Owen Bryan Jr. Interview Published on: 28, Sep 2020

To be honest Mady, I never had any thoughts that I would be an author when I was growing up. The idea of me writing my own book came to fruition last year.

For me now, it means a great deal. I found a way to share my thoughts, observations, and philosphy in poetry that I never knew i could until as of recent. And to know I am positively impacting people lives gives me more drive to keep going.

My nuclear family are my mom, dad, younger sister and two older brothers. Including my relatives and cousins here in the states and Jamaica, they are really proud of my accomplishment. My father, who is Owen Bryan Sr., said when he got a physcal copy of my book and saw my name, it made him think WE can do this too.

My family history going back to Jamaica was more agricultural and residing in the states was only of recent decades, since the 90's. Entrepreneurship and even graduating from an university is something not familiar with a vast of my family. I would like to be an example of where we can go from my family's humble beginnings.

Well, my speaking career is still promising, but what got me to start venturing into this career path was my the strong feedback and responses I have gotten from my speeches that I've given in Toastmasters International. I've seen on multiple occasions how people that I do not know can react to you when you have strong oratory skills. I'm developing my material and plan on putting videos of messages on social media and YouTube.

My father's friend, whom is also a paid public speaker, saw a recent video message I did and expressed that he saw I definitely have a voice and potential to develop an audience.

Is one of those things Mady, when you see people just resonate with what you got going on, why not continue doing it. It's similar to my poetry as well.

I was good in math during grade, middle, and high school, and I wanted to pick a major with a better prospect for job opportunities after college. I just picked one of the engineering majors. I make the admission, I knew very little about what it entailed when I started, just that it is engineering and I'm trying to get a good job after college. Simple as that.

In my book, Observation Of The Moment, if there is one poem I would like the world to read it is , "Conflict Attracts Profit". That poem actually delves into the relationship between the black american community and the police and how society, media reacts to acts of police brutality. I'll give you the back story on how that poem came about below:

I was at a Barnes and Nobles one night at the cafe with my laptop. I was reading up on the poets Ted Kooser and Claude McKay and their poetry. I like to read about different public figures life stories. And reading up on Claude McKay and other writers from the Harlem Renaissance, I saw majority had writings that addressed the current civil rights and social strife of the day. I didn't have any poems of such so I decided to write one that night. I asked someone sitting at a table next to me for a piece of paper. And I wrote "Conflict Attracts Profit" in around 10 minutes. I showed it to the people at the table next to me and they were astounded. We then delved into a 20-25 minute conversation about Colin Kaepernick and police brutality.

I looked at this as a sign that my writing can exude conversations on what is going on in the world.

Well, to sum up, this was my first book and I didn't really know how to go about publishing a book. It was only of recent I was aware of the self-publishing industry and I did a lot of research into going about having my book professionally self-published. One mistake I made was not getting my book professionally formatted the first time I released it. That's why there are two ISBNs on Amazon for my book. I saw how poorly the finished product was going to look, but it was too late to rescind it as I already clicked publish.

I end up getting it formatted professionally and I am proud how it came out.

I would look at it from the aspect of, expressing what readers would like to read about, but doing so in my voice, my frame of view. It is difficult for me to write material that is more purposeful to fit with the current trends or what's popular, if it isn't authentic to me. In short, if it doesn't resonate with me, it would be difficult for me to find much to write about.

My main target audience are young people in their 20's, early 30's, and teens. I think I have a message that would resonate with this group or for people in general interested in introspective poetry of daily life and our time.

I'm still trying to learn the ropes, but one thing I find that is effective in whatever you do is to remnain consistent. It canbe tough as it requires discipline, but any bit of improvement is better than just sitting it out.

Yes, I do read my book reviews and to say the least it has been very interesting. I enjoyed reading good thorough reviews of my book and the bad ones, I've come to the fact that you're not going to please everyone, but you can still develop an audience if you have quality material.

If I would do it again, it would be work on developing an audience before launching the book, and setting a release date. Once date secured, it can help with a noticeable release.

I would say continue improving my leadership experience at my work and in Toastmasters Club. Continuing to go into different endeavors and not just sitting back waiting for the world to happen. Watchful on my diet and exercise everday now. A multitude of areas in self-improvement can have a hollistic effect on bettering your view on life.

For this subject matter, I would actually refer a couple books, Power Vs. Force, by Dr. David Hawkins. And The Power of Intention by Dr. Wayne Dyer. And listen to Alan Watts' speeches.

I am working on a new set of poetry. Some of the changes I will be putting in my newer works are shorter poems and having a wider vaariety of topics. Similar to Observation Of The Moment. Relatable poems on life and the world.

I really like it. I believe AllAuthor does a good job working with authors and providing a network to meeting other authors.