It’s Friday. It’s a good Friday. And it’s actually Good Friday! Of course, every Friday we hungrily delve into a Proser's life in our Friday Feature. This week is no exception, yet is exceptional, as we are finding out all about a Proser that many of us know and love, but want to know more about. He actually answered our questions a while ago, but silly me (Paul), didn't post it for some reason! Please be upstanding for JamesMByers!

P: What is your given name and your Proser username?

J: Greetings Prose. I'm James Matthew Byers. You guys know me as @JamesMByers.

P: Where do you live?

J: I reside in Wellington, AL. What's special about that? Wellington, New Zealand happens to be where Peter Jackson filmed much of The Lord of the Rings films. I'd like to think of my home as a displaced component of the Shire. After all, our dog is named Arwen … My wife and two of my four children live with me in our above ground “Hobbit hole.”

P: What is your occupation?

J: By day, I'm a mild mannered middle school teacher. But when the sun sets, the mask appears. Then I am James Matthew Byers, writer, poet, and illustrator. Outside of my day job, I'm on the crew at Stitched Smile Publications, LLC as their resident illustrator.

P: What is your relationship with writing and how has it evolved?

J: Writing has been an essential element for most of my life. I've been crafting stories and illustrating them since, believe it or not, age three. In sixth grade I had the pleasure of being introduced to poetry via Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” It altered the course of my life forever. I began writing songs and poems. I wrote novellas. I illustrated everything. Through education and practice, I have evolved into a focused poet who utilizes rhyming mechanisms to primarily express what's in my soul. I've grown leaps and bounds with the use of meter. I wrote my first rhyming tale my senior year in high school. We had to construct a story similar to Chaucer’s style in “The Canterbury Tales.” I fell in love with combing story telling and rhyming. The rest, as they say, is history.

P: What value does reading add to both your personal and professional life?

J: Reading is why I'm here. I've been an avid reader my whole life. I taught middle school English and reading for ten years. Staying in books increases your vocabulary. It also teaches how plot devices are applied and how characters grow and change in their development. I've read nearly every DragonLance novel out there. Lewis and Tolkien are influences. There are so many! I'm an advocate for people to visit the classics, like “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” “Dracula,” “A Princess of Mars,” and so many other wonderful maps we all need to follow. I read to relax, and professionally, I read to stay relevant. As a writer, you must possess “withitness.”

P: Can you describe your current and future literary ventures?

J: Currently I'm working on several projects for Stitched Smile Publications. I've got a rhyming story called “The Secrets That We Keep” in their latest anthology. It's called Unleashed: Monsters Vs. Zombies. I've also got anther mini epic called “Killer Jelly Beans from Outer Space” in a collection of Easter themed horror tales called Collected Easter Horror Shorts. It's something that a wonderful fellow named Kevin J. Kennedy put together. And there will be sequels to my current release, Beowulf: The Midgard Epic. In May, my poem, “The Dinner Fly,” will be in Weirdbook Magazine issue #35. I'm also going to be in an upcoming issue of Grievous Angel. (http://www.urbanfantasist.com/grievous-angel) The poem is titled “Conundrum of the Irish Sea.” As far as posts here at Prose, the skies the limit. I'll be crafting some nifty story poems, entering challenges, and offering a few surprises.

P: What do you love about Prose?

J: Prose has risen to the top of my favorite social media outlets. This is where I've found my tribe. I enjoy encouraging other writers and poets. I enjoy sharing my work with a community who get it; get me. I'm plugging it like crazy on all my social media venues. I wake up excited every day to see new faces and old friends publish their works. You can't get that kind of excitement just any where. I'm still I awe that I've won three of the weekly challenges. What do I love about Prose? EVERYTHING!!!

P: Is there one book that you would recommend everybody should read before they die?

J: There are so many great books! The classics would be an easy go to, but I'm going to plug a literary hero of mine. J. Robert Kings “Hellmaw: The Incubus Tweets” is my sacrificial lamb. It's out now from The Ed Greenwood Group. (Onder Librum) It's hip, relevant, and quite humorous. This generation would get it, and for reading to be relatable conquers many battles in the most simplistic of fashions. The protagonist/antagonist, Frank Demonkowski keeps you in stitches. I'd like everyone to laugh hardly as they go gently into that good night …

P: Do you have an unsung hero who got you into reading and/or writing?

J: My senior English teacher, Marie Duncan, definitely played a critical role in who I am today. She's my friend on Facebook. Recently she celebrated her eightieth birthday. I'm so happy she's getting to see me break into this wonderful industry!

P: Describe yourself in three words!

J: Enthusiastic, poetic, unique

P: Is there one quote, from a writer or otherwise, that sums you up?

