The Rise of the Verbal Villain

1: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I am a hip-hop addict that wants to infuse and manipulate as many words as possible, to express myself through rhyme and raps, to cause a commotion through emotion basically. I am a loner that loves words. I have endured bullying and to my last breath, I promise I aint gonna get bullied anymore nor will I sit back and watch anyone else get bullied. I know I have a way of weaving words now and will destroy anyone who dares challenge me verbally. 

2: What inspired you to write The Rise of the Verbal Villain?

I wanted to tell people my story, of how I developed my own armour using word ammo to fight back against my bullies. I believed I had a story to tell that even if just one teenager, adult, whatever, felt somehow inspired to stand up for themselves like I did, then the months of putting pen to paper was worth it. I subconsciously developed my alter-ego over a short period as I realised that a sharp wit and cutting comments will slay any dragons you may have. I just wanted people to know how I went from the old Lee to the new me, and hopefully to help people along the way.

3: How long was the writing process?

To get it ready for publication took about four months of weekend writing. The hardest part was writing the rhymes down onto paper. Writing a rap is so incredibly hard, even with a beat but doing it without one, that was tough. It was tough in the sense that I had to write the words in such a way that the rhyme would be read in the exact same way as I had rapped it to myself. I had to split words and sentences, adding hyphens and commas out of context to be able to guide the reader on the break points, breath points, and the pronunciation and flow of the rhyme I was aiming for. This then got further complicated when it went to editing as editors generally use a generic editing template which when they ran my rhymes through it, went into grammar meltdown mode as the spellings were deemed as incorrect except they weren't, they were written that way purely for the reader to be to read and become the rapper in their OWN head.

4: How many books do you plan on writing?

I want to do a series of five, I am writing about 2yrs behind my current age ('The Rise' tells my story of when I was 16, but I am currently 18) so providing I have enough dramas then I want to do one year.

5: What scene was your favourite to write?

I enjoyed writing the final chapter! I suppose every writer says that but for me, the book was a crescendo building for the reader as the alter-ego character was created, conceived, educated and then unleashed at the end. For me, the final scene was dark, poetic, emphatic and electric in the sense that the character achieved what he wanted and delivered his best work so far. I hope the readers agree though!

6: Have you always wanted to be a writer?

I have always loved reading, I think your mind is the greatest tool we have and a good book fuels your imagination by planting ideas, fears, scenes, settings and feelings in there that you may not know existed or even wanted. I then decided that I wanted my raps and rhymes to be in the literary world not the lyrical one. No-one seems to have taken raps to paper, creating a story/character inspired by a love of hip-hop and word weaving so I wanted to be the first, with my own tale as the catalyst for the character that has been created from my own personal torture at times.

7: What's your best advice for someone who wants to be a writer?

Difficult question! I suppose it would stem first on what you want to achieve, your primary goals. Is it to tell a personal tale? Is it to create a character? If it is character based and you seek longevity, then I suppose it would be to find a genre that hasn't been exploited, or even create one from nowhere! For example, we have literary heavyweights now smashing pretty much all genres. From Lee Child being the big cheese with the all-encompassing American hero through to the formidable JK Rowling owning the younger genre and taking them through their next decade of their lives with the titan that is Harry! EL James has the monopoly of mucky books for mummies plus we have the Stephens and Michaels owning horror and detection novels. Of course there is super-talented writers breaking into these moulds daily but the fight to the top is treacherous when dealing with these Goliath's so my advice, if any, and from a novice novelist, is to try and create then write what isn't there yet!!!

8: What are some of your favourite novels?

I do love the Jack Reacher thrillers. Fluid writing and you can read these in or out of their sequence and regardless of either choice, the character just owns you from page 1 to the last word and you do actually become Reacher. What Lee Child has done is simplistic yet brilliant in terms of creating longevity for a character that resonates and appeals to both sexes.

9: Who’s your favourite rapper?

I greatly admire Eminem, for his poetic anger and amazing word-weaving abilities. A true artist who is dedicated, consumed even, to the craft that is hip-hop and emceeing. I also admire Lil Wayne because he knits sentences in pairs perfectly before flipping the next two lines. Linguistically and lyrically that is very difficult to do, to rap in pairs and ending the last word of the pair to feed/instigate the next set of paired sentences and Lil Wayne owns that.

10: Is there a specific message you hope readers will take away from The Rise of the Verbal Villain?

Just that you CAN be greater than your haters, that bullying will and can stop when you reach your own cliff's edge and realise turning and facing your bullies is the only way to claim your self-respect and confidence back, as bullies have no right in taken them from you in the first place. I really hope I can be an anti-hero with my alter-ego as The Villain plans on spitting for a long time yet...

I'd like to thank Lee, the Verbal Villain for agreeing and taking the time to do this. 

If you'd like to read my review, click here.