Words & pictures

WARDEN — Jacque Cox got the idea for her book of poetry and photographs seven years ago.

“I’ve been writing poetry since I was in high school, so it’s something I’ve always liked to do. Through the years I’ve gotten better and better and better,” Cox, a Warden resident, said. “I also love to take photographs. Black and white is my favorite.”

She decided to combine the two passions into her 79-page-book “Gloria’s Daughter.” It contains 40 of her poems combined with 40 photographs.

“I’ll have a poem and then I took a black and white photograph and I intended it as some kind of symbol,” she said. “There is just all different kinds (of poems).”

The subjects of the poems include love, friendship, family and nature, she said. The types of poetry range from sonnets to free verse to haikus, adding she’s read a lot of poetry books where the poems are written the same way.

“There’s all different kinds in there,” she said. “My poetry is more centered to … women in general because I don’t know many guys that are interested in poetry. That’s just my opinion. But since I’m the woman who wrote it, it’s more about the sensitivity and being vulnerable.”

Cox wants to relate with people through her poems.

“There’s tons of young girls or just women out there who are vulnerable. If it lightens their day, just one of them, and they don’t feel so alone. I think a lot of writers want to do that at least,” she said.

Publishing the book was a four to five month process, she said. She talked with a publishing consultant, who talked with her about what plans were available and discussed how the book would be packaged with a design consultant.

“Then they sit down and discuss the cover and what it’s going to look like inside, and how I want the poems to look and the pictures and things like that,” she said. “Then I had a marketing consultant and they just talked to me about different marketing plans. Some of them are as much as a car.”

Now she is marketing the book.

“You know what’s funny is that I thought the hard part was over,” she said. “I knew coming into it that this is not going to make a $1 million. It’s not going to and if it does, then hey, I don’t have a problem with that. It more of self accomplishment.”

Cox’s goal is to make her money back on the book and to have the accomplishment of putting one together.

“I just always wanted to be published,” she said. “It’s just been a dream of mine. I just love to write … I just thought, ‘Why not me?’”

Along with marketing the book, she is also enrolled in a two-year program with the Children’s Institute of Literature.

“It’s not just necessarily for children’s books. It’s more catered towards children’s magazines and I’ll write freelance articles on different things. That’s a lot of fun. I’ve never done that. It’s a lot harder than I thought it was.”

She’s also working on her first novel.

“I’m just kind of doing different kinds of writing these days,” she said.