doors open at 6pm.

Location: Sidetrack Bookshop, 325 S. Washington Ave., Royal Oak, MI 48067

Tickets:

• RSVP Only
• $20.25 - Includes one RSVP to the event and signing line and one copy of The Harsh Truth of the Camera Eye.

Additional copies of The Harsh Truth of the Camera Eye will be available for purchase at the event (while supplies last).

Parking in the Center Street Parking Garage located just north of Sidetrack Bookshop with entrances on both Washington and Center Streets is free for the first two hours and costs only 75 cents per hour thereafter, Monday through Saturday.

About The Harsh Truth of the Camera Eye

The camera doesn’t capture faces. It exposes sins.

When Noah Wright inherits his late mother’s antique Polaroid, he thinks it is nothing more than a strange family relic—until the first photograph develops. On the back, written in cold black letters, is the truth its subject has spent a lifetime burying.

Later, Noah meets Cello: fearless, wounded, magnetic, and dangerous in ways Noah does not yet understand. Where he sees a curse, she sees a weapon. Los Angeles is full of predators, frauds, and monsters hiding behind perfect smiles. With the camera in hand, Noah and Cello begin pulling their secrets into the light.

At first, exposure feels like justice. Then justice begins to feel too small.

As their obsession grows, Noah must decide whether he is finally becoming powerful—or whether the camera has revealed the darkest truth of all: the monster was never only on the other side of the lens.

About Tiān Yòu

Cedric Drake, writing as Tiān Yòu (天佑), is an educator, researcher, and author whose work brings together psychology, education, and storytelling. Raised in Southern California and educated at Loyola Marymount University, he began his career with the Los Angeles Opera before pursuing international education in China, where he taught at Sichuan University of Science & Technology. His writing includes contributions to PBS SoCal/KCET and BRAINZ Magazine, alongside research published in academic journals. His interests span educational and clinical psychology, student engagement, artificial intelligence in education, and mental health.

As a novelist, he writes psychological thrillers and speculative fiction exploring memory, identity, technology, and human consciousness through Eastern and Western philosophical perspectives. He adopted the pen name Tiān Yòu to distinguish his fiction from his work in psychology and education.