Radio Audio for You

My day couldn't have been busier if I tried Monday gone. I had several engagements to meet which included two surprise appearances and my radio interview with the Poets and Poetry Show on PowerXtra Radio, that was fun and I am happy to have added that to my book tour.

Listen to my radio interview via the link on Mixcloud. Please note that it's a 2hr show and I appear 1hr into it. Enjoy!

More shows and appearances have been added to my year-long book tour for July and August, the next one will be at BAC in London 30th June. Keep up with my social media for updates.

@LK_ReelDeevah

I Got Poetry Luv (Book Tour)

The performances I've done this week have been great and borderline epic for one of them in particular. Without losing my mojo I have a next one coming up before I go to Birmingham as part of my promotion tour later next week.

POETRY LUV
Tuesday 17th May 2016, 7pm
Looking Glass
49 Hackney Road
Shoreditch
London
E2 7NX

£5 ENTRY FEE


Alongside other Poets I'll be going all in with my performance as you can imagine. See you there- but if you cannot make it you can simply purchase my book online!

Buy your paperback copy via Infiniti Promotions, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble. Please note that hardback copies are currently only sold via Infiniti Promotions (Shop Infiniti and Lulu.com).

Sign up to my newsletter in the meantime to keep up with my tour, shows, products and blog articles. Why not check out my last one 'My Videos & Purple Reign' while you're at it, click here.

Performing @ Frogs & Jays (Book Tour)

Continuing on with my book tour for I'm All In, I'll be performing a Frogs and Jays poetry event 26th May 2016.

Frogs & Jays
Thurs 26th May 2016, 7pm
@ Lion Coffee + Records
118 Lower Clapton Rd
London
E5 0QR

FREE ENTRY

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

READY TO RELEASE

My collection of sweet and sexy, arousing and heartstring pulling poems are compiled together in this appropriately titled book I'm All In.

I gave it that title because verbally I am going 'all in,' and as far as the game of love and even the risk of sex goes (fact has it) it is all a gamble.

I am very pleased to bring this book to you and release it prior to my original debut book project as it is very fitting for this period of time and it gives a good idea of my writing and storytelling to intrigue you with. Some poems will make you laugh, some will make you gasp, words will make you cringe, think, tear up or grunt in agreement. Either way it will certainly spark a reaction or debate in some cases.

This is the first of many books to come from me and it is now available exclusively from Shop Infiniti  as a pre-release of the hardback edition.

Purchase, read, enjoy, share and comment.

Love Lauren

Mother's, March, Easter & Cards

How is it that Easter can be advertised before Mother’s Day? And not even for religious purposes but just for the tooth decaying purpose of selling increasingly expensive Easter Eggs, I ask you and I ask myself? Not that I’m complaining about all the chocolate, I know the damage that comes with eating excessive amounts but I LOVE’S ME some chocolate as seen on my food blog and in my cupboard.

I've just sent out my 2nd newsletter for my blog and speaking of Mother’s Day which is on Sunday 15^th March in the UK for those that aren’t sure, I have a couple of Mother’s Day custom card orders under my belt as a result of my remarkable, if I do say so myself, Valentine’s cards that I made this month. I really wanted to step up my game as I feel that I missed out last year. The interests that lead to these sales were from both my recent custom orders as well as my new pre-made cards that are selling online. After posting pictures of them on my Facebook page, I literally got 2448 views from that post in just 1 hour!!!!! Then 3175 a few hours later!!! Seriously. That was a much needed esteem boost let me tell you. By the next day it reached 3225 views!! I must be doing something right then.

To see and read more about my recent cards click here. Really guys I went IN with my designs and poetry on those ones, check them out and don’t hesitate to place an order. Not all of them are just made for that particular day by the way, some of them are worded for love/like and adult themes on any occasion. Any day is a good day to say how you feel for someone.

I wrote a pleasurable piece of suggestions on Deevah’s Cravings to advise the best ways to enjoy Valentine’s. Received great feedback from the few that took my advice and nice responses on Twitter so all my efforts paid off. Again, it’s something that can be taken advantage of on any occasion so why don’t you take a look click here.

Other than cards, I am forever preparing my crowdfund and currently doing revisions on my debut poetry book. The first draft looks great but it is incomplete and needs tweaking. This hardback copy itself is super sweet to look at I must say, it is in supreme quality better than I expected and  I am looking extremely forward to the final draft. I’m going hard trus’ me! Newsletters and all!

I’m also looking forward to performing at various events next month and beyond. To book me for an event e.g. International Women’s day, an Ovarian Cancer fundraiser or what have you please do not hesitate to contact me.

Comment below or email me to join my mailing list.

Have a good weekend everyone!

@LK_ReelDeevah

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!!!!!!!!!!!!

Self-Publishing on a Mission!

I have been working on my debut book of poetry since last year as many people know now, no it is not ready, still in development. Mainly, due to my own confidence as this is a a big deal. A very personal project that will almost define me and my art in many ways for many years to come. It makes me feel so exposed but in a way that's necessary. This will take a while and I am happy for it to do so because as I heard Bobby Brown say "You can't rush greatness," well said. Naturally, this project needs a significant amount of funding to do it how I want to, how it ought to etc. Believe me when I say plenty time, effort, emotion, and perspiration has gone and continues to go into it.

I am raising funds, seeking sponsorship, I may start a crowd-funding campaign. Due to the promotion needed to sell this book you will see me perform more than usual including festivals and corporate events.

For my fans, the book will contain some of the crowd favourites:
ABW
Salute, Appreciation & Dedication
Baggage
Une Noire
I Want More Now
I Said Yes
Innocence
Victims of Beauty
and of course plenty more!

See to my tweets @LK_ReelDeevah as well as my blog for any updates and email me LKSamuels@infinitipromotions.co.uk for any suggestions or support.

Much Love ;-)