The Rise of the Verbal Villain!
Written by: the Verbal Villain
It was the Verbal Villain who sought out my Twitter handle that fights for the cause of the injustice of Bullying, CyberBullying, prejudice, and belittling things as such. Once I seen him on that account, I tagged him! Yes of on my main account, and ask that he consider checking out 'this blog site' for his book. He did so, and we spoke from there.
I read his book, which started off with a descent tone, and within a few pages, feelings of hatred started stirring in my mind. For starters, everyone knows I hate bullying of any sort, but they will only assume why and be wrong. (I was in kindergarten and punched in the stomach by a high schooler! Yeah, and try this on for size: seventeen times. And of course nothing can be done. She didn't go to my School!) We all have these kinds of stories I'm certain, each with a little different variety.
These bullying scenarios have made us what we are today, for this I am certain. But do you actually think, it should be our own Parents and our teachers that are doing the bullying? I think not. Because those are to whom they tell us to turn to when bad things are happening. So what do you do, when it's them doing the bad things? Not such a great thought, is it?
Do you blame yourself? Do you cry? Do you ignore? Do you fight back? What choices are there? Actually; with each of us, with every age-there are so many options...Each one unique in our own way, just like this book.
At first, the verbal villain cried. While doing so, he gets caught. Now it's even worse. By none other then the people who will help to make you feel even smaller. They call him a fag. The verbal villain, in his head, agrees. Telling himself he shouldn't have cried.
He let another person read his words. Words he had written, and chose so carefully, only to be told they were no good, his parents did want him, he was a looser, and so many other rude and nasty insults that felt like punches right into his gut. But he listened. And he ran away crying.
When he goes home, no "How was your day honey, did you have a good day at School?" In stead, "Get that @&$*^% room clean, I'm not you're slave!" No one to help with homework, no offer to help, no concern. No niceties, always distasteful rudeness. On a rare occasion, he could sense that his Mother loved him, or at least hoped she did. But his Father, was a who,em different story.
With his Father, he couldn't understand why the man hated him so much. Maybe he didn't want me? What did I ever do to him? He always wondered and worked so hard at trying to please him, but nothing ever worked. In fact, it was always the opposite.
This is one of the reasons he kept writing, it was like his release valve. Many people today; are taught in psychiatric classes to write in journals and diaries to release feelings, rather then hold them in. It has been proven as an excellent form of release, and therapy.
When you get toward the end of the book, after much heart ache and pain, you will realize, that this story has a light at the end of the tunnel. They always say: "You learn from your mistakes." It is true, and sadly; there is pain in doing so for some. I have always said: "If I knew then, what I know now..." But as the verbal villain explains, I wouldn't be a stronger person because of the path I was led down. Just as he would not be. The mistakes, the pain, the road we have all taken is a lesson learned. From that we're to take from it and: "Rise!" Rise above it and become better and stronger, and guide others, so they won't make the same mistakes we have. We have the power!
This book has very strong feelings in it, it is heart felt and painful. I hope that it helped the Verbal Villain move on, he is an extraordinary person, with extraordinary strengths, both mind and soul. The lives he touches, will be glad to know him! I give this book five stars, you need to read it, you will learn a great deal from it.
Here are my questions for the Verbal Villain:
1) What made you decide to write this book? I thought I had a true tale that people could both resonate with and take inspiration from. To show that when you reach the end of your metaphorical cliff, it then truly is your flight (fall!!) or fight moment. Bullying is a disease carried by infected people who wish to spread it but the cure is your confidence to stand up for yourself.
2) How long did it take you to write this book? It took about three months to write the manuscript but the real issue came when it needed to be edited! Because of my writing style and reliving the raps I used in my transformation from deflated ego to alter ego, that when penning the raps to the reader, I had to put commas out of context which indicates a break point in the sentence or a point where to breathe however editors struggled with that concept! So having to explain that the word must be spelt in its slang version or with the comma here and not there, really caused some issues as we moved away from perfect grammar and into the way we speak today that I wanted to convey.
3) As you were rewriting this, and reliving everything, did it bother you; did you wish you had done certain things differently? It bothered me that I was put in this situation to begin with. Bullying is confidence draining and ego deflating but your resurrection from it is inspiring and liberating. I knew (and still know) that I may not have the latest sneakers, the most dollar in my pocket but I know now that these bullies can't write like I can, can't manipulate the English language to be both profane and poetic like I can.
4) What all Education have you had? My education is lacking a little now, the follow up to 'The Rise' will tell you the aftermath of my decision to do what I did. I wish to pursue English literature to it highest accolades I can achieve but as for state education, that's kinda over.
5) Do you have any regrets? I think regrets and guilt are a wasted emotion. Doing what I did and how I did it was a decision I took prior and then prepared for so if I felt true guilt afterwards it would be pointless putting myself in that situation in the first place. The aftermath was huge both in a good and bad way but either way, my decision to do what I did cannot be reversed or apologized for.
6) You chose your pen name, do you ever intend to review whom you really are? My real name is mentioned in the book but my pseudonym will now prevail as I continue to write my stories as I enter key chapters in my life personally whilst trying to achieve what I want professionally writing both poetically, passionately and lyrically.
7) Are you pleased with your life now? Not really. I am on a journey to find happiness but my mind has hurdles to overcome and walls to break down. I suffer from anger and anxiety and I need maturity to assist me as the rage leaves me, but all I can do is try to better myself every day and think before the verbal switch goes off in my head.
8) What are your future goals and plans? I want to become an anti-hero for the masses really, in a sense of showing that life is brutal, harsh and will beat you if you let it but you can live amongst it and achieve your goals with dedication and desire. I wanted 'The Rise' to be seen almost as an EP, as in my introduction into the literary world ready to then really write and inspire to teenagers and adults alike with a personna that hasn't been portrayed on paper before. Plus to take wordplay and lyricism into books to give a fresh new life into hip hop and to show how it helped me and continues to help me both as a crutch and as a career choice.
9) Do you plan on writing another book? I plan on dropping a book a year reliving my previous year being as real and truthful as possible. I hope, providing that people actually like my style of writing and my journey, to be able to sit and reflect on the previous year and then before I pick up the pen, to decide on the underlying message or subject matter that will run throughout the book that will hopeful inspire, interest or provoke self-reflection and thought to the reader.
10) How do you expect that your words will help and teach and change others about bullying? I hope that 'The Rise' will show that you can beat bullies with words alone. Words were my weapons and as sad as it sounds, bullies don't just get bored and move on, something has to give and usually its your fear giving way to your feeling of injustice and then you react to claim your respect back and I reacted with barbs and stinging verbal attacks. I hope that the actual book itself will be perceived as well written, unique, brutal and inspirational at times as I beat my bullies using rhymes.
11) What changes have you made in your own life? I am still on that journey and probably at the minute can't see any real changes although my personality has got darker and my mind has gotten more verbally creative.
12) What advice/advise can you offer those being bullied? That you need to find your limits and then have a way to act upon them. Bullies will only bully the ones they feel they have a edge over so if you have a talent, even an hidden talent, find it, exploit it and then ram it down their throats. The feeling of beating your perpetrators is a surreal feeling, the bullying has stopped, the metaphorical pause on your life at the hands on these halfwits has been lifted and you can move on and away but it doesn't remove the feelings you had when enduring their bullying verbal or physical antics. None the less, respect doesn't seem to be awarded freely anymore by anyone so you need to find a way to earn it, then from there, harness it and ultimately protect it.
13) What advise/advice can you offer those being bullied by their Parents? That's a difficult one, as where do you start? Your parents control and govern you through your formative years so if it is them bullying you, your options are limited. I would say that if possible, talk to other members within your family but be careful for the denial you may face from others. Also keep a notepad, write down the things said and when, then reflect on it, was it said in context or was it bullying and way over the line from the people who should love, mentor and protect you.
14) Can you offer any suggestions on Cyberbullying? Cyber bullying is become a huge problem, people can now masquerade behind aliases now and never be found and because we have created so many social media sites it has only magnified the problem to huge proportions. Again, how to fight back? difficult, but limit your presence and don't be afraid to block, report or sack off the social site that's giving you the grief.
15) Please share with us ways to contact you: I have three social media accounts, a website and an email.
facebook.com/theverbalvillain
twitter.com/theverbvillain
instagram.com/the_verbal_villain
www.theverbalvillain.com
16) Please share with ways to purchase your book: 'The Rise Of The Verbal Villain' is available on amazon, kindle, iBookstore, iTunes, Barnes and Noble and Lulu.com plus from direct links on my Facebook and website.
17) Every few days I drop freestyles rhymes onto my Facebook about current topics either in jest or to provoke thought and reflection into the reader and one of my goals throughout 'The Rise' and for every other book in the series, is to late the reader become the rapper in their own heads, to literally become the literary first hip hopper of paper.
So if you want a new, fresh modern day author beginning his quest on adulthood and mature-ville that WILL make mistakes, will at times take the wrong options but will ALWAYS be man enough to admit to them and will try to inspire yet take inspiration from others whilst always trying to write honestly, beautifully, lyrically and brutally, then please feel free to buy me and come ride with me. It will be quite a journey, my own 8 mile journey in a journal.
