Award-winning recording artist/producer Kirk Franklin has defied the odds. Turning negative aspects of his life riddled with drugs, teenage parenthood, poverty, and more into blessings by learning from them and moving forward, Franklin is now ready to release the anticipated literary project 'THE BLUEPRINT: A Plan for Living Above Life's Storms'.

Set for release via Gotham Books, Franklin's 'The Blueprint' was pieced together not as a biography or tell-all but, to give young people a chance to become the person they need to be, no matter what the situation, or where they come from.

By the time Franklin was just fifteen years old, he was a young father, without an encouraging figure in his life, and just another statistic on the street. As he explains in THE BLUEPRINT, "The street corner was my classroom. The 'hood was my Harvard." He went through life thinking he knew it all, and blamed the fact that he didn't have a role model for not being able to achieve his dreams, until the day he realized he had to turn his life around and become the man he needed to be on his own.

Today, Franklin is the proud father of four and devoted husband of fourteen years, as well as one of the biggest multiplatinum-selling gospel artists of all time. He credits his faith in God and a very close mentor he found later in his life for his success. 

According to Gotham, The beauty of THE BLUEPRINT is that Franklin by no way claims to be perfect or have insider knowledge of how to live your life wisely, but rather puts his setbacks and faults on full blast and suggests that oftentimes people, like Franklin at one point, go through life without a plan for success, simply living purposelessly, and without a person to show them the right way. THE BLUEPRINT fills the void of not knowing which way to turn and arms you the necessary tools to succeed.

'THE BLUEPRINT: A Plan for Living Above Life's Storms' is due in stores May 18.