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Showing posts from April, 2008

[Interview] Shani Greene-Dowdell

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Shani Greene-Dowdell lives in Opelika, Alabama with her three children and husband. She has always been fascinated by creative writing and started writing poetry as a young girl. Her debut novel, Keepin' It Tight was released in May 2007. The novel was inspired by African American fiction and its message of self-love and black love. Through the novel, Shani Dowdell seeks to weigh in on race and relationships and the temptation and deception that tears so many marriages apart. In this interview, she spoke about her writing. When did you decide you wanted to be a writer? I am a reader first, so whenever I would read a great article or a good book, I would think, "I wish I could be a writer for this magazine. I wish I could write a book like this. I have a story to tell..." But I never answered my internal voices. I pushed them to the side and kept druging it out on my 9 to 5, and taking care of my children. As a young girl, I saw myself doing great things with

[Interview] Dr Barbara Becker Holstein

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Dr Barbara Becker Holstein is a positive psychologist in private practice, licensed in the states of New Jersey and Massachusetts. She has done extensive research on adult development focusing on how to overcome obstacles and bring pleasure into one’s life while living a life of meaning and purpose. Based on that research and on her experiences working with women who had internalized negative messages they received as children, Dr Holstein has written and published five books which, among other things, help people develop more positive emotions while understanding how to cope with daily living. Her books include The Enchanted Self, A Positive Therapy (Routledge, 1997); Recipes for Enchantment, The Secret Ingredient is You! (1st Books Library, 2000); Delight (AuthorHouse, 2005); The Truth (I'm ten, I'm smart and I know everything) and The Truth (I'm a girl, I'm smart and I know everything) (The Enchanted Self Press, 2008). In this interview, Dr Barbara Becke

[Interview] Gabriella Goddard

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Gabriella Goddard worked in international marketing and branding before setting up her own business, Goddard International Ltd., which develops and offers personal development products and where she works as an executive coach and speaker. Her clients include senior executives in FTSE100 companies, TV presenters, authors, journalists and entrepreneurs. Goddard is also the author of Gulp!: The 7 Day Crash Course to Master Fear and Break Through Any Challenge (Bantam, 2007) as well as three audiobooks, among them, 10 Ways to Fast Track Your Career (audible.com, 2007). In this interview, Gabriella Goddard talks about her writing. When did you start writing? As a child I loved writing and I used to write poems and short stories for the school newsletter. At the tender age of seven, I even wrote the school play. But all of that disappeared as I got older and veered towards doing the sensible thing of studying maths and science so I’d “never be out of a job.” That was until ab

[Interview] Don Miles

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Donald W. Miles has a Bachelors in Education from the State University of New York at New Paltz and a Masters in Journalism and Communications from the University of Florida. He has worked as a news director for radio stations in New York City, Connecticut, Florida, Nebraska and Texas. He has also served on the Board of Directors for Florida’s A.P. Broadcasters and has judged broadcast news contests for UPI Rhode Island. In addition to this, Miles has taught at the Universities of Florida and Nebraska, at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, and at elementary schools in New York, Connecticut and Texas. His books include Broadcast News Handbook (H.W. Sams & Co, 1975); Broadcast Newswriting Stylebook (University of Florida, 1977) and Cinco de Mayo: What is Everybody Celebrating? (iUniverse, 2006). In this interview, Don Miles talks about his writing. When did you start writing? I wrote a small booklet entitled The Little King when I was in second grade. My uncle

[Interview] H. Peter Nennhaus,

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H. Peter Nennhaus grew up in Berlin and graduated from medical school in Frankfurt in 1955. He became an American citizen in 1961 and trained at various Chicago hospitals. He was board certified in surgery and thoracic surgery and practiced in Chicago. He began writing after retirement. So far, he has published two books: Boyhood, The 1930s and World War II, Memories, Comments, and Views from the Other Side (Chandler House Press, 2002) and Quo Vadis, Israel? (Outskirts Press, Inc., 2007). In this interview, Peter Nennhaus talks about his concerns as a writer. When did you start writing? My first unsuccessful attempt was in the 1970s when I was in my early forties. I am a bit of a philosopher and was investigating how one could give reason and good sense more political and constitutional power. It was highly intellectual but of course amateurish and, to no surprise, I found no takers. Another casual attempt followed in the mid-seventies. My notes were not intended for the

[Interview] Lyne Marshall

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Lyne Marshall is a contemporary Australian artist who has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas. Her book, Gleaner or Gladiator: the struggle to create is a result of over five years' research into the creative processes that artists encounter. It is also a personal narrative of her own struggle to step into the creative flow and it showcases some of her contemporary landscape paintings and photography. In this interview, Lyne Marshall talks about some of the factors that motivated her to write Gleaner or Gladiator. When did you start writing? I have always been creative, but I am primarily an artist, mainly painting in acrylics, and this consumes most of my time. I didn’t see myself as a writer until it was suggested to me, a few years ago, that I write a book about the creative process, based on my experiences. I had begun to research this topic, a subject that intrigued me greatly, back as early as 2000, after a positive but challenging experience at a work

[Interview:] Matthew Moses

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Matthew Moses has a degree in Political Science from Indiana University with a minor in History. He has worked for a South African periodical and has written three novels of which Anti-Christ: A Satirical End of Days (Booklocker, 2007) is the latest. Moses has also written a screenplay for an independent film. In this interview, Matthew Moses talks about his concerns as a writer. When did you decide you wanted to be a writer? That is a funny story. I never gave much thought to writing until I met this one psychic. She told me a few things that came true and then piqued my interest by telling me I had a future in writing. I’d always been interested in writing before that. I wrote a screenplay when I was seven and various short stories for my own amusement throughout my childhood and teenage years. I also had a weekly column in my college newspaper that garnered a cult following. I guess you could say I’ve always loved writing. It took a psychic to point it out to me. How w

[Interview] Howard Waldman

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Howard Waldman was born in Manhattan in the United States. When he was 22 years old, he moved to France where he taught European History and later American Literature to French students. His work includes the novels, Back There (Bewrite Books, 2005); Time Travail (Bewrite Books, 2006); The Seventh Candidate (Bewrite Books, 2007) and Good American Go To Paris When They Die (Bewrite Books, 2008). In this interview, Waldman talks about his concerns as a writer. When did you decide you wanted to be a writer? I decided on a writing career as soon as I learned to write my name. That breakthrough happened early in the last century in PS 89 (Manhattan) at the age of four. Consecration came at ten when a school magazine published a piece of mine, strongly influenced by Edgar Wallace , a popular writer of thrillers. A precocious start, apparently. Unfortunately, more serious writing had to wait nearly a lifetime. It was only on retiring that I started work on the first of my four no