1. Where Can I Buy the Book?Almost everywhere! If you want to shop local / support indie bookstores, IndieBound and Bookshop are for you. It's also available at major retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million, as well as places like Hudson Bookstore, and on international book buying websites! Links are on the book page, and you can also search by title (you might want to try the whole title verbatim, Tempest: Poems, because there is a writer named Kae Tempest, and they join this book in most Google searches.) And this book does have the potential for physical sales in local bookstores! If you don't see it at your local shop or B&N, etc., make sure to tell the shop owners they should carry it. I'll be doing the same! Pre-order now; available March 1, 2021. 2. What Inspired Your Choice of Cover Art? / Why Flamingos?Okay, hear me out... I first saw this design on wallpaper in the bathroom of a restaurant I was having brunch at a few years back. Imagine those flamingos covering a whole room! I was taken aback, but also a bit inspired. Cut to months later, when I was playing around with cover design options, and I found the design again. I knew it was meant to be! I use PicMonkey for my book cover designs, digital assets, etc., and they work through Unsplash, where artists can donate their work to get their names out there, which is so cool. The artist, who has some great photos up on the site, is Stephane YAICH. Go check out the profile! And why flamingos? I wanted to provide a sense of nature and light, given the connotations of the title, Tempest. It's a balance I hoped to achieve in this book, opposing dark and light, carrying themes of human nature as well as the natural world. Plus, that pink color is so bold and vastly different from my first book, that it just felt right. And I think it looks great. So thanks to all of you who have agreed! 3. What Were Some of Your Inspirations for Writing Tempest?I do talk a little bit about this in the Foreword that I wrote for the book, so I won't go into too much detail. But Tempest was named after the Deftones song of the same name. And I think subconsciously, the cover draws from the similar album cover of their 2016 record Gore. Their music contains a lot of the tones and dichotomies that I wanted to bring forth in my book. And this book draws a lot more from my own personal experiences, my own journey of self-identity, feelings of hope and fear... And this does have an LGBTQ+ subject category, but I don't want to define the entirety of the book as queer. It is human, it is honest, and it isn't completely non-fiction. Anyone who knows me knows I mostly lean towards writing fictional stories. But there is always a little bit of the writer in all of their works. And I am who I am, so Tempest has absorbed a lot of me, more so than Haunt did. 4. How Long Have You Been Working on This?Some of these poems have definitely been sitting around for a while. I would say much of this book was written over the last few years or so, but if I want to get technical, some of the pieces in Tempest I first wrote as early as 2012/2013, when I really started diving into poetry in college. And some of these poems have been workshopped in the courses I took in school, so if any of my classmates from my creative writing courses are reading this, you might recognize a few of the poems! 5. What Poem Changed the Most from First to Final Draft?Hmm, good question! Probably a piece in the book called "Long, Long After." It started as something much more ambiguous and abstract, and after a few rounds of editing, it became more of a story, and the central character was a bit more fleshed out and unique, yet relatable. 7. How Did You Publish This Book?I am self-publishing Tempest through IngramSpark. They are the self-publishing branch of Ingram, one of the top book distributors. I wanted the book to be as widely available as possible, so I decided to go with IS, and so far, I'm happy with the result. And many bookstores have accounts with Ingram, so if you do bring up the book to your local shops, you can throw in there that they can order through Ingram! 6. What's the Vibe?Sad, hopeful, anxious, queer, confident, unsure, hesitant, ambitious, strong, still sometimes spooky, and unapologetic. And pink! Thanks again for all the support so far, and I hope you liked these answers to your questions. I'm happy to answer any more questions that you have! Leave some in the comments below, send me an email, message me on social media. And when you get your copies of Tempest, be sure to leave reviews everywhere you can! Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, anywhere would be a great help to make this book as accessible to everyone as it can be. Thanks all!
- Ryan BUY MY BOOKS / FOLLOW ME
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