Ben Ready can’t write about gang membership from firsthand experience. But his new urban adventure novel, “The Nock Abouts,” puts readers on the streets with him to understand some roots and remedies around gang activity.

The 367-page novel self-published in March comes to life with Ready’s rich imagination. And his long resume of serving marginalized young people in real life moves his fictitious characters through the plot like a pinball through the subcultural complexities they must bounce around to survive.

Ready, 49, volunteered for two years in Costa Rica with the Peace Corps’ urban youth development program; supervised a homeless shelter for teenagers; worked as an “attendance liaison” — aka truancy officer — for the St. Vrain Valley School District; reported for the Longmont Times-Call; and served as an interpreter for Spanish speakers.

His friend and former mentor at the Longmont Youth Center — Louie Lopez, 61 — describes him as an excellent listener.

Most recently, Ready has served for 11 years and counting as a gang interventionist through the Longmont Youth Center’s Gang Reduction through Intervention & Prevention program.

G.R.I.P. helps at-risk youths court-ordered to participate in the program after committing crimes to become more mindful about their lives and their choices.

Ready’s new novel taps the realities he found in all of his roles. And finally, in November 2015, he felt ready to write when the now-defunct nonprofit organization — National Novel Writing Month — challenged would-be authors like him to crank out 50,000 words in one month as a jumpstart.

The website encouraged writers to “set aside self-doubt and distractions to embrace the power of storytelling” — and Ready made the deadline at month’s end.

Then, he tossed the partial manuscript — about a third of the finished book — in a drawer and wouldn’t sit down to write more of the story until 2019.

That’s when Ready cut alcohol out of his life and started practicing mindfulness. He also used writing as a way to tackle the stereotype of gang members as “incorrigible.”

“We wear goggles when we judge young people who have lived lives that we can’t possibly understand,” he said. “So, I hope the culture I depicted in this novel realistically portrays many of them.”

Ready’s main character and O.G. — gang slang for an “original” or otherwise old school gangster — is Truck Martinez. At 17, he struggles to survive a chaotic life recently worsened after his father’s murder.

Truck uses his natural leadership and charisma to recruit five other outcasts to form a new gang they named The Nock Abouts.

As a bonus, every chapter begins with art mostly inspired from a journal kept by Tony Ortiz, now 36 — a former Longmont Youth Center G.R.I.P. program participant.

Every chapter ends with a section focused on introductory mindfulness techniques with guided doodling and questions.

Ready learned to annotate as an adolescent reader from his late father — a lifelong journalist and then editor of their hometown newspaper in Michigan.

Both father and son found that practice deepened their interaction and reflection.

Before publishing, Ready followed another one of his dad’s writing practices. He tested the authenticity of the dialogue by reading the entire novel aloud with characters’ voices to his family.

Ultimately, Ready hopes his readers from all walks of life also will doodle and journal in the book to, for instance — identify concepts, such as the circle of violence and how to break it; to ponder if enemies really are that different from yourself; and to let go of anxieties and past traumas in order to hold onto daily blessings with gratitude.

This interactive element and the novel’s story arc already have caught on with some readers.

Ready now plans to workshop the book over three days with young inmates at a California youth detention center — something he hopes will catch on in Colorado and elsewhere.

In the meantime, all profits from his novel fund $50 grants for any teenager within two years of gang involvement, just for reading “The Nock Abouts” and filling out the mindfulness sections after each chapter.

Finally, readers from any demographic also can discover what the book’s back cover calls an invitation “to explore the hidden corners of their own hearts.”

For some, that might mean reconsidering a judgmental attitude toward people — youth and adults — in gangs, Ready said.

“It’s kind of simple, but a judgmental attitude never changes lives or makes the world any better,” he said. “Judgement is just not going to get you there. … and it’s almost never the case for a kid to say, ‘Oh, wow! Now, I get it. I’m going to get jumped out of the gang.’”

“More likely, positive changes happen — little by little — through a slow and rising awareness that the path they’re on will lead to a darker time of more suffering and misery,” Ready said.

Yet, some people outside of the struggle begin and end their communication with at-risk teenagers by focusing on their mistakes, by asking “What were you thinking?” or stating, “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“But when you have someone focusing on your biggest mistakes, that image can become you,” Ready explained. “So, let that kind of talk be just one tenth of our conversation with kids and the other nine tenths be unconditional, positive regard. That’s what truly can help someone change their life for the better.”

Ortiz experienced that regard from adults at the Youth Center, even at his lowest. “It just felt good to be treated as a human. They nurtured us almost like we were their own,” he said.

Ready added that all people generally want the same things: respect, importance, safety, being loved, and belonging.

“But when we don’t get those things, when we’re drowning, we’ll cling to any life raft we can find. And sometimes the only life raft marginalized kids can find is toxic gang culture. Gang intervention gives at-risk youths access to alternative life rafts for their security.”

“The Nock Abouts” is available online at Amazon in print and as an e-book: amazon.com.

Pam Mellskog can be reached at p.mellskog@gmail.com or 303-746-0942. For more stories and photos, please visit timescall.com/tag/mommy-musings/.