J: “To a young heart everything is fun.” – Charles Dickens

P: Favourite music to write and/or read to?

J: I'm into so many facets of music. If I'm reading or writing, I primarily stick with soundtrack scores. Conan the Barbarian is a fave. I also love The Last of the Mohicans. Anything John Williams will do. When I illustrate, I alternate between classical, symphonic metal, and Garbage. I've created many entries into the art world while thumping along to “Version 2.0.”

P: You climb out of a time machine into a dystopian future with no books. What do you tell them?

J:

Once upon a time we had to write our stories down.

Now you have no books that I have noticed in your town.

What's a book? I'm glad you asked- I'll fill you in right here.

Paper bound containing words, they filled the mind with cheer.

Some expressed a broken heart, and some expressed its joy.

Some related grown adults, and some a girl or boy.

Some expressed adventure and some told a tragic tale.

Some invoked emotion and some helped us to prevail.

Some taught lessons granted and some talked about the past.

Books were lovely in design; I'm sad they didn't last.

My idea birthing new- you have to make this right.

Grab some paper and a pen, and watch me shed some light.

Do you all tell stories? Yes, I thought you surely did.

Even if they come from someone who is just a kid-

Write them down and share their worth- bring back the written word!

This is what I leave with you; I hope I'm being heard.

I must go back to my home, but spread these newfound strengths.

Reading will evolve your kind and take you to great lengths.

Put it all together and have others take a look.

Now you know what you have missed; I've given back the book …

P: Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you?

J: In 2010 I graduate from Jacksonville State University with my Master's in Secondary English/ Language Arts Education. My bachelor’s degree is in liberal arts with a concentration in English/Lit. Having a solid background in poetry has molded me into a more prolific and precise writer. Before attending JSU, I took art courses from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, or better known as U. A. B. I've written several poetry compilations and have been published through JSU as well. I do have an unpublished novel that doesn't rhyme. I'm saving it. I just love telling tales that use verse to explore the situation at hand. I reworked “Beowulf” into rhyming iambic tetrameter. I mentioned the title earlier- Beowulf: The Midgard Epic. It stays true to the original in every way. The only difference is it rhymes. It also contains “The Wanderer” as an epilogue. I've always felt that classic tale was none other than Wiglaf, the young hero who aided Beowulf against the dragon. I did the cover and interior illustrations. I'm signed with a wonderful indie press called Stitched Smile Publications, LLC. I believe I mentioned I'm their resident illustrator earlier. They have many talented authors on board. In fact, several of them are here at Prose! If you're a fan of horror and dark fantasy, they've got what you need. I'm including the link to their website below. I'm a poet first, but I'm also a story teller and an artist. I want to share, motivate, and inspire the literary community abroad. I want to make rhyming hip again. I've always wanted to be a combination of Dr. Seuss and J. R. R. Tolkien. More than anything, I want to encourage everyone out there to follow their dreams. If you believe you can, you will. Thanks for having me, Prose!

Here are a few ways to find me:

http://jamesmatthewbyers.wordpress.com

https://m.facebook.com/Mattbyers40/

www.Twitter.com/MattByers40

https://theprose.com/JamesMByers

https://www.wattpad.com/user/JamesMatthewByers

http://www.stitchedsmilepublications.com/

Well thank you very much, James. It may have been a while coming, but it was worth it. 

You know what to do now – follow, like, comment, love and do all those things that make us as a community unique.

As ever, if you want to feature, or you want someone to feature, get in touch on info@theprose.com

Holding

Molding

They do it all

Teasing

Squeezing

How they enthrall

Tweaking

Speaking

Not just for the eye

Waving

Shaving

They cannot lie

Rolling

Cajoling

They can bring pleasure

Assessing 

Caressing

Moments to treasure

Soothing

Smoothing

They can make you moan

Slick

Flick

For that happy groan

Steal

Feel

They might direct bands

Slap

Clap

Give thanks for those hands!

I have bottled up everything I have had to say for so long. It feels so liberating to actually be able to let my words out. I am not thought of as a writer among my friends, family, peers.

This platform is my safe space. I finally am able to share all the words that I have been hoarding on a blank word document. I am anonymous but not and therefore can write about what I feel, what I think about. And to be able to share it is so exciting! You few who read what I have to write will come to know me better than some of my closest friends. It's embarrassing to share what I have to say, because my work is an intimate subject to me. LetMeWrite is all that I have been wanting to share and is my own rebellious act. There's nothing rebellious about me, but I'm rebelling against myself, by actually coming out of my shell and sharing the things I write. I'm shy and usually don't express myself to this degree. It's a fun thing seeing what people have to say and reading others' works as well!(:

I hit the big one.  Now what?  

Sign the ticket.

Put it in my safe.

Call my lawyer.

Calm my lawyer down.

Call my accountant. 

Calm my accountant down.

Have meeting with said lawyer and accountant.

Threaten lawyer and accountant with consequences of their disclosure or betrayal.

Listen to lawyer tell me why it's not a good idea to threaten your lawyer.

Apologize to lawyer.

Continue meeting.

Set date to travel to state capital to claim my millions.

Claim millions.

Hold press conference.  

Tell press that I'm donating all of my winnings to charity.

Watch press' faces as I tell them this.

Laugh loudly.

Tell them I'm a horrible person and of course I won't do that.

Leave press conference.  

With gun.

Buy a house on the water.

A lake.

My lake.

Yep, I bought the lake.

Call former boss.

Laugh at that ass hole.

Smile.

I live in a world where air and water are opposite.

I am constantly drowning.

drowning, drowning.

Water rushes in, filling my lungs.

The torture is unfathomable, 

my body writhes aching and desperate for oxygen.

This is my everyday life.

Constantly, I must dilute what is truly on my mind.

I have never had a true connection to someone where I could freely discuss all that intrigues me without restraint in some form or another.

It makes me sad to think I haven't one person in my life that may understand me.

I have so many levels, I barely know myself.

I just wish someone would take the time to help me understand who I am.

The ever present feeling that I must watch what I say looms over me.

I continuously hold back my true ideas and thoughts kept back by a dam.

But, the dam is near breaching, and I don't know how much more I can take of patching it up.

I'm afraid to speak, the thing I fear most is the mocking of my true self.

What if I say the wrong thing to the wrong person?

But at this point i'd rather bring down the whole dam, and unleash all the things I have been coaxing back.

I want to let the all that has been pent up flow wildly and fierce through every possible word that drips from my lips.

And who knows? Maybe some trickle of my thoughts might be of some importance.

How wonderful it would be to mean something to the world.

So damn to what society thinks unintelligent and ignorant,

No one person know everything and I find comfort in that.

I refuse to sit and drown any longer, I want to learn how to breathe and use my lungs as God intended.

Oxygen is a precious gift that we have come to look down upon, people rather drown than to live.

I am the only person who thinks the way I think, and sees the world as I see it.

There is no one perception of the world, so who's to say one singular person's is correct?

Why are we allowing ourselves to drown out who we are?

I have so many questions about how people work.

The fact that there is no one correct answer to how things should be perceived is fascinating.

From this point on, I refuse to hold back my thunderous wave, and I will be afloat the vast ocean full of people sinking to the bottom.

I choose to breathe and let my body rise to the surface.

This is the first breath I have taken in a long while, and how liberating it feels.

So I encourage, accept the way you are and stop drowning, let your dams breach and ride the wonderfully wild waves that flow from its demise.

Learn to breathe.

Mark. How on earth does a girl like me end up with a pen name like Mark? Well, it wasn't my idea actually, it was my nickname first. In the seventh grade I had an old friend of mine, we'll call her Ellie, make her friend Savannah call me. I sat in my bedroom watching Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark when I received a call. I didn't recognize the number, but I knew that it was from my city. I assumed that maybe a classmate of mine called to ask about homework or something.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Heeeyyyy Mark!" A feminine voice on the other line chuckled. I knew it was her, Savannah. I could also hear Ellie laughing in the background.

From there on out I was called Mark for the rest of the year. Everyday, the two would walk past me in the halls and shout my nickname. At first, I thought they were doing that to make fun of me. Later, I discovered they wanted to give me a nickname but with no malicious intent. Over time, I accepted it and all of my friends started calling me "Mark".

When I first started out on Wattpad, I wanted to be completely anonymous. I tried to think up of some sort of name to use. One day in my English class, Ellie and Savannah went by their usual routine of calling out my nickname. Then it finally came to me, I'll use Mark. Now online, I'm only known as Mark, and no one knows my real name unless they're my real life friends or very, very close friends from Wattpad. I have to admit, I've grown rather fond of the name, and I'm glad those two gave it to me.

I went grocery shopping by myself for the first time today (I know, a charmed life I lead). I was meticulously following the grocery list and doing my very best to triple check it so that I didn't have to double back (because it seems like my husband and I ALWAYS have to do that) and I get a few aisles in and realize that I already forgot something in a previous section. Usually I have my husband to talk to during these moments, but I'm alone now, so naturally I start talking to myself. I quote: "For fuck's sake I already fucked up." That was when I looked up and made eye contact with a nice old man who just sort of nodded at me. I smiled and hurried my ass to a different aisle.