Readers life Magazine issue 5 april

Reader’s Life Magazine

Interview with Monica Elam

Nicole A. Schmidt Exclusive

Interview with Bryan and Paul Johnson Interview with Charles Waller

Contents

1 Editor's Note 4-7 Keshawn Dodds 9-10 Bryan and Paul Johnson 12-13 Monica Elam 15-16 Charles Waller 18-20 Nichole A. Schmidt

Editor’s note Reader’s Life Magazine is proud to present our Poetry issue in celebration of Poetry Month.

Keshawn Dodds

Keshawn Dodds was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts on February 24, 1978. He still resides there with his wife, Tamara Dodds and daughter, Sydney Sharee Dodds.

Becoming known as a wellestablished football player in Springfield, he was awarded a football scholarship to American International College in 1997.

Mr. Dodds played football all four years at A.I.C., and later graduated with a B.S. in Education in 2001 and a Master of Education in 2009.After graduating with his Bachelor’s degree, Keshawn went on to become a fourth and fifth grade elementary school teacher within

the Springfield Public Schools.

During his tenure, Mr. Dodds taught at the Homer and Washington Elementary Schools from 2001 - 2005. He later took a job under Springfield's Mayor, Charles V. Ryan, as a Mayoral Aide. Mr. Dodds is now back at American International College as the Director of Diversity and Community Engagement.Along Mr. Dodds’ career journey, he has also become a published author of a juvenile fiction series, which isknown as the Menzuo - Solar Warrior’s series.

Keshawn has written eight books within the series, and has currently republished the first book, “Menzuo: The Calling of the Sun Prince,” in August of 2010, through Cosby Media Productions and in October of 2015, it became an Amazon.com Best Selling book. Mr. Dodds is also awaiting the release of the highly anticipated second book, Menzuo: Legend of the Blue Diamond. The rest of the books within the eight book series are due out in the years to come. Each book within the series is followed with a

Discussion Guide that parents and teachers can use to help their kids understand what they are reading.As Keshawn expands his writing career, he has also completed several works for young adult readers.

He has created several young adult fiction books and has recently published the first of many to be released in the near future. His first young adult fiction book, “Who’s On My Side? The Story of Kalen Brown,” was released on August 25, 2011, and debut as a stage play on May 12, 2012. Keshawn will also be releasing his next book, “Knuckle Up!” in the near future.

Mr. Keshawn Dodds is an avid writer and strong supporter of education. His long term goal is to become a full-time writer and well-known educational advocate and motivational speaker.

Keshawn wants to continue to spread his words of faith towards obtaining a great education and achieving all goals that a person has set in their life. Being raised by his mother, Elizabeth Dodd, Keshawn was always instilled with what a good education can bring to a person.

Mr. Dodds firmly believes that, when hard work meets dedication, success is born.

Keshawn Dodds has been writing since 1996 when he started writing a comic book with a friend. Dodds would write the story while his friend would illistrate it. It started as a project to help Dodds’ friend feel better as he was in the hosipital at the time.

Before finishing the comic his friend passed away. The comic they were working on was called Menzuo, Dodds decided to make it into a novel and six months later it was finished. It was rejected seventeen times before he decided to publish it himself, he then republished it with Cosby media Productions.

Dodds has published novels for children as well as for young adults, novels such as “Knuckle up” A story about a boy who finds a father figure in a gun runner. The Secret lives of Black Kings and Queens, a story about star-crossed lovers.

Dodds is an educator who also owns his own publishing house. He says that owning his our publishing house has helped him understand the process of getting a novel out on the market.

He often speaks to students and even dresses the part of a superhero, he even takes

Dodds has a new project he and some of his fellow authors are working on together.

Infinity 7 Dodds’ book is out, Champion’s novel will be out in May Braxton A Cosby’s novel will be out in June. They are planning on having the heroes from each novel come together to fight a great evil.

Each Infinity 7 novel will have a different villian. They are planning on having video games, t’shirts, and different merchandise.

According to Dodds what makes it so unique is that their heroes are all African American or minorities, they don’t feel any compatitian against DC or Marvle because

heroes are rescripted all the time so it leaves the door open for them to create their own characters.

Bryan Long before he thought of being an author, Bryan dreamed of being a performing artist. As a child of the 80’s, the early influences of R&B groups like New Edition and Five Star he spent a lot of his time performing in plays and musicals in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. In the tenth grade, he, his brother, Paul, and three neighborhood friends formed the rap group, 5A2 (Pronounced “Five-A-Squared”) and started dreaming of becoming a rap star. They later changed their name to “Lakwater” (pronounced “LakeWater”) and tried to make it big on the music scene. After moderate local success, the group disbanded and Bryan decided to leave music behind. He went on to earn his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from Hampton University and his Masters in Business Administration from the Michigan Ross School of Business then spent time focusing on a corporate career but he always sought new creative outlets and entrepreneurial ventures. As a result, he started writing a political blog in 2007 (www.bryanhussein. com), an internet radio show in 2010 (www.rybryshow.com) and an entertainment company in 2006.

However, he never lost his love for music, and literature.

It was these loves that inspired Bryan’s first manuscript that would become “IXI: Rise of the King,” in 2013. Bryan spends much of his free time reading, writing, and following politics. He also enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters and volunteering in church and in the community.

Paul Paul is a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan who's love of music led him to writing songs for various artist in the Detroit Metro area. Paul fell in love with writing at a young age of ten and actually received his first payment of $100 when he wrote a song for a neighborhood acquaintance.

He realized the power of words when he wrote a short story about race in his African American literature class, and witnessed the bevy of emotions that the piece evoked.He went on to utilize his writing is talents at Southern University and A&M College where he wrote poems for students to present to their "love interest". Paul currently lives between Georgia and Michigan where he enjoys spending time with his friends and family.

Bryan and Paul Johnson are a writing duo that also happen to be brothers. They morphed their past in music with their ability to write and created 1x1 Rise of a King.

The idea for their novel came from Bryan who brought it to Paul, they two worked out the kinks and soon were on their way to publishing.

They say the hardest part what finding time to write since both men have jobs and families.

They describe their novel as a cross between the De vinci code and 8 mile.

This novel is unlike what most would imagine- it is interactive. You can buy their music.The ebook was a top Hip hop seller on Amazon.

They are currently working on the 2nd book in the series which will have some of the same characters it is called “1x1 capture the Crown�

Prior to 1x1 Rise of a King Bryan had wrote a book and Paul had been writing but never completed anything.

They had wanted to create something completely different and it has been received very well.

They view their novels as a business, so they market it as such using facebook, and a promotions company Solidity promotions.

Follow them @ http://www. bryanandpaul.com/

Monica A. Elam (affectionately known as 'Mo') since the age of 12, encouraged by her mother, put all of her extra energy into writing poetry.

This has been the foundation of her writing till this very day, which has been featured in Mo's Empowerment Blog and Empowering Women On The Move Series. Monica's hopes are to continue to inspire Women by a positive approach, by giving an open forum to hear compelling stories and challenges that women face. "You never know who's life you may change". Empowering Women On The Move are Successful, Career Women and Aspiring Entrepreneurs sharing their dreams, stories, inspiring, and diverse environment that encourages women to make things happen for themselves. This movement inspired Monica to write her first novel '#Secret Sundays", which is symbolic of women and the challenges they face in today's society.

As a voice and producer of "The Song Therapy Radio Show" on BlogTalkRadio over the last 5years.

Monica was able to use this platform to showcase her passion for poetry as the EssenceofMo, along with providing therapy through music, .

Now entering a new phase of radio, Monica continues to reach the hearts and souls of music across the globe by hosting and producing her new Radio Talk Show "Soul Lixs".

Monica Elam began writing at the age of 12 after her teacher would reward her with books for cleaning the erasers after school. Her mother also a teacher encouraged her daughter to to write and still does.

Monica describes herself as the person that would write love letters and poems, Monica runs a radio show ( which is featured in her novel “Secret sundays�) Where she would write a new poem every week when she began working on her first novel secret sundays.

A novel about empowerment and friendship, it follows four women as they try to bring a spark back into their relationships.

Elam is currently working on the sequel which will follow Nina and Alex.

It will also feature a male POV, she is also finishing the script for movie.

Elam says she uses her friends as inspiration for her characters, her friends are also her beta readers. Her favorite character is Sasha because she is so much like her.

Award winning author Charles Waller published his first science fiction novel at age forty-seven, after a flight on an ill-fated commercial airliner over the Atlantic Ocean nearly became an episode of Why Planes Crash. This experience illustrated for him first hand that writing about exotic or dangerous locales was safer than traveling to them. Since then, he likes to think his meticulous research and storytelling gives readers a clear sense of their grandeur, without the inherent risk of flying.After narrowly escaping the academic death-grip of several universities, Charles worked in nightclubs, took a turn as a new car salesman, and also as a hurricane shutter engineer. His favorite authors include, Oscar Wilde, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and Michael Crichton. The latter being

especially close to his heart as Crichton epitomizes the techno-thriller genre and the failure of humans to interact with technology.

Though he will forever be a Midwestern boy at heart, he now lives on the gulf coast of Florida with his wife, Tina, and one fuzzy feline companion. If he’s not working on a new novel, you can find him volunteering at church, playing overly competitive Yahtzee with his spouse, or indulging in an unhealthy addiction to competitive cooking shows on television.

C.F.Waller published his first novel 3 years ago, waller was raised in a house full of books.

Prior to publishing his first novel he was a scriptwriter, no one had bought any of his scripts, three years ago he decided to write his first novel which he then self -published.

Waller is an Accomplished author having won awards for two of his novels.

“Freedive” and ocean mystery and “South Face” a paranormal novel. He has since began publishing through Cosby Media Productions.

He does his best to publish two novels a year but is sometimes unable.

His favorite part of being an author is being able to speak to people about his books who are able to see the world he has created within his novels.

The hardest part for him is the editing process and marketing.

Waller utilizes Facebook, and book trailers as a marketing tool, he says that doing book trailers have brought a lot of traffic to his website.

He spends at least a month on researching a book prior to writing and then it takes him about five months to finish and publish it.

When asked what he would change about his first novel he said it would be the editing.

"I wrote these poem as a teenagers to vent about the experiences I was having, how life was unfolding, but I published it as an adult to encourage and inspire teens to realize their own dreams."

"I always wanted my students to have options, to live the life they chose as opposed to the one chosen for them. I wanted to be the example of such a life. "

Nicole A. Schmit Hailing from Long Island, New York, Nicole A. Schmidt moved to Maryland to attend the University of Maryland-College Park. She received subsequent degrees and certifications from Notre Dame of Maryland University and Bowie State University respectively.Schmidt (Schmidtty to her mentees) has taught high school English for the past seven years. She has always seen teaching as more than a job, more than a career; she views teaching as a divine calling. With that in mind, she became a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. whose core mission is to empower the community through education.Her passion for education and travel has taken her South America, Europe and as of February 2016, to Asia. Nicole currently resides in Shenzhen, China, teaching English.

Follow her @

Contact Information Facebook & Periscope: NAScreates Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube: NASwrites Website: naswrites.wix. com/naswrites E-mail: NASwrites@gmail.com

Nicole A. Schmidt is a poet who has selfpublished her first novel “Inside a Young Soul�

Schmidt wrote the poems throughout her teen years starting at about 14 and ending at 17.

She always knew she would publish, she has always been a very creative person, she sings, paints and creates poetry.

After graduating she became a teacher, and is currently teaching english in China.

Within her novel she has sections for selfexpression such as for readers to write or draw after each poem.

After deciding to publish her poems she outsourced to get the editing, her cover and formatting done.

She has had a wonderful amount of feedback and is currently working on another batch of poems for a novel about the journey to marriage. Although she says it may take awhile to finish it.

She is also considering working on a group of articles or a blog about her journey in China.

Her advice to young poets is to write what you feel, and that poetry is not as intimidating as it appears. Not all poetry has a certain structure,