Hello Readers!
As you know, my name is Deanna Repose Oaks. I’m a poet, writer, reader, artist, and all around eccentric person. I’m sure you’re here to get to know a little bit more about my life’s journey… so enjoy!
First and foremost, I love (LOVE!!) to read. I’ll read anything I can get my hands on: books, napkins, tables, walls, billboards, fortune cookies, etc. You name it, I will read it. That love of reading translated into a love of words which morphed over time to a passion of putting words together then taking them apart — finally writing them down.
My transition from reader to writer began in 4th grade, just after I was assigned a retelling of a classic fairytale with the caveat: MUST INCLUDE DIALOG. I wrote the entire story as dialog.
When my assignment was returned to me with an “A” at the top, I was hooked! Before long, I was writing every moment I wasn’t reading. By my junior year of high school, my name was a featured byline in BAM Magazine – a special printing of a letter to the editor I wrote. My senior year of high school, I found my love of poetry. I wrote poems anytime I was bored. My teachers plastered them all over the school. I kept every poem in a dusty old binder. Every day that binder grew, even after moving from the San Francisco Bay Area, to California’s Centeral Coast, to Los Angeles, and finally to Atlanta.
Inspired by my husband (and an Editor’s Choice Award for “I Give Up” from poetry.com in 2006), I published my first collection of poetry in 2007, entitled “Lost Loves….Found Strength.” Convinced by readers that my poetry had merit, another collection of poetry followed: a Kindle eBook trilogy: “Box of Chocolates” in August 2012, “Eating Chocolates” in October 2012, and “Mixed Nuts” in December 2012 (currently out of print). “12 Poems of Christmas” was published in 2013. Three more collections of poetry followed: “Life Span” published 2018, “Poetic Reactions” in 2021, and “Trauma’s Death” in 2022.
My latest collection, “Inner Thoughts: Poems Suitable for Middle School” is a collection of 60 poems, currated by a middle school student. This collection focuses on the feelings of self-doubt, anxiety, and unsuredness that happens in middle school.
In November of 2023, I challenged myself to complete a NaNoWriMo – 50,000 words in 30 days. I failed completely at “winning” …
but I learned so much about my writing. You’ll be seeing fully length novels soon enough… I’m hoping to write “THE END” in January 2024, and have a published novel before December 2024.
In addition to writing, I am currently a member of the Paulding County Writers’ Guild in Georgia.