By Eric Pettus
Westside Gazette Newspaper contributor releases seventh book. Kelvin “Six~Four” Cowans writing journey started in a Tennessee prison where dreams and hope go to die. However, his perseverance is now elevating that journey, taking him all the way up to Hollywood, where dreams and hope go to live.
Eric Pettus: Why did your writing career start in a prison rather than a high school or a college?
Six~Four: I never knew that I had the gift of writing until I was forced into confinement. High School didn’t really introduce me to my strengths. Like many students I did the bare minimum. I made average grades to get by while being on time for basketball practice is what was most important to me. So, High School and a stint in college was just a means to sports, not a reckoning of purpose. When life went dark and I landed in prison in 2002 on robbery and theft charges, I still hadn’t tapped into what I was actually great at.
Eric P.: What sparked the writing in prison?
Six~Four: Well, unlike movies about prison where the viewer gets a prison experience for an hour and a half or less, real life incarceration is much longer and extremely dangerous. I had to figure out a way to do my three years in a way that would keep me mentally sound and away from witnessing the daily stabbings, beatings and rapes. I was reading the “Autobiography of Malcolm X” when I thought to myself that I should write a book. Just like that I started, and at night I would write while other inmates were sleep. Sometimes I would skip chow time and stay in my cell and write. When I took barbering class and was done with my cuts for the day I would sit in the back of class and work on my book. I still remember our super funny Barber Class Instructor Mrs. Eloise Whitelaw who saw me writing one day and said “this boy here gone be something when he gets out, he writing a book. Well write it up then!”
Eric P.: You definitely wrote it up and kept on writing. On top of being a journalist this is your seventh book and it appears that you are graduating to screen writer. But foundationally which book is your favorite?
Six~Four: This new release is my favorite fiction book. It’s titled “Forever,” and it contains everything I learned about how creative you can be with a story and I just shot for the moon. The lead character Ronnie Rich is from Jacksonville Florida and finds information that makes him become as if a god. But we all know humans shouldn’t have God level information because corruption is evident. Now, “The Whispering Woods of Sherra Wright” is my favorite non-fiction book. Clearly, it’s the book that grabbed national attention and got me a movie deal but also made me pour out my most inner feelings. That book series and the Documentary “A Million Reason$” (2024) is my most vulnerable writing.
Eric P.: Why do you say they’re your most vulnerable?
Six~Four: In those books I share with you the awful murder of a beloved NBA player, Lorenzen Wright. The problem is that I have to start from the beginning of the story and tell you why and how I even met, fell in love with, moved away with, and ultimately fell out of love with the woman who secretly killed him. The depression I experienced behind that failed relationship was overwhelming. On top of that, just month’s later she was arrested for his cold case murder, so I’d lived with a killer who put multiple bullets in a father of six kids. I didn’t have anyone professional that I could talk to and let my emotions speak. When you’re a rock to your family and friends you don’t get to be weak or vulnerable to them. So, instead I just wrote everything I felt and any reader of those books took a piece of me with them, as I painfully described a season and innocence that I will never get back.
Eric P.: As mentioned, I also know first-hand that you have a Documentary, TV Series and Movie deal with Rodney Henry and Protégé Pictures. What are you hoping he and his team of Hollywood hit makers can do with your life story?
Six~Four: My primary hope is for our entire team to be recognized for such revealing, thought provoking and detailed work on the subject. It’s been a total team effort over these last three years to bring the first part which is the Documentary to reality. Filming through the pandemic, then the setback of Hollywood strikes really tested our patience, but Roderic Hinton of HotRod Films did an amazing job Filming and Directing. Television Host Jeané Franseen was awesome and traveled with us to interview and capture the story correctly. Most notable was Lorenzen Wright’s mother Deborah Marion who blessed us with her presence, photos and home videos. But my ultimate hope is that Rodney Henry will do what he’s always done in the film industry which is bring a high level of excellence in executive production to this story and hopefully push it to an award level. “A Million Reason$” is a story that Hollywood has never made before. Sherra Wright is the first Basketball Wife, Ex-Wife, Fiancé or Girlfriend to murder an NBA player. To see, hear and understand why she truly did it needs to be told for history’s sake. We have millions of gifted athletes across the world and they need to understand this evil mindset of a person so they don’t end up with one who can sabotage their careers or worst take their lives. But hey, don’t sleep on “Forever” because it’s a movie and some lessons in that too, I stand on that.
FOREVER Noteworthy Chapters:
Chapter 1 “My Kiss is my Yes”; Chapter 3 “No Thanks in this Giving”; Chapter 10 “A Problem with the Answer?”; Chapter 14 “Four Smiles”; Chapter 15 “Be Someone”; Chapter 24 “A Date with Death”; Chapter 29 “Forever”; Chapter 34 “Hidden Hypocrisy”; Chapter 38 “Call Me, I Will, Be Safe, I Love you, I Love you too, Take Care, See You Monday”; Chapter 40 “Some Facts are Lies”
Download FOREVER E-book now at Amazon.com!
Eric Pettus can be reached at: (epettus10@yahoo com)
Kelvin “Six~Four” Cowans can be reached at: (kelvincowans@hotmail.com); (Instagram: @sixfour901) ; (YouTube: A Million Reasons Documentary)
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