Today's blog features author, Don Savant, and spotlights his upcoming release, TRUETRY, POETIC CONVERSATIONS.
Don Savant has been recommended by my new friend, Dominique L. Watson, of Diamond M'press Publications. He is a talented writer whose unique work is inspiring.
Keep reading for an excerpt from his book and Don Savant's social media links.
Interview
1. How did you get into poetry writing?
2. Tell us about your first published book.
When I was in the 7th grade, my English teacher had a project for us. There were 3 options. One was to read a book and do write a book report about it. The 2nd option was to do a poster board presentation. The 3rd was to write a senses poem. I opted for the 3rd because it seemed easier and at the point in my life academically, easy was great! I didn’t even like poetry at the time. After I wrote it, my teacher raved about it, said it was one of the best she’d ever read and encouraged me to lok more into the craft. That’s where my love for poetry was born.
2. Tell us about your first published book.
My first published book came about due to some people who were there to encourage me when I needed it the most. I don’t tell this story much but it’s a part of my testimony so I will begin to share it more often.
There was a point in my life when nothing was going right at all to the point where thoughts of suicide weighed heavy on me. I’d started posting online in the forums on the TP website. There were a couple of people that reached out to me from there one of whom stayed with me. She’d googled my name and found my work, encouraging me to have my work published. She gave me the title for my first book; Don Savant’s Book of Poems, Sonnets and Vows for Relationships and Weddings.
The second part to that is, a gentleman came into my workplace about 2 weeks after I was given this title and told me he’d just had a book published and needed to know who to contact to see if we could offer it among our book selection. I was led to talk to him about his publisher and he encouraged me to submit my work to them so that day, I went home, pulled some poems from the collections of chapbooks that I’d written, submitted and a few months later, my first published book was born.
3. What is your motivation behind your pen?
My motivation is a combination of life, love, hope, faith and inspiration. If it makes me smile, I write about it. If it makes me cry, I write about it. If I don’t understand it, I write about it and if I want to know more about it, I write about it.
4. Are you able to write anytime, anywhere? How?
If I can get a quiet moment, I can write. I’m an observer and a thinker. There is constantly something churning though my mind and what I do is I take those thoughts, those questions and I turn them into ideas and try my best to make poetry out of it. I like to say that I am inspired by the wind as it blows across my mind, daring me to take hold of the things that travel with it.
5. Tell us about your current book Truetry: Poetic Conversation. How did this book come about? What can readers expect?
Whenever I’m working on a project; writing its contents, there are always some pieces that I feel may not fit the vibe of what I’m doing at that time. When this happens, I’ll start a new folder in my computer and that’s where those poems will go. Truetry came about through that process because there is some personal truth in each poem that is contained within the book. The Poetic Conversations subtitle came by way of the feel I got when reading back over the work and the addition of the rants or conversations that are included called The Truth Of The Matter. Truetry was in my lineup of books to be released upon completion so that’s what I’ve been following.
6. How do you market your books with poetry being such a hard genre to promote?
I use word of mouth for marketing purposes as much as possible. I’ve always firmly believed that if people are talking about it, then others will be curious about it and in turn will want to find out what all the talk is about. I also use different social media platforms to promote my work. I make memes for Instagram and Facebook. I will post poems, and of course share links to where my work is available. I also do videos occasionally and post them to YouTube so between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google Plus, my Blog and just recently Snapchat, I have it pretty well covered.
7. What advice do you have for up and coming poetry writers?
The advice I would give is to stay true to your craft. Keep your integrity intact always. Know that everything you do is a process and that nothing ever happens overnight. If you want success in anything you have to be willing to have the right amount of faith, the right amount of patience, the right amount of will, put in the right amount of work (because there will be night when you can’t sleep until the work is done) and most importantly, you have to stay prayed up about it all.
8. What can we expect from you in 2015?
Truetry is actually my second poetry release this year. I released Love Skies in April so there’s that and after Truetry, I have another collection that’s done… I’m just debating on which way I’d like to go with it. It’s a genre that I’m familiar with but haven’t quite let the public in on as of yet. We shall see. In the meantime, I plan to keep writing and see what gets done throughout the year. I’ve got to keep some things to myself so that’s all I’ll say.
9. Can you give us a snippet of your up coming book?
Pride And Prejudice
We’ve lived
For some time now
In a world where
Men are
Proud to be...
Absent from
The lives of their children...
Content with
Barely scraping the bottom of
Life, in every aspect
Of their existence
Too proud to
Find someone
Who has
Been where they are
That
May be able to
Lend a hand up
To help them
Get to where
They need to be...
More concerned with
Catching the liquor store
Before it closes than
Showing up at
Their child's
School function
To show them that
They have the support they require
At least in that way...
We live
In a world where
A man is STILL
Judged
By the color of his skin
And not
By the content
Of his character...
And I know that some
May lack in that area but
There are
No more valid excuses
As to
Why black men and women
Are still
Being persecuted…
Why they are
Still being
Knocked down and
Dragged out...
Passed up on and
Considered to be
Second class citizens
The ugliest part
Of these truths is that
So many of “us”
Accept
Where we are
So many of “us”
Allow “them”
To downplay our worth
To a point where
We feel
We’re really worth nothing at all...
And we do nothing to change…
The stains
That have been left
On our heritage...
With
So many
Tears shed and
So much blood lost
In the spirit of unity
But now...
It’s
Blood lost
And
Tears shed
Because we
Insist on
The continuance
Of the slaughter
Of our own people
By our own hands
And why?
Because
He’s wearing a
Certain color or
Because
She had something you wanted
But didn't want to work for...
Or is it that
He “took”
Someone from you
That
Never wanted you
In the first place...
Whatever the case may be
We can never
Erase what has happened
But we do
Have the power to
Stop it from happening
Over
And over
Again
With
The absence of pride
Prejudice will start to
Fade away...
Not saying that
It will ever be
Nonexistent but
Just
Showing that
We can be
Other than what we've shamelessly
Put on display
For all to see…
And implementing
The necessary internal change…
Would go
A mighty long way
In the name of
Justice
And equality
Amongst ourselves
And others...
Amen?
Don Savant was born from the pages of poetry in the city of Spartanburg, SC. Already 25 years old at the time of his conception, he has grown into his love for poetry more and more with each year that has passed. With eight official collections of poetry under his belt as well as a number of anthologies, Don’s goal in literature is to spread love and truth through poetry until no more words can be spoken from his mind. With his poetic theme almost always revolving around love, he has been given the moniker, King of Love.
Don’s latest release is the poetry collection Love Skies. The paperback, alongside his other releases, including his Battle of the Sexes Anthologies and other From A Writers POV collaborations are available online at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Lulu.com.
Savant has also written for From a Writers POV Magazine, PEN’Ashe Magazine and So FYH Magazine.
Don Savant can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, and Pinterest. You may also visit his YouTube page and view his book trailers.
Follow Don Savant and keep up with his ever-changing but always love-filled thoughts at: www.donsavant.info
Check out Diamond M'press Publications:
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