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Local Poet publishes first work
Warsaw Country Courier, August 3, 2006 by Katie Childs
After 31 years of heaving life, local resident David Anthony Thomas has published his first book of poetry-Observations of a Lunatic while on Vacation in Reality.
David began writing when he was 10 or 11. At that time he lived in Florida. He moved across the country at age 14 to live with his father, as his mother was struggling with disease. Shortly after he moved, his mother died.
The move was the first in a series that would take David around the country, living in California, South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and finally New York.
The whole time David was moving, he was writing. "I spent most of my life in cities," he said. "Most of what I've written was written in cities." The influence is evident in his written voice, which is peppered with cries of loneliness, anger, and a quest for something genuine.
While David was living in Washington, he met Martha Lochman through an animal lovers chat room. Both hold a special place in their lives for felines. David soon moved to Dale, NY to live with Martha.
"Originally, when he moved here, he had volumes and volumes of writing," Martha said. Every poem, essay, and short story David had written during a decade of transition was still intact. David had planned to have his works published after he had died. Martha encouraged him otherwise. "Why not go ahead and publish it now."
"His one passion was writing-enough to carry all those books thousands and thousands of miles," she said.
He began the agonizing process of going through his books, choosing the poems he deemed best, and compiling them into a publishable format.
Picking a favorite poem for David was "like picking a favorite child," he said. "Beauty" was one that stood out in his mind.
You are the spark in the darkest of nights Your voice is like the angels of Heaven in my ears Your eyes are the gateway to the sweetest of souls Heaven has created The roses of my garden hide their faces from your beauty out of shame Clouds drift past in awe knowing God has blessed you With His very own beauty Depart not from me lest my heart be torn in two Having it fall into the blackest abyss of sorrow Your majestic beauty and kindness are what I seek For company through this life You are the twinkle in my eye of early morning slumber As the sun sets upon the lily cascading color across the lakes of my life The lily that grows in the darkest reign of my heart, Blind to all the infectious decay Your are the radiance that makes my life whole How I love you, my cherished creature
Many of David's poems are signed by pseudonyms, "different aspects of my personality that I've witnessed and gone through," he said. Names like Psycho-holic, The Rogue, and Crazy Lush take the reader into different aspects of David's life.
The names David uses in his poetry are often names people have called him over the years. He was often called lunatic, crazy, and other names that the media has placed on the heads of a certain category of people. Instead of letting the labels tear him down, David used the stigma of mental illness to create poetry.
"There is no line between genius and insanity," he said.
He wants to inspire people to reevaluate who they are and what they're living for. "I plan on making an impact on people's lives," he said. He writes to transcend gender, age, and race. At least two of his poems will make a person evaluate something within themselves, and at least five will make a person think of someone they know, he said.
Observations of a Lunatic is dedicated to "anyone who has struggled through abuse, misuse, or neglect, compounded by mental illness, and still had the courage to pull themselves out of the muck and mire to become children of fire."
His writing is not fit for everyone though. To some, David's brash poetry may be offensive. "It's supposed to be on certain levels," he said. He believes that those who would be most offended are probably the ones he is writing about, the ones who have labeled him and held him back throughout his life. He recommends that his book be read by people ages "18 to dead."
The poems in Observations of a Lunatic were written between 1995 and 2002, before David left the screaming and gunshots of the city to live in rural New York. His voice has changed a lot over the past couple of years, he said.
"It takes a different kind of person to live out here," Martha said.
"You have to be brutally independent-self-reliant," David added.
As David began to look for a publisher, he knew he didn't want to go through a vanity press, one that charges authors to publish their books. He also knew that a big name publisher would probably never publish an unknown poet. He chose the company PublishAmerica.
It was the only non-vanity press he could find that worked with new authors. Going with the company held a huge trade-off though. PublishAmerica was given sole publishing rights for seven years, and David became solely responsible for promotion of his new book. Most major book stores will not put PublishAmerica books on their shelves because they are print on demand, meaning when one is ordered, it is printed then rather than printing up hundreds or thousands of copies at once to sit in storage. Most copies must be purchased online.
Authors all over the country have had qualms with PublishAmerica throughout its five-year existence, a fact David was well aware of before signing the contract. Most of the complainers didn't realize they would have to promote their own work, he said.
"If you want it-go out and hustle it," Martha added. The couple has been working hard the past two months, creating business cards and book marks, designing a merchandising strategy, and getting their name out in cyberspace. Throughout the next weeks, as they lead up to the official August 14 retail release date, David and Martha will be working to set up signings and get the book into local bookstores.
Second and third books are also in the works, though David is keeping his eyes open for other publishers. The Lunatic Strikes Back will have more essays than poems, and Tripping the Stratosphere is a work of short stories that David plans to turn into screenplays.
Throughout the whole process, David has kept one thought close. "When no one believes in you, you must believe in yourself." He said, "I never believed there was anything I could not do."
Learn more or purchase the book at www.publishedauthors.net/observationsofalunatic.
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