Our Poet of the Month for July 2017 is none other than The Duke of Quails. He is young in age but mature at heart. Both these qualities prominently show in his two poetry books. The versatility of his verses are awe-inspiring so be sure to check out the reviews of his bibliography on Literary Retreat. To find out more about the author, read our Q&A below.
- It’s wonderful to have you with us for this Q&A, Duke. Please tell us about your humble beginnings as an author.
My beginnings of an author started with my childhood. As any young boy TV was my life, and watching classic cartoons like Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry became a ritual in my house. As I grew up I watched more and more cartoons. My all-time favorite was Sonic the Hedgehog. I loved that show so much I bought so many toys of all the characters from the show. As most kids do I had my adventures with them and my imagination went crazy. I wasn’t really one to go outside and to hang out with friends. Instead I would be at home thinking of new adventures or the new episode about to air. I started to make up my own skits and my own new upcoming episodes of what could happen adding in characters and toys from other TV shows just to make it more exciting. Well, once my mom noticed what I was doing and she asked me, “Why don’t you write it down so you won’t forget it?” So with a pen and paper I went to work.
I had a lot of notebooks piled up in my room to a point where I wrote 112 episodes for the show. My aunt who questioned what all the notebooks were there for, I let her read one and after going through a couple run on sentences, she liked it but with one catch. She told me, “I can’t use these characters”. So I quickly took over the conversation explaining why I’m writing these episodes and questioned her as to why I couldn’t use them. Then she broke it down to me in a way a kid wound understand. She told me that, “These characters were made by a kid just like you and that’s something he or she holds close to their heart the same way you hold it to your heart. Now if you keep something that close to your heart how would you feel if someone takes it from you and uses it in a way you don’t want?” As I sat back and listened to what she said I realized she was right; those aren’t my characters and I needed to make my own. So I did make new characters with the same stories and the same wild adventures. The more I grew up the more I started to improve them as well as the stories. Then I was introduced to poetry and I poured the same imagination into my poetry, and everyone loved it. So I thought why not write a book of poetry?
- You’ve written two poetry books and one horror book. Which genre do you most prefer to write in?
Poetry.
- Which was your first book to become popular?
Secret of True Love: Poems from the Heart.
- Which of your own works do you like the most?
Secret of True Love: Poems from the Heart
- Tell us about your upcoming projects.
My upcoming project will have more focus on the horror-thriller genre. And I’m getting my first novel out there as well. But on the poetry end there’s a book I am working on that deals with poetry that everyone loves me for, and that’s romantic poetry. It is titled, I Need Someone Special: Poems of my Heart. It is where I reveal another secret, another chapter you might say in understanding what your heart needs.
The Duke of Quails: Amazon Author Page
