Up-And-Coming Poet Armond Gray Prepares to Release His First Book: “The Petals Fall One By One”

If you had told Armond Gray that he would be publishing his first book this time last year, he probably would not have believed you.

“The Petals Fall One By One” is a collection of poetry that came to fruition because of quarantine. Right before the pandemic, Gray took a creative writing class that got him writing more. All of the free time had a positive impact on his productivity.

“It [started] around May of last year because I was just writing a lot on loose pieces of paper and notes in my phone and things here and there. I was spending most of quarantine at my dad’s house, and he [said] you have all of these poems. You should consider writing a book,” Gray said. “‘I was like a book? I don’t even like to read that often. Why would I write a book?’ But I thought about it… And when I looked, I already had around 200 poems. I [realized] okay I have a base, I can build from here.”

The poems’ overarching theme inside The Petals Fall One By One is love in different forms, which are separated by chapters. Gray found his inspiration in many places: life experiences of his own, friends and family and even songs that set certain moods.

“[The book] is separated into five chapters. And each chapter is named after a specific flower. Each flower has a different literary meaning. And so the poems within those chapters correlate to that literary meaning,” Gray said.

Gray is a fourth-year student at Chapman University, majoring in Kinesiology with a Spanish minor. He is also a captain of the track and field team. During his senior year of high school, he missed his final track season because of an injury. In the meantime, he found himself writing a lot of poetry that nobody else got to see.

“I just was writing for myself. I guess because I tore my meniscus and had surgery…I kind of was writing to get me through that but never shared that with anybody,” Gray said.

Gray worked with an independent publishing company, Victorious You Press, founded by Joan Randall. Randall and Gray met each other on the popular app, Clubhouse. Although Gray is not in her typical target audience, they’ve worked well together for its development.

“Of all the people who we have helped to publish their book, it was the first time I got a manuscript that was completely, like to the tee, what my expectation is, even to the point where he almost formatted his own manuscript,” Randall said. “The manuscript that he turned in, he had edited so it was almost perfect… he was so ahead of the game, so it’s such a pleasure and a delight to work with him.”

Randall herself is a successful author of several books, including “Bags in the Attic” and “90 Days to a Victorious You.” She’s also a motivational speaker and life coach. She specializes in non-fiction writing because it feels relatable. She sees a book as “the new business card.”

“I think that everyone should write a book, at some time in their life. A book is a legacy. It’s about a moment in time,” Randall said. “And so when you’re long gone from this earth, whenever you have a book, that is a legacy. It cannot be undone.”

“The Petals Fall One By One” will be available for purchase in Spring 2021 everywhere that books are sold online. You can follow along Gray’s Instagram for updates.

To learn more about Victorious You Press, click here.

Purchase the “CNS Best of 2020 Magazine” to read one of Gray’s poems here.