More about Michael T. Owens

Since conventional bios bore me, I don’t have one! However, I thought a timeline would be an interesting way for readers to learn about me. Events in life mold us by influencing the various roads we chose. Below are some of the events that led me down my current path.

Elementary School for Michael T. Owens

Kindergarten I was tested for the gifted student program. My teacher wanted to skip me to First grade. I was afraid and also didn’t want to leave my friends behind so flunked on purpose.

1st Grade My teacher tried to force me to stop writing the alphabet so artistically. She demanded I use a more conventional penmanship. But I was like Frank Sinatra and still did it my way!

2nd Grade My teacher discovered my love for drawing and began using it against me. If I was good, I got to read the drawing book; if I was bad...no book for me!

3rd grade I wrote a short book called Inspector Crusoe. I was on an Inspector Gadget/Sherlock Holmes/James Bond kick at the time.

4th grade my teacher always asked me to read my writing assignments to all the other classes. By then I was on a rhyming kick...all my stories rhymed. Then I started thinking, "Maybe I am a really decent writer?"

4th grade In a wild temper tantrum, I smashed my Casio keyboard on the floor. I was upset because every thing I played stunk! After piecing it back together with duct tape, aluminum foil, and wire, I taught myself to play by ear.

5th Grade I was the only kid in my class to have writings featured in some cheesy anthology (although it was big stuff at the time!) I represented my school at some fancy awards ceremony, yadda, yadda, yadda.

5th Grade I won many elementary school art shows and other artistic awards. That’s when I began thinking, "Maybe I am really creative?"

Middle School for Michael T. Owens

6th Grade My music teacher was amazed that I played the songs by ear and not by reading the actual music notes. She insisted I play something for the whole class. I was automatically treated as “special” which added to the self-esteem pot!

7th Grade I auditioned for our school talent show. I had this corny stand-up routine I had worked on but none of the judges laughed. Anyway, since the talent show needed more contestants, they had mercy on me and let me perform. Much to my surprise, the night of the show, people actually laughed. The more they laughed the more confident I became. The next day in school everyone knew who I was. Can you say instant popularity? Then I thought, "Maybe people do really like me?"

7th Grade I had a 100% average in geography class...which had never been done before in my teacher’s gazillion years in the public school system. Although I did a bunch of extra credit to boost my score, I started thinking to myself, "Maybe I am really smart?" My teacher immediately told my counselors that I should be placed in more “advanced” classes. So that’s what they did. Except for (now this is funny) English class. I didn’t want to leave my homeboys behind, so I remained in basic English class. Hmmm...this pattern of not wanting to excel in order to hang with the guys started early in life! Once I got into advanced classes, I began feeling and thinking smarter. I wanted to achieve more and more to show those preppy brainiacs what a boy from the hood could do!

8th grade I made straight A’s and won all kinds of academic awards. And although my school had plenty of black students, it seemed like I was the only one winning anything “non-sports” related.

8th grade I wrote another short book called Gray Through My Eyes about a Black kid who moved to Alabama with his family. Despite the racism he faced at time, he befriended a white kid. etc. etc. At the end, their close friendship somehow brought the town together. The book was about 40 pages long...the longest I had ever written at that point.

8th Grade I won a mural design contest. I painted my design on the wall outside the media center. Even though I received media coverage, getting out of class for three days was the best thing about that whole deal!

8th grade My English teacher recommended I stopped hanging around in basic English class. She insisted I take English Honors in high school...finally I left my homies and took the higher level course.

High school for Michael T. Owens

I still wrote, I still did art, etc., but nothing spectacular. Most writers probably blossomed in high school whereas I just “took it easy.” Oh, I do remember running for Vice President of the Sophomore Class. I only ran so I could meet this one girl that was running also. And what do you know, by cashing in on my popularity from middle school, I ended up winning... and I did nothing in office. But at least I met the girl!

I started dabbling more into music. I even played a mini concert at our annual Spring Fling. The audience was comprised of mostly rich white metal-head kids. And my group (which was thrown together a few days before performing) included: A Trinidadian dude on bass guitar (I think he had just taught himself to play a week prior!); one of my boys on saxophone; this dude who played drums at his church; a white dude on guitar; and me on the keyboard. This was hilarious! Picture it: We were on stage doing Mary J. Blige and En Vogue songs in front of all these metal-heads. We weren’t terrible...so they didn’t necessarily boo us. Basically they just stood there with awkward stares. That’s when I thought, "Maybe I am really fearless?" Anyway, we didn’t care about the silent crowd; just the fact of being on stage making noise through those huge speakers was enjoyment enough. I’m still cracking up right now. Everyone in the band was in their own little world, playing their own little songs! Somehow it came together...I think.

College for Michael T. Owens

More esteem boosters.

Getting interviewed by the local entertainment weekly for my musical endeavors.

Getting interviewed on FAMU’s radio station for having a top 5 song on the radio.

Receiving my first check for writing. Some invention consultants paid me to write the mechanical specs for a new product. Cash is always exciting!

One of my professors asked to keep some of my business writing to show to future classes.

Another professor wanted to nominate me for some prestigious writing award (but she never followed through since she was busy working on a thesis, oh well). During college I thought, "Maybe I am really destined for success?"

In college, I hardly wrote outside of the required stuff for class. I basically just skipped class, played basketball, crashed any party that had free food, and chilled. Elementary and Middle school were definitely my creative writing glory days.

After college for Michael T. Owens

I wrote creative stuff, but for business purposes at my job.

August 1999. I landed a job at an advertising agency. In addition to account management, I also worked on brochures, ads, radio spots, etc for big corporations like Home Depot, AT&T, the IRS (yes, them), Michelin, etc.

I wrote one page of my debut novel “Pick-Up Lines,” and put it aside for a whole year.

May 2001. I got laid-off and finally started writing fiction again...with all that free time, there was no excuse! I started back writing Pick-Up Lines. After 45 days of an intense writing regimen, I finished my first draft. I'm not going to lie, at times it was torture. If you've read everything I've written so far, you probably can tell I'm a bit of a scatterbrain. But I had to show myself that I could actually finish something. When I finally printed out my rough draft, I thought to myself, "Maybe I can really focus?"

Through all of these events, I learned something very important: A high self esteem is essential in success. If none of the above things had happened, my self esteem would’ve developed differently. Maybe I wouldn’t have believed in myself. And not believing in yourself leads to fear. And fear makes people not strive for the best...