Career Area: Writing and Storytelling

  • Yvette R. Murray

    Yvette R. Murray

    Audio

    Transcript

    Sarah Jane Thomas  00:00 

    Hi, my name is Sarah Jane Thomas, and today we are talking with Yvette R. Murray, a professional creative working from and within South Carolina. As we get started, can you tell us your current career and where you’re from? 

    Yvette Murray  00:13 

    I’m from Charleston, South Carolina, and currently I have a full-time job, as most of us creatives do, but right now I’m a children’s book author and poet. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  00:26 

    Before we go into the details of your profession, we have a brief section of the interview called “One Career, 60 Seconds,” where you describe your job in 60 seconds or less, similar to an elevator pitch. Okay, ready? 

    Yvette Murray  00:41 

    Yes. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  00:42 

    Okay. Start whenever you feel comfortable. 

    Yvette Murray  00:44 

    Okay. I’m responsible for everything: curating, finding the material, creating it, and at that point, that’s where an editor comes in. But I’m I’m responsible for turning what I see and what I hear into art. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  01:05 

    Well, that was perfect. So, what would you consider your official job title? 

    Yvette Murray  01:14 

    An author. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  01:15 

    Author. Okay. So, as an author, is there anything in South Carolina or where you grew up, that you bring into your work 

    Yvette Murray  01:25 

    everything. My first book of poetry was literally about the neighborhood that I grew up in, and neighborhoods I grew up in downtown Charleston, and neighborhoods in downtown Charleston, and my children’s book is called “Celebrate We Galagici. So it’s all about everything that children can see. The book is my publisher is an educational publisher, so the book teaches little ones about their five senses through things that they know and recognize and and have seen and experienced. So it’s it’s all about the Low Country. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  02:12 

    Do you think that this brings a diff different aspect to your work compared to people that maybe don’t live in South Carolina, 

    Yvette Murray  02:21 

    yes, because what they what they bring is research. What I bring is experience. There’s a section in the book. It’s on smells, and I am literally describing my mother’s garden from when I grew up, literally the plants, everything. So it brings a level of authenticity that can’t be duplicated. It can’t be recreated. They may write a nice book. They may write an authentic book, a book that’s full of facts that are true, but they don’t bring the the love and the timing of having been here, having walked these streets, experiencing the dismay when you see neighborhoods destroyed. They don’t. They don’t have that, and you can’t. You can’t teach that. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  03:25 

    That’s very beautiful. 

    Yvette Murray  03:26 

    Thank you. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  03:27 

    Do you think there was a defining moment in your life that had such a big impact on your creative journey? 

    Yvette Murray  03:35 

    Actually, a conversation that I overheard at a poetry reading, we were-they were discussing downtown, and the person said, “Don’t you think it’s better than just a bunch of burnout old buildings? And that really struck me because he thought that’s all these neighborhoods were. That’s all that was here. Not even understanding the businesses. The I called my neighborhood an enchanted urban forest, and I said that because the neighborhood had everything. You know how a forest is an ecosystem, and all the little animals, the little bugs, everybody works together to make it work. And that’s how the neighborhood was, and that’s how all the neighborhoods were. There are tons of businesses that used to be there, and they created an environment where everything you needed was there. There was a lawyer. There was-I am old enough to know there was a fish man that would come by. There was a lady down the street that did. The lady next door made quilts. Everything. There was actually a school right across the street from me, and I just wanted to capture that. I wanted to capture what was in those neighborhoods and speak up for those neighborhoods, just because you know that person said that. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  05:22 

    That’s cruel, honestly. It is. It 

    Yvette Murray  05:25 

    is because no neighborhood is that. No neighborhood that becomes a blight, torn down. No neighborhood was always that. People live there. They raise their children there, and that was just really short-sighted, and I couldn’t let that pass. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  05:48 

    Well, that’s a very good head mindset that you have to do that. Do you think that there was a? I know you’ve talked about your book about the five senses. Do you think there was a particular project that you produced that really showcased your creativity. 

    Yvette Murray  06:05 

    Yes, the book started as just the first chapter. It was a board book, and it won a contest. And part of winning the contest, you got to meet with publishers that would consider maybe publishing your book. So when I met with the publisher, you know they were excited. They want to move forward, but because my publisher is an educational publisher, they wanted to. At first, they were going to do five different books with the five senses, and then they combined it into one book with a different trim. Born books are little like this, and they wanted to combine it, and so we did. But the creativity, I guess, the authenticity showed through. They could see that I really knew what I was talking about, and I cared about it. See, that brings back to your other question. That brings a level of care and concern and diligence, attention to detail that somebody else wouldn’t be able to duplicate. Someone not from here. They didn’t really care. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  07:20 

    It’s unique to you. 

    Yvette Murray  07:22 

    Yeah, we had some really interesting conversations. Me trying to explain what the fiddler crabs sound like, what pluff mud smells like. We have a pretty unique area of the country here. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  07:39 

    Yeah, I’m not native, but I’ve been I grew up in the South all my life, so I love hearing all of the little niche uniqueness that South Carolina has, specifically South Carolina. It’s beautiful. 

    Yvette Murray  07:55 

    Absolutely, I’m glad that you’re 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  07:57 

    bringing that into your work. 

    Yvette Murray  07:59 

    Thanks. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  08:00 

    Before entering your field, did you have any fears about becoming a creative professional? 

    Yvette Murray  08:06 

    Oh yes, yes. We all suffer from imposter syndrome. Even after I’ve seen authors that have numerous, numerous books, numerous prizes, still get nervous. Still be afraid. You you don’t know how to make it. You don’t know what to do. A lot of creatives teach. In addition, because you know they get the summer off, so it kind of works. They have time, but you just you don’t know how to do it. And the interesting thing that I’ve learned is that everybody does it differently. You have creatives that they may be a poet, but they also paint. They also make jewelry. They also sell soap. They, you know what I mean. So there’s so many different ways to do it. They make films. I have a couple of really wonderful poet friends of mine that have made films, short films. So it’s you can explore all of your creativity, all of the things you figure, oh well, maybe I could try this. Yeah, you sure can. You can try it all, do it all, and still stay true to what your main love is. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  09:33 

    What inspired you to move beyond these fears? If you have, 

    Yvette Murray  09:39 

    you almost have to. People talk about the muse inspiration. I’m not a person that believes that I can only write when I feel inspired. I believe that you can get yourself into that state of being able to hear the muse. So to speak, at any given time, you just need some quiet and little little time to get yourself into it. But it’s almost like the stories have to be written. I like to say the ancestors want their stories told, so you will just. I know for me, sometimes I’ll hear a line. 4o’clock in the morning is a good, good creative time for me, and I’ll hear a line if I’m kind of awake. That in between wake and sleep state, I think it’s the theta state that you’re in just super creativity, and it’s just coming. That’s why you see so many creatives. They always have a notepad, or they’ve got tons of notes in their phone. It’s like the stories want to be told, and we’re just the vessels of the story. Whatever creative endeavor, if it’s art, if it’s poetry, like I write children’s books, short stories, whatever it is, it it wants to be written, and we just have to be open. We have to be open to what’s coming to us. I know that sounds really woo woo, but 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  11:20 

    you just gotta listen. 

    Yvette Murray  11:22 

    Absolutely, absolutely gotta listen. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  11:26 

    Well, do you have any advice for young adults or students who also want to pursue poetry? 

    Yvette Murray  11:33 

    Oh, I got lots. The first one is do it. Whatever you want to do, do it. But always be a student. Always be willing to learn and to listen. You know, everybody’s got this idea of an artist, a flaky artist. But we have to. We are flaky. That is who we are because you know we are who we are. But Always learn, never stop learning. And I had a teacher in college that gave me the best advice. He said, “Yvette, a writer writes, and you write, write, write, and you cut, cut, cut, which is true. And just just keep at it, keep learning, explore different genres, different art forms, but just stay at it and develop a thick skin. Yeah, it’s it’s a numbers game as far as submitting. It’s a numbers game, and I still remember the moment when my book of poetry, which came first, was accepted for publication, and in my head it was like, well, there it is. It just happened, and it’s like that. You do and you do and you do and you do, and then one day you get accepted. One day you get into the fellowship, one day somebody wants to buy your artwork. You just got to keep at it. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  13:06 

    Do you think there’s a particular skill one should learn before stepping into something like that? 

    Yvette Murray  13:12 

    I would say learn the business. Whatever, whichever part you’re, whichever art form you’re pursuing, learn the business, learn how much people do charge, learn how get your speak with an accountant so you understand what receipts you need to keep, how you need to do things. Because when it all boils down, it is a business, art, creativity. It is a business, and look for grants. Don’t be afraid to look for grants. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  13:46 

    Yeah, there’s lots 

    Yvette Murray  13:48 

    out there. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  13:49 

    Wonderful advice. I just want to thank you so much for sitting down and talking with me and offering your insights. Would you be open with talking to somebody from our team again? 

    Yvette Murray  14:01 

    Sure. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  14:02 

    Perfect. Well, thank you. I hope you have a good rest of your day. This one, I hope you do. Okay. We’ll send over a transcript for your approval, and somebody will be in contact with you soon. 

    Yvette Murray  14:15 

    All right. Sounds good. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  14:17 

    Thank you so much. 

    Yvette Murray  14:18 

    Enjoy your time off. Thank 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  14:20 

    you. You too. 

    Yvette Murray  14:21 

    Thanks. 

  • Clay Hadden

    Clay Hadden

    Interview

    Transcript

    00:00 Alli Crandell 

    Well, thank you again for your patience. If you just wouldn’t mind just saying your name, what you do, and then we’re going to jump into telling us what you do in sixty seconds or less. 

    00:14 Clay Hadden   

    My name is Clay Hadden. I am a speech pathologist and children’s book writer. I also have an online ecosystem called Mister Clay, “M I S T E R Clay.” 

    00:29 Alli Crandell 

    Excellent. One of the things that we’re really interested in is everybody oftentimes, we have all these creative careers, but we don’t really know what exactly it means. If you wouldn’t mind, we’re going to play a little kind of fun game of “One Career, Sixty Seconds,” where you explain what it is that you do in sixty seconds or less. Are you ready? 

    00:52 Clay Hadden 

    Okay. Oh, I’m ready. 

    00:54 Alli Crandell  

    Okay. All right. Go. 

    00:57 Clay Hadden 

    So, I went to grad school to be a speech language pathologist. I work primarily with pediatrics, mostly with kids who are on the autism spectrum. During the pandemic, when everything kind of got shut down, I started trying to do some other things. I started writing children’s music and doing children’s YouTube, and then that turned into a book deal, and now I also write children’s picture books. 

    01:25 Alli Crandell 

    Amazing. So, what would you say is your typical day as a speech pathologist working with children? 

    01:32 Clay Hadden 

    I would say that the most typical day is that most of my days are not typical. I’m the clinical director of a company, but even beyond that, when I was just a clinician, if I’m being very honest, every day is kind of different. People get sick, and people cancel. There’s a constant reshuffling of schedules, lots of changes that feel almost like weekly changes regarding insurances and different payers and stuff like that.  

    The most typical day would be from about nine. I work in a private clinic. You can work in a school; you can work in hospitals. So, for a private clinic, my day starts about eight-thirty, nine o’clock depending on when my patients start, and goes till about five o’clock depending on the patient’s payer source. Sometimes those sessions are thirty minutes, sometimes they’re an hour, and we help them communicate. Sometimes that looks like just articulation; making sure you’re saying your G’s and your K’s and your R’s right, and sometimes that looks like augmentative communication, communication, which is any other form of communication that’s not verbal. So, everything from sign language to my expertise of using a communication device. Most of the time it’s like an iPad-like tablet with some kind of symbols on it, teaching children how to use that, so it’s a big mix of everything. Most of the kids that I work with are little, and so there’s a lot of floor time and child-led therapy too. 

    03:06 Alli Crandell   

    That’s excellent. And are most of your sessions one-on-one, or do you often do group sessions? 

    03:11 Clay Hadden  

    So, most of mine are one-on-one. The reason for that usually is based in insurance, so in schools, if you worked in a school system, you would not see kids one-on-one. So, I prefer one-on-one. It allows me to give the person in front of me my undivided attention and build a connection with them.  

    I think the artistic piece of this job is almost like improv. If you’re familiar with improv, you have to meet the kid where they are. You have to do a lot of “yes and-ing” and build on what they’re saying in order to make them feel comfortable doing the things that you need to do to educate them, especially with these little ones. Getting a two-year-old down on the ground and just working on flashcards is going to last about a minute and a half. 

    04:05 Alli Crandell 

    So how would you kind of describe how you mentioned that your practice kind of led, and social media presence, led to a book deal? What was that process like? 

    04:14 Clay Hadden 

    I had a buddy and we were writing children’s music during the pandemic as kind of a way to not go crazy. All at the time, my three children that I own, the ones that belong to me, were little. So, there was lots of singing in our house, lots of children’s books, picture books, even outside of work at the house. So, we started writing music. We had one song that I was like, “This isn’t really working as a song.”  

    So, I started doing some research into publishing, and I found a small publisher called Nine Wise Publishing that specializes in picture books for kids from birth to about three or four, with a focus on getting the writers to be SLPs, other educators, stuff like that. It was a really nice relationship. I wrote the words, they found the artist, they produced the book, and then it came out, and it was great, and everybody received it really well.  

    I forget who it is. Gosh, I heard somebody say that once you create something and put it out, it’s no longer yours, right? So, it was very well received, which I feel is a blessing, and won the Independent Book Publishing Awards Gold for best picture book in its age group last year. It was just a really neat process. In working with a smaller publisher, I got to be in on the design of the book, the images. It wasn’t all me, we had an amazing artist, but I was able to give feedback, which was really nice too. 

    05:57 Alli Crandell  

    That’s awesome. Have you ever thought about, even while you were going to school and grad school, like ever becoming an author, or was it this just something really unexpected? 

    06:06 Clay Hadden 

    Yeah, so when I was a teenager, my life goal was to be a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, like that’s all I wanted to do. Math was not my strong suit, writing and psychology and stuff like that; those were not only my interest, but that’s what I was just naturally better at. So, I wrote a couple of short stories that got published in some now defunct online journals and stuff like that. Then, we had kids, and life got busy, and so it was always there.  

    My wife and I joke. Hers is: if she doesn’t get to go outside and do something in nature, there’s like this river that gets louder and louder in the back of her head. For me, it’s that creative piece, right? If I don’t get to do something creative, all my anxiety and stress kind of builds up until I can do that. It’s been a really good outlet for me too, and it is kids’ stuff, right? I mean, it’s not kids’ stuff. Early literature for children is so important, but it’s more fun and a little bit less serious than writing a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel or something. 

    07:26 Alli Crandell 

    Yeah, absolutely. I would just kind of wonder, now that you have kind of this very established and recognized outlet, it’s like, are you now opening yourself to think through like the music that you were creating over the pandemic, or are you thinking about what’s next? 

    04:47 Clay Hadden 

    I think about it all the time, the busyness of life. I think it kind of puts a damper on that sometime. I would love to get back, for example, to my YouTube page. I signed a contract for the sequel to this book, so Nine Wise is going to do that. Then I had another publishing company that I’m hopefully in some early negotiations with for another book.  

    I don’t want to do it fulltime because I don’t think it’s sustainable as a primary income source, but I would love to incorporate writing in early intervention and early reading and all that kind of stuff together for some kind of online platform for families to go to and have access to. I think that’s where my next steps might, might be going. 

    08:40 Alli Crandell  

    Wow, I mean, and it’s such a really interesting journey that you’ve been on. So many of the young folks that we talked to might be interested in this, and something else, right? Whether its arts therapy or something else. Do you have any words of advice for somebody who is either thinking about going into, as you say clinical practice, in terms of speech pathology, or interested in maybe applying some of their disciplinary background into a publishing work? 

    09:16 Clay Hadden  

    I would say do it if so. I’ll address the writing piece first. If there’s something creative in you, do it. Don’t let people hate on it. I mean, even if it does come out cringe, which, trust me, a lot of the stuff that I have done has turned out cringe, you can ask my children, it might still be made for one or two people who need it right.  

    As far as speech goes, it’s a great job. I highly recommend it. I do think that it’s a job, personal face-to-face jobs. I don’t think AI is going to disrupt them as much as it is going to do some of these other things that we’re seeing. Occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy. I would say, look into them. You still get to work with pediatric populations; you still get that teachery kind of vibe, without some of the hassle of being the teacher. My wife’s a teacher, so I think I’m okay in saying that. I like both of the things that I do. My only concern is that there’s not enough of us doing it and reaching out to those families that need it to do it. 

    10:29 Alli Crandell  

    Yeah, and I mean it. I think it takes you, to have like demonstrated such bravery in both, you know, it’s like putting up your.. 

    10:38 Clay Hadden  

    I don’t know about that. First of all, thank you. That’s very kind, and I guess there is a part of somebody who, once you put your art out there, is kind of a brave-ish work. But I’m truly just doing it because I enjoy it, and I think other people might enjoy it. 

    11:00 Alli Crandell  

    Wow, yeah. You do so many so many things, and I really just love the way that you’ve just described, of just, you know, just doing it. Very Nike. But I’m wondering, if you wouldn’t mind, is there any questions that I haven’t asked you that you wish I had asked you? 

    11:21 Clay Hadden  

    Oh, any questions that you haven’t asked me, that I wish you would ask me. I don’t know. I mean, if you’re a parent and you’re reading this or listening to this, read to your kids. Don’t let them watch short form videos on your phone; screen time is okay with boundaries. I tell people all the time, one day your whole house is going to have a stomach bug, and you’re going to let your kid have the iPad, and that’s okay. But we have to be disciplined with things, and good old-fashioned entertainment, like books and being outside, is so good for your kid’s brain. I don’t know why I felt the need to put that message out there, but that’s the only thing I didn’t say that I would like to say.  

    12:12 Alli Crandell  

    Absolutely. Well, I mean, I think that it kind of feeds back into what you were saying, both with AI and the importance of writing and creating books that are targeted to help families. I think that that’s really beautiful. 

    12:24 Clay Hadden  

    Yeah, thank you! 

    12:26 Alli Crandell   Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time. Yeah, apologies, but thank you so much. 

  • Melanie McClellan-Hartnett

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett

    Interview

    Transcript

    Ryleigh Kelley  00:00 

    Hello, my name is Ryleigh, and today we are talking with Melanie McClellan-Hartnett, a professional creative working from and within South Carolina. So, as we get started, can you tell us your current career and where you’re from? 

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett  00:14 

    Sure, so I grew up in McClellanville, South Carolina, which is the same as my last name. There is a lot of my family there. It’s a very small town, and I did go to school elsewhere, and I’ve lived elsewhere, but that’s my roots, and that’s where I’ve been from most of my career, which has been wonderful.  

    I will always support, when you have a community behind you, no matter how small they are, that’s just a wonderful, wonderful resource. There’s just less, just not as many opportunities in a small place as there are in a city.  

    So, my husband and I are empty nesters now. I have some very wonderful mentors, who said, ‘We love you, you’re doing great work. You’ve got to get out of your zip code. Listen, you can come back. We want you to come back, but you need to be where you can connect with people easily, and that just happens more readily in a city.” You can walk into an art gallery, and you’ll bump into somebody you know. It’s just different. 

    I am in Charleston, South Carolina, right now, and everything is just blown open. It’s incredible. It’s been the best year, and I just want to encourage people to go out on that limb and see what can happen, and especially I think that we feel like we’re extra connected sometimes because of social media, which we can be.  

    My daughter is in Europe, and I get to see her face. I love that, but we miss out on some of the people connections, and you really miss out on what can happen organically when people just come together and it’s not planned or scheduled. Especially because art, whether it’s literary or visual or whatever, means whatever, it’s a larger vision.  

    When you can come together and connect with other people in that larger vision, you’re going to see stuff you never would have thought of before, and so coming to Charleston has been wonderful for me. I just started painting. My husband was in my studio yesterday, and he’s like, “You have three exhibits here.” Which is a lot, because I have one currently hanging, so really, before the paintings were like four exhibits, but it’s because I realized I was so lucky to be in such a pretty place. I always thought of 1920s Paris with the artists. God, I was jealous, and now I’m not jealous, because we have that. 

    You live in a beautiful place. You want to paint it? Do it. You want to draw it? Do it. You want to write about it? Do it, and don’t be afraid to just connect with people who are doing what they love. You don’t have to be a professional. I didn’t start out as a professional by any means. I thought I was going to be a writer.  

    “Melanie, you’re going to be doing oil paintings.” Okay, another life, maybe. I like oil paintings, but I was scared to try, and I think getting over that fear, meeting a lot of people, and so right now I have an exhibit, it’s at the Healing Gallery, which is on Queen Street, and everybody laughs at me, so like, “Of course, this is your solo exhibit,” my debut one.  

    You have to go down a little path between hedges, very hidden, private, covered in vines, just the house I moved from, but it’s the best vibe, and so it has twenty-two oil paintings in it that they’re all full of words and symbols, intentions, mantras, anything I’ve kind of wrangled out, but then I’ll paint it out, or sometimes I will inscribe it with a lit incense stick, so because I feel like if you’re doing that and then you’re using the other end to inscribe, it’s like a prayer.  

    It just puts me in the right place, and people are always like, “Well, how do you know when you’re done when you look at these very abstract paintings?” I think that’s a fair question. I say, “Because I’m struggling with things in the paintings, and so I don’t sign it until I find the light.” I think you can do that with anything.  

    So, with this show, I’m really excited. It posits that if you put positive intentions in something, and then you tell people, because I don’t want to be sneaky, if you tell people and they are open to it, and they want to look for that immediately, your brain triggers positive neurochemistry. It’s psychological priming. It doesn’t even matter if you believe in the metaphysics of what is written, your brain will automatically reward you. So, this show is about what could happen if we just start putting positive things in everything, because I’m tired of microplastics, and all that. If we have to live with all the negativity, we need to learn to do more. It has been amazing, seeing so many different kinds of people come in and just be open.  

    It’s a great experience, and I have found that I was a little nervous moving here because I was very comfortable where I was. I just turned fifty, and you don’t always make friends very quickly, and I don’t know how this is going to go. I have started getting to know artists around here, and they’re wonderful, and we’re doing things together; we’re doing cool things together.  

    I don’t know if this is a little repetitive, if it’s not, but I will say that one of the biggest things that helped me coming to Charleston was somebody connected me with Beeple Studios, and they are so great about supporting artists and connecting artists. I’ve met a bunch of artists through that, and it’s like when you have somebody who’s willing to put that kind of support in, it’s fantastic.  

    Ryleigh Kelley  06:41 

    Yeah, absolutely. Community is so important, and I’m happy to hear that you’re finding that in Charleston, because you’re in your comfort zone for a while. It’s like you feel that peace and security, and then when that change comes, it can be scary, but it sounds like that it’s doing just wonders right now.  

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett  07:05 

    It’s wonderful. I am working on the poster, or a competition for the poster for the 2027 Cooper River Bridge Run. I pretty much try to die then after a run, which is not my fate at all, but I have started entering more community competitions like that, because somebody wins, so why not try?  

    Also, I find it makes me really value things about my community, because you have to think about it, if you’re going to do something, have your vision, then you have to really engage with it, and it helps you value what’s there. I’ve started doing more little things like that, because those are all opportunities when you see things like that, I think a lot of artists think, “That’s not ‘angsty’ enough.”  

    Ryleigh Kelley 08:08 

    Yeah, the tortured artist aesthetic. 

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett  08:10 

    Or serious, or whatever, and I get that, obviously, I want to do serious stuff. When you are forced to think about things through your medium, but they’re different things, that’s great. People [Studios], when he has live painting events, I’ve been lucky enough to paint at two of them. The first one was about crypto punks. I didn’t even know what they were. I had to learn about them. 

    That was fascinating. And then the second one was the future of art, which I was like, well, that’ll be the future of humanity. And for a moment, I was like, “that sounds kind of bleak.” And then I was like, “no, wait a minute, let’s think.” They say we’ll be living on Mars. And so, I spent three months studying Mars. It’s so cool. 

    Do I think that we should solve stuff here first? Heck yeah, but it’s great to give your mind new frontiers. New challenges. It doesn’t matter if it’s not your subject matter. I guess that’s kind of my point. It’s like take that risk, try it, it doesn’t have to define you. 

    Ryleigh Kelley  09:27 

    Yeah, and also, too, it gets into this aspect of play and art, and I love how you’re leaning into that. You said, there could be positivity, there could be play and I love that you explore that. 

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett  09:48 

    Well, I feel like people need to tell artists that, because we need permission to be humans, and also we need ease. But I don’t know, one of my artist friends, actually, she’s the one that she’s from Japan, and she gave me this little guy, and one day we’re having a show in Japan, so I always wear this to all my art stuff, because it’s like a promise that we’re gonna be that.  

    But she is like one of those ‘extremely talented when you sit next to her’ people, and she told me that my gift to her was teaching her to make art without rules, which there are obvious rules like you can’t put acrylic over oil, like there’s things, yes, you have to pay attention to– 

    Ryleigh Kelley  10:34 

    Yeah, the practical, I guess, yeah. 

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett  10:37 

    Right. Like, the physics rules, the chemical rules, but the people rules? No, that’s like one of the coolest things about being an artist is my job is to question why those are rules, and think about it,  

    Picasso is a mixed bag for me. Sometimes I don’t want to know about people’s personal lives, people are people, but he said to, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” That is my favorite art quote. That is exactly what you need to do, because you want your work to stand up, but you also don’t want, I mean, if it’s your vision, nobody else can tell you how to do it.  

    I mean, I get our mentors who can say, “Hey, you could do this better.” One thing I did when I moved to Charleston, I joined the Redux Art Gallery, does figure drawing on Sunday nights. It’s expensive, and it’s just a great vibe, and all my lines immediately improved. I never draw naked people, but the human body is very, very beautiful, and if you can draw it, you can draw anything, and being around more artists who are just that’s all there, everyone’s just following their vision.  

    Then you’ll find, “Hey, I’m using this too, or I’ve been thinking about whatever.” I love it, especially, if it’s someone from another country, and you’ll meet, you’ll be playing with some of the very same things, and not from social media. Usually I don’t do a lot of scrolling while I’m thinking about stuff, because I’m afraid of it being too much. I’ll do it after I have an idea, because then I want to see what kind of variations there are, but I, but I think it’s really cool when you’re like, “oh my god, we’re all leaning into something so much bigger.” That’s so cool. 

    Ryleigh Kelley  12:43 

    Yeah, yeah, and especially, too, I love how you talk about that temptation to scroll on social media when you get an idea, because it fulfills our curiosity a little bit, but it’s that fine line of, okay, when it gets too much, and then you lose the idea. Finding and striking that balance in everything.  

    I kind of want to talk a little bit more about, what you just said about how even you’re meeting artists from different countries, and how you’re all collectively working to something kind of bigger, and I’m curious, you kind of already talked about this, but is there anything South Carolina, or maybe even your hometown, or Charleston, in particular, brings to your work, and does it have a unique influence on you compared to people in the same profession in different states, or even different countries? 

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett  13:42 

    I might be too small to answer that.  I think that water is a huge part. I’m living in downtown Charleston. We feel flooding all the time. Also, where I grew up, McClellanville, South Carolina, was where Hurricane Hugo hit, which was devastating water. So, I’ve seen what water can do, and we know sea levels are rising. That is something – it’s not like everybody is painting water, but everybody’s talking about it.  

    Everybody’s talking about what kind of changes are we going to need to make, like architecturally, which, honestly, I don’t think that’s doom and gloom. I think that’s cool, because the world has been changing forever. That’s what it does. People have been adapting, that’s what we do, and that I honestly think is cool… like, I don’t know if you’ve ever read, they’re very old school, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci.  

    Ryleigh Kelley  14:53 

    I feel like I’ve heard of it, but I haven’t read it.  

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett  14:55 

    Okay, just skim it, that’s all I’ve honestly done, because they’re dense. But they’re so cool, because science is such a part of art and social stuff. You’re studying all kinds of different stuff. I think it’s exciting, I feel like there are going to be answers made. I think an artist is not afraid to completely fantasize. We fantasize about making it big all the time, but also, well, what do you mean you can’t have a house made out of a sphere?  

    I can, I’m gonna make it work, and that’s a little bit of a jump. I’ve gotten really interested in the fact that MIT has all kinds of open-source courses that you can study. I know a lot of artists and people who are kind of interested, because that was not them in school, but now just want to know more about this. 

    I think the dynamics of where you live, for sure, and South Carolina – it’s really not just coastal South Carolina, because I saw a map the other day, and it was kind of scary, but it was also cool. It was like from space, showing how the currents were changing the coastline again. But okay, we’ll adapt, so however that looks, maybe it’s relocating, maybe it’s completely different housing.  

    When you’re an artist or a writer or a musician, all of that is an opportunity to discuss that and to think about different ways you could do it, and to not really have a budget, like when you’re trying to produce it. Yes, but in your head with your idea, it’s free, so it’s a lot less limits. 

    Ryleigh Kelley  16:55 

    Great sentiments about that too, especially with Charleston, how there’s this issue of rising sea levels. You kind of take as an opportunity to be like, “we need to adapt, like we’re going to adapt.” I love too, about architecture, and how that may change being an artist and the opportunity to be included in that discussion.  

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett  17:24 

    If you include artists in that discussion, then they’ll think of something radical, and then the person who knows physics better will say, “But…” I do love all the steam education stuff they’re doing? It’s fantastic. It’s so holistic, and I know that they put that label on some things; they’re like, “Where are you getting that?” But honestly, any connection you can make, you don’t know where that’ll go. So, try it. 

    Ryleigh Kelley  17:57 

    Yeah, speaking of that, kind of little bit of words of advice. Do you have any advice for young adults or students that have an interest, in pursuing a similar career, in your world, in the creative world? And are there any just particular skills, not just like artistry, but like people skills, one should practice or have before stepping fully into this industry? 

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett  18:26 

    Artists are such a wide range of folks, you know? One thing that helped me become more professional, and because I was just working out of my laundry room-turned-studio, and then I ended up being the director at the McClellan Arts Council for a while, which was really cool, because that really connected me to the network that is in South Carolina. That’s where I saw Arts Commission, that’s where I saw the different universities coming together, and we did stuff with the Smithsonian.  

    That’s where you see people who just don’t know that you have all these resources, and so with that I think getting a working knowledge of the resources that are around you is invaluable. Also, I’ve done a lot of volunteer work with seniors and kids. I think the better your social skills are all across the board, like Queen Victoria said something about beware of artists, because they mix with all types of societies, so therefore they’re the most dangerous and good. 

    I think that that’s true, and I think that the more so, like social studies, a little bit of business sense. What I have done is find somebody who’s better at business than I am who I call my ‘business oracle.’ I think that’s fair, but you still want to have some idea of what the rules are, because I love her – she’s wonderful, but you can’t trust everybody. You need to know. You read stories about people with managers and things going wrong all the time, so get a mentor.  

    I love my mentors, and I think you should switch them up sometimes, because if you get a little too good, too connected, then it becomes more support, which is great, but you still need someone who will tell you if, “Nah, you’re going off kind of weird path, there.” So, get good mentors, and connect with your museums and your universities’ programs. They always need hands. They always need hands. If you’re good at that, doors will open. You’ll meet people.  

    We just had Piccolo and Spolito here in Charleston, and Marion Square is like one of my favorite places to get with all—I had a bunch of friends there. I do not have the stamina to stay in a tent for seventeen days in the heat, but I will come visit them when they do. I was really struck with; I don’t even know how they would do it, but this is such an opportunity for mentorship.  

    If you look at young artists who are just starting, or even not sure they want to do it, but they’re thinking about it, not for the whole time, just for a little bit of that time, it’d be so good for them because they need so much. This is going to sound kind of crazy, but most artists are doing food and bev[erage] anyway to pay their bills. I actually think that working food and bev[erage] was great, because you meet all kinds of people. You just don’t know where that’s going to go.  

    I did an arts program once where I specifically went and hired people from restaurants, because I knew a lot of creatives have that side. I wanted people who couldn’t do that full time, didn’t have room or resources to have it set up, but just still to do their work for a little bit, get into their groove. It was so cool, honestly, you could study anything in the whole wide world, but languages, social time, different age groups, and just plug into all the resources. There’s so many resources, I mean, goodness, and also– 

    Ryleigh Kelley  22:36 

    Emphasis on resources. 

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett  22:38 

    No, like really, but they can help each other so much, and you can get two for one. If people are working together, there’s so much money. Well, what if we can do more with it? You know, not trying to shortchange people, maybe that same person could get two benefits. 

    I was thinking down here every restaurant should adopt an artist, because they’re so hot out there. Like, name a drink after them, put one of their pieces, so many possibilities. 

    Ryleigh Kelley  23:13 

    Really, there really is. There really is. Yeah. We are running a little bit out of time, but thank you so much for just taking the time to speak with me, and I really appreciate all of your sentiments, and just for you talking and articulating about your experiences. I think this was a lovely, lovely conversation. 

    Melanie McClellan-Hartnett  23:37 

    You’ve been really awesome. Thank you so much. I don’t really like doing interviews, and you have just been so human. 

    Ryleigh Kelley  23:44 

    Well, thank you. That means a lot to me. 

  • Carol Black-Lemon

    Carol Black-Lemon

    Interview

    Transcript

    Carol Black-Lemon 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  00:00 

    Hello, my name is Sarah Jane Thomas, and today we are talking with Carol Black-Lemon, a professional creative working from and within South Carolina. So, as we get started, can you tell us your current career and where you’re from? 

    Carol Black-Lemon  00:12 

    Sure. I’m originally from New Jersey, born in Newark, raised in Brooklyn, and my husband and I retired recently and moved to Florence, South Carolina. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  00:24 

    Wonderful. Before we go into details of your profession, we have a brief section of the interview called “One Career, Sixty Seconds” where you describe your job in sixty seconds or less, similar to an elevator pitch. And we can start whenever you’re ready. 

    Carol Black-Lemon  00:38 

    Okay. So I consider myself a solopreneur, and that I do pretty much everything on my own. I’ve always been that type of person where I multitask. But four years ago, almost four years ago, I retired, and from my job as a marketing administrator for a law firm. I was there for twenty years, and I built a lot of experiences working on web design and marketing.  

    So now I do that for myself, and my business is Black-Lemon Art, aka Carol Black-Lemon Art, and I am a multidisciplinary artist, where my mainstay is creating artwork and storytelling through my art, and that’s my passion. Always been, always will be, and now I represent a new generation of artists who are at a certain age point, and for me, I’m still becoming, and it’s me letting younger folks know that even when you get a certain age, it doesn’t end. It’s where your passion lies. Just keep going with it, and that’s what life is all about. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  02:08 

    I love the term solopreneur. I think that’s so fun and exciting. That was perfect. So, what would you consider your official job title? 

    Carol Black-Lemon  02:20 

    Creator. I’m a creator. I just feel very, very blessed to be creating whatever, whatever comes to mind. But painter, for sure, storyteller through my art. I love doing web design. They make it pretty easy today, so I don’t have to get into coding. But I can fiddle around with that as well. And what was the question?  

    Sarah Jane Thomas  02:55 

    I was just wondering what you would consider your professional job title, but creator just sums it all up. So, as a creative creator, is there anything in South Carolina that you feel you bring into your work, as opposed to people who may not live in South Carolina? 

    Carol Black-Lemon  03:17 

    Something that I bring into my work…I would say communicating with other like-minded or other folks that that want to tap into their creativity. I’m all about that. It’s like folks that I know work on nine-to-five jobs and under fluorescent lighting and the watchful eye; they don’t have freedom. They may be in a creative job, which is wonderful, but for a lot of people, they have their jobs that don’t really give them an opportunity to be creative. You have to follow the pattern and the hierarchy and so forth. But tapping into your creativity allows you to find your voice, allows you to be your authentic self. So, I like to help people to do that, and I founded a group called Creative Connection here in Florence, and it was a call out to anyone who wants to tap into that and talk about their creative process. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  04:33 

    That’s beautiful. Do you think that there was a defining moment in your life that really had an impact on your creative journey? 

    Carol Black-Lemon  04:43 

    A defining moment in my life on my creative journey….it’s a good question. Defining moment….I think I had many defining moments, and which was just letting me know that I can control my creative voice, so I had to find time for that. When I had a nine-to-five and raising a family, it wasn’t just about me. It was about what I have to give to my job, what I have to give to my family. But at some point, I’m like, well, what about me? Who am I? And I tapped into that little girl that was just curious about everything, and so that little girl still lives in me, and I keep reminding myself who she was. And now, I was proud of her, and she would be proud of me that I’m still doing that. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  05:45 

    You mentioned your own initiative, your own little startup. Do you think that there was a particular project that you worked on that allowed you to express that creativity in a way that hadn’t really been something that you’ve done before? 

    Carol Black-Lemon  06:03 

    I think that might be. There was a point where I was designing my own website, and I went with the DIY. I’m like, okay, I’m that type of person. I’m gonna figure it out, and I really enjoyed it. I had fun with it, and my website was great. And then I thought, “I can do this for other people,” so I looked at some other folks’ websites, some friends, or just people that I knew, and I’m like, “Would you like me to improve your website?” And I did like three of them for free. I’m like, “let me do this so that I can put it on my portfolio,” and that led to a client. So, I said after six months, I’m like, “okay, I’ll help you to navigate it.” Ultimately, and this is going back maybe twenty years now, but that led to fifteen website clients, and for me, that’s why I say I’m a solopreneur. I didn’t have anyone helping me, and by the way, I was doing a nine-to-five job. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  07:16 

    So, you mentioned this nine-to-five job. So, before you stepped away from that and became a creative strictly in your professional life, did you have any fears about that? 

    Carol Black-Lemon  07:34 

    Yeah, absolutely. I had to learn about just the business setup and taxes, all the accountability what goes with being a legitimate business and calling yourself a business. So, I had to learn all that, and I was always afraid if I was doing that correctly. My fears of starting up is just learning how to prioritize and not getting ahead of myself, and because then I became responsible for other people, and then I learned that people were counting on me. I’ll never forget a call on Easter Sunday because there was something that they wanted on their website, and I was like, “Wait a minute, it’s Easter. I didn’t sign up for that.” But that was when I understood that the criteria that I had to set forth and letting folks know this is a business, and you have to go by these terms and so that was a real learning experience for me to set those guidelines. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  09:00 

    Was there anything in particular that helped you move beyond these fears? 

    Carol Black-Lemon  09:07 

    Anything in particular that helped me move beyond these fears….what got me moving beyond the fears was this understanding the complexity of ownership and accountability, and that if I were to call myself the boss lady, that I needed to step up and take better notes and just be better at what I was doing, what I was being called to do. So it was that I need to step up. That was like pivoting to the next level of being a professional. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  09:59 

    Do you have any advice for young adults or students who have an interest in becoming a creative professional and maybe starting up their own business, as you have? 

    Carol Black-Lemon  10:08 

    Yeah, I would say tap into what’s already out there. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The information is at our fingertips now. I mean between Google and ChatGPT and Claude, it’s all there. Like, what do I do? They can even build your own website. You know, push the button. There’s your website already. But I’m a hands-on kind of person, and I always want to make sure that if I do use AI to help me, which why not, it’s there. Make sure that it’s at least 80% you and maybe 20% AI, if that makes sense. Yeah, it’s a great tool and it really helps to get things done. But don’t let AI do more of your work than you, and then talking to seasoned professionals and talking to your peers, especially those that are transparent, that are willing to share.  

    There are some folks that they’re not maybe willing to tell you what they use. I’m like, well, those aren’t your people. If I find something that’s working for me, I’m going to tell my friends, “look, don’t waste your time there. This is a better tool.” But talking to seasoned professionals who are doing it, who will give you the real lowdown in terms of what you need? Make good use of your resources. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  11:50 

    So, you mentioned utilizing AI and utilizing the internet and just like all the information that’s out there now. Do you think that there are any particular skills, either within that or apart from that, that one should practice before trying the same things? 

    Carol Black-Lemon  12:12 

    Right, before trying the same things for sure, and that is having just being more hands-on with your own work in your own occupation, meaning taking notes. Every thought that comes into your mