Red Silk Carpet #98 April 2024

RSC#98 APRIL 2024

On The Cover

Neetu Jhaj Business Woman of the Year Empowers Women and Girls Through Jumpsuits

Lachi

Staje Kristin Bone Claire Daly Lisa Towles

Lakecia Lockeridge Naomi Nucia Glay Dr. Anthea A. Aikins Lisa Orban Indies United Publishing House

Emma Stone

Billie Eilish Nicolas Cage

Tatsuji Nojima Da’Vine Joy Randolph

RED SILK CARPET

INTERNATIONAL FASHION, FILM, ENTERTAINMENT, LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

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Neetu Jhaj, Founder & CEO of Rehna Raiya [Ray-Na Rye-Ya] an Empowerment Clothing Line for Women and Girls

By Jules Lavallee

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Neetu Jhaj (Knee-Thu Judge) is the Founder & CEO of REHNA RAIYA, an empowering clothing line for women and girls with a charitable component. In 2022, Rehna Raiya was honored by UPS as an 'Unstoppable' business.

Neetu is the recipient of the prestigious NAWBO California Woman Business Owner of the Year and 'National Top 10 Woman Business Owner of the Year'.

Alongside her husband and family, Neetu is co-owner of Countryside Corporation, a construction, real estate, and retail development company.

Countryside owns and operates franchises including Shell Gas stations, Taco Bell, Subway, Pizza Hut, Me-N-Ed’s Pizzeria, along with Countryside Car Wash.

A wonderful example for aspiring women leaders, Neetu has completed the Yale School of Management Women's Leadership Program and is a coauthor of Women Thrive: Inspiring True Stories of Women Overcoming Adversity. Neetu serves on various boards, including the Open-Door Network which provides assistance to families experiencing homelessness, domestic violence, and human trafficking. Neetu has an empowering children's book releasing in 2024, which you will get to read more about in her inspiring interview.

We are excited to showcase REHNA RAIYA, a fashion and retail brand setting the stage for an empowering movement.

Starting with its jumpsuits and rompers, it is apparent there is

nothing else like these in the market. To be able to wear a jumpsuit or romper as a one piece and a two piece is genius. It is nice to see a popular clothing concept transformed in an empowering way that promotes independence for girls. To be able to confidently use the restroom on one's own without requiring the help a one-piece jumpsuit demands is empowering in and of itself. It's no wonder Rehna Raiya has a patent pending for this jumpsuit and romper concept.

Rehna and Raiya are Neetu's daughters and inspiration behind the jumpsuits which Neetu says evolved to resolve struggles girls experience when wearing them.

"I observed not only in my own children but also in talking with other mothers, how difficult it was to wear one-piece jumpsuits,” says Neetu. “In fact, many girls like my own refused to wear them. We evolved as a brand to fulfill this need in the market for a jumpsuit and romper that could appear as a one-piece but function as a two-piece. We created the industry’s first-tomarket jumpsuit that can easily be unsnapped from a one-piece to a two-piece in seconds, which is extremely useful when doing things like using the restroom, using a changing room, or being active.”

You developed a “patentpending” fashion industry concept to resolve gaps in girls’ jumpsuits and rompers.

Elaborate on your 'patent pending' on the Rehna Raiya jumpsuit and romper concept.

“Rehna Raiya is a ‘passion in fashion with purpose brand’ that naturally evolved to fill gaps I

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observed in girls’ clothing.

I observed in my own children how clothing could make a girl feel empowered or very easily disempowered. It was important for me to ensure their experience was always positive because a bad experience could easily strip any girl of feeling confident in herself.

When I saw the struggle girls faced with wearing one-piece jumpsuits, I created and launched the industry’s first-to-market onepiece jumpsuit that can be unsnapped to a two-piece jumpsuit. This patent-pending concept allows girls to do things independently and with ease.

After a traumatic experience, my younger daughter experienced in the restroom while wearing a traditional jumpsuit, I knew we had to come up with a solution.

There was no way my daughter was going to feel alarmed just at the thought or mention of a jumpsuit. With our two-piece design, it is now a comfortable and confident experience for my daughters, including the daughters of so many mothers who have shared how empowered their daughters have felt to wear our concept.

One mother shared how exciting it has been to see her daughter wear the Lily jumpsuit for well over a year because the snaps allow you to wear the pants lower or higher on the waistline.

Others appreciate the benefit for ease of movement as traditional wear can be very constricting, even to sit down, let alone trying to do something as fun as a cartwheel! Women who are breastfeeding also have an option to wear a jumpsuit now.

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Our clothing helps girls to maintain their independence while wearing apparel they find fashionable and exciting to wear.

Being able to resolve this gap in children and women's clothing has been a blessed and humbling experience."

Neetu's daughters described the hardship they faced with traditional jumpsuits and the ease their concept has now brought to their lives.

"I didn't like wearing them before because the whole thing had to sit on the bathroom floor and that was really uncomfortable for me,” says 8-year-old Rehna.

Please share your vision for REHNA RAIYA. “Our vision is and has always been to find solutions to gaps identified in girls' clothing while paying it forward through causes that positively impact youth with educational and empowerment opportunities. I am blessed to walk in the heels of so many incredible women who have come before me. It’s the least I can do to help broaden that path for the generations that will follow. To be honest, I find the greatest joy in empowering the next generation to believe there is nothing they cannot do and accomplish. Raiya loved to wear dresses but refused to wear them without shorts because of teasing she had heard on the playground when other girls' dresses came up, revealing their underwear. At the same time, she did not like wearing biker shorts which were not only too short in her opinion, but also stuck out like a sore thumb because they didn't blend

with her dress. Matching shorts with every dress in the Rehna Raiya collection evolved as a result. The matching shorts are longer than biker shorts and blend with the dress, requiring close attention to actually realize a girl is wearing shorts with her dress. We feel no girl should ever be limited to engaging in activity based on what she likes to wear.

Our vision for the jumpsuit, as mentioned, has provided numerous benefits. It allows youth, teens, and women to quickly detach the snaps to be able to do everyday things with ease while maintaining the appearance of a one-piece jumpsuit.”

Whether it is their one-of-a-kind jumpsuits and rompers, dresses with matching shorts (with pockets), or empowerment tees with the words Future and Unstoppable, Rehna Raiya has created an assortment of products to suit the different styles of dress a mother and daughter prefer.

Mother’s Day is approaching.

Tell us about your beautiful Mommy & Me Collection and how your brand resonates with mothers and daughters.

Our brand resonates with mothers and daughters because it goes beyond the idea of wearing clothing that is comfortable and feels good. It is clothing with PURPOSE. A purpose that is embedded in empowering young girls through words like Future and Unstoppable on the clothing.

A purpose that exists through the Rehna Raiya Foundation and giving that takes place throughout

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the year to ensure we are doing our part to help educate the next generation of girls coming after us. A purpose that exists to resolve gaps in girls’ apparel and helps girls feel independent and empowered.

REHNA RAIYA has various styles of coordinating Mommy and Me jumpsuits, rompers, and dresses. Our Mommy & Me dresses all come with matching shorts (with pockets) so a mother and daughter can take part in any activity without limitation.

“My daughters love doing cartwheels and playing sports in their dresses,” says Neetu. “We have spent a considerable amount of time sourcing soft, comfortable fabrics that girls don’t feel burdened to wear. I have always loved matching my daughters on Mother's Day. Traditionally, we would just wear similar spring colors but nothing exactly matching because comfort and how a garment felt was very important to my daughters. Easy to wear, comfortable and nonitchy products are a game changer for children.

Fast forward to today, our brand has made matching on Mother's Day an exciting and memorable experience for all of us.”

Where did you get your confidence from? What advice would you share for young girls?

I've been blessed with a mother who is so positive and encouraging.

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As a young, brown, Punjabi girl who didn't know where she stood in the world or how to handle negative remarks, I often took to heart when kids would make fun of my physical attributes. I vividly remember being teased for having skinny, hairy legs and a funny nose. My 16th birthday party was the turning point for me. In lieu of any lavish gifts for my 16th birthday, my mom publicly gave me the gift of empowerment through framed words. I did not realize at the time that positive words could have such an impact on my life. ‘I believe in myself’ and ‘I am beautiful inside and out’ were the main messages of this gift I received. Every day, I reviewed these framed words to remind myself how beautiful I felt and how much I believed in my abilities. Confidence really starts from within, and I was blessed to have a guiding force in my mom who instilled in me that confidence does not come from others’ opinions, but rather the opinion I have of myself.

When I think about advice for young girls, I think about what my husband and I do each night for our girls. We started a nighttime affirmation to instill in them from a young age, the importance of confidence in oneself.

Part of that affirmation has become the main tagline for the Rehna Raiya line: I love myself.

I believe in myself.

I am UNSTOPPABLE! It is important that our daughters go to sleep and wake up with a positive outlook and impression of themselves. It is equally important to us that our daughters don't feel there is any limitation to what they can accomplish as girls. These are the same girls that will join the next

generation of women leaders who must set a positive example of support for others, just as my mom has done for me.

How excited are you to release your children’s picture book?

What was your inspiration?

Would you disclose the name of your book?

“My daughters Rehna and Raiya were my main inspiration to write a children's picture book. When writing the book, I did some deep reflection on my childhood and the insecurities I faced as a young girl. As I started to observe and pick up on similar insecurities young girls are experiencing even today, I knew I wanted to create an empowering book for youth.

Thus, I wrote this book for children to have the courage to embrace themselves exactly as they are and just as they were created (birthmarks, moles, and all). A major part of the character illustration is reflecting my daughters' and their personalities, including their choice of dress. In the book, Raiya's character is wearing our Rehna Raiya jumpsuit while Rehna's character is wearing a Rehna Raiya dress with shorts underneath to reflect their style choices and preferences of wear.

It was important to carry the theme of empowerment throughout the book which is called, “I Shine as Bright as a Firefly”.”

Tell us about working with your illustrator. What was important to you when collaborating on your book?

"I honestly found the most incredible and talented illustrator in Keerat Kaur for this book.

Keerat is known for her uniquely vibrant and visually impactful

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illustration style, which often features diverse characters and themes related to identity and empowerment. The topics of focus in Keerat's work were pivotal when collaborating on this book. As a fellow Kaur, she and I were able to relate so much on topics of culture and identity through our own life experiences.

It has been a joy to collectively work to weave the topic of empowerment throughout the book. I have much respect for Keerat's design creativity and especially the manner in which she has given life to my words in the book.“

The book will be available for pre-sale starting in May 2024 so stay tuned! A portion of all net proceeds will be donated through the Rehna Raiya Foundation to notable youth education and empowerment causes.

What is next for you? Would you say hard work and commitment to your community are paramount in your life?

“Day in and day out, I have watched our parents work tirelessly to make a life for their children and grandchildren.

Having immigrated from Punjab, India and starting anew on unfamiliar soil was no easy feat and did not come without a multitude of hardships and sacrifices. For example, regardless of obstacles faced along their journey, my father-in-law and family have led by example to show that true success only comes about when you are able to bring up others alongside you. He has always inspired us with the importance of giving back to those less fortunate.

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Our family continues to be deeply engaged with our local community, and we always find creative ways throughout the year to give back. I believe this helps us stay grounded, humble to our roots and progressing as a community.

To your question, yes working hard day in and day out for my family and commitment to my community are absolutely paramount in my life.”

Who has inspired you? Please share how your inspiration has translated into your collection of tees.

I am deeply inspired by my grandmother (Biji in Punjabi).

My Biji knitted sweaters when she came to America in the 1980’s.

These sweaters were sold at Nordstrom, but Biji never had the chance to even step into a store. While Biji’s sweaters made it into Nordstrom, the woman whom she found via a newspaper ad to help her reaped the majority of the profits. Biji was a middleaged immigrant woman and her circumstances in survival mode did not afford her the possibility to own and defend her intellectual property.

Biji understood how important deadlines and reputation were and she delivered every single time on her high-in-demand sweaters until her fingers could no longer keep up. She put her all into knitting these sweaters because it was the skill that helped provide for her family as the only working spouse when she came to the United States. It is what provided the opportunity

for her son to start his journey in college.

Rehna Raiya was launched on Biji’s 82nd birthday to surprise Biji with a deserving honor. She would now be known as the woman who inspired her granddaughter to start REHNA RAIYA in her legacy. Her legacy was no longer defined by the inability to protect her UP and rather, to create it anew.

Regardless of life’s shortcomings and struggles, she has remained optimistic and positive. She inspires me daily through her strength and resilience.

Our ‘Women Inspiring Girls’ collection includes custom designed Ruth Bader Ginsburg tees. RBG was not only a trailblazer, but she was a wonderful role model and champion for women and girls.

She was a true beacon of progress and hope for women and girls and thus, it was only fitting to dedicate a collection to her. 100% of the net proceeds from this collection are donated to national non-profits whose primary aim is to educate young girls. I am grateful to play a small part alongside national non-profit organizations that are investing in the future of girls.

Tell us why you created the Rehna Raiya Foundation and why empowering youth is dear to your heart.

I was once a young girl who did not know where she stood in this world; a girl who lacked confidence and a sense of purpose in life. I was steered in

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so many different directions and never quite felt authentic in my own skin. I imagine where we as women could be if we were empowered at an age as young as five or six, rather than in adulthood when most women seek to be empowered. After I had my daughters Rehna and Raiya, I founded the Rehna Raiya Foundation and found my true passion. Paying it forward to the next generation of girls by donating a part of our proceeds from the clothing line to youth education and empowerment causes, has been beyond gratifying. Knowing a portion of every single sale goes towards elevating youth is more satisfying than the sale itself.

We have partnered with organizations like Girl Rising for International Day of the Girl; understanding through this partnership how millions of girls around the world are denied a basic right to quality education is absolutely crushing. Just as I long for my own daughters to have every opportunity availed to them, education or otherwise, I have the same hope and prayer for every other young girl. The foundation we collectively lay for them today can be life-changing for youth in so many positive ways. It can completely change the course of life for cards that may not have been dealt fairly. I strongly believe that when we empower and educate girls, nations are truly able to blossom.” www.rehnaraiya.com

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R E D SILK CARPET VIP LIST April 2024 COVER STORY

Neetu Jhaj

THE 96TH OSCARS® Press Room Forest Whitaker Nicolas Cage Brendan Fraser Matthew McConaughey Ben Kingsley Dave Mullins Chris Hemsworth Ana Taylor-Joy Brad Booker Emma Stone Robert Downey Jr. Cillian Murphy Arthur Harari Justine Triet Cord Jefferson James Price Shona Heath Jonathan Glazer Bad Bunny Dewayne Johnson Mark Coulier Nadia Stacey Josh Weston Arnold Schwarzenegger Jennifer Lame Danny DeVito Ben Proudfoot Chris Bowers Da’Vine Joy Randolph Hoyte van Hoytema Tarn Willers Billie Eilish Finneas O'Connell Johnnie Burn Ludwig Göransson Al Pacino Christopher Nolan Emma Thomas Charles Roven Mstyslav Chernov

Michelle Mizner Raney Aronson-Rath Takashi Yamazaki Kiyoko Shibuya Masaki Takahashi Tatsuji Nojima STARS in DIOR

Little Simz Rosamund Pike Naomi Watts Antonia Gentry

Isabelle Fuhrman Rebecca Hall Aria Mia Loberti Kristine Froseth Mickalene Thomas

INTERVIEWS Bonnie Hyde’s Giselle Samson Felicia Alexander-Branch Andrea McKenzie Naomi Nucia Glay Claire Daly Nick Ordonez Ian Brown Lori Gradley Lakecia Lockeridge Lisa Towles Timothy R. Baldwin Dr. Anthea A. Aikins, Lachi Kristin Bone StaJe T.E. MacArthur Lisa Orban, Robert J. Emery Marcus Slabine

Dr. Darcele Marie Cole-Robinson

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R E D SI L K C AR P E T E X E C U T I V E D I VI SI O N

SHELLEY PEKALA EDITORIAL DIRECTOR GRAPHIC DESIGN

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C R Y S T A L GILLEY ASSISTANT EDITOR IN CHIEF

SAIF RAHMAN SOZIB INTERNATIONAL JOURNALIST

SEPEHR NIKPOURI PHOTOJOURNALIST

SEPEHR NIKPOURI RED SILK CARPET U S A BRAND AMBASSADOR

NATACHA COSTA RED SILK CARPET INTERNATIONAL BRAND AMBASSADOR

SPECIAL GUEST CELEBRITY WRITER JULES LAVALLEE

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DIOR THE DIOR HOUSE – EVENTS NEW EXHIBITION AT THE GALERIE DIOR PHOTOS

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LITTLE SIMZ The celebrities dressed in Dior by Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Brooklyn Artists Ball Little Simz wore a Dior Pre-Fall 2024 grey wool jacket, vest and pants with a white cotton shirt and black silk tie. She also wore Dior shoes.

ROSAMUND PIKE The celebrities dressed in Dior by Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Brooklyn Artists Ball Rosamund Pike wore a Dior Cruise 2024 white wool embroidered jacket with a white silk taffeta dress. She also wore Dior shoes. ©Red Silk Carpet April 2024- All Rights Reserved

NAOMI WATTS The celebrities dressed in Dior by Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Brooklyn Artists Ball Naomi Watts wore a Dior black wool and silk dress and belt. She also wore a Dior bag and shoes.

ARIA MIA LOBERTI The celebrities dressed in Dior by Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Brooklyn Artists Ball Aria Mia Loberti wore a Dior black silk dress. She also wore a Dior bag and shoes.

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ANTONIA GENTRY The celebrities dressed in Dior by Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Brooklyn Artists Ball Antonia Gentry wore a Cruise 2024 black cotton shirt and a black lace skirt. She also wore a Dior belt, bag and shoes.

ISABELLE FUHRMAN The celebrities dressed in Dior by Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Brooklyn Artists Ball Isabelle Fuhrman wore a Dior Cruise 2024 black wool and velvet bar jacket, a black velvet skirt, white cotton shirt and black silk bow tie. She also wore a Dior bag and shoes.

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REBECCA HALL

KRISTINE FROSETH REBECCA HALL The celebrities dressed in Dior by Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Brooklyn Artists Ball Rebecca Hall wore a Dior Spring-Summer 2024 black cotton shirt and printed cotton skirt. She also wore a Dior bag and shoes.

KRISTINE FROSETH The celebrities dressed in Dior by Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Brooklyn Artists Ball Kristine Froseth wore a Dior Spring-Summer 2024 black cotton shirt and skirt. She also wore a Dior bag and shoes.

MICKALENE THOMAS (L) The celebrities dressed in Dior by Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Brooklyn Artists Ball Mickalene Thomas wore a Dior SpringSummer black printed coat, white cotton shirt, and black wool pants.She also wore Dior shoes.

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Photographer Michael Baker/ ©A.M.P.A.S.

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Photographer Michael Baker/ ©A.M.P.A.S.

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Photographer Michael Baker/ ©A.M.P.A.S.

Photographer Michael Baker/ ©A.M.P.A.S.

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Bonnie Hyde Unwavering Commitment to Fostering Cultural Pride among Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Communities

By Jules Lavallee

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Bonnie Hyde is a native of Chongqing, China, and a descendant of aristocrats, who has emerged as a prominent figure in philanthropy, driven by her unique background and unwavering commitment to fostering cultural pride among Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities.

Raised in the bustling megacity of Chongqing, with its population exceeding 30 million, Bonnie’s upbringing was steeped in a rich appreciation for arts and culture, cultivated through a private school education. This foundation laid the groundwork for her future endeavors as she pursued higher education in the United States on a scholarship.

Bonnie’s passion for nurturing cultural pride led her to found the American Born Chinese Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting positive AAPI identity from childhood. Through initiatives such as bilingual children's books and sponsorship of notable events like the LA Kids Book Festival and the Hollywood Lunar New Year celebration fundraiser, Hyde aims to empower multicultural, multilingual children to embrace their heritage with pride.

Please share your unique background and unwavering commitment to fostering cultural pride among Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities.

I think who a person is or goes on to become, is never coincidental. It takes generations of cultural, economical, and political accumulation to mold a person’s identity. It’s impossible to tell you who I am without telling my grandparents’ story.

My maternal grandparents: Coming

from a line of Chinese aristocrats on my mother’s maternal side, and imperial scholars on my mother’s paternal side, our family experienced an upside-down change at the turn of the century.

If you remember the story of the famous Titanic's movie, where the aristocratic girl had to marry a rich man, she didn’t love, because her widowed mother had no more money, and she ran away to be with a poor man she did love. In my grandmother’s case, she did marry the older rich man who would go on to provide and save her family.

But I’ll tell you an alternative ending for the Titanic movie, that if the girl had married the older rich man. My grandmother spent her entire life hating this man and the first-born daughter he forced her to have when she was just 19 years old. Until the day she died, she hated every minute of this forced fate, and punished her husband and her first-born child - my mother.

My mother’s story: Imagine growing up with a mother who hated you. Not exaggerating, but hate is the right word. From verbal and emotional abuse to actual physical abuse, my mother endured what would never be imagined possible in today’s world. On top of that, my mother witnessed how much her father agonized trying to love a woman who would never love him back, however, they were bound by tradition and could never get a divorce. You might start to see how the lack of freedom to choose their fate caused generational agony.

Who am I: My mother decided that she would never allow me to endure what she had to endure. So first, she chose to divorce my father when she realized he would not be a fit father to me, even against the possible societal judgment that would never end while she lived in China as a single parent. She demonstrated what it was like to be a leader, a giver, and a boss lady in

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everything she did, from her business to her investments, how she treated her friends and employees, and strangers. In raising me alone, she made sure to provide me the utmost exposure to choice, beauty, and freedom, in the way that she exposed me to the arts without ever pressuring me, in the way that she always let me dress beautifully and embrace beauty, something looked down upon in old Chinese culture, in the way that she gave me actual freedom to think and speak, and be heard, and choose, as an individual, starting from toddlerhood.

Keep the context of 1980s China as the background, you might get a sense of why this is different.

Tell us about your rich appreciation for arts and culture.

Because I was exposed to different cultures and art growing up, it allowed me to keep an open mind, and what a beautiful thing it is to be able to have an open mind. I genuinely believe that there’s beauty in everyone and every culture. As Confucius once said, amongst any 3 people, there’s always someone who could teach me something. I am a lifetime learner of people, of culture, and of great minds. To me, it’s so important to make an effort to preserve the beautiful history, culture, and art, especially the traditional ones, because it’s just like playing telephone pole, somewhere down the line, we’re at risk of losing it all. I’ll tell you a small story as to why it’s important.

A few years ago, I walked around the LACMA museum at the Korean calligraphy exhibition.

Mindless looking and seeing what characters I could read, even though I only read Chinese, some of the characters displayed in Korean calligraphy were the same in the Chinese language.

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I casually looked into one of the small glass display boxes and was shocked to see the name of my city in China written on a piece of scrap paper. I read the information about this piece of scrap paper, it said that this was scrap paper by a Korean king. I was even more confused by why a Korean king would randomly write down the name of my hometown city from China.

How did he even know about this Chinese city? What made him think about this name and write it down on a piece of paper at the time? I had so many questions, and decided to take a picture of his writing, and posted it to my Chinese high school chat group. Funny enough one of my high school classmates is a major history buff, and he immediately recognized this Korean king’s name and sent me an article explaining that this Korean king was actually a small local warlord in China, residing in my hometown city of Chongqing at the time.

During the war, he wanted to claim his throne in Chongqing, yet he was defeated. In his flee he arrived at a deserted peninsula and established himself there as king. Guess what that peninsula is today? Yes, it’s today’s Korea. Now it makes so much sense why a lot of people think I look Korean. In fact, I like to joke, that I don’t look Korean, the Koreans look like me! Because their king was from my hometown in China.

How cool is it that I was able to read the actual original manuscript from over a thousand years ago? If I didn’t know how to read traditional calligraphy, I would have never known this history. If this doesn’t show you how important it is to preserve arts and culture, what does?

Your passion for nurturing cultural pride led you to found the American-Born Chinese Foundation. Tell us about your nonprofit.

The American-born Chinese Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that I founded in order to give our children a voice and a home. The identity of AAPI culture as a whole is so precious and beautiful that it absolutely deserves to be shared and continued for generations to come. The pride AAPI children exudes shall be undeniable that the world should be beaming with loving glare. I am not an American-born Chinese, yet I understand and identify with the sentiment that as the AAPI group, we are here, and we deserve to be seen and heard, we deserve to think freely and have the right to choose our bright future. Because of what I was given throughout my childhood, I think it’s so important to give that pride and agency to our AAPI children. What a gift it would be to grow up knowing that we belong, and we matter and we’re capable and we’re here to make a difference. The nonprofit aims to amplify AAPI stories as well as celebrate culture and promote bilingual literacy. Language is such an important bridge to understanding the culture and research supports that the first few years are instrumental in fostering multilingual abilities for young children. Through spending the intimate time of reading together with your parents, grandparents, or any caretakers in your home language, gives the children a sense of normalcy for becoming multilingual in the future. We’ve all heard the Asian lunchbox shame story, we’ve all heard the story of how children want to fit in, and if all their friends spoke English only at school, why should I learn Chinese or whatever language it is? To ensure our AAPI children take absolute pride in being entirely who they are and being proud to share their parents’ and grandparents’ cultural heritage, we have to start from the language. That is why the American Born Chinese Foundation sends free bilingual children’s books to families, to provide a normalcy in having that bonding time in

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children’s home language.

What resources do you offer?

Other than shipping free bilingual Chinese English books to families, the American Born Chinese Foundation currently hosts two events for the community. One is the Lunar New Year celebration where Hollywood celebrities as well as AAPI leaders and changemakers come together to celebrate the start of the new year, entertainment includes from dragon dancing, lion dancing face changing, a form of Sichuan Opera, to tasting traditional street holiday food like the candied fruit, as well as calligraphy performance and live Guzheng, a traditional string instrument performance. The second one which happens every fall, is the LA Kids Book Festival, where authors and child programming celebrities such as Meekah from the Moonbug Blippi show attends and shares a meet and greet as well as book reading. Musical acts such as the popular kids band the Beatbuds, as well as the award-winning tapdancing team who share their cultural positive book/kid’s journal.

All information can be found on our website www.americanbornchinesefoundati on.org and www.lakidsbookfestival.com What is next for you?

The American Born Chinese Foundation is in the process of expanding our programming, from cable and streaming network partnerships, live TV shows, kids TV programming to in-person community Chinese reading and book-making classes, to a partnership with research institutes for language and speech, to a calligraphy club, lots are in the works and we will end at nothing to uplift the entire AAPI experience and provide a positive and supportive environment for our children for generations to come.

We’re here to stay.

International Renowned Artist

Andrea McKenzie Showcases Vibrant Paintings that Honor Diversity and Beauty

By Jules Lavallee

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Andrea McKenzie is a dynamic mixed-media artist, celebrated for her vibrant paintings that honor diversity and beauty. Her exceptional work has graced galleries, museums, and celebrity collections, including creations for Sheryl Lee Ralph, Bobby Brown, Akon, and Sydney Sweeney.

Raised in a family immersed in the renowned Carnival celebrations, Andrea's early exposure to art and creativity laid the foundation for her remarkable talent. By her mid-twenties, she had achieved outstanding success, lauded for her use of bold colors, intricate patterns, and diverse materials such as glass, wood, styrofoam, metals, and acrylic. Beyond her artistry, Andrea is a thriving businesswoman, renowned for curating impactful exhibitions, keynote speaker and advocating passionately for art therapy.

Her creations have been highlighted at esteemed events, including the Dick Gregory Foundation celebrity auction, and showcased in prominent venues like the Mayor's Ceremonial Office. Her exceptional contributions have garnered significant recognition, including the Vanguard Award for Excellence in Art from the Caribbean American Heritage Awards DC in 2020.

Andrea's inspiring journey stands as a testament to the limitless possibilities achievable through talent, hard work, and unwavering determination. She continues to inspire young women embarking on their artistic dreams, embodying the potential for success in the arts.

Have you also been a creative?

I am a natural artist, born into a lineage of creatives in the Caribbean. My grandmother, an artist and pianist, and my father, a carnival industry pioneer, influenced my distinct art style.

Carnival's diverse art forms sparked my use of various materials. Witnessing the festival's worldwide influence ignited my passion for art. My involvement in costume creation has broadened my artistic perspective, leading me to the profound realization that art permeates every aspect of our lives.

In my art pieces, I aim to exalt diversity and beauty using vibrant hues and intricate elements. Each creation mirrors my profound reverence for the diverse cultural tapestry and the beauty found in various aspects of life.

My mixed media artwork of Nefertiti was all handcrafted by me. www.youtube.com/shorts/BwW GBqcD9qw Your paintings are vibrant and honor diversity and beauty. Take us through your work and the different materials used.

I incorporate a diverse array of materials to give life to my artistic vision. For example, I employ acrylic paints, crushed glass, diamond dust, raw metals, and special cement mixtures to craft striking and dynamic color palettes that evoke emotions and encapsulate the essence of my subjects. The diverse materials enable me to incorporate delicate

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details and textures that amplify the visual impact of my art.

I also experiment with mixed media techniques, to add depth and complexity to my artwork. I can create layers of meaning and symbolism that invite viewers to explore and interpret the artwork in their unique way.

In essence, my artistic process revolves around a meticulous selection of materials that empowers me to convey the intrinsic beauty of the world around us. Each material choice is a purposeful step towards conveying the inherent beauty that surrounds us.

My latest mixed media abstract artwork Blue hues www.youtube.com/shorts/acCTo jYW89g You are a true inspiration for young women embarking on their artistic dreams. How has being an artist empowered you?

The transformative power of art has served as a catalyst for me to delve into the core of my identity, values, and aspirations, allowing me to navigate life with authenticity, purpose, and unwavering belief in my capabilities. This empowerment acts as a driving force behind my creativity, igniting a passion within me to continually push boundaries, take risks, and embrace growth as an artist. I am propelled by the boundless potential that unfolds when one wholeheartedly pursues one’s artistic dreams with dedication and passion.

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As a role model, I strive to embody the limitless possibilities and serve as a beacon of inspiration for aspiring female artists. My goal is to empower these talented individuals to embrace their creativity, trust their instincts, and fearlessly pursue their artistic visions with unshakeable confidence, knowing that they possess the strength and resilience to overcome any obstacles in their path towards success. Furthermore, my advocacy for inclusivity, diversity, and representation within the artistic realm is a fundamental aspect of my mission to uplift and empower women in all spheres of creative expression.

By championing the celebration of unique identities and perspectives, I endeavor to create a supportive environment where every individual's voice is heard, valued, and respected. I firmly believe that by recognizing and honoring the diverse contributions of each person within the artistic community, we can enrich the cultural landscape, foster a sense of belonging, and amplify the voices of women in every realm of creative endeavor.

My mixed media artwork entitled “The Secret Garden” www.youtube.com/shorts/xlGH D93nF5g Can you share your current works and where you will be

exhibiting next?

I am currently in discussions with multiple agents for a forthcoming exhibition in New York and the Hamptons.

Tell us about your topics as a keynote speaker.

As a keynote speaker focusing on empowering women to pursue their dreams across various countries, I cover diverse and impactful topics that resonate with audiences globally. My discussions revolve around the importance of self-belief, resilience, and breaking barriers in pursuing one's aspirations. I address the challenges that women face in different cultural

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contexts and explore strategies to overcome these obstacles through empowerment, education, and solidarity. Additionally, I emphasize the significance of creating supportive networks, fostering mentorship opportunities, and advocating for gender equality in all spheres of life. Through my talks, I aim to inspire women to fearlessly chase their dreams, break societal norms, and achieve their full potential in the world. www.andreauniqueart.com Social media handles Instagram @andreas.heart LinkedIn Andrea McKenzie

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The Captivating World of

Giselle Samson America’s Next Top Model and Professional Dancer

By Jules Lavallee

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Step into the captivating world of America’s Next Top Model pioneer cast member, Giselle Samson, a seasoned professional dancer who had graced stages around the nation, knowing that the final curtain call was nearing.

As her dance career approached its twilight, she felt the urge to continue contributing creatively to the world. On the day of one of her last auditions, she sat in her car, preparing for the next chapter of her life. While touching up her makeup and blotting her lips on a napkin, a flood of memories rushed in.

She recalled a moment shared with the late Michael Jackson, who had urged her to use her talents to help save the world. In that reflective moment, she glanced down at the napkin, only to discover a perfectly shaped blotted lip that sparked an idea.

A vivid vision of the world unfolded in that simple lip print, inspiring her to create a symbol that could promote unity and love. In a burst of creativity, a brand symbol materialized in her mind – a tangible representation of her commitment to making a positive impact. Her transformative journey from the spotlight of the dance stage to the creation of a symbol that transcends boundaries has been a deep passion. Giselle hopes you join her vision to help blossom a movement, as she encourages people to wear and promote this symbol, fostering unity and love while giving back to the world she holds so dear.

Tell us about a moment you shared with the late Michael Jackson and America’s Next Top Model.

ANTM was an epic point in my

life where many opportunities opened up for me. In being a dancer, this modeling show actually catapulted my professional dance career to a new level. The bridge between ANTM and MJ happened when we filmed the second episode where we shot articles for STUFF Magazine. It was an awkward moment for me as I was switched out of one swimsuit (where I felt very comfortable) into another where I did not. However, being the performer that I am, I went on that set, got into the groove, and rocked it out the best way I could despite how I felt. Within this article, we did a Q&A and a small portion talked about my admiration for MJ and my poor attempt at trying to get into Neverland.

Months after that, Michael Jackson read the magazine and found my agent at the time. He called them and they thought it was some sort of prank but proceeded to send me the information anyway. Long story short, I was invited to Neverland by the King of Pop himself.

When I arrived, I spent time on the grounds enjoying the amusement park, feeding his giraffes, and playing bumper cars with Prince and Paris. Blanket literally was still a baby wrapped in a blanket at that time. The cutest kids ever. I met MJ in his theatre where he was editing a documentary about his life and Chris Tucker was there as well.

We watched and hung out for a while. He got up (taller than you all think btw) and spoke to me so kindly. He said to make sure and take care of the planet (which planted the seed for Kiss

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the World). Later that day, I was told he would like me to be the lead in his sequel to 'Thriller' from his 'Invincible' album to the song 'Threatened’. And that was the first moment I had with him all stemming from ANTM.

I look at fear as a gift, as a teachable moment. I face fear not as an adversary but as an opportunity. Explain Fear is instilled in all of us. How we end up fearing certain things is all relative to each individual.

For me, I mostly fear things that I create in my head, and this becomes debilitating at times, but I know that if I let it consume me, I will never get anywhere in my life. By embracing fear and doing those things that scare me anyway gives me the badge of courage.

For I sympathize with the Lion from the Wizard of Oz. He was scared the entire way going down that yellow brick road, but he kept moving forward anyway and, in the end, he got his badge of courage. And to be able to realize your own courage is a beautiful thing.

How has dance shaped your world?

Oh my gosh...dance has given me everything!!!! When I look back at being a little girl starting dance at the age of 3.5 years old, I realize all the greatness it has given me. Starting out in the classical ballet world, I was instilled discipline and respect for an endeavor and oneself.

Education was heightened for me as I grasped it at a high level and went on to go into the Gifted and Talented Education programs.

I always had a high achiever mentality which then I said I will go to Disneyland and be in all the shows I love (I DID).

From Disney, I was discovered and that's how I ended up in ANTM without having to audition like everyone else.

Then on the show I was able to use my dance ability in the competition.

Thereafter, I got to perform for MJ, work on television, see the world on cruise ships and be on stages all over the US. DANCE gave me a huge portion of my life and I am forever grateful.

Thank you for asking this question!!!

What would people be

surprised to know about you?

To segway into your next question, people would be surprised to know that I was a theatre kid and competed in Shakespeare festival’s when I was young. And in the GATE program we were given the project to deliver the history of Evita. So, us theatre kids got together and created a performance piece about her. I think we were in 7th grade.

Wow ... memories haha!!

Acting has also been your passion. What are your recent projects?

It very much is a passion of mine! So as much as TV/Film is everlasting, especially with

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technology these days, my love is the stage. Prior to the pandemic I was in a theatre company and performed in off Broadway plays in New York.

Currently, although I am not on stage, I am in the works of writing and producing my own film to further understand the filmmaking process.

What’s next?

While pursuing the film festival circuit for my current preproduction film, my current goal is to get back on stage. I also have a lot going on with my jewelry brand, but my first love is the stage so that's on the forefront of what's next!

Lakecia Lockeridge Shares the Anthology

“Love Language of Grief ”

By Jules Lavallee

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Lakecia Lockeridge Manuel was born and raised in Memphis, TN. She is a Woman of Faith and a mother of two beautiful daughters who are her world.

Lakecia has always had a fire and desire to help others even at a young age. Lakecia started her career path straight out of high school as a front-line worker (PCA) in healthcare. She then chose to create a career as a Commercial Driver where she remained for 12 years. Lakecia chose to further her education and became a graduate of Ultimate Medical Academy with an Associates of Science in Healthcare Management. Lakecia has now found her light and the perfect way to express herself through her love for writing. She allows her pen and paper to be her Canvas to create inspirational and motivational messages to the world. Lakecia is a two-time Amazon bestselling author and grief coach, but truly Lakecia is a Life Coach by nature. Lakecia is one of the most down-to-earth, yet transparent people you will ever meet. She enjoys volunteering in her community, and she also advocates for the families of victims of gun violence. Lakecia is an up-andcoming trailblazer in the writing community. Lakecia is currently working on the release of a new project called The Love Language of Grief. Be on the lookout for more projects from Lakecia.

Introducing the dynamic team of women behind “The Love Language of Grief,” a heartfelt exploration of navigating loss, healing, and finding hope amidst sorrow.

“Love Language of Grief ” is a poignant anthology that delves into the profound experiences of women navigating the complexities of grief and loss.

Through heartfelt narratives, these women courageously share their personal tragedies and the transformative journey towards healing. From the depths of sorrow emerge tales of resilience, as each contributor finds solace in embracing their grief as a love language, a testament to the enduring power of love amidst pain. As they traverse the emotional landscape, these women not only find healing but also discover their purpose, channeling their grief into building platforms and businesses that uplift and empower others.

Through their stories, “Love Language of Grief ” offers a beacon of hope, inspiring readers to find strength, purpose, and meaning in the face of life’s most challenging moments.

You had a fire and desire to help others. Share your journey.

Throughout my life, I’ve held a deep reverence for the emotions of others, finding fulfillment in actions that bring joy and comfort. From writing poetry to offering thoughtful gifts, my innate desire to uplift others remains unwavering. As an adult, I continue to derive purpose from supporting and motivating individuals to realize their fullest potential.

Let’s Talk Grief with Lakecia. https://www.youtube.com/live/z vHZ1rkk81Y?si=Y88L2DjJuJiQ6 J_r Tell us about your work as a Life Coach.

As a Life Coach, my mission is to effect meaningful change in the lives I encounter. I find

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fulfillment in connecting with individuals from diverse backgrounds, providing a compassionate ear and a nonjudgmental space for reflection. Specializing in grief coaching, I offer personalized one-on-one sessions, venting and prayer calls, and structured plans tailored to everyone’s unique journey. I am dedicated to guiding individuals towards thriving through sorrow, helping them navigate grief with grace and resilience.

Share some of the challenges that you have faced.

My personal journey overcoming grief has been marked by challenges, including a lack of accessible support systems.

Motivated by my own experiences, I found a safe space for individuals to process their grief and find solace. I’ve also faced skepticism surrounding the concept of healthy grieving, as well as the underappreciation of grief coaching compared to traditional therapy. However, I remain steadfast in my belief in the transformative power of grief coaching rooted in lived experience.

How has writing been life changing?

Writing has been a transformative outlet for me, serving as both a form of therapy and a means of self-expression. Through sharing my experiences with childhood trauma and grief, I’ve not only found healing but also connected with others on a profound level.

Writing has bolstered my selfconfidence and facilitated meaningful connections with fellow human beings.

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Meet our authors: 1. Lakecia Lockeridge: As the visionary author and grief coach, Lakecia brings her compassionate expertise to guide readers through the depths of grief. Her dedication to helping others find healing shines through her powerful words and insights.

2. Angela: A multifaceted powerhouse, Angela is not only an author and publisher but also a motivational speaker and host of a popular morning show. Her uplifting presence and empowering message resonate with audiences worldwide.

3. Danielle: An author and culinary artist, Danielle infuses her writing with the same creativity and passion that she brings to her culinary creations. Her unique perspective offers readers a fresh approach to understanding grief through the lens of food and nourishment.

4. Simone: Owner of Young At Heart Publishing Company and a background in entrepreneurship, Simone brings her business acumen to the exploration of grief. Her practical insights and innovative strategies inspire readers to navigate loss with resilience and grace.

5. Tracy: As the founder of the nonprofit organization T&T Wilson Foundation (Matters of Heart and Mind), Tracy is deeply committed to supporting individuals on their journey through grief. Her compassionate heart and tireless advocacy shine through her writing.

6. Keisha B: An author and podcast host of “Healing Exchange,” Keisha B creates a safe space for listeners to explore the complexities of grief and healing. Her authentic storytelling and candid conversations offer solace and understanding to those in need.

7. Patricia: A minister and author, Patricia’s spiritual wisdom and guidance provide readers with a source of comfort and strength as they navigate their grief journey.

Her messages of faith and resilience inspire hope and renewal.

8. Jennifer: With her entrepreneurial spirit and business savvy, Jennifer brings a unique perspective to the exploration of grief. Her practical advice and strategic insights empower readers to find healing and transformation in the face of loss.

9. S. Marie: As a relationship coach and author, S. Marie offers readers a holistic approach to understanding grief within the context of relationships. Her insights into communication and connection provide a roadmap for navigating the complexities of loss.

10. Autumn: An author and entrepreneur, Autumn infuses her writing with a sense of purpose and determination. Her stories of resilience and perseverance inspire readers to embrace the journey of grief with courage and grace.

Together, these remarkable women have crafted a book that speaks to the universal language of love amidst grief, offering comfort, wisdom, and hope to all who seek solace in the midst of loss. “The Love Language of Grief ” is more than just a book—it’s a testament to the power of community, compassion, and healing.

Tell us about the anthology, “The Love Language of Grief.” What did you learn when hearing these powerful stories?

‘Love Language of Grief ’ stands as a poignant testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of loss.

Through its heartfelt narratives, I’ve come to understand the importance of standing on,

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rather than in, grief. I’ve also recognized the invaluable role of grief coaches and counselors in fostering collective healing within communities and beyond.

Let’s Talk Grief with Lakecia.

https://www.youtube.com/live/ Eclnp2w2mbs?si=RW1Pp7jvUs 79vFwg What can we find in “The Love Language of Grief ?”

Within the pages of ‘Love Language of Grief,’ readers will encounter a diverse array of grief experiences, extending far beyond the realm of death.

Each narrative serves as a testament to the power of resilience and the capacity for profound personal growth in the wake of adversity.

What is your mission?

It is my unwavering mission to empower individuals to navigate the intricate journey of grief with compassion, resilience, and understanding. My vision extends to providing a sanctuary for healing, where transformative insights and practical tools serve as catalysts for growth and connection within our communities and beyond. https://www.lakecialockeridge.c om FB Lakecia Lockeridge Instagram @ lakecialockeridge YouTube lakecialockeridge

Dr. Darcele Marie Cole-Robinson Cognitive Therapist, Educator, Author, Self-Publisher, and a Co-Author of 4 Anthologies Happy Birthday to you !!!!!!!

Dr. Darcele Marie Cole-Robinson, PH. D, LLMSW also received the highest award “The Lifetime Presidential Achievement Award.”

LLMSW married 32 years, to Kenneth Robinson, 3 children, and 1 granddaughter, and 2 goddaughters. She is a Cognitive Therapist, at Grace Counseling.

Offering guidance and assistance to help reestablish an emotional and mental foundation of strength and clarity, while learning new skills, Dr. Robinson is an educator, a children's author of 4 books, a self-publisher, and a co-author of 4 anthologies. She

is a member of Genesee County Prevention Coalition and Serenity House as a Board member. She is also a member of the Zeta Beta Zeta Flint Chapter.

She is also a founder of a series of nonprofits: Donation with Love Foundation, Nana Darcele Stories, and Travel with the Robinson. Donation with Love Foundation, 5013c, helps all diverse and underserved

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individuals. We have workshops for seniors and youth, summer camps, and after-school programs. “Journal with the Author.” Our curriculum discusses safe medication, opioid awareness discusses safe medication (over-the-counter and prescription drugs), opioid awareness, grief and loss, human trafficking, and crisis intervention.

Naomi Nucia Glay Founder of PowerTalk Shares her Deep Commitment for Positive Change

By Jules Lavallee

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Naomi Nucia Glay, crowned Miss Liberia in the US for 20182019, brings an inspiring background and a deep commitment to positive change.

Born to Liberian parents in Washington D.C., she spent her formative years in Kansas City, Missouri, before pursuing modeling in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2013. Currently involved in various initiatives in Liberia, Naomi works to bridge the gap between the diaspora and locals.

Naomi's rapid rise in the modeling world saw her become a pageant queen within just 30 days, highlighting her dedication and spirit. As Miss Liberia, she's traveled globally, using her platform to raise awareness about sexual abuse.

Featured in prestigious publications like FrontPage Africa and Sheen Magazine, Naomi is a voice for the voiceless. As a survivor and advocate, she launched the annual Power Talk panel, addressing taboo topics such as sexual abuse and assault. The panel provides a safe space for dialogue, empowering participants to explore options and rights.

Naomi believes in everyone's potential to contribute to the world and emphasizes embracing innate abilities. Alongside her advocacy, she's a realtor and the visionary behind Power Talk, dedicated to fostering open discussions on sensitive topics.

Power Talk is a dynamic platform founded by Naomi Glay, former Ms. Liberia USA 2018, and current realtor, dedicated to open

and transparent discussions on taboo and socially sensitive topics. Our mission is to address pressing issues in today's society through engaging panel events that promote understanding, empathy, and positive change within communities.

You can find Power Talk on various social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, where we share updates about upcoming events, panel discussions, and insightful content. Additionally, you can find information about our past events, panelists, and how to get involved on Instagram. Join us on our journey as we explore diverse subjects and amplify voices that are often marginalized or unheard. Together, let's spark meaningful conversations and inspire positive change.

You bring an inspiring background and deep commitment to positive change.

Please share your background.

Thank you for your kind words.

I'm honored to have the opportunity to share a bit about my background. Born to Liberian parents in Washington D.C., I spent my formative years in Kansas City, Missouri, before pursuing modeling in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2013. My journey has led me to become Miss Liberia in the US for 2018-2019, where I've been able to use my platform to raise awareness about important issues like sexual abuse. I'm deeply committed to bridging the gap between the diaspora and local communities, and I'm dedicated to fostering open discussions on sensitive topics

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through initiatives like the annual Power Talk panel.

Power Talk Atlanta

https://youtu.be/WrpIPfjRW8U ?feature=shared As a survivor and advocate of sexual abuse and assault you have been the voice of the voiceless globally. How have you used your platform to help others?

Using my platform as a survivor and advocate of sexual abuse and assault, I've strived to amplify the voices of the voiceless globally.

Through initiatives like the annual Power Talk panel, I've provided a safe space for dialogue, empowering survivors to explore their options and rights. Additionally, I've traveled extensively as Miss Liberia, raising awareness about sexual abuse, and advocating for change on a global scale. By sharing my own story and advocating for survivors, I aim to inspire others to speak out and break the silence surrounding these crucial issues.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

One surprising aspect about me is that alongside my advocacy work, I'm also a realtor. Balancing these two seemingly different roles allows me to pursue my passion for positive change while also engaging in a practical and rewarding profession. It's a unique blend of passions and skills that keeps me inspired and motivated to make a difference in both my community and beyond

What have you learned about yourself during your journey?

Throughout my journey, I've learned a great deal about myself. I've discovered my resilience in the face of challenges, my passion for advocating for others, and my ability to promote positive change. I've also learned the importance of self-care and staying true to my values amidst the demands of my work.

Overall, my journey has taught me the power of perseverance, empathy, and authenticity, shaping me into the person I am today.

The Dope 365 Show Power Talk Atlanta https://youtu.be/IcQ7S2Kuzw A?si=pSjvd6qMwQnNd5-r

You are also a realtor. What do you enjoy the most?

As a realtor, I find immense fulfillment in helping people find their dream homes and navigate the complexities of the real estate market. I serve in many areas of Georgia as well as some projects back in Liberia.

I've been a realtor for over 4 years. It's truly rewarding to be a part of such an important milestone in my clients' lives and to assist them in making informed decisions about their future. Whether it's finding the perfect property or negotiating a favorable deal, I take pride in providing excellent service and ensuring my clients' needs are met every step of the way.

Any plans on writing a book?

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I've definitely thought about it!

Writing a book is something that's been on my mind, especially considering the various experiences and insights I've gained throughout my journey. As for what's next for me, I'm continuing to focus on my advocacy work, both as a realtor and through initiatives like Power Talk. I'm passionate about making a positive impact in my community and beyond, so I'm excited to see where this journey takes me next. Whether it's writing a book, expanding my advocacy efforts, or exploring new opportunities, I'm committed to creating meaningful change and empowering others along the way.

the links Naomi IG PowerTalk Instagram

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Serial Entrepreneur

Felicia Alexander-Branch Shares Her Expertise to Empower Others In Financial Management

By Jules Lavallee

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Felicia is a dynamic and passionate serial entrepreneur hailing from Port Arthur, TX. With an unwavering determination to make a positive impact on people's lives, she has established herself as a force to be reckoned with in various ventures.

As the founder of Dependable Angel Services, Felicia has made it her mission to empower others with the knowledge and skills to save money in every aspect of life. Her expertise in financial management and frugal living has garnered her a loyal following of individuals seeking to improve their financial well-being and build a secure future. Having this organization has allowed me to work with Tomika Young with Meek University, Tiffany Green-Hood with TA Media Co., and other notable women and men in my life as a serial entrepreneur.

In addition to her financial services business, Felicia has also made her mark as an accomplished author. Through her association with Black Angel Publishing & Media, she has penned insightful works that resonate with readers.

Notably, her co-authorship in the Best-Seller "Joy 365 Devotional '', with Dr. Vernessa Blackwell is an amazing opportunity. “This is where my writing has showcased my

spiritual depth and ability to inspire others on their faith journey in life. She has also created journal materials available on Amazon, further encouraging personal reflection and growth among her readers.

Having a great experience working with John Alexander with Coach John Screenwriting Academy has opened doors for social media invitations, public speaking engagements, and many other excellent opportunities.”

Taking her message of empowerment to the digital realm, Felicia hosts the popular "Urban Chic Chatter Podcast '' on Spotify and iHeartRadio.

The podcast serves as a platform for engaging conversations about self-care, effective networking, and exploring various side hustles to achieve financial independence.

Through her candid discussions and uplifting content, she encourages her listeners to pursue their dreams and embrace opportunities for personal and professional growth. Being a TikTok Influencer on my channel https://www.tiktok.com/@pa_ lilbit409 has opened many opportunities with the Blaqqdiamond1 Show, Tea_Tyme_Wit_Ty, Chef.Foxxy, Gen_xode and other content creators who have inspired my content creativity.

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What led you to launch Dependable Angel Services?

I launched Dependable Angel Services in August 1990, when I realized at the age of nineteen when I became pregnant as a single mother and didn't want to rely on my parents to have the burden of taking care of me and my son. I started writing letters to the Pampers, Gerber, and other companies for coupons to save money on baby products.

And Dependable Angel Services grew from my son and through my other sons along with my grandchildren and family members. Dependable Angel has helped college students in need, and families in financial relief with my stockpile.

Dependable Angel Services has helped during many natural disasters which earned recognition as the January 2022 Hometown Hero Award in Jefferson County, Beaumont TX, and the Golden Triangle for working with the Cajun Navy Relief Inc in New Orleans Louisiana.

Dependable Angel Services continues today to teach others how to save money in all aspects of life on Dependable Angel Services on YouTube channel and other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.

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A speaking engagement of "Life Narratives Unveiled" By Mrs. Felicia Alexander-Branch with Dependable Angel Services and Ms. Ramona Carter with Savings Minds Coalition "Life Narratives Unveiled" #EveryonesStory #UntoldNarratives #StorytellingCommunity What are the lessons that have learned about money management and how are you helping others?

The lessons that I have learned from money management is to pay yourself ten percent first before paying anyone or anything. This lesson came from my childhood to adulthood from my father Mr. Bernard Alexander, Sr. I help people learn how to pay yourself first, use the applications to save money on gas, food, groceries, etc. Put money up for the rainy days through during the fiftytwo-week challenge from Quida B. Davis with SimpleSavingsForATLMoms.

Helped people learn about how to do high paying surveys and studies with Kimberly Dooley with PaidForYourSay which my referral code is on my linktr.ee.

My company offers saving trainings upon request and as needed and on all my social media platforms.

Tell us about your work coauthoring the best-selling anthology, Joy 365

Devotional. Why was this important to you?

My work with co-authoring the best-selling anthology, Joy 365 Devotional came from the group of Mrs. Tiffany Green-Hood with Published & Black Magazine. Because I met Dr. Vernessa Blackwell and that is how I was able to join the Joy 365 Devotional and Chose Joy Affirmations Journal. The coauthoring became important to me because of my high school English teacher Ms. Jane Smith who always inspired me to write and do it at my best. And when this writing opportunity to display my writing skills and passion for helping others came with Dr. Vernessa Blackwell I applied for the opportunity because I wanted to show others that we only have one life and live it to the best of our ability.

You have taken your message of empowerment to "Urban Chic Chatter Podcast." Tell us more!

The message of empowerment to Urban Chic Chatter Podcast was originally Felicia Dependable Angel Services Podcast but with working with Mrs. Tiffany Green-Hood her inspiration was to search for a unique name as she designed my beautiful logo. That vision is where the name Urban Chic Chatter Podcast was born.

Urban Chic Chatter Podcast is to teach others how to save

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money across the board and general things in life awareness alerts. Urban Chic Chatter Podcast focuses on conversations, about self-care, networking, and ways to side hustles. Urban Chic Chatter Podcast is on Spotify and IHeartRadio and other platforms are available for listening.

You are a highly sought-after speaker. Please share your topics and where we can see you next.

My topics are about saving money, self-care, side hustles, networking, content creator and topics that are requested. My next journey is to be on Ted Talks and other major speaking arenas such as colleges, universities, White House, business forums with the mission of wherever the holy spirit opens the doors with Mr. John Alexander who is my mentor from Coach John Screenwriting Academy and my own path of opportunities. https://linktr.ee/dependableang elservices https://podcasters.spotify.com/ pod/show/urbanchicchatterpod cast

Nick Ordonez of Making an Impact with the Spread Good Squad In Honor of His Brother, Jonathan

By Jules Lavallee

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Tell us about your brother Jonathan.

My brother, Jonathan, has been my biggest inspiration for as long as I can remember. He was born with Down syndrome just 11 months before I was born. So, my whole life, I’ve seen my parents sacrifice and take care of him and that’s inspired me to live a life of service to others. In 2020, I wrote a book called “Halo Effect, A Brother’s Memoir” – which explored my relationship with my brother and the lessons learned and inspirations it’s given me.

When I went away to college, my parents decided to open up a home care to take care of developmentally disabled adults and that family business is still running strong today.

A couple of years ago, I started a business inspired by my brother and my love of fashion and travel called JETCET. When I started that business, I wanted to make sure that a portion of all sales was going to a worthy cause.

That's when I met the founder of a small nonprofit. Through the years, as I was donating to the nonprofit, I felt a calling to help the nonprofit even more. I ended up volunteering then joining the team. I also teamed up with the nonprofit's founder to start a new business called the Spread Good Squad.

Through the Spread Good Squad we share stories, we make merch, and we try to help as many people as possible in any way we can. Spread Good is a lifestyle, a feeling, a movement that is always growing and improving.

We want to make people laugh, think, talk, smile, cry, and figure out how to be the best versions

of themselves so they can continue to Spread Good in their own ways.

Check out the podcast on YouTube – www.youtube.com/spreadgoods quad Tell us about your book, “Halo Effect, A Brother’s Memoir,” and your mission.

My mission for my book was to share the many lessons I learned from growing up with my brother and hopefully reach other people who have siblings or family members who have developmental disabilities and may be struggling with their relationships. In my book, I tried to dive deep into my thoughts and feelings as a child, adolescent, and adult. I wanted to share the many struggles and really be open and honest about the fact that there were days that I did not enjoy having a brother who was down syndrome. I wanted to share that just like most brothers, we fought, we got on each other’s nerves, and there were times that I hated him. But at the end of the day, he always loved me, and I always loved him. No matter how much we fought, he didn't hold grudges, he didn't care like that, he just knew I was his brother and best friend, and he always loved me and that forced me to realize that I needed to do the same.

In the book, I also talk about how when I was a child, my brother wasn't expected to live past 25, so I always had the fear that at any time, I could lose him.

It's hard growing up being keenly aware of the fact that tomorrow is not promised and that my best friend, my brother, could be gone

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at any moment. And even with all of that, I felt ashamed as a child and adolescent that my brother was so "different." I didn't talk to my friends about him. I kind of ended up living a double life. One at home with my family and extended family where everyone knew my brother, accepted him, and I felt comfortable. And another life, outside of my home, where people barely even knew I had a brother, and I could just be myself and didn't have to be the kid with the brother that's different.

It wasn't until I was an adult that I started becoming more comfortable talking about my brother. And that's when I really started wanting to write my book and share my relationship with him.

Your love of fashion led you to launch JETCET. What did you enjoy the most?

My love of fashion and travel led me to launch a business that I was passionate about. After a few of my young adult trips to different countries, I realized that I wanted to create a different kind of travel experience for myself. On my travels, I realized that there were two things that were missing, sharing the experiences with my brother (who I realized might not even care about experiencing different countries and cultures like I do), and travel bags that fit my lifestyle. JETCET is all about the travel lifestyle of enjoying experiences. Our bags and accessories are minimalist as we want to get on and off planes, trains, and automobiles and enjoy our travels rather than worrying about what we're bringing with us.

When I started JETCET, I wanted to make sure that the company would be aligned with the inspiration my brother had given me. So, I wanted to find a worthy cause to give back to. I wanted a portion of all sales to be donated to a nonprofit that I could be passionate about.

That's when I met Brodi, founder of the nonprofit, Campaign One At A Time. We quickly became friends and bonded over our love of travel, experiences, and helping others.

We'd end up working closely together on JETCET, the nonprofit Campaign One At A Time, and eventually we'd start a new business together called the Spread Good Squad.

Spread Good Squad is gaining momentum with its stories and merchandise. What can we find at Spread Good Squad?

At the Spread Good Squad, you will find a community that amplifies the message that small acts of generosity can make a big difference, spreading

positivity matters. Through our podcast, we share stories of spreading good and how it can sometimes be difficult. We talk to people from all walks of life who spread good in their own ways and have their own struggles. Our podcast is aimed to make our audience feel good, feel like spreading good, and also receive the real behind the scenes on how difficult life can be sometimes for all of us.

your goals for 2024?

A portion of all of the sales of the merch we sell goes towards worthy causes. So, if you see someone wearing a Spread Good hoodie or tshirt, you know that they are supporting good causes and the community that we are building.

We also produce high quality, fairly priced merch for individuals, businesses, and organizations that want to fundraise for their worthy causes.

Our big goal for our merchandise for 2024 is to raise $50,000 for nonprofits and those in need. We are hoping to smash this goal in the next couple of months and hopefully we can raise our goal to $100,000 for our fundraising merchandise.

What are some of the takeaways from Spread Good Squad? What are

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The Spread Good Squad keeps growing every day and we are so blessed that we have met and connected with so many amazing individuals who think like us. For our podcast, we are continuing to get sponsors and we hope to get to 100k subscribers on YouTube and 100 episodes this year. We're also hoping to do some live streaming episodes very soon.

Check out the merch and reach out if you want us to make merch for you! – www.spreadgoodsquad.com My personal social media is. instagram.com/nickclassick And for the Spread Good Squad it's instagram.com/spreadgoodsquad

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Author Ian Brown’s, A l b e r t t h e To r t o i s e S e r i e s i s a Global Phenomenon-Based on his F a m i l y P e t To r t o i s e , A l b e r t

By Jules Lavallee

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Ian Brown is a former journalist turned tv writer, producer and now children’s picture book author. With tv credits including The Simpsons, Top Gear, The South Bank Show and This Is Your Life, Ian has written and produced for some of the biggest and best-known names in television, film and entertainment including Harrison Ford, Pierce Brosnan, Simon Cowell, George Michael, Michael Caine, Gordon Ramsay, Sharon Stone, Jimmy Stewart, David Cassidy, Jamie Oliver, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese and many more.

Ian has always wanted to be published and that dream came true three years ago when an idea about his family pet tortoise turning upside down became the picture book Albert Upside Down. Now Ian and illustrator Eoin Clarke have 11 books out (all with publishers Graffeg) – six Albert picture books, board book Albert and his Friends, Activity Book Albert Puzzles and Colouring plus their other series of books Hugg ‘n’ Bugg – about a messy yeti and a flea in rhyming stories Finding Home, The Comb and The Surprise.

Ian lives in London, UK. He started out in local newspapers, graduating to national Press.

Then to TV news shows and documentaries in the UK. Five years ago, the family pet tortoise – called Albert – went upside down in the garden. As he gently put Albert right way round, Ian had an idea. He rushed indoors and scribbled down the idea. He was already working with Eoin Clarke on animation projects and asked him to work on character designs and illustrations.

More rejections followed. Then

Welsh indie publisher Graffeg picked up Albert Upside Down and follow-up Albert and the Wind.

Real Albert the tortoise is more than 80 years-old and was found

by Ian’s wife Millie more than 50 years ago on a path near the family home. When no-one claimed the tortoise, they took him in and named him Albert.

Real Albert now has a huge worldwide following on Facebook reaching more than half a million people each week.

He is also on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and has his own website.

After the success of the first two Albert books, more followed.

Out now are ALBERT UPSIDE DOWN, ALBERT AND THE WIND, ALBERT SUPERSIZE, ALBERT IN THE AIR, ALBERT AND THE POND, ALBERT, AND THE SHED. Later this year these will be joined

by ALBERT AND THE FLOOD and ALBERT AND THE THIEF.

There will also be two more Board Books for very early readers – ALBERT 123 and ALBERT ABC. You’ve had a successful career as a journalist, and tv writer.

Share your background.

Thanks for saying “successful,” Jules… I am a former journalist (local and national newspapers in the UK) turned tv writer, producer and now children’s picture book author. As you mentioned, I have television credits including The Simpsons, Top Gear, The South Bank Show and This Is Your Life, I’ve been

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Lucky enough to write and produce for some of the biggest and best-known names in television, film and entertainment including Harrison Ford, Pierce Brosnan, Simon Cowell, Homer Simpson, George Michael, Michael Caine, Gordon Ramsay, Sharon Stone, Jimmy Stewart, David Cassidy, Jamie Oliver, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese and many more.

I joined the “big red book” tribute show This Is Your Life in the UK as a researcher before becoming the show’s writer.

Simultaneously I worked on game shows, and entertainment specials and started to work with Jeremy Clarkson on car show projects.

These evolved into the global TV phenomenon Top Gear where I worked as a producer.

All the while, for decades, I tried to get various novels, chapter books and other picture books published, receiving dozens of rejections from agents and publishers. Then five years ago I had an idea for stories about a tortoise. I was already working with Eoin Clarke on animation projects and asked him to work on character designs and illustrations.

More rejections followed. Then, Welsh independent publisher Graffeg picked up Albert Upside Down and follow-up Albert and the Wind. Albert Upside Down has just celebrated its third anniversary and now Eoin and I have 11 children’s books out. It’s been quite a rollercoaster ride.

Your ever popular Albert the tortoise series has won the hearts of children around the world.

What was your inspiration for Albert?

Five years ago, our family pet tortoise – also called Albert – went upside down in the garden. They all do it. As I gently put Albert right way round, I had an idea. I rushed indoors and scribbled down the outline. The wonderful illustrator Eoin Clarke and I worked on the story and images for several months and it evolved into the picture book Albert Upside Down. I also had an idea about Albert’s food blowing away on a windy day. That became Albert and The Wind. In fact, real things about the real Albert have inspired all the stories.

Real Albert now has a huge worldwide following on Facebook reaching more than half a million people each week. Tell us a few fun facts about Albert.

turtles), the California Turtle Tortoise Conservation Club and Arizona Reptile Rescue.

What makes a story about a tortoise so magical? Take us through your stories.

After the success of the first two Albert books, more followed. Out now are ALBERT UPSIDE DOWN, ALBERT AND THE WIND, ALBERT SUPERSIZE, ALBERT IN THE AIR, ALBERT AND THE POND, ALBERT, AND THE SHED. All the books have their start with things that happen with the real Albert. He does go upside down now and then – but in the story his garden friends overcome differences and work together to help him on his feet. The garden creatures also round up his food for him when it blows away in the second story.

Real Albert the tortoise is more than 80 years old and was found by my wife Millie more than 50 years ago on a path near the family home. When no-one claimed the tortoise, they took him in and named him Albert.

In ALBERT SUPERSIZE, Albert dreams of dinosaurs and helps them before helping his garden pals. Scientists believe tortoises do dream when they hibernate as their brains are very active.

Real Albert now has a huge worldwide following not only on Facebook but also on twitter/X, insta and TikTok and has his own website.

In ALBERT IN THE AIR, Albert digs out of the garden and goes on an adventure beyond – even flying. When he was younger, real Albert would dig under the garden fence a lot.

He’s a Greek or Mediterranean spur thighed tortoise. His favorite food is probably dandelions. I’m thrilled to say he now supports several charities and has helped US organizations like Sofa Cushion Challenge (which raises money for sick and injured tortoises and

In ALBERT AND THE POND, he makes a new friend who suddenly vanishes. It’s OK.. it ends happily.

In ALBERT AND THE SHED, Albert shelters in a shed but gets locked in. His friends launch a

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chaotic rescue mission. All the books are officially aimed at 3 – 7 years, but we have fans of all ages.

The stories share a message of teamwork and kindness. We also touch on conservation and other issues in a light way. All the Albert picture books also contain facts about the real Albert, other tortoises, turtles, reptiles, dinosaurs, and garden animals.

I think children like the idea that tortoises – and Albert – are modern day dinosaurs. In fact, we say Albert is a modern-day mini dinosaur living life on the veg!

As well as our books, it’s nice to be able to offer Albert T shirts and tote bags too as well as coloring sheets. A lot of youngsters use our T-shirts to make Albert the tortoise costumes for World Book Day – which is an absolute joy to see.

Celebrities have been praising Albert. Who are some of the fans?

Fortunately – as well as the great response from readers of all ages I was able to garner some celebrity praise for the books including from Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear, The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm fame. He said “I like this book. I like the drawings” – which is a nice thing to say. There is also Game of Thrones star Clive Mantle, who commented “Sensationally illustrated, with acrobatic ants – what more could you want?”

There was also Praise from a number of UK household names like Paul Whitehouse from The Fast Show and Gone Fishing, Vicki Michelle from Eastenders, comedian Julian Clary, Youtuber Joe Sugg, TV presenters John Craven and Michael Aspel, Danny Miller from Emmerdale, and influencer Lydia Bright. They were all very generous.

It’s great to receive any comments and we love to hear from readers and encourage them to post Book Reviews. We were delighted to win an award not long ago voted by schoolchildren. They even designed and crafted the trophies.

That was very special indeed.

Your illustrations are so captivating. Tell us about working with Eoin Clarke.

As well as an illustrator, Eoin is also a multi-award-winning animation director. As a result, we are the first team working with publishers Graffeg to offer our books as animated eBooks as well as paperback and e-books.

It’s a delight to work with Eoin. At first, illustrated Albert was more like a Disney cartoon character – with goggles and a crash helmet. But we agreed he should be more accurate to a real tortoise. The same goes for all the animals – although there are bits of clothing here and there.

I try to come up with stories that have a lot of visual potential for Eoin to bring to life. All the artwork is done as oil paintings and takes several months. Eoin has rightly received enormous praise for his work. The reader zooms in to the action – at tortoise level. All the characters have a wonderful presence.

You also have the board book Albert and his Friends, and Activity Book Albert Puzzles and

Colouring.

I’m delighted to say Albert was the first character to appear in Board Books for publishers Graffeg.

Aimed at 0-3 years, our first Board Book (with thick, easy-wipe pages) for very early readers is ALBERT and His Friends which introduces garden animals and bugs, the idea of friendship and our favorite tortoise. Plus, there is Activity Book ALBERT PUZZLES AND COLOURING packed with mazes, spot the difference, join the dots, and more. It’s lovely to see how people respond to all the books.

Tell us about Hugg ‘n’ Bugg.

Thanks to the success of ALBERT, publishers Graffeg asked if we had any other ideas. I was pleased to say I had stories about a messy yeti and a very tidy flea living in the Himalayas. These are rhyming stories. Eoin again produced wonderful character designs and superb images – in a very different setting. Now we have Hugg ‘n’ Bugg FINDING HOME – in which Bugg the flea looks for somewhere warm to live and discovers the messy yeti, Hugg.

They team up and the flea tidies the yeti in return for a warm home in his fur.

In the second story THE COMB, the pair find a comb in the snow, and it unsettles their relationship.

But things work out in the end.

Just out is THE SURPRISE about a fit of jealousy that threatens a birthday celebration. Again, all works out. There will be another Hugg ‘n’ Bugg story next year.

As well as the lead characters, these stories also feature yaks, snow leopards and red pandas. Plus, the wonderful mountain settings.

I first wrote the very first version of Finding Home at school when I

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was seven. Of course, it was very different. It was incredible nearly 50 years later to launch the book, set in the Himalayas, in the actual Himalayas – at Mount Everest base camp, thanks to a sponsored trek by Bookmark Reading – a charity we work with that helps improve reading skills and confidence in schools across the UK.

You visit dozens of schools each year talking about writing and reading your stories. What books are in the works for 2024?

Will we see you at festivals? (Any other events?)

Later this year the Albert series will be joined by picture books ALBERT AND THE FLOOD and ALBERT AND THE THIEF. There will also be two more Board Books this year – ALBERT 123 and ALBERT ABC. I’ve been lined up for bookshop appearances all-round the UK as well as school events and I am due to appear at a number of Children’s Literature Festivals. We keep people posted on our website and across all our social sites for the latest events. It’s wonderful to meet your audience face to face – and experience instant reactions to the stories.

See more of real Albert and the ALBERT and Hugg ‘n’ Bugg books at www.AlbertTortoise.com https://www.facebook.com/Albert TheTortoise/ https://www.facebook.com/HUG GnBUGG/ https://twitter.com/AlbertTortoise https://www.instagram.com/thebr uvstv/

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Lori Gradley Founder of Splendid Inspiration: Empowering Women to Succeed

By Jules Lavallee

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Entrepreneur, International writer, author, and mindset coach, Lori Gradley has over 35 years of experience in the personal development industry trained by some of the world's leading voices.

Lori brings her passion, business skills, and life experience to deliver meaningful wellness courses to empower others. For decades she has enjoyed helping people untap their potential so they can enrich their lives to become the best they can be.

Renowned for her expertise in empowering people to reach their fullest potential, Lori has earned acclaim as a top sales producer, having operated multiple successful businesses.

Previous to this career she first began teaching self-improvement classes at a former Miss Canada’s modeling studio. Having modeled herself she also co-ordinated fashion shows. She also worked alongside the producer of a children's TV Talent show at CHCH-TV called Tiny Talent Time in Ontario, Canada Lori now operates her motivational company, Splendid Inspiration that offers transformative online wellness courses, and personalized coaching sessions. She has a flair for crafting empowering content dedicated to inspiring individuals worldwide and as such spends the majority of her time writing and spending as much time with her family as she can.

Share your journey. What led you to your career?

My own personal growth journey started decades ago when I was a young adult. I was involved in a serious head-on collision which landed me in the hospital for several months, bedridden and in traction.

Because of the seriousness of the crash, I had to endure grueling

therapy for many months to recuperate. As I had so much time on my hands to ‘think’ I began to do a lot of soul-searching examining my life’s mistakes. I didn’t like the way my life was progressing and decided I needed to make some dramatic changes in my results if I wanted to experience a happier, more fulfilling life.

I began to study personal development and invested in myself.

I’ve read so many books over the years, attended workshops, & seminars. Years ago, this material wasn’t overly available. There was no Google, no world wide web, no social media, it wasn’t even a term. I had to literally search for this content. I found that the more I studied the more I learned about myself. Not only did my attitude change but my awareness level increased as well. And so did my results. I’m grateful I’ve experienced much joy, inner peace, and success in my life. It became obvious that I would share this information with others.

Share a few challenges in your life in which you have persevered.

One particular challenge which was very hard on me was a few years ago when I lost both my parents, literally within months of each other. I was operating two companies and as I was the Executor of my parents’ estate, I had to handle all their affairs. This situation for me was emotionally & physically draining.

Utilizing the material that I’ve learned I was able to remain focused and maintain a positive mindset which helped me get through that very difficult time.

Tell us about your motivational company, Splendid Inspiration Splendid Inspiration is a supportive place for people to learn more about themselves, enhance their self-image,

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improve their results so they can live an enriched life. I have been running this business for several years. At first, I started promoting motivational products, jewelry, and gifts, all with inspirational meaning. Our company still operates an Etsy store that sells inspiring gifts for women, but I have found wellness online courses and our individual coaching sessions are receiving a much better response from people.

You have a flair for crafting empowering content dedicated to inspiring individuals worldwide.

Take us through some of your courses.

Our reasonably priced online wellness courses support people in different ways: “Power of your Thoughts” is a more extensive online course teaching students about the power of their mind and how it functions.

More importantly it teaches people how their thoughts are directly affecting their results with effective strategies they can apply to positively move forward in life.

“Science of Goal Achievement” is an online course that is a roadmap teaching people the science of goal setting & achieving as well as visualization. In my opinion, it is the springboard for people who seriously want to improve their results and witness dramatic changes in their lives. It starts with goals.

‘Manage your Life’s Stressors’ supports people to take control of their life when they are overwhelmed so they can feel empowered to enjoy more serenity and peace. They can learn tactics to combat everyday stress, with a stress assessment, positive affirmations, and 30-day Stress-free Challenge.

“Renew & Recharge” is a 4-part results oriented online course that recharges people so they can feel renewed & empowered in order to take action to achieve better results. Includes personal assessment, 30-day Renew Challenge, positive affirmations and a mini–Goal Setting Guide.

What do you offer as a mindset coach? What will people notice when working with you?

I have been involved with personal development teaching this subject for many years along with decades of life experience. My coaching is offered on an individual session basis. I become my students’ confidant by listening to their challenges offering a customized plan of action so they can apply it in their life. Each person is on different levels of awareness which means all sessions are completely personalized.

The goal for each individual is to

recognize where changes need to be made, apply this new thinking, adjust their mindset so they can experience more happiness, health, and prosperity in their life.

You have spent 40 years studying the ability to change mindsets. Tell us about your new book, “How to Think and Succeed by Empowering your Mind.”

“How to think and succeed by empowering your mind” is an accumulation of over 35 years of study that encompasses a step-bystep strategy to help people tap into their inner strength so they can overcome the obstacles that stand in their way.

It provides a roadmap to achieve personal and professional success by harnessing the power of the mind so that people can enhance their self-image and build a positive mindset. If doubts, fears, and negative thought patterns are creating roadblocks that keep you

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from enjoying your life, and if inner peace and happiness has become illusive to you then this refreshingly new perspective will support you in finding the answers.

It is for anyone who has a desire to improve their lives, change their results and create a positive mindset. People from all walks of life can benefit from this book. A parent wanting to support their child to untap their potential, a student wanting to improve their grades, a business owner wanting to improve their sales or someone who might be struggling with mental health issues who has a desire to improve their life. I have even taught some of this material to my own two children when they were toddlers. They are both successful young adults now and have developed invaluable skillsets for life. https://splendidinspiration.com www.lorigradley.com

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Lisa Towles, Award-Winning Crime Novelist and Passionate Speaker

By Jules Lavallee

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Lisa Towles is an Amazon bestselling, award-winning crime novelist and a passionate speaker on the topics of fiction writing, creativity, and self-care. She has ten crime thrillers in print with a new title, Terror Bay, forthcoming in November of 2023. Her latest thriller, Salt Island (June 2023) won both a Reader’s Choice and a Pencraft literary award.

Salt Island is the second book in her E&A Investigations series following Hot House (June 2022). Lisa is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers and is deeply committed to supporting writers' success through friendship, fellowship, and community engagement. She is Board President of a Bay Area nonprofit (Bridgegood.org) and speaks frequently to groups of business leaders and writers. She has an MBA in IT Management and works full-time in the tech industry in the San Francisco Bay area.

Can you share how someone can switch gears from working in IT Management to become an awardwinning crime novelist?

My day job and writing career have coexisted for almost twenty years, and what I’ve been delighted to discover is that they feed each other. My tech career has always in some way been related to communications (writing/editing/design/strategy for internal communications, PR, community relations) and I use all of those skills while writing and publicizing my books. Fitting both of these careers into my life requires strategy for making space in my schedule, setting realistic priorities, being real about my capacity, and elevating my passion for storytelling.

Your first two books of your E&A Investigations Series (Hot House and Salt Island) were both #1 Amazon Kindle Bestsellers. What made these intriguing for readers?

There are three books in this series, and I think what appealed most to readers is the private investigation team of Mari Ellwyn and Derek Abernathy in southern California. Mari and Derek develop a deep friendship, they have

Some funny banter between them, they’ve both got some serious baggage, and there are elements of deep meaning in their professional and personal connection. (Not a romance, though).

Readers really liked the Mari/Derek connection, but the series is written in the first person from Mari’s point of view, and I think first person thrillers are becoming very popular.

In Hot House, where Mari and Derek first meet, they’re investigating the murder of a college student and discover that her death is related to a series of other crimes. This book also introduces Mari’s endless search for her missing father. In Salt Island, Mari gets closer than ever to finding her father, as he summons her to the British Virgin Islands. The case she and Derek are hired to solve involves corruption and high stakes espionage in the oil and gas industry.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

I’m a compulsive reader and I think I was born with an endless supply of stories running through my head. I read them, I write them, I dream about them, they’re like air and water and are always all around me. But I think my inspiration comes from the tragedies and miracles of human drama – how our hearts ceremoniously open and close in response to what we see and experience, and what happens to us when we don’t get what we need.

I’m also utterly captivated by secrets family secrets, company secrets, whistleblowers, repressed memories. As a crime novelist and a fan of TV crime dramas, I believe all crimes stem from secrets and the parts of ourselves we hide from the world…and what happens when those secrets are exposed. Sometimes we’re energized by challenge – other times we crumble, and I think the human experience deepens with each of these poignant cycles.

Your much-anticipated release of “Codex” will be released in June.

What do you want people to know?

Secrets and baggage are primary themes in Codex, as the reader will get to meet

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Angus Mariner, learn about how he crumbles when his wife dies in a tragic car accident, and then how he sort of wakes up from the fog when he learns that the car crash was no accident. He encounters a journalist who shares what his wife Jessica uncovered, and what she was about to expose to the world about a nefarious company and appalling human experiments. This is very much a psychological thriller because Angus’ path of addiction is a rollercoaster he’s riding throughout the story evolution, and through finding the truth his wife died to protect, he transforms himself from a victim to a warrior. Angus Mariner is like every one of us – broken, heroic, and capable of miraculous things.

You are also a passionate speaker.

Please share your topics and upcoming engagements.

I will be speaking to a professional writing organization – Sisters in Crime, later this month about how to make “book trailers” using a tool called Lumen5, I have a radio interview on 91.3 FM KSVY in June to talk about Codex, and I’ll likely have one or two in-person book signing events at local San Francisco Bay area bookstores. But the best public speaking I do is hosting my new YouTube author interview series called Story Impact, where I interview authors about the meaning and magic in their published books.

Lifting up other authors is my mission and my passion.

What’s Next?

After Codex in June, I have another standalone thriller coming out on December 3, 2024. It’s a Young Adult thriller called Specimen. Read about it here: https://www.indiesunited.net/specime n Author website: https://lisatowles.com/ Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/lisat owles Author page on publisher’s website: https://www.indiesunited.net/lisatowles Follow me: https://linktr.ee/authortowles

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Author, Timothy R. Baldwin with the Kahale & Claude Mystery Series Receives Rave Reviews

By Jules Lavallee

©Red Silk Carpet January 2024

Tim, a seasoned educator with over 15 years of teaching experience across multiple grade levels in English and Drama, has established himself as a dedicated writer with a diverse academic background. He holds a B.S. in Theatre from Towson University, an M.A.T. from Notre Dame of Maryland University, and an M.A. in Creative Writing and Literature from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Originally from Syracuse, New York, Tim currently resides in Maryland, where he imparts his passion for English, Creative Writing, Film, and Theatre to high school students. His journey into writing began earnestly in 2014, spurred by the encouragement of his own students.

Tim's love for storytelling stems from his upbringing, where his mother's dedication to reading to him and his siblings laid the foundation for his literary pursuits. Tim embarked on his writing endeavors, influenced by authors such as C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Piers Anthony, and others in the mystery, thriller, and fantasy genres.

Since his debut publication in 2019, Tim has rapidly expanded his literary footprint, amassing a wealth of published works.

Beyond writing, Tim enjoys indulging in his diverse interests, including reading, teaching, camping, savoring cigars, shooting, and attending live music concerts.

Have you always known that you had a gift of storytelling?

Looking back, storytelling and writing generally came naturally to me. In high school, I took journalism courses and creative writing courses. I remember one summer, a counselor at summer camp who I looked up to shared the poems he was writing with me. I started to write poetry as well. The people around me parents and teachers encouraged me to write when I was young. In fact, my mother saved everything of significance from when I was in first grade until I graduated high school. I read one of those first-grade stories about a fat dog. So very little development in that story, yet my teacher loved it.

I do the same with my students encourage their creativity and push them to move out of their comfort zones. I started teaching in 2007 after a short-lived career in retail management because I could no longer see myself in management. I desired something I could be free to pursue that I was most passionate about at the time - working with teenagers and theatre arts. I never dreamed this pathway would spark the creative flare for writing a mystery series.

Your Kahale & Claude Mystery series has rave reviews. Tell us about Camp Lenape and your inspiration.

Camp Lenape, the first book in the series, was inspired by various places. I grew up going to overnight and day camps, which factored into the story. But a real-life camp at which I spent 7 of my 8 contracted weeks as a counselor/teacher inspired the

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story. The summer camp was run by a neurotic older gentleman whose father founded the camp.

The camp traditions were also as outdated as the camp equipment.

At the time I was working at this summer camp, I was also part of a writing group in my area while I was taking courses for my second master's in creative writing and literature. So, my ears were dialed in for a good story. The story came as a result of lore and rumors I heard from the more long-time counselors. Out of that came the idea for Camp Lenape—a summer camp in illrepair run by a neurotic camp director into some shady dealings.

Reviews:

"I loved this story! It's a tale as old as time, watching a young man struggle through trials which ultimately lead to Marcus discovering self-reliance and bravery. Except, the young heroine is probably the real hero in the story as Alissa easily takes the lead. The characters are wellwritten, and the dialogue flows easy. Twists and turns make this story a fast read. It's an innocent love tale but also an action packed Y.A. novel. I can't wait to see what happens next." Heather Carson, author of the Fated Destinies Series

"The story is an amazing mystery in the vein of Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew. Marcus, one of the main characters, isn't afraid to break out a flashlight and explore the wilderness surrounding Camp Lenape.

Alissa is more reserved, but the gloves were off once one of the girls went missing." - Harry Carpenter, Frightreads Book Festival event organizer and author of FUBAR and Spooky Tales and Scary Things

"Camp Lenape had me captivated from the beginning. Timothy R. Baldwin gradually amplifies the mystery that surrounds this camp.

The author takes you back to your own days of camp, then twists the plot to something much more alarming. The danger the teenagers face intensifies as the novel becomes more gripping.

The pace quickens as the danger increases and the teens find more clues. Each of the four teenagers adds a different talent or character trait needed to help find this camper. The danger that confronts Alissa makes this a story for a more mature young person. Mild violence towards the end takes this novel to the level of a crime mystery thriller.

Overall, this book will take you on an adventure you never expected. The author surprised me with the strength of his characters and the responsibility they took on themselves. I hope to read more from this author as you can feel the energy he injects within his work." Reader's Favorite 5-Star Book Review”.

Take us through the "Shadows of Doubt" and Operation Varsity Blues." Who will enjoy these the most? Who have been your influencers?

Shadows of Doubt and Operation Varsity Blues are stories based on bizarre headlines and news stories I read. With the first book finished, I wasn't ready to let my characters go. While I wrote these books with teenagers, specifically very reluctant readers, in mind, the books can be enjoyed by any age group. The fast-paced narrative, character development, and snappy dialogue create a voice relatable to teenagers. (I should know; I am around them all day!). The series explores themes of friendship, adolescence, and self-discovery, emphasizing the development of interpersonal relationships. So, on some level, it is a coming-ofage series. Yet, the series builds with suspense and plot twists as these mature teenage sleuths stick their noses where they don't belong and get into trouble.

Before, and while writing these novels, I read a lot of John Green, Harlan Coben, and James Patterson's Y.A. books. You could say I gleaned what I could from these great writers and did my own thing!

You teach creative writing, film, and theatre on the high school level. What have you learned through your journey?

Being a writer ruined me when it came to expectations regarding final drafts. While I greatly value the writing process, it is only for some. Very few students desire to live with a piece of writing they have worked on for longer than a few days. Most would prefer one and done. Now I emphasize

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turning in their best draft, which they've received critique and attempted to make revisions.

Very rare exceptions will embrace the idea of writing three to five drafts. But, while writing Camp Lenape, I was sharing the process with my eighth graders at the time. They became a part of the experience, and unbeknownst to them, some of their antics and personalities showed up in the book via the characters.

These days, I teach English I and Yearbook. In English I, I focus the students on the craft of writing as demonstrated in the literature we read, and they can apply the technique to their own work. In the Yearbook, I emphasize gathering the details they need to craft a piece of journalism. They also get a chance to experience one part of publishing.

Please share your upcoming book.

A Bad Contract is my next book.

It features a young P.I. named Cassie Maddox, who stumbles upon a murder while conducting an unrelated investigation. I introduced Cassie in Operation Varsity Blues as a young, reckless investigator living in her Detective father's shadow. I have some 30 chapters outlined and several chapters written, but I don't know when it'll be ready for the public.

It could be the end of 2025.

www.timothybaldwin.com

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Claire Daly, World-Renowned Baritone Saxophonist: Inspiring Young Women for Decades

By Jules Lavallee

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Baritone Saxophonist, CIaire Daly is a Berklee College of Music graduate and has studied with legends Joe Viola, John LaPorta, George Garzone, Jerry Bergonzi, and more.

She has been teaching privately in New York City since 1986 as well as numerous clinics, workshops, residencies:

A few examples 2019 UMass Amherst Saxophone Symposium – clinician and performer 2019 mentor at “JEN Sisters In Jazz” – mentor and performer Litchfield Jazz Camp – Senior Faculty (over 20 years) The Mile High Jazz Camp Centrum Jazz Camp Has music always been your passion?

Music became my passion at a very early age. I'd sit at my portable record player and listen over and over to my 45s and records. At 12, my father took me to a big band concert and my head exploded from the music. The last band of the night was the Buddy Rich Band and that was the night I decided what to do with the rest of my life. I listened to music all the time.

At that point, there weren't a lot of schools that had "jazz education", but I found out about Berklee, and it was the only school I applied for.

I loved my experience there and learned so much about a wide variety of music and about playing the saxophone. After that, I made a living in a few Boston rock bands, one of which ("Dish" - 4 women and 1 guy) was produced by Elton John's guitarist, Davy Johnstone.

We had a few close calls with success before I moved to NYC and began my freelance and jazz career.

Can you share a few of your special moments during your career?

There have been many special moments in music for me. As a hired gun around town, I played with many great musicians in both jazz and rock. I loved playing with Jimmy Heath's big band - he was a great arranger. Every part was an interesting line that created a stunning effect. Sahib Shihab was also quite the arranger. We used to rehearse at my place on 23rd Street every Wednesday. The neighbors loved it. Meanwhile, I did all kinds of gigs from Aretha Franklin to Taj Mahal to the Diva big band, backing up artists like James Brown, Rosemary Clooney, Joe Williams and more. All the while, doing every wedding, special event, art spaces, etc.

Finally, in 1999, I made my first jazz record as a leader. That was the beginning of having a career as an artist and I'm so glad I did that. It really changed how I saw myself in the world. That record, "Swing Low" got a lot of attention and was the beginning of the next phase of my career. I still did a lot of "bread and butter" gigs, but I also started to get Festivals as a leader. That record ended up in the Presidential Library of Bill Clinton in Little Rock, AK, as a CD significant to him while he was president.

I should also say that I've had a parallel time playing Avant Garde jazz. I know this is a rarefied language and an acquired taste, but I was bitten by the bug in 1976 when I heard The Fringe play in Boston nearly every week for 3 years.

George Garzone is one of the living greats on tenor sax, so it was an amazing experience hearing them every week.

"I've Never Been In Love Before" composed by Frank Loesser featuring Claire Daly www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5 mvBIGBTjM

You are an inspiration to young women who want to join the jazz community. Please share some of your work and advice for

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young women today.

I encourage any young women who REALLY love playing jazz to make your first priority mastering your instrument and the music. We're here to serve the music, in many ways. As you become accomplished, you'll start to work.

When starting out, all gigs are good gigs as networking is a big part of what we do. Meeting other players and working with them puts you on their list of players to call. You really don't know what will lead to what and there will be many happy surprises if you've taken care of business on your instrument. Keep yourself inspired by hearing new things that are happening.

There are many roads to take here this is just one of them. You will create your own reality by believing in yourself and following your own instincts. I just strongly suggest you find a community of like-minded players to go through life with. It's more fun that way, and as I look at my life, I feel there is no community of people I'd rather be with than my jazz people.

Keeping Your Embouchure Loose on the Saxophone www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PAq 8Um-aOw

Teaching is a good choice as one way to earn (and learn) a life in music. I've done many different types of rewarding teaching gigs. A favorite comes to mind - going to MIT and spending a few days in a residency with Fred Harris and playing their jazz festival. These students were so smart and talented - everyone had a blast. You learn a lot by teaching, so if you love music and feel you want a life in it, there are many ways to do that. I encourage you. I'm at cdbjazz@aol.com and am happy to hear from you. www.clairedaly.com

Claire Daly Photographer: Sherry Rubel

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Lachi G l o b a l To u r i n g R e c o r d i n g A r t i s t K n o w n f o r Amplifying Identity Pride and Disability Culture

By Jules Lavallee

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Lachi is a globally touring recording artist, Lachi utilizes her platform to amplify identity pride and Disability Culture. As a visually impaired individual, she has brought accessibility to the forefront, including walking the red carpet at the 64th and 65th GRAMMYs with a glammed mobility cane. She has also hosted a PBS American Masters segment highlighting disabled rebels. Billboard has hailed her as a “new champion in advocacy,” and she has engaged in discussions with the White House and the UN. Her story has been featured in various esteemed publications, including The New York Times, Billboard, The Los Angeles Times, Essence, Forbes, The Hollywood Reporter, Vogue, Variety, and more.

Lachi, 2024 has been a whirlwind for you. You were named 2024 Woman of the Year for USA Today. Take us back, when did you discover your love for entertainment?

Music has always been the constant.

From my super shy childhood days to my more recent hyper-active “doin’ to much” very unshy me of today, music has continued to allow me the confidence I need to express myself, and led me to accept the deepest parts of myself society has for so long convinced me to hide—my disabilities, my queerness, really my purest gold.

But I realized something, I’d felt so much shame growing up, due to my vision loss. But today, I’m very much unashamed and unapologetic ...but…. I’m still blind. So, ipso facto, my vision loss was not the cause for my shame. Society was.

Not my condition, but my conditioning. That shift in paradigm was a visceral awakening that has freed my soul so thoroughly, I literally could not keep it to myself and have been shouting it from the rooftops since 2020.

Please share your journey.

Today, I travel the globe celebrating my blindness and my neurodiversity’s through music projects and performances, through my fashion, and through public speaking. From walking the New York Fashion Week and Barbie Premiere carpets with a bejeweled cane to belting ballads on the TEDx stage, I incorporate disability identity into all aspects of my art, and art into all aspects of my advocacy, combating the typical stigmas of disability with bold, brassy, high-fashion joy.

I love to collaborate on music with notable artists and brands on purpose driven projects to amplify disability joy to international audiences. Our 2023 pop track “Lift Me Up”, celebrating ASL, peaked at #29 on national Adult Contemporary radio, airing on BET Soul and MTV.com, Outside of music, I work pretty tirelessly to help establish more disability-inclusion in the music industry. As the Founder/CEO of RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), I oversee high-level strategic disability-inclusive partnerships within the music industry with our professional network. I also govern on the GRAMMYs New York Chapter Board and advise on the National Independent Venue Association, Songwriters of North America and Audio Engineering Society DEI Committees and published an NYU thesis assessing accessibility in the recording industry at the 2023 Audio Engineering Society convention.

Beyond music, I consult, keynote, or perform at festivals, national firms, nonprofits, universities, and cultural centers globally to advance Disability, identity, and culture. And have done so with the White

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House, UN, the BBC, CNBC, Lincoln Center, Julliard, Google, Amazon, FOX Corp, and many others.

I eat, sleep, and breathe the beauty that this work, this love, light, selfacceptance, growth, and joy bring to each individual I meet who says, “Lachi, I went to your show last year, and I’ve never heard anyone speak so directly to me. You have since changed my life.” *Watch "Dis Education Flipping The Script on Viewing Disability (ASL) | Lachi Music | TED x Cherry Creek” on YouTube— https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=6j_0DMGVXE8* What do you want the world to know about people with disabilities?

Everyone intersects with Disability Identity. Whether personally at birth, later in life, temporarily, or whether through a close friend, family member, coworker, or neighbor. Disability and neurodivergence intersect all around us and are nothing to be afraid or ashamed of. Disability is not a supernatural power, but a natural part of life one can transition into. So, let’s clean the place up before you join the club, and it starts with making places and spaces more accessible and crushing the stigmas.

For instance, folks with disabilities don’t want pity; like you, we want independence. Like you, we want access to shit, and we want an equitable opportunity to live a successful, fulfilled life. Also, blind folks have sex, deaf folks love music, wheelchair users drive, and autistic people get trashed, and we raise families, shop at stores, go to concerts, and look up at the stars…. just like you.

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Tell us about RAMPD.org.

Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities is a professional platform hooking up the music and live entertainment industry with disability inclusive solutions, programming and a global directory of music/sound creators and professionals with disabilities, neurodivergence and other chronic or mental health conditions. We bring competitive opportunities, visibility and community to our Professional Members while offering disability inclusion to Industry/Venue partners.

go-to voice for disability and neurodivergence in the music industry. In 2022 RAMPD was named a Zero Project Honoree at the United Nations and in 2023 was named a Music Business Association Agent of Change. RAMPD’s member development initiatives are sponsored by the Ford Foundation and Borealis Philanthropy, serving hundreds of music creators and professionals, and always looking for more!

How much have you enjoyed being the host of the PBS segment “Renegades”?

For a long time, I navigated the industry doing what I could to hide my slowly-receding vision, not using a cane and not mentioning it, for fear of appearing non-competitive, seen as an expense, or worse yet, seen as “brave.” But I was tripping over wires, missing deal-making hand waves, essentially shooting myself in the foot afraid to disclose and ask for the accommodation I needed to perform at my best in the studio and in the industry. This also left me super anxious and depressed.

Renegades is a very dear project, of which I’m honored to be a part. The digital series highlights rebels, revolutionaries and renegades with disabilities who’ve helped shape America. In 2021, writer/director Day Al Mohamed, asked me to host the pilot episode which amplified the life of Deaf speed racer and Hollywood stunt woman Kitty O’neal which viewers can find on PBS.com.

After the success of the pilot, PBS green-lit a five-episode digital series to be released this year.

But when I went to google any type of support system, professional network, or collective voice of professionals at a decent music career level with disabilities, all I found were programs for teachers and children, music therapy solutions, “special needs” music programs and inspirational porn. After asking recording industry firms what they’re doing for accessibility and disabilityinclusion, and receiving a generally collective “well, we’d love to do something, but no one’s ever asked, and we don’t know where to look,” I decided it was time to make that thing that I wished would have popped up.

What I’m loving most about building out this digital series, is that, beyond having five pieces of journalistic art highlighting five great Disabled cultural icons, American Masters announced the Visibility, Inclusion and Accessibility (VIA) Initiative; an incubator elevating five separate teams of majority Disabled filmmakers (from writer, to producer, to director) to work on each episode.

And with myself traveling the nation as host, there is disability representation on screen, behind the scenes and as the subject matter, which is a massive step in authentic representation. Charlotte Mangin, Amanda Upson, and Day Al Mohamed, three fierce female filmmakers with disabilities are leading the charge! The digital series should come out October 2024.

RAMPD has since collaborated with the Recording Academy, Netflix Music, Tidal and more, becoming the

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What would people be surprised to know about you?

In my free time, I love to write novels (I’ve recently released Sci-Fi Thriller Death Tango) and poetry, love to review haunts and restaurants as a high-level Google Local Guide, and *** What is your vision for 2024?

This year I’ll be recording and releasing the album Mad Different celebrating the mad, the different, and the fringe in all of us. We’ve built a great team and are amassing amazing multidimensional writers, coartists, features, and producers to really make this thing pop. We’re looking to build out a full sensory and disability inclusive major city tour for 2025.

We’re shooting digital series Renegades with PBS American Masters, highlighting heroes and rebels with disabilities who’ve helped shape America, also to be released later this year.

I’m also currently writing non-fiction I Identify As Blind amplifying the under-celebrated narratives of disability identity, set to publish in 2025 by Penguin Random House imprint Tiny Reparations.

And of course we are forever touring, speaking, and performing at festivals, colleges, corporate and special events and cultural centers on all thing’s identity pride, Disability Culture and intersectional wisdom through music, storytelling, and fashion.

Find Lachi at www.lachimusic.com, instagram.com/lachimusic, youtube.com/lachimusic, linkedin.com/in/lachi and find RAMPD at www.rampd.org, instagram.com/rampd_up

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Billboard Charting

Artist

StaJe , Will Release "No Love" in the Summer of 2024.

By Jules Lavallee

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In 2018, StaJe moved out to Los Angeles with the dream of making music and almost nothing to his name. Raised by a single mother in South Carolina, StaJe spent his first 6 months living on the streets of Skid Row, until a friend offered to take him into his home. With a relentless pursuit of making it, and a borrowed suit from his friend, StaJe managed to land a job as a salesman at a car dealership which got him on his feet and eventually enabled him to fund his true passion. Despite countless obstacles, StaJe continued to throw everything he had into his music.

in entertaining and singing.

Since that time, StaJe has seen incredible growth and response to his work. In 2020 he released his debut song “Keisha” – which landed him in the Top 100 global DTR charts. In 2021 his song “Up” landed him on Apple Music’s top 10 and garnered over 1 million views on its music video.

In 2022, he released his first Spanish record “Oceano” – which landed him on Billboard’s Top100 charts. In addition to the Latin community here in LA playing a major role in his life, StaJe’s father was originally from Puerto Rico.

This record pays homage to a special connection he has to his Latin community and heritage.

What makes you the proudest about your Latina culture?

He was Grammy Considered in 2023 for his #1 iTunes Charts singles "Sunrise" & "She Don't Want No Love." He will be releasing his debut album "No Love" in the Summer of 2024.

You moved to Los Angeles in 2018 to pursue your dreams.

Tell us about your debut song, “Keisha” that landed you in the Top 100 global DTR charts.

What was your inspiration?

I started off as a rapper in the industry. I signed with a label called Fam Entertainment, which saw me as a rapper. So, I pursued that style. I Implemented my country accent and verbiage to the music. I just knew this girl named Keisha and thought I’d make up a song about her. There was no real story but just a girl I met in college.

My dad is Hispanic! I didn’t meet him until I was in my early 20s.

But I love the culture and I actually did a song that was completely Spanish called “Oceano” which hit Top 20 billboard charts in 2022. I have been wanting to use Spanish more and more in my music over the years.

Can you share your musical influences?

I am heavily influenced by artists like Micheal Jackson and Prince.

They just embodied everything I wanted to be all around. Modern day is your Bruno Mars and The Weeknd.

In 2021 your song “Up” was on Apple Music’s top 10 and garnered over 1 million views on your music video.

Tell us about your background and your passion for entertainment.

Take us through your creative juices on your song and video.

I am originally from Columbia, South Carolina. I used to sing as a kid in the shower all the time. I always knew I had a keen interest

Well, I was freestyling to this beat on live Instagram and this girl popped on the live and told me I should really finish writing the

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song and put it out. So, I went back to the studio and recorded the song but felt like it needed a dope video. I looked at a lot of Michael Jackson videos until I stumbled upon “Thriller.” I just wanted to make it my style and my way. Thank you to Moon Man for shooting such an iconic video and thank you to Kristine for pushing me to finish the song.

Tell us about your first Spanish record “Oceano,” and why it was important for you to pay homage to the Latina community.

I just felt like I needed to give something different to my arsenal.

I needed to show people that I had a unique style but also there are many elements to me.

Your songs, "Sunrise" & "She Don't Want No Love" were considered for a Grammy in 2023 and hit #1 on iTunes.

What are a few takeaways from your song?

To just keep making music that I love. Not getting lost in the art of what others want to put what’s in my head on paper. I appreciate the great feedback we got as a team on these two records, and I look forward to making music that continues to push boundaries.

What’s next for you?

I just finished shooting a commercial for Gatorade! A lot of people don’t know this about me, but I work a lot on commercials and films. I have a 25-city college tour coming up this summer. Also, a High School tour this fall. I’m doing my first show this year on Coachella weekend at Venice Spring Classic Festival. So much coming, stay tuned.

All social sites @stajeofficial Stajeofficial.com

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K r i st in B o n e

Actress and Model Honored with the Global Impact Leadership Award-Dubai in 2024

By Jules Lavallee

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Kristin Bone is an actress and

model in the New York City area in the USA. She has been featured in multiple international magazines. She has been on the cover of CIO Today as one of the Top 5 Women To Follow in 2023.

She was one of Passion Vista magazine's Global Game Changers of 2023 and also one of Passion Vista magazine's Global Icons of 2023.

Passionate Magazine has her as one of the most prominent business leaders of 2024. She was inducted into Marquis Who’s Who in 2023 for Nursing and Entertainment. She was also featured in Marquis Who’s Who as a Top Professional Women and as an Industry Leader. She has been featured in Fashion Republic Magazine several times. She is an executive contributor for Brainz Magazine and a contributing writer for Passion Vista Magazine.

She has also performed various roles on network television. She has played Senator Madka in Space Transports which is an award-winning television series.

Space Transports won best poster and best trailer at the Cannes Film festival. She also was a paramedic and a taps agent in the true crime reenactment series called “Evil Lives Here” which is on the Investigational Discovery channel. She received an award in Dubai at the Impact Global Leadership Awards for best artist in performing arts in 2024.

Kristin is also a psychiatric registered nurse and has worked in all areas of inpatient psychiatric care from emergency screening, admissions, to inpatient psychiatric nursing with children, adult, and geriatric patients. She also has worked in management and worked with incarcerated individuals.

What led you to your acting career?

new future for myself. After recovering from these injuries, I started to pursue modeling first, and then acting later. I am currently an actor, first.

You played Senator Madka in Space Transports, an awardwinning television series.

Space Transports won best poster and best trailer at the Cannes Film festival. What intrigued you about your role?

I had a friend in my college years that was an actor in LA that used to always talk to me about his dreams and experiences as an actor. He has been a very influential person in my life; however, I never really saw acting or modeling as a part of my life when we talked.

These pursuits were always his thing not mine. However, when I decided to pursue modeling and acting, I realized I had learned a lot about the industry from him over the years and felt more comfortable going this route because we had talked about the industry so much over the years.

This role was actually created with me in mind, so I wasn’t drawn to the character so much as the role was created for me specifically. I liked the idea of being in a family friendly science fiction television series. I had wanted to be in a film where David Wenzel was the director, and to work with him. Space Transports was the perfect opportunity to do this. I loved the FX makeup and being able to play a futuristic role along with the creativity involved in this project.

I was in a bad car accident where I was hit head on by another driver. I was hurt 1.5 years and sustained a broken back and a herniated disk that seriously affected me. I had another time where I was injured with a capitellum fracture requiring surgery.

During these times of injury, I couldn’t do much, but I spent a lot of time taking photos and started realizing my dreams of modeling and acting. I took some of the lowest points of my life and used them to create a

I have really been drawn to dramatic roles. When I read a script, I know very quickly the roles that are right for me. I have worked in a prison and as a psychiatric nurse for a significant portion of my career.

I want a role that will really challenge me and a role where I feel I can contribute to the creation of the character. I have a lot of life experience I am bringing to the table. I enjoy portraying roles involving true crime or drawing from my very varied experiences.

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What do you look for in a role?

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I am extremely diverse in real life with sometimes conflicting interests. I love being able to bring that into my acting as well, being extremely diverse and full of surprises. In my early acting I really struggled with portraying emotions.

Being able to portray characters with depths of emotion is very important to me.

I also really enjoy romantic comedy roles. These types of roles are very believable when I get to portray them. I think these types of roles are the most enjoyable for me when I get to bring them to life.

Who has been your greatest inspiration?

My greatest inspiration has been David Wenzel. I met him during the filming of Space Transports. He has been very integral to me in the formation of who I am as an actor. He has always challenged me and helped me to be focused on my craft. He has probably been the most inspiring and influential person when it comes to my acting career.

You are also a successful model. Which projects have you enjoyed the most?

I have really enjoyed all of the projects I have worked on.

When I started out modeling my goal was to be on the cover of a magazine someday. I started out by participating in several

public voting cover girl contests.

Now I am on many international magazine covers having accomplished my goal.

Passion Vista magazine has a special place in my heart. I feel like Passion Vista gave me my start by giving me the exposure I needed, and they have been there with me through many milestones. I am really proud of being one of their Global Icons of 2023.

Who would you like to work with in 2024?

I am very interested in working with Kevin Costner on some of his projects in the future he is directing. I have a theatrical agent in Utah specifically due to wanting to work with Kevin Costner in this capacity.

I also am very interested in working with Andrew Jarecki who directed an Emmy award winning docuseries that I feel is a very meaningful contribution to the filmmaking community.

I would also like to work with Martin Scorsese as he creates simply brilliant films that have left a lasting mark on the film industry, and I want to leave my mark as well.

What did the Global Impact Leadership Award mean to you?

I was contacted to be presented an award in Dubai, which was best artist in performing arts at

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the Impact Global Leadership Awards. This award is very special to me because it represents a global impact which I feel my acting has made. People in Dubai contacted me for this award because they knew who I was all the way on the other side of the world. I believe I have been given a global platform and have been able to make my mark globally because of my involvement in acting. This award also is very special to me because it recognizes my passion, which is acting. I have worked very hard on my acting career and so to receive this recognition for acting has meant a lot to me.

What are your current projects?

My modeling manager Christopher Michaels and I are looking forward to modeling Calvin Klein products for Emyness, a luxury retailer. In May I will be flying to Miami for a shoot, and I will be a part of the Emyness MyCalvins campaign. A dream of mine has been to model Calvin Klein clothing as this is one of the preeminent brands in the fashion industry. Being associated with Emyness and Calvin Klein products is a proud accomplishment of mine. www.imdb.com/name/nm1434 8250/ @krissystone8

Dr. Anthea A. Aikins, S.T.E.M. Academic Coach Empowering Youth

By Jules Lavallee

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Dr. Anthea A. Aikins is an Academic Scientist (Microbiologist), a Professor, a S.T.E.M. Academic Coach, a College Planner, and an agent of Change wherever she goes!

Moreover, she is passionate about the things of God. She is an ordained Elder, a certified Christian Life Coach (HIScoach TM), and a certified Life Purpose & amp, Discovery Christian Coach. With the gift of teaching and exhortation, Dr. Aikins is on a mission to: Demystify higher Education, especially for minority students in S.T.E.M. Help College students walk in excellence with their faith Anchored in Christ.

Help college students KNOW and embrace their identity in Christ and to live out their faith unapologetically in the spaces God puts them in.

Help College students mature in Christ even as they pursue their education in higher Ed.

is why I do what I do. I will share a bit of my story with you.

It all started in Highschool when my AP Biology Instructor & my AP English Teacher took interest in me and became my mentors. They were very attentive to me and committed to my success. They were very intentional in making sure that I was exposed to STEM opportunities so that I would be a strong candidate for College. As my AP Biology teacher made sure I was up to date with STEM opportunities, my AP English teacher ensured that all my college essays were clear and sound. We worked on my College Essays after school. The fact that she was willing to stay after school to help me out was very touching to me. I made a mental note to myself to someday honor their dedication to me by paying it forward. I get to do this every day as an academic scientist, a professor, and a S.T.E.M academic coach.

What led you to S.T.E.M. Academic Coaching?

I have been blessed to have great mentors who have helped me along the way to become who I am today. In return, I made it my goal to honor my mentors by passing it on to the generation after me. Knowing what I now know, I am convinced that the lack of representation in STEM is not necessarily due to lack of interest. Oftentimes, it is hugely influenced by lack of mentorship, exposure, representation & coaching. This

As my story continues, by the grace of God, I was able to attend College on a full academic scholarship at Delaware State University (DSU). In college, I met two professors who became my life long academic mentors until they both passed. Dr. Fatma Helmy & Mr. Richard Driskill. May their soul Rest in Perfect Peace.

Mr. Driskill was my freshman biology Professor who became my mentor throughout

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college. He gladly supported me with strong letters of recommendation for Summer Research programs, scholarships, and graduate school. Mr. Driskill was intentional in making time to talk to me and to offer sound advance, and encouragement. Once again, I made a mental note to become that kind of mentor to others someday.

I met Dr. Helmy randomly in the hallway as a freshman at Delaware State University. For some reason, we started talking and she asked me to consider being a part of the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program. She was then the director of the program. Although I couldn’t be in the program until the beginning of my junior year, Dr. Helmy still mentored me and encouraged me to apply for summer internships even as a freshman. Her guidance led to me winning science presentation awards at the Annual Biomedical Research Conferences for Minoritized Scientists. As nervous as I was in applying for internships as a freshman, Dr. Helmy saw my fears but somehow found a way to encourage me to build my courage and confidence to try. Which as I mentioned earlier; brought several awards & honors my way.

Not only did I later on get into the MARC program at DSU; but the MARC program also adequately prepared me to be a strong candidate for graduate school. Upon graduating from Delaware State University, I attended the University of Missouri on a full academic scholarship to obtain my Ph.D. in Microbiology and a minor in College Teaching. Dr. Helmy’s dedication did not cease there, she made sure she reached out to me in graduate school to ensure I was O.K. Shortly after completing my Ph.D., I was honored to be employed at DSU as a visiting faculty where both Dr. Helmy & Mr. Driskill were still there.

Unfortunately, Dr. Helmy shortly passed after I was employed at DSU. She was then on sick leave, so I never got to see her again.

On the contrary, I had the chance to interact with Mr. Driskill for about ten years as a faculty until he passed. In honor of these great mentors, who have coached me in STEM well, I made it my life mission to pay it forward and to demystify higher education. I am determined to coach underrepresented minorities like myself in STEM and to expose them to opportunities critical for their success in the academy and to encourage them to persist to successfully complete their course so they too can coach the generation after them. Representation matters.

Tell us about AAIKINS LLC and how you have demystified education.

I am honored to be the CEO & Founder of AAIKINS LLC with a mission to offer Academic

support services and to inspire spiritually. At AAIKINS LLC, we are determined to demystify higher Education by offering workshops that equip students with essential academic survival skills to adequately prepare and thrive successfully in College, Professional School/ Graduate School & beyond. Our core principles are Guidance, Experience, Exposure & Mentoring (GEEM). Spiritually, we have been charged to help College students KNOW and EMBRACE their identity in Christ and to live out their faith unapologetically in the spaces God puts them in. Our inspirational services therefore brings awareness of our identity in Christ; the Grace of God; The Goodness of God and the Gift of Life. Our services are offered through diverse ways including; group coaching sessions, workshops, speaking engagements and our publications. Although our target audience is College students, our services are open and relevant to all. To learn more about AAIKINS LLC, visit us at www.aaikins.com

Take us through your inspiring programs.

Our workshops are at least 2hrs. Topics covered include: • Life Purpose & Discovery • How to be prepare for Graduate School in STEM • STEM Essential Skills • College Essential Skills • The unspoken rules of a Ph.D. program in Biomedical Sciences • And many more...

How has faith been paramount in your life?

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I definitely believe in Divine Orchestrations and the Grace of God. I KNOW that it has been the Grace of God that covered and preserved me all throughout my life even when I was not making smart decisions! Grace Kept ME and I am forever GRATEFUL!! Not only has the Grace of God kept and preserved me well; but I believe it has also directed and orchestrated my life to cross paths with people I call destiny helpers! These are people who organically took interest in me, to commit to my success & growth in specific seasons of my life. These are people I never sought after and would NOT have known if our paths did not naturally cross. These are the people I call, mentors, sponsors, spiritual parents, advisors, soulmates, best friends and many more.

Moments that allowed me to cross paths with any of these people are the moments I call “Divine Orchestrations”!! My faith in God has also anchored me and challenged my perspective to mentally process and deal with challenges in myself that could have had the potential to destroy me and break my spirit. But through the ministry of the Holy Spirit within me, I am able to hear, receive and process things differently to proceed accordingly. Even if I miss the mark, during my stillness, God has always imparted wisdom and knowledge in me to proceed differently next time. My Faith in Christ has been and will FOREVER be my Anchor! I AM ANCHORED IN CHRIST!

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You are a co-author of the best-seller, Joy 365 Devotional. Share your topic.

Title: What did God Say? Scripture: Luke 8: 22 “…. Let us go over unto the other side of the lake” - KJV.

Is your current circumstance(storm) shaking your confidence in what God said?

Lesson: Do not be a forgetful hearer of the Word of God! The disciples traveling with Jesus, had witnessed Him teaching, healing and even raise the dead. Yet, when an unexpected storm hit, they were still fearful of perishing even though Jesus was with them! What happened? Did they not hear Jesus say, “… let us go to the other

side of the lake?” The statement

sound! Do NOT be afraid! Do

had a precise destination of... “the other side.” Did they allow this unusual storm to cause them to forget the capabilities of Jesus?

NOT allow the enemy to use your current predicament to steal your joy. God Is Able! Take your Joy back by Anchoring your faith in God and believe ALL His promises concerning you. The joy of the Lord is your strength!

Unfortunately, sometimes in life, unfamiliar circumstances can cause us to forget the capabilities of God and what we have seen him do in the past in our lives. At time, we might even think, God has left us! Today, I want you to know that, all these thoughts are not from God. As believers, God has promised never to leave nor forsake us! Therefore, God IS with YOU! YES! HE IS! Your situation might be unfamiliar to you, but not to God. God is not surprised by what you are going through. God is capable of doing exactly what He said! What is your “other side?” If God said it, He will

Declaration: May I NOT be a forgetful hearer of the Word of God in Jesus Name!

Call to Action: • •

What was the last thing God told you? Write it down and make it plain Pray for strength and wisdom as you trust God with the journey.

take you there safe and

Why was this important to you?

Being a part of the JOY 365 project was such a great experience. Dr. Vernessa Blackwell has great experience and patience! She is an expert in what she does! The guidance, network, exposure, and knowledge that I received as a contributing author was priceless. This project was certainly worth it!

What is next for you?

Working on a few books soon to be released. www.aaikins.com

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T. E . M a c A r t h u r i s a n A w a r d - W i n n i n g Author, Ar tist, and Historian

By Jules Lavallee

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T.E. MacArthur is an awardwinning author, artist, historian, amateur cat whisperer, and parapsychologist wannabe living in the San Francisco Bay Area with her cat and far too many books.

Can one have too many books?

She has written for several specialized publications, anthologies, and was even an accidental sports reporter for Reuters News. Picture it: high heels, business skirt, chasing Barry Bonds down an inside corridor at PacBell Park to get a quote ... with 200 of her closest journalist friends ... yes, that’s a story on its own.

Her storytelling has dramatically shifted direction these days from Sci-Fi to the mysterious, one of many lifelong obsessions. Her published works are in the Steampunk, Dieselpunk, Historical, and now Paranormal subgenres of Mystery and Thrillers. “I love them all. Dress me up and take me out dancing darn near any era will do.”

You wrote the standout Steampunk series, The Volcano Lady, and the classic, one-shilling serial, The

Gaslight Adventures of Tom Turner. When did you discover your passion to write fiction?

I can’t think of a time when I wasn’t writing. And if I wasn’t writing, I was drawing. Coming out of college, I had my heart set on getting into the comic book

industry as an artist. My work was mostly independent, so I had to write too, but authorship wasn’t at the center of my hopes. When the industry collapsed, many of us had to change gears (no pun intended … well, maybe a little pun intended.)

I was complaining to a friend about a horrible anthology I’d read in a sci-fi genre I’d only just heard of, Steampunk, when he gave me the best advice: “If you don’t like what’s out there, write your own. You know how.” Steampunk? Why not? I love technology and the aesthetics of the Victorian era: strong willed ladies, oldfashioned melodrama, and I grew up in Colorado (the Wild West!). It seemed like a perfect combination.

The Volcano Lady and Tom Turner series are my way of bringing back Saturday morning TV and old movie serials, with cliffhangers and daring rescues. The Volcano Lady follows the exploits of Dr. Lettie Gantry, a female geologist ahead of her time and culture who lives through adventure after adventure. The Gaslight Adventures of Tom Turner follows the man who loves Lettie Gantry and his exploits to keep her safe while becoming a gentleman worthy of her love. Action packed, historically fun, and yes … a bit of romance tossed in.

“Fiction from a charmingly deranged mind.” Explain I would like to think that I’m

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charming. Maybe not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but certainly not the dullest.

The average reader has been there — read that. You as the author must do something fresh and exciting with every single book. I, as a reader, require that. So, when I am the author, it is incumbent upon me to deliver that. It’s the unspoken covenant between author and reader: we must provide for each other. You need to be a little nuts to agree to that, and it places me in the “deranged” column when I say, “I solemnly swear to do my best to surprise and entertain you.”

Add to that, you need to be a little deranged to be an author today. It isn’t like it used to be, with a bunch of cash-laden publishers willing to hand you a few thousand dollars in advances, multi-book contracts, and send you off on a world book tour on their dime anymore. These days, unless you are a household name (and even then) you do your own PR, travel, and advertising. Traditional publishers (of which there are five now) do virtually nothing except put you in their catalog and maybe submit you to reviewers for publicity. With over 100,000 new titles hitting the market every year, that market has changed. Every author has to hustle if they want people to read their work. So, like I said, “deranged.”

Tell us about A Place of Fog and Murder and the tough-asnails Private Detective, Lou Tanner P.I. Lou Tanner is the result of my watching too many Thin Man movies and reading too much Raymond Chandler. Like Steampunk, the era between the world wars is coined as Dieselpunk (and occasionally Decopunk, but let’s keep this simple) and refers to an alternate history that mixes the aesthetic of the real period with technology that shouldn’t actually be there. I wanted to create a female Philip Marlowe / Sam Spade, with the witty lingo, gun fighting, fisticuffs, and brazenness, yet with a feminine streak that she knows how to use.

A Place of Fog and Murder is set in a retro-futuristic San Francisco in 1935 where the U.S. is just starting to recover from the Great Depression and hints of another world war are just appearing on the horizon. Lou is asked to solve a missing persons case that quickly turns into murder, corruption, and coverups. Gangsters still rule the underworld, despite the end of Prohibition. Police forces are not trustworthy. Add to it HighSpeed Streamliner trains, Intercontinental dirigible service, driverless tax services, and robots and automatons providing all sorts of services, and you have a fun way to look at the world that might have been.

Your storytelling dramatically shifted direction recently to embrace the paranormal. What led you to this genre? What have you released?

My childhood house in Colorado was haunted. There is no other way to describe it. Something lived under the stairs to the basement. It did not want us there. It did not want anyone there. Ever since, I’ve been curious about the paranormal. Reasonably skeptical, but very, very curious.

After a great run of novels in Steampunk and starting a mystery series in Dieselpunk, I tried my hand at a contemporary thriller. During the Pandemic it just wouldn’t work. The motivations and the villain seemed too standard, too unsurprising. It was after I rediscovered the British TV show “The Avengers” (Emma Peel & John Steed,) that I realized I was trying to be too realistic. I needed to let go. In doing so, I got a “spark” one night: my protagonists Tessa and Jack needed a ghost. A villainous ghost. A killer ghost with an ancient origin. The Skin Thief. I tapped into my Colorado roots and set the main action of the story in the southwest corner of the state, near Mesa Verde. Their adversary was a pre-Puebloan, pre-anybody known, entity with aspirations for the modern world.

The Skin Thief was my first paranormal thriller. I have a paranormal short story in the Indies United Publishing House anthology, Second Star to the Right, which won an honorable mention, and I am working on the sequel to The Skin Thief, whose working title is Pillar of Secrets, that’s due out in October 2024.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

I enjoy writing long hand when

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I’m writing a story. It makes me sad to know that cursive is not being taught anymore. I do go on paranormal investigations and have caught some interesting phenomena. I was not born in the wrong century, but I certainly would enjoy visiting other times with an experienced guide.

What do you enjoy the most when writing about the paranormal?

I love being scared by a book, so you can imagine how much I love scaring my readers. In writing the paranormal, I had to learn how to do that. Working with suspense, building tension, and how to manipulate that is an art form. I’m still learning, and I suspect I will always be learning. I love that. Oh yes, I have turned off all the lights during a rainstorm, lit candles, and written various scenes (on computer and long hand.)

Upcoming books? This is a busy year for me. On April 19th, I am releasing the 9th book in The Volcano Lady series, called Doomsday Relic. Next up is the sequel to A Place of Fog and Murder, Lou Tanner’s next mystery, called No Requiem for the Tin Man, due out on July 19th. Last for the year will be Pillar of Secrets, the sequel to The Skin Thief, on October 25th.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grou ps/253676486319440/ Author Page (IUPH): T.E. MacArthur | Indies United Publishing House Indies United Publishing House: https://IndiesUnited.net Web Site: https://www.TEMacArthur.com

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Lisa Orban

,

Owner of Indies United Publishing House Shares Insight into Success for Writers

By Jules Lavallee

©Red Silk Carpet April 2024- All Rights Reserved

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With a rich tapestry of life experiences, Lisa Orban has raised five children, navigated the complexities of life, career choices, relationships, and adversity, and eventually found solace in her writing with her debut novel It’ll Feel Better when it Quits Hurting in 2015.

Since then, Lisa has settled down to live the life she always wanted, as the ringleader in a madhouse of anarchy.

Her life now revolves around writing books, taking in human strays in need of help, playing with her grandchildren, traveling, and, of course, her publishing house, Indies United which she opened in 2018.

“Indies United is a co-op of likeminded authors working together to showcase our books, and our diversity as writers, that embrace a variety of genres. We openly encourage and support both new and established authors in their pursuit of finding their audience while bringing to you books worth reading.”

Most traditional publishing venues are like a very nice formal dinner party where everything is planned and always follows the same formula. The food is generally good, the entertainment acceptable without being distracting, the conversation predictable, the event exclusive, and always formal. Indie publishing is more like going to a block party. The food is still good, but everyone brings to the table something from their own kitchen, the music is lively, the attire is generally casual, and you never know who you'll meet or what they may say when you do.

But in this vibrant world of Indie publishing, many authors languish, not because the books they produce are bad, but because the industry itself is stacked against them. Individual voices are easily lost in the din of advertising and most Indies can never hope to compete on the same level as a house author with all their backing. I wanted to change that, and so I created Indies United, to give those authors a home to call their own and bring fresh, innovative, and exciting books to readers all over the world.

You have run the spectrum of publishing. Share your background as a writer.

I published my first book in 2015.

Writing was cathartic and something I found a great deal of pleasure in, but as soon as I typed “The End,” that’s where everything came crashing down on how little I actually knew about publishing a book. Publishing houses, agents, rejection letters, to self-publish or not, and if so, how? Did I need to buy ISBNs on my own, or should I use the free ones offered? What is the difference between an ISBN and ASIN? Book layout and design, cover art, formatting, eBook formatting, publishing requirements, advertising, marketing, and the list just kept growing, no matter how many things I crossed off the list. It seemed to be an almost impossible task to get my book out in front of readers. There were days I could have cried from frustration from the things I didn’t know and stood between me and my goal of getting my book out in front of readers. But over time, and with a great deal of persistence, I learned all of those things and more. Spending my days deep-diving into the art of book publishing from all corners of the internet, talking with other authors, editors, and others inside the publishing sphere. It was hard-earned knowledge that took years of dedicated pursuit.

After my third book, I started helping others when I stumbled across their cries for help on the internet. By the time I published my fourth book, a cookbook, I’d rather Starve than Cook!, that started as a joke and has since become my bestseller, I realized the entire system was set up to confuse and confound, and sadly, take advantage of naive authors. Vanity publishers promising the impossible for the low, low price of well, let’s call it a lot of money, as in buy a new car or house money in some cases, but then never delivering on those promises. Book services that didn’t provide the services for which they were paid. Traditional publishing houses that were out of reach for most and indie publishing that is looked down upon by most.

And I knew something needed to be done to help all these struggling authors, and that was the first step I took from being an author to eventually opening Indies United, the knowledge that there was this vast unmet need, and maybe I could be part

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of the solution.

What were some of the questions that you had when starting out as a writer? How are you helping writers today?

When I started writing my first book, and then attempted to navigate the publishing world, I had nothing but questions. Publishing a book isn’t intuitive, the rules are constantly changing, and it can be a lonely, and very frustrating, journey. Sometimes it would be the smallest details that would later cause the biggest problems, and without guidance, it was a constant struggle.

But, as I continued to write and publish books, I started to collect a small group of people that helped me learn how to navigate through all the pitfalls of publishing, eventually meeting Jennie Rosenblum. Jennie is an editor who specializes in helping indie authors. We met during a book give-away, and we became “publishing” friends after she won one of my books.

Over time, we became friends who would often talk about all the problems and barriers that authors need to overcome, the predatory nature of vanity publishers, the almost impossible hurdle to find a traditional publishing house willing to take on new, and unknown authors, and the unfavorable attitudes towards indie authors. In publishing, indies are looked upon more as the unwanted stepchildren of the publishing world than as legitimate authors, no matter how good their books were.

I would often say, “someone needs to do something about this” and over time, I came to realize, I could be that “someone.” It took over a year of planning to get the basics down of how to help authors, while still giving them the freedom to explore their creativity.

I struck a balance between the help and support of a traditional publishing house, with the freedom of being an indie author, able to choose different literary paths as the mood inspired them. There are no obligations on how many books are expected, and each author works at their own pace that is comfortable for them.

So, some of our authors will release multiple books each year, and others are one-and-done authors, and everything in between, and it’s all okay because it meets their needs, and IUPH was set up to be flexible to their needs.

But that’s not to say Indies United hasn’t changed or adapted since we opened our doors in 2018. As the needs of our authors, and the industry itself, are in constant change, we have changed as well. We’ve added more options to connect to our readers, offering new programs as they become available and always looking for anything that can help our author thrive in this very competitive field.

We are adding options such as book trailers, sneak peek inside the books, book club guides, and Spotify music lists to listen to while reading our books. We have bi-yearly short story competitions that include various publishing perks and cash prizes, and will be hosting our first Author Retreat, which we hope will become a yearly event.

We encourage community and connection within our community of authors. We are stronger together than we could ever be individually. There is power in numbers, and as our numbers grow, so does our influence in the book world.

What will people notice when working with you?

Unlike most publishing houses, I care about my authors. I am their advocate, cheerleader, problem-solver, and shoulder to cry on when the words just won’t come. I foster and encourage my authors in a way that is almost unheard of in today’s market, but I think my author’s testimonials say how I’m different better than I can.

Testimonials: “Lisa Orban is a publishing visionary, using IUPH to fill a desperately needed gap within the highly competitive publishing landscape. Her unique business model leveraging the speed and agility of modern publishing technologies opens doors to authors who would otherwise be left out of

critical career opportunities. For me personally, IUPH is a dream come true and I couldn’t be more grateful to Lisa for her constant support and care.”

Lisa Towles Amazon Bestseller and AwardWinning crime novelist “Lisa cares about her authors in a way that brings heart back to literature.

Indie United is about helping the author. That is a wonderful change.”

The And I Thought Ladies - Wilnona & Jade Hosts, Women in Literature Awards Slam Poets “When I found Indies United Publishing House, I was experiencing the isolation writers know all too well.

What I found with Indies is a community of writers who actively support each other. They are there, as needed, to provide feedback and to help your work be the best it could be!”

Timothy R. Baldwin Author and Teacher “I joined Indies United Publishing House in early 2021 after a friend referred me. I spent the first year of the pandemic painting and writing poetry; friends were encouraging me to publish my creations. Prior to connecting with IUPH, I had zero experience in publishing a book. Lisa Orban made the process extremely easy by providing a step-by-step guide to uploading your book files, equipping me with ISBNs and LCCN for publication purposes, and explaining how to format the manuscript prior to publication. I have since published a second watercolor/poetry book and five novels, four of which are part of a series. None of this would have been possible without the organization and experience Lisa provided. In addition to making the publishing learning curve less steep, she also creates advertisements on virtually every social media platform for all of our books.

Every time an author in our group launches a book, she provides us with video clips, a book trailer, and properly formatted ads to share as we please. I have learned so much about the

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literary world since joining IUPH and I'm grateful for what Lisa has created in the organization.”

Tell us about your 15-episode miniseries and resources you offer.

One of the things that sets Indies United apart from any other publishing house is our commitment to authors, not just the ones that sign on with us, but all authors. Publishing is confusing and it is hard, but that doesn’t mean it has to be that way. I created short videos going over the basics of publishing, things that all authors should know, but don’t even know the questions to ask to help them succeed. My videos won’t guarantee any author will become a bestseller, but it will help them become a little more confident when it comes to publishing, and to find out what their options are when it comes time to send their books out into the world.

In addition to the videos, we also have two pages on our website that host various services for authors, everything from website services, to editing, to marketing and all the other details, big and small that go into publishing a polished book that can be found by readers. We do not charge anyone for utilizing those services, and they are not restricted to just our authors, they are openly available for anyone who is looking for book services. We’ve vetted everyone on those pages, and they are all honest vendors. We don’t demand referral fees or get a kickback from them; it is simply a service we offer to help out authors.

What is your mission for Indies United Publishing House?

To help authors. That’s it. We want to build a thriving community of actively engaged authors who are confidently going out and selling their books knowing they have an entire community of authors, and IUPH behind them. They are no longer alone but a part of a community that is there for them when they have questions, concerns or in need of help. www.indiesunited.net

Robert J. Emery Producer, Writer, Director & Author Releases “ M E G A S TA R ”

By Jules Lavallee

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Over his four-decade career, Robert J. Emery has written, produced, and directed projects ranging from local and national television commercials, corporate communications films, and network television documentaries and writing and directing feature motion pictures.

Mr. Emery’s interest in production and all things entertainment began in the Air Force branch of Armed Forces Radio and Television.

Upon his discharge, he became an air disc jockey and news reporter at WCLW Radio Mansfield, Ohio.

Upon moving to Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Emery opened an advertising agency, which led to writing and directing TV commercials. He created and directed a daily onehour morning talk show hosted by former Miss USA Diana Batts and TV personality Carl Day. In 1965 he wrote and directed his first feature film, The Bittersweet Night. That was followed by Dare the Devil, The Weekend, Willy & Scratch, Scream Bloody Murder, Sign of Aquarius, Ride in a Pink Car, The Florida Connection, and his last, Swimming Upstream for the Lifetime Television Movie Channel. The film was awarded the Sapphire Halo Award for Best Dramatic Motion Picture at the Los Angeles Angel City Film Festival.

As writer, producer, and director, Mr. Emery’s television productions include the MSNBC primetime documentary “For God & Country; A Marine Snipers story,” hosted by NBC’s Lester Holt.

The program won the National Headliner Award for Best Documentary or Series of Reports and the Special Jury Award in the informational category of the Professional News Division (CINE Golden Eagle Competitions). The Directors also ran in re-run on the Reels Channel and in over 75 countries worldwide. The Directors won the Silver Plaque Award in the 2002 Chicago International Television

Competition and the Award of Excellence 2003 Accolade Awards.

The episode featuring George Lucas won First Place at Florida Motion Picture & Television Association Awards for best television series episode. Then came the four-hour PBS miniseries The Genocide Factor, hosted by Academy Award© winner Jon Voight. Foreign broadcast rights went to History Channel International. The production won the Houston International Worldfest Gold Special Jury Award for Best Television & Cable TV Series/Documentary. He produced and directed KidHealth,” a 13episode PBS series on children’s healthcare in America hosted by Olympic Gold Medalist Peggy Fleming. Produced and directed Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs, and the history of Western Cinema for Starz/Encore Western Channel.

For his numerous productions for Shriners Hospital for Children, Mr. Emery received top honors nine years in a row at the New York Film Festival.

Mr. Emery shares his new book, “MEGASTAR” under the pen name R.J. Eastwood with Red Silk Carpet.

As young Addison Stone climbs the ladder to musical acclaim, his heart remains tethered to a past he can never escape. He yearns for the love he once had but lost to his addiction to fame and fortune.

From mother to son, the legacy of Addison’s turbulent childhood persists. Journey through the intricate roots of Addison’s life as “MEGASTAR” takes you on a captivating odyssey.

When did your interest in entertainment begin?

I was born and grew up in Bristol, Rhode Island. When I was in the 5th grade I began writing short

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stories - no more than a page or two. The first story – a page long - was about my beloved dog dying.

My teacher read it and encouraged me to keep writing. I also had an interest in becoming a commercial sketch artist. My parents, who could hardly afford it, paid for a correspondence course. But by the end of the first six months, it was obvious I had no talent as an artist, which was the end of that dream.

Jump forward to my 4 years in the Air Force. After serving at Lockbourne Air Force Base in Columbus, Ohio, I was sent to Anderson Air Force Base on Guam in a top-secret job that I hated. I petitioned for and received a transfer to Armed Forces Radio and Television Service as an on-air personality on the base radio station. Upon discharge, I got a job with a radio station in Mansfield, Ohio. A year later I decided radio wasn’t for me and moved back to Columbus where I met my future wife, Susanne. It was then I began writing screenplays, none of which I particularly liked. From time to time, I would visit a local bar built in the shape of a horseshoe. My creative juices turned on and I wrote a screenplay about a group of people who visit this bar and how they interacted with one another during, one evening. Sure enough, I found someone willing to fund the film (it was very low budget) and convinced the owner of the bar to let me shoot it there over a long weekend; yes, a weekend because I thoroughly rehearsed the cast in advance. I assembled a professional crew who guided me through the process since I had never directed anything, let alone a movie. The film was released but did not break any box office records. I turned to shooting local TV commercials, corporate films, and a couple of local documentaries.

I was off and running with what would become my career in film without any experience or training.

My mind was made up that film production would be my career and I would learn as I go. A second feature film followed, then another.

A producer getting ready to shoot a movie was impressed enough with my work to hire me as the film’s director. I was then hired to direct two more by other producers. The rest, as they say, is history. I spent four decades writing, producing, and directing motion pictures – eight in all – as well as network documentaries; over 150 hours’ worth. I loved making documentaries, and to this day I remain an avid watcher of documentaries.

You have been honored with multiple awards for your novels “Midnight Black,” “The Autopsy of Planet Earth,” and your nonfiction book “America: Standing Strong.” Can you take us through these award-winning novels?

After retiring from film production in 2006, I turned to writing books, both fiction and nonfiction. My first novel was titled “In the Realm of Eden.”

It was about mankind’s first encounter with an alien race. It was a learning curve for me because the difference between a screenplay and a book is like night and day. A screenplay is a director’s medium, so little direction is given beyond where the scene takes place, the time of day, and the dialogue between characters.

The rest is up to the director. In a book, however, everything has to be on the page in great detail. A publisher picked it up and it did fairly well. However, no one liked how I ended the story, so I decided to rewrite the ending along with expanding the book and gave it a new title, “The Autopsy of Planet Earth” and I went with a new publisher. Since the rewrite expanded the story quite a bit, I broke the book into two volumes.

Having won a number of book awards, “The Autopsy of Planet Earth” continues to do well.

Next came “Midnight Black,” a dystopian story about how the world is taken over by a group of men who conspire to create a single world government. I have always been deeply interested in politics and was inspired by what I saw happening around the world: the dictators, the megalomaniacs, the narcissists, hungry for wealth and power and in the process, ruining many lives. I was blessed again as “Midnight Black” went on to win a number of book awards.

Tell us about your recent novel, MEGASTAR, under the pen name R.J. Eastwood.

There is a story behind how “MEGASTAR” became my third novel. I wanted to tell the story of a man from his birth to his death, but I had no idea who he was, what he did, or what his life was like. I mulled the idea over in my mind for weeks. I am a big fan of Andrea Bocelli. I have his albums on a thumb drive in my car, and I listen to them often.

Driving around one day, it hit me.

Why not tell the story of a young man who had just turned 19 and because of his unique voice, becomes an overnight international singing star. Due to his tumultuous upbringing by a single mentally unstable mother, he is unprepared for the success that comes at him like a tornado. Neither is he prepared for the relationship with the young woman who comes into his life.

They fall in love, but the young man, obsessed with his success, drives her away. He vows to get her back.

Share with us, your main character, nineteen-year-old Addison Stone. How relatable is he to many teens today?

The young man’s name is Addison Stone, and his story should appeal to

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all ages, especially young people who are so into music and celebrities.

“MEGASTAR” delves behind the scenes of the entertainment business and how difficult it can be on an inexperienced young man whose only public singing was in the church choir. How does he deal with the sudden fame, the money, the constant fan adulation, and the inability to move about in public freely anymore without being recognized?

Any plans for a movie deal?

I hope it is my ego talking, but I do intend to seek an agent who can pitch this book for a movie, whether for theaters or one of the many streaming services. It could be turned into a limited series. Again, I believe “MEGASTAR” has wide public appeal, but I will wait to see what the public response is from readers before pursuing a film deal.

My other two novels also have possibilities, so I will pitch all three novels to an agent.

As for what is next, I am mulling over a few ideas for another novel. I have to be passionate about the stories I write. Once I decide on one, I have to commit it to paper… no ifs and buts… I became obsessed with writing it. I do not outline a story. I know the story, the characters, and how it ends, and that’s it. I fill in the blanks as I go which gives me a lot of freedom to shape characters, scenes, emotions, etc. I also work hard to make each character stand out as an individual from the other characters. That’s important. Add to that my penchant for having my characters speak as people really do. I hate reading novels where the language is picture perfect. Save that for nonfiction books.

Website: www.robertjemeryauthor.com

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Marcus Slabine, Award-Winning Director, Writer, and Filmmaker

By Jules Lavallee

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Marcus always had a passion for filmmaking and has written and directed several films and webseries and has worked on productions like DARK KNIGHT RISES, THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN 2 and PREMIUM RUSH. During covid, he wrote and directed THE DARK OFFERINGS was shot at the beginning of the pandemic entirely through ZOOM and garnered a lot of publicity with horror magazines like FANGORIA magazine, Rue Morgue, Dread Central, arrowinthehead.com, and several others. His previous film THE LAST CALL starring DAY OF THE DEAD’s Terry Alexander has won several awards including Best Director, Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Audience Choice, Best Actors and has been in over 30 festivals around the world.

This year, a new horror film from the producers of TERRIFIER 2 and 3 is being released that he was a producer on entitled STREAM. He has just wrapped on Terrifier 3 as well as his own film I WANT YOUR SKIN which is in postproduction now.

You are a Horror Guru, when did you discover your passion for horror?

Horror Guru! I love that!

Funny enough, I used to be afraid of horror films and couldn't watch them. It wasn't until I saw Sam Raimi's ARMY OF DARKNESS in the theater and became obsessed with it that I began my journey to loving

horror. I ended up watching the series backwards (AOD being part 3 of the EVIL DEAD trilogy) and by the time I got to the original EVIL DEAD, I just knew I needed more. I started renting 10 VHS tapes of all horror and just watched anything and everything I could get my hands on. My mother was a huge fan of classic horror films and introduced me to PSYCHO and of course one of my all-time favorites, JAWS. I think I’ve always secretly been a horror fan though, I was obsessed with Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, and Goonies, and looking at the box art in the horror aisle of video centers.

As far as film goes, I've always wanted to be in film in some way, shape or form. I used to sneak downstairs as a kid and hide behind the stairs to watch whatever movie my parents were watching. Oddly enough, I originally wanted to be an actor but quickly realized, I wasn't a good one! I always created stories with GI JOE action figures and would just build these worlds for them to be filmed in and after watching EVIL DEAD and hearing some of the insane BTS stories of the making of it, I realized that I wanted to direct films. I started out PAing and doing art department gigs which led me to working on films like Premium Rush, The Dark Knight Rises and Amazing Spider-Man 2, and never stopped making my own films in between it all. Honestly, I'm never happier than when I am directing something I'm passionate about with people

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who are just as into it as I am.

Your film THE LAST CALL starring DAY OF THE DEAD's Terry Alexander.

Take us through the creative process for the film.

THE LAST CALL for me was a love letter to a lot of things I have always loved as well as one to my father. I have always been a huge prankster, especially growing up and always wondered what would happen if one of those pranks did come back to haunt me. Now to be clear, I never did anything to the extent that the main character Harry Cunningham did, but it got the juices flowing. This project was a happy accident, I was out to lunch with a producer who wanted to do something, and I was telling them about how I wanted to do something smart, character-driven, and very Giallo-inspired. They told me they were friends with an older actor who had been in DAY OF THE DEAD and asked if I knew who Terry Alexander was.

I said of course I do! Day of the Dead was one of my top 5 favorite horror films. So, I began writing the script that night. I knew I wanted it to be at a radio station and that it would be about a prank show that went wrong. I wanted to incorporate some of my Dads old sayings that he did on his radio shows into the script, and I knew I wanted it to have a 70's Italian slasher vibe to the kills and killer.

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So, I poured it all into the script and sent it off to Terry. He responded a week later and absolutely loved it. I found out later that he came out of retirement because he loved the character and script so much.

People loved the dialogue, the set-up of the killer calling in during the show and the twist at the end. I really took inspiration from movies like PONTYPOOL and PLAY MISTY FOR ME and knew that the conversation between Harry and the Killer during the show had to be spot on or the rest of the film would fall flat and 98% of the time, people are hooked in after that call. They want to know what this person did to the caller years ago to cause him to not only come after him but start killing everyone off in the station. I think you add in the amazing performances from the cast and the hard work the crew poured into it, and it resonated.

I'm still very proud of what that film has done, and it began my very long journey working with Terry who I continue to work with even today.

Tell us about THE DARK OFFERINGS and what it was like to make it during that time.

THE DARK OFFERINGS was surreal and one of the hardest experiences of my career. We were the first film to go into production during the pandemic in mid-April of 2020 and wrapped in early June. I would be having the cast on 6-8 boxes and watching all of them

simultaneously as we would shoot 10-15 pages of dialogue and scenes at a time. I previously knew the majority of the cast from previous films or conventions which is how we got Terry Alexander, Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp) Eileen Dietz (Exorcist) Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills) and of course my good friend David Howard Thornton (Art the Clown from the Terrifier series) Shooting something where you can't do coverage because it's supposed to be a group of friends meeting up via zoom means you can only rely on 2 things, the performances and the writing. I pride myself on being an actor's director and luckily, I had amazing actors such as Clifton Dunn, Paul Sheehan, Lydia Kalmen, Benjamin Frankenberg, Michael Leavy, Jason Leavy, Tina Nikolova, who all knew how to bring out some amazing performances.

Everyone would have to set up their own sets and SFX whether it would be mugs sliding across the screen, gore effects or the appearance of DEMONS in the frames. Normally you have crews and teams, but we only had ourselves and whoever was living in the space we were stuck in.

It was an extremely hard film to make though as I had come back from Ukraine as the world shut down from shooting a film and was smacked into the reality that was the pandemic. I was middivorce and stuck with my now ex-wife and we decided to make this film together which... was an experience. I'll never forget our wrap party after a month of

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shooting 5-6 days a week in Washington Square Park. We all met in person, some people who had acted together for the first time. None of us had been near another human being or really outside at all until this moment and it was such an incredible and fulfilling experience. We were getting to-go frozen margaritas to drink in the street as the Black Lives Matter movement marched throughout our party.

To this day it was one of the most beautiful wrap parties for a film I've ever had. To this day Clifton Dunn and Paul Sheehan, who are in nearly every single scene together, have STILL never met in real life outside of Zoom.

The movie itself caught like crazy as it was the only thing filming at the time, every horror website picked it up and was talking about it and our cast.

You can check it out on Amazon prime.

Tell us about STREAM. STREAM is one of the films I'm extremely excited about, I am a producer on it and the production designer, this film was easily the best 6 weeks of my filmmaking career shooting a horror film in a hotel in Gettysburg during the pandemic with some of the best people on the planet. The team behind it is FUZZ ON THE LENS, which is Michael Leavy who also directed, Steve Della Salla who DP'd it, and Jason Leavy who also plays Player 1 and all of which produced it.

They had just finished TERRIFER 2 and brought the team from that over to make this film and mesh us all together, which turned out to be the single best experience. Every day we would wake up and be like Oh! Jeffrey Combs from Re-animator is on set today? Or Danielle Harris from Halloween 4 or pick which horror icon you'd be working with on that day. The movie itself is such a cool concept film with some incredible cast members and also, the gore/SFX from Damien Leone. I met my best friends on this set and literally have a family from it that has now transcended throughout my career and moving forward.

The film itself is an intense and gory horror film that also has heart with characters you care about. The concept of people being trapped in a hotel and forced into a sadistic game of survival while 4 PLAYERS/KILLERS are set loose to stalk, maim, and kill in creative ways for points is truly a terrifying idea and I think the way it's executed in this film will make it truly stand out. There's a lot of fun to be had so be ready to put some skin in the game and place your bets!

How have you evolved as a filmmaker? Do you have a favorite work to date?

This is a great question honestly; I think real filmmakers are always evolving and learning from every film they do. You find new ways to create and tell the stories as

they need to be told. I look back at some of my oldest films and see choices I made and am like "I would have done this differently" or "I wish I stood my ground and gotten this shot" but it's the mistakes you make that influence your future work. A Lot of the tricks I learned, I utilized in the sizzle I wrote and directed for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 2 as well as my newest film I WANT YOUR SKIN. You learn to adapt to the situations and adjust to make the best film possible and that's always what I strive to do. When someone watches my films, I want them to be first and foremost, entertained but also showcase everyone's hard work.

My favorite work to date? It's usually whatever my latest film is but every project has a favorite moment. THE LAST CALL was my first time working with Terry Alexander which I'll always hold dearly to my heart, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 2 was incredible be able to step into that world and hearing dialogue I wrote come out of actors mouths that I've watched and admired since I first got into horror, I WANT YOUR SKIN is easily my creepiest and most unsettling piece to date, I got to shoot with people I love and had some of the coolest moments driving backwards down a one way street in Chinatown while a skinless creature chased our actress. I find something to love and cherish from everything I do, and I think that's definitely something everyone should do. Enjoy the moments you get making the

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films you want.

Currently wrapping up TERRIFIER 3 which has been a phenomenal experience working on that. STREAM is being released this year (Release date to be announced soon) and finishing up my newest film I WANT YOUR SKIN which is the first installment of a horror anthology called ERAS OF TERROR which is being produced by Stephen Conca, Clifton Dunn, Myself and in association with Fuzz On The Lens. We shot SKIN last year which is about a Skinless creature who is chasing a woman through Chinatown telling her he wants her skin. My leads Allison Pittel and Damian Maffei outdo themselves and give INCREDIBLE and gutwrenching performances. I seriously can't wait for everyone to see what we made and what I think is one hell of a terrifying creature piece. Be sure to check it out and all updates as we go! I'm slated to direct more of ERAS OF TERROR this year as well as another unannounced horror feature this fall.

Social Media: www.instagram.com/marcusslabi ne www.instagram.com/demonicfro ggyproductions www.instagram.com/erasofterror Twitter: @MovieKAHR

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