It was always a long term goal of mine to publish a book of poems and short stories by age 37… 5 years post goal age here we are. Once the decision was made to proceed with the project I had to decide which poems to include in the book that would showcase my writing ability, style and personality.

So many people over the past thirty plus years have left an indelible mark on my life and so many of these people live in my writings.  As such, it was a difficult to decide which writings to include and which to exclude; all being so personal in nature. Some of the prose is more than twenty years old; written at a stage in my life where I was very militant, outspoken and some times crude. However, no matter how difficult it was to read poems that I penned so long ago during a different period of my life  I decided to leave them in to give the book its own identity;  a truthfulness that the reader would enjoy.  With the exception of “Snow Ball Fight” a story written about a tragic death that occurred at Kennedy King middle school in Gary, In… I was not willing to re-open those wounds, so I left it out.

Actual events inspired some of my writings, for example “Shadow Fade” was written two years after the 911 terrorist attack and 44 was inspired by the election of President Barack Obama.  Both poems were written long after the actual events, this was done to ensure that my writings were not influenced by the plethora of poems that were written as a result of those events.

Finally, with a rough manuscript in hand I was ready to find an African American publisher that would be willing to publish my book; this is where the frustration began.  Believe it or not what I discovered was most African American Publishers will accept very few if any books of poetry for publication.  Langston where are you?   A friend informed me about iseecolor.com; I joined New Authors on the Move group developed by Author Sherrie D. Cotton.  This site offers a wealth of information for new authors trying to get published.  With the information gained from this site I decided that self publishing would be the best route to accomplish my goal.  I decided to utilize  Outskirstspress to self publish my book, the deciding factor was of all of the self publishing companies I researched it was the only one to have an actual number to call and speak to an individual to inquire about the progress of the book.  I also utilized Outskirstpress to edit the manuscript pre-publication, of all the services offered by Outskirtspress the editing proved to be the most valuable; correcting embarrassing grammatical and spelling errors.  The final product is Tenderheaded: A Saga of Plaits and Beads.

Originally from Gary, Indiana I am the sixth of seven children born to Nellie and Freddie Neal. I graduated in 1985 from William A. Wirt High School after which I joined the United States Navy.  While enlisted in the USN I attained an Associates degree in General Studies, a Bachelors Degree in Psychology and am currently working on a Masters Degree in Psychology. I retired from the USN in August 2007 after serving 22 years. I am now a government contractor employed by Universal Consulting Services working for Marine Forces Reserve coordinating health screenings for Marines returning from combat related deployments.   For more information about the book please visit www.outskirtspress.com/Tenderheaded.