Two Years of ‘Gold Mouth’
Two Years of ‘Gold Mouth’?… Already?
It’s so hard to believe two years has come and gone so quickly. It’s not anywhere near surprising, because I’ve spent those two years growing, meeting some amazing people, and having so much fun with writing and poetry. I remember being so nervous during the summer of 2018, because very few people were involved with the making of this novel. I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to pull it off by the end of the year, but thankfully I did. I remember my mom being upset with me when the pre-sale dates were announced. I didn’t involved her in any of the prep or planning, because I wanted to be completely responsible for this book…I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to publish it yet.
I have a thing about not blabbing on about a project to random people, before it’s in the final stages. I believe that very few people are actually, genuinely interested in my success. Because of this, I am very careful of who I tell things to. Negative energy is real, and I don’t need unnecessary stress brought my way on top of already being stressed about the current project. My family and close friends always know that I’m working on something, but they usually don’t know any specifics until things are finalized. The older I become, the more I understand that my art and my goals need to be protected, because not everyone has my best interests in mind.
I do consult with mentors and those who’ve been successful before me quite often, because writing and publishing is terrifying itself. Knowing that anyone in the world has access to your work can be a little frightening, because that also means that anyone can also share their opinion of your life experiences and then share those opinions freely online. Granted, that is why the vast majority of my works stay hidden in all three of my work devices. I remember piecing together a breakdown of what ‘Gold Mouth’ means and what it means to me. When I wrote the Medium article explaining the meaning behind ‘Gold Mouth’, it was a bit frustrating when people were trying to 100% understand such an abstract theme. Although I understand it’s a part of our nature to try to dissect meanings, my art and poetry are more-so meant to be enjoyed without try to decipher every single poem. It’s meant to be an experience; a journey. It’s weird and it’s hard to understand sometimes, and that’s going to be with my works in the future as well.
New Genres.
Since publishing my first novel, I’ve taken several poetry writing courses at Tennessee State University, that pushed me to my breaking point. I wrote from different views, in different genres, and about things I’ve always been too afraid to write about. I did pass the course with flying colors, but not without scratching myself up along the way. There were many times where I found myself in my apartment for hours just staring at a blank page. I’d do research, listen to music, and even look at photography to try to grab the smallest piece of inspiration.
At that point I was just sure I’d exhausted my writing skills, until I realized I hadn’t. I had things coming to mind, but I wasn’t impressed with them. As the nights went on, I realized I didn’t just have time to sit and think about poetry everyday, because I did have a full schedule of other classes as well. I decided to write down what came to mind completely first, edit and make changes, and then see what the class says. The class was very small. There were about seven of us that were all experienced writers, and I knew their feedback would be extremely helpful, along with the professor who is still my mentor.
Almost every time I went to class with what I thought was the worst poem, they’d praise it up and down for reasons I’d never thought about. However, in that class we weren’t allowed to just not give constructive feedback, so we always took time to really analyze and point things out for improvements. I wrote a lot of pieces that were out of my comfort zone during the course of that semester, and I’ve decided to include them in my next novel. I learned more than I ever thought I could in that class, and I came out of it a better poet than I was before. I wrote a blog post in that class some months ago, and explained why I almost went insane that semester.
What’s Next?
If I can be completely honest without sounding too crass, a lot is up next. Now the catch, is that most of these things are still in very delicate stages, so I cannot talk about most of these projects just yet. They involve other artists, photographers, videographers, and so on. Things move slower for young independent artists mainly because funding these projects comes 100% from the artist itself. On top of that, we have other bills to pay such as rent, utilities, insurance, etc. Despite all of this, I’m still working toward the finalization of these projects.
The good news is that I am still organizing, but I am wrapping up my next poetry novel. I don’t have a set pre-sale or release date yet, because my choice of publisher is still undecided. As far as releasing the book, I would look toward a mid to late 2021. My first book was self-published, and because of the rapport I have established with different companies and writers, there are more offers on the table to sort through, which is exciting yet also a bit overwhelming.
I don’t take any offer or any decision lightly, because I definitely don’t want to take anything for granted. Everything takes time, and once I’m able to share more details, I will do that as quickly as possible. I’ve received so much love and many inquires about my next novel, and it really pushes me to make it one hundred times better than my first book. I took those poetry courses as an investment in my writing career, and the results pay off every time I write something new. I owe to it the fans of my poetry and writing to only give them my very best work.
Details…
To be honest, a lot of people are going to think my next book is weird… Like even weirder than my first book. The artwork, the content, the merchandise; everything is going to be more abstract, but it will have a much deeper meaning. I’ve experienced many things and I’ve seen many things; a countless number of those things are cursed memories, and because of that it has taken a toll on me physically and mentally…many of the poems will be a testament to that, but not all of them. As always, the book will contain chapters as to keep the content organized to keep anyone from being overwhelmed or confused. Each chapter is a phase and each phase has its own story.
Unlike my last novel, this one will contain several pieces referred to as “prose”. Prose is a more free form of writing that doesn’t really have any rules, but it is still considered poetry. This will give me the opportunity to explain some ideas more and go into even more detail as far as emotion. I plan to really highlight topics that deal with the mental health community as well as the LGBTQIA+ community. These topics are very important to me and I feel like these stories need to be uplifted as well. In my last book, I highlighted my own experiences with the “Me Too” movement, because everyone’s story should be heard. I also plan to include a piece or two about seeing police brutality first-hand, but I’m still on the fence about including it in this book specifically. As expected, I also have many, many pieces on finding Orthodox Christianity and my experiences with that as well.
I’m really excited to share more about this novel as much as I can, but it’s still being organized and things are being moved around, so I can’t spill my guts as I’d like to. I hope this gave you a general idea of where this book sits in my heart and how much it means to me. I hope bringing these stories to light will inspire you. I also hope that you enjoy reading my work as much as I enjoy creating it. Merchandise for the book is also in the works, and I have huge goals as far as merchandise. I’m excited about this new era of poetry I’m going to be entering into, and as always, I will keep you updated through this website, and on all of my social media outlets!
