Peter Lay Performer, Poet, Publisher

Peter Lay Poet and Publisher

In my youth I wrote and performed songs. Later I became an artist but most of the time I’ve been a facilitator of other people’s talent. I was a Youth Worker and encouraged young people to follow their dreams. I began working with bands through the youth service and then went on to become a manager for several rock bands, both here and internationally. Arranging gigs, recording opportunities and promoting the bands was a real pleasure to me at that time…

It was exhilarating.

This is what prompted me to see how I could promote Josephine’s writing, as well as my own, and other people whose work might not fit into the accepted genres of todays publishing world. Gone are the days of having to follow the conventional agent/publisher route and so after some research I set up Black Eyes Publishing UK.

In the last few years I have begun to write more poetry and have written a dual language, cross cultural, metaphysical tale with a Chinese lady, ‘Yellow Over the Mountain’.

This was Black Eye’s first publication followed closely by Josephine Lay’s, ‘Inside Reality’, her first poetry book.

Black Eye’s has just published ZD Dicks (Ziggy)’s book, ‘Malcontent’ and there are several books in the pipe line from Josephine, myself and others. It is no longer necessary to print dozens of copies of a book and to pay large sums of money up front, Print-on-demand has altered all that when books can be ordered one day and delivered the next.

My passion for the art and philosophies of the East led me to communicating with people around the globe via artistic and cultural sites. This is how I met Zaiming Wang and how ‘Yellow Over the Mountain’ began. I have also begun to write poetry about my experiences when travelling, especially Japan. I have visited this country three times and during my last trip in November I experienced an emotional roller coaster when in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Several poems about this time are featured in my forthcoming poetry book, ‘Still Tilting at Windmills’.

I joined the Gloucestershire Poetry Society about a year ago when Josephine became interested in performance poetry. I perform some of my poetry on open mics but I am more interested in the production of books and facilitating other writers and poets to publish their work.