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Urban Reviews: Can you tell us what your latest book Murder
With A Deadly Weapon is all about?
Thomas Overton: Murder With A Deadly Weapon is about the life
of a Glock Nine millimeter. You know how a gun would travel in
these streets. You get a gun than pass it on to one of your friends
and they use it so on and so forth. Through it's different
encounters, the Glock talks about how it feels to be in diverse
situations. It kind of touches on gun violence and if a gun could
speak what its view is of what goes on.
Urban Reviews: Where did you come up with the plot for this novel?
Thomas Overton: Prison. I was serving a two-year sentence and that is where
I became inspired to write. Out of boredom and the fact that there
was nothing else to do, I came up with the concept. I began to
wonder whatever happened to the first two guns I'd ever owned. And I
remember my cousin giving me a gun to handle some business with at
one time in my life. So, because of the mass gun violence that takes
place in our streets these days and personal life experiences I
thought that a gun with a voice that travels from hand to hand would
be an excellent plot.
Urban Reviews: What goals do you hope to eventually accomplish as an author?
Thomas Overton: I've only been out for a couple of months now and it has been
difficult getting out to the masses. But Teri Woods said
it best. She said, "At first no one will buy your book, but
after one or two readers embrace the story, masses of others will
follow." So.... I'm going to keep hustlin' and await the masses. I haven't gotten any bad responses yet from any readers so that's a
blessing. Just keepin' it moving is what I'll have to do. I'm
determined to become successful in this game. Eventually I'll land an
adaptation deal for the book to become a film.
Urban Reviews: What things did you do to help prepare yourself for the book
business? (read books, take a writing class, learn about publishing
rights, etc)
Thomas Overton: Read a lot. Read and Learn. Teri Woods'
True to the Game and Leondrei Prince's Bloody Money are the
first street fiction books that I read. Those two books inspired me to write while I was
in prison. I'm reading The Ski Mask Way by Randy
"Ski" Thompson now and 1001 Ways to Market Your Books
by John Kremer. The more I read, the more my mind thinks about my
own life and the things that I or someone around me have been through. This
helps me come up with concepts to write about. Real life situations
that I've lived or my peoples have lived.
Urban Reviews: What kind of promotion have you done to help get the word out
about Murder With A Deadly Weapon?
Thomas Overton: I've been
working on developing an Internet presents. If I can do that in
2009, people will look out for my books. My consignment money has
been doing well. I go back to the stores and my books are selling,
so.... Being in the streets and handing out promotional materials. I
plan on doing media promotion, but I have to keep hustling and it
will happen. I'm a keep writing and keep hustling. I'm not feeling
my publisher right now, so I plan on repackaging the novel and
dropping it again with my second book called Keys to the Franchise.
Urban Reviews: Have there been any lessons learned about the book industry?
Thomas Overton: Self-Publish.....Self-Publish...If you can afford it,
SELF-PUBLISH. I wish I did more homework regarding a publisher. They
made me wait two years before they dropped Murder With A Deadly
Weapon. Then, they don't hardly promote and their book signings are
cheesy. They don't do big things for their Authors. Eventually, they
might, but not right now and they haven't done enough. They are
crying broke and I hate that...If you're broke, you need to get out
of the business and not promise people a dream. I have family to
feed and don't want to hear how broke you are. I worked hard on
writing something that can sell so publish to sell not publish to
wait cause your broke. You know...ANY PUBLISHERS WHO CAN PROVIDE
ME A CHECK, HOLLA AT ME.
thmsoverton@yahoo.com. So, new authors, do your extensive
homework.
Urban Reviews: Do you have any ideas for future projects that you'd like to
share with us?
Thomas Overton: I'm working on three novels more novels now at once. A sequel to
Murder With A Deadly Weapon is in the near future as well, Murder
With A Deadly Weapon 2: Back In the Streets. The other 3
novels are...
1. Keys to the Franchise which is about five drug
dealers who come up in the game to purchase a professional football
franchise, but will they see their dream come to life.
That's actually done already.
2. It Was All Good Just A Week
Ago is about a woman who is on top, however takes a trip to the bottom
of the food chain after she looses her job, relationships, and her
freedom. When she decides that enough is enough, she devises a plan
to get back on top.
3. Now Who has the Last Laugh is a
tale about a young black man with ambitions to be a successful
entrepreneur, but negativity surrounds his lifestyle. He struggles
to survive the clutches of life in a way that all ambitious
black men can relate to.
Also look out for THE URBAN BOOK OUTLET, an online bookstore strictly for the urban reader and/or the urban
author to promote and sell his/her work. We will also have a store
that will be located in either Philadelphia, PA or Atlanta, GA.
Urban Reviews: Where do you see yourself in five years as far as the literary
business is concerned?
Thomas Overton: God willing, still alive first and not dead or in prison. I hope
to be still on the grind running the Book Outlet/Store and releasing
my 8 - 15th novel. And I would like to have a movie made after one
of my books.
Urban Reviews: Do you have any favorite authors or books that you enjoy reading?
Thomas Overton: My favorite
authors right now are Teri Woods and Leondrei
Prince.
Urban Reviews: Is there anything else you would like to share with us about you
or your books?
Thomas Overton: Thank you for the review and the love. Without the Urban review,
our genre would continue to be a struggling breed. However, we are
growing. I love the black book stores that are swarmed with Urban
fiction. Now, we just need more movies based after our books and
Hollywood can quit it with the remakes because their running out of
good stories. YOOO, HERE WE ARE OVER HERE! WE WANT MONEY
TOO!.....And it ain't all about the money. I want success. More
writing jobs, etc.......SO HOLLYWOOD, STOP WITH THE EXCUSES AND
START GIVING US A SHOT!
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