Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shundrey Patterson . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Shundrey , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents taught me the art of resilience, that pushing back against that which could imprison me ( the ongoing challenges of an ugly world) could be an act of bravery of the higher sort.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I write under the penname Shun P. Writes, because at the time… I felt it illustrated that which served to redeem (writes), because prior to that I had lost my way and I wandered aimlessly with no pen in hand.

Now, I got into publishing and poetry by way of a fork in the road. It was after understanding that I placed my allegiance in the wrong places.

I thankfully found a segue back by way of words.

I started the blog Shun P. Writes… dot com in 2012 as a way to tell a narrative about what I was learning on my journey going against the grain of my own contradictions and shortcomings on an omnipresent search for God’s face. Over the past decade on this path I’ve combined the mediums of poetry; storytelling; genealogy, narrative and cooking into soul food or food for the soul.

Food as poetry or poetry as food?

This thought process powered the founding of my consulting firm Editcat Consulting to help aspiring writers and poets find their creative voice in a world that would sooner have them silenced, using the lessons that I secured in successfully publishing (2) books by way of Editcat Consulting (mind you): From the Water’s Edge Volume I and II where I expand on the interconnectedness of life serving as poetry.

Writing is often a lonely path and it is critical to know that there is power in numbers.

What am I most proud of? That I am simply… here and able to tell a story. That is a testament to perseverance, as there are so many that cannot say the same.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The mission is quite simple.

Telling the stories that must be told.
Honoring the shoulders that hold me aloft.
Leaving the world in a better place.
Reflecting the goodness of humanity rather than the vices.

Aspiring to be better than I was the day/week/month/year/decade prior by way of facing those uncomfortable truths with conviction rather than sidestepping them because our fear convinces us otherwise.

Uncomfortable Truth #1

“We tell lies to the person that we have to spend everyday of our lives with… ourselves.”

I’m about the uncomfortable business of us… me… you… facing the truth that we are the biggest hypocrites that we know, as we fall short routinely, but does that make us lesser?

I am inclined to say no.

We live on this Earth under the certainty of borrowed time and with that being the case we should be duty bound to leave the places that we’ve touched in a better place than we’ve found them in.

We will be gone a lot longer than we are here… nobody gets out alive.

The art of storytelling represents an unique opportunity for humanity to be better than its historical leans into savagery. When we discover that which separates us is trivial in contrast to which that connects us, how can the storytellers remain silent?

Words serve as the sacred bridge of sorts and these stories must be told.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Now, here is the interesting part… my funding? It was almost entirely out of pocket (with a couple scattered funders) or simply me finding a way to do it myself to keep my expenses down. I had to learn how to stretch a dollar in superhuman ways.

I figured out the design particulars of my blog design from reading a “how to” series instead of offloading the task to someone else, saving money in the process.

Before I published my first book in 2019, I decided against using one of those “self publishing firms” because of the cost and reviews that I heard about their follow through.

So, I did some research on the process, using my proclivity for photography and trial and error to design and format the layout for my first book in 2019 and for the second book in 2021.

Poetry is an art that doesn’t lend itself to the faint hearted, so I performed in low key venues around the Baltimore City limits to validate that I could claim the mantle (I didn’t get booed off the stage once) and I began doing brand marketing on the search engines and social media channels soon after.

I still serve as the chief baggage handler, CEO, CMO, CIO, Creative Director and Editor to this day because slim margins either lead to innovation or starvation… that said, I humbly welcome additional capital to fuel my creative exploits by way of purchases of my books, subscriptions and ongoing sponsorships by way of my podcast “As the Incense Burns”.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shunpwrites.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shunpwrites/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Shunpwritescom/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrshundreypatterson
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/shunpwrites

Image Credits
I own the rights to all of the images.