Good News of Global Distribution

GOOD NEWS INDEED!

My impressionable poetry book I'm All In is now available not only on Amazon but Barnes and Noble, as well as from both Lulu and my official sponsors Infiniti Promotions of where you can buy my beautiful hardback copy .

I still make sales directly when I perform or have an appearance and if requested you can receive a SIGNED COPY when purchasing via Shop Infiniti (Infiniti Promotions) .

This book is PERFECT for Valentine's Day I must say, partly the reason why I compiled my unforeseen love poems in the first place. You would have to read it to understand.

So happy and elated :-)

Going All In at my Launch

I recently had a fabulous launch party to introduce and celebrate my book I'm All In. This is in fact the very first book that I have ever published, I knew this day would come but to be honest many years ago I did not think that it'll be a poetry book of mine as I anticipated releasing fiction and nonfiction novels that I would adapt into screenplays, at least for my first two books anyway. Evidently things change, in this case for the better.

I'm All In was an unforeseen collection (even for me) of my sweet and sexy poems but I am overjoyed that my plan adapted to this change and that I just went for it. The feedback so far has been fantastic and has nicely confirmed that I made the right decision.

The launch was really a listening party to a selective intimate audience, with plenty cocktails (plus my bottle of bubbly) including my signature ones to reflect the book which the Bartenders executed brilliantly. I prepared lovely gift bags that my guests appreciated with exclusive copies of the book and I had the perfect featured act named Tizzy with her Guitarist performing original, acoustic, soulful music. There was much to enjoy, to take advantage of and be grateful for as my guests were so happy, full of smiles, laughter and encouragement. They all ran through the book which I thought they'll save till they got home but I was happy to see them flick through it in front of me out of eagerness and curiosity. I let them make requests of what to perform in the second half and they surely gave it to me.

My team did everything they needed to do and more, everyone including the venue staff and some of my guests were all very helpful. I still rocked the hell out of my dress despite that my new one did not arrive, my performances adequately conveyed every poem the way that it was intended, the event and memorable moment in time was recorded for me to look back on and appreciate more in the future. People liked my playlist so much that I kept being asked to make a CD copy for them. My Alice in Wonderland theme was identified for the most part and everyone stuck to my dress code (your obliging participation did not go unnoticed!). My well thought out signature cocktails did not go unnoticed either, all was praised and tasted delicious.

I made sales! I sold both books and greeting cards! People loved my artwork of the book cover and the overall product which is the bottom line so none of my self-publishing efforts went to waste. I booked appearances out of it, pleased my readers so far, even more so my family were and are extremely proud of me. The best thing of the night is how proud people kept telling me that they were of me, to my face as well as to the camera and that is absolutely priceless. My word, that gets me all sentimental.

My audience was beautiful, including the venue staff who I noticed listening intently as they seemed to have liked what they heard so I gave them a copy of the book also. Although, I was so side tracked with my perfectionist Event Planner thoughts, I am just so very pleased and grateful that I had such a wonderful audience, everyone came full of support, love and excitement for me and what I was doing.

From what I was told I believe the favourite poems of the night were All to Myself, Love You Like Cooked Food, For Whatever Was Misunderstood and To the One That I Love the Most...Me (that's more of a therapeutic poem than a narcissistic one, you have to read to fully understand).

Next time I'll make sure to stick to my news year's resolution and smile more. Which I was doing so well with up till that week however, it is understandable considering the stress that comes with event planning, releasing a new product by yourself while tackling the issues of everyday life. Whether you're the Event Planner or the Host you're most likely going to be anxious than happy-smiley but you have to remember to enjoy the moment and have fun especially if it's your day.

All the business side of things is just headache. Like I said in my poem Thing on the Side as featured in the book, "I have a lot of headache in my life, so be my aspirin, my ibuprofen..." Will you be my aspirin? I'm addressing single, tall and nice men only with that question lol. I don't even take aspirin but a tall glass of water will do, wink wink.

Thank-you again to everyone that came out to support, endorse, enjoy and generally celebrate my book debut with me. It means than you know. And to those who could not attend but let me know in advance and still contacted me to send your sincere 'Congrats,' that means a lot to me also. I always remember those who have contributed positively to a project of mine in some way or another.

I will be doing promotion events throughout the year so look out for those. For when you read the book be sure to give your testimony and reviews on my blog or Facebook page or just tweet me.

BUY THE BOOK #ImAllin

Erotic Performance, Pleasing Myself & Conflict

I performed at Erotic Poetry over the weekend hosted by Charmed Entertainment, where I read an old crowd favourite Forbidden Fruit, a new crowd favourite Make Delicious (no connections or special theme between the two poems I swear), as well as an exclusive of mine called Wilderness. It was a fun show I had a good time and blushed throughout my performance, particularly when performing Wilderness due to the reactions from the audience. It was a large crowd with a great turn out. All the 'Oooh's,' 'Ahhh's, 'Jeeze!' and 'Oh lord!' from listeners is nothing that I'm a stranger to but I never truly get used to it. My highlight of the evening was when two ladies (at the same time) came up to me and said "You're poems were great,”  “You were the best so far." For someone to describe you as "the best" at anything is always wonderful and when it’s pertaining to something that you love it just makes it even better. I was humbled.

Now, much of poetry is recognised for being sensual however, there are times when I do raise the bar and subsequently become selective or just secretive of when and where to share those ones. I wasn’t even going to perform Wilderness but as this was an event dedicated to erotic content I felt comfortable to just put it out there and raise the bar as high as I felt. People often times misunderstand what it means to be erotic or sexy, neither of which instantly means nasty or vulgar. It's all in your delivery and it’s my delivery that I am respected for. 

In saying that, respected or not, it is not my intention to put all of my sexually driven poems in my soon to be released poetry book The Deevah Renaissance Vol.1. A part of me wants to, at first I was going to put every poem that I performed and then some but when I discussed it with a wise friend of mine and they advised me that “Not everything needs to shared.” That was one of the best pieces of advice I had ever received and they were so right.

Not everything does have to be shared it’s just not necessary, I have a right to hold back and be on the safe side. Nonetheless, I know for a fact that there are many people out there who are anticipating those juicy, sexy lyrics of mine that arouse and titillate- I haven’t forgotten you guys. I know some of you personally lol. For my true fans as I know not everyone cares, I need you to understand that I have to consider that my book is going to be read by my family, elders, young people (certain young individuals that look up to me) and professional peers outside of poetry.

A member of Heartless Crew (UK Garage group for those that don’t know) was there too, he performed right after I did and gave me a shout-out, we hadn’t met before but he was referring to my performance. Him and his crew dropped me to the tube station shortly afterwards, the driver (not everyone likes to be named so I shan’t but he was a nice guy) was asking me about my future performances and projects, so I began telling him about the self-publishing of my book, his response was “Is that gonna be your 50 shades of grey?”

Though I know that I have written and performed many erogenous and romantic pieces I seriously didn’t label myself as that kind of artist, as many other pieces of my work are political, thought-provoking and socially conscious. Still, once he made that joke, as funny as it was I realised that that’s probably what some people especially those seeing performances like what I had just done, expect from me. This is why whenever I perform at non-themed shows or regular open mic’s, I always bring a range of pieces with me as I don’t like to be type-cast or predictable as a female. On the other hand I don’t mind having a signature style of some sorts, just as long as it’s positive.

He made me realise that many people are probably looking to read a bunch of lyrical soft porn and that is so not the case. I told him that although I will include some of those popular poems but that will not be the genre of my book nor will I flood the content with that due to the fear of pissing off my family truth be told. How Rihanna does it I don’t know but good on her for doing what she wants and being ‘unapologetic’ about it, pun intended. I am sure my feelings and actions will evolve in a couple years’ time or by the time I publish Vol. 2.

Without him realising it, the anticipation in his voice encouraged me to hold back less and print what I want to print as people want to hear it. The book will be great regardless so I am not worried but FYI; I will ALWAYS perform my unpublished pieces so don’t you worry about that but where printing some of my more controversial pieces are concerned whether it be sexual or political you won’t see all of those in my books. Although, to cater to my audience you will certainly still see some or more of those pieces than I originally envisioned. Just not all.

Despite the advice that my friend gave, as well as trying to be respectful to my family and weary of my professional reputation in all areas, it is important that I do this book for MYSELF. It is not just about pleasing others.  I live for me so I am going to publish for me, it is a SELF-publishing project after all. I have been told and introduced on stage as the one that “starts debates, she starts arguments,” well so be it.

I look forward to sharing my work with you.

THE DEEVAH RENAISSANCE VOL.1

COMING SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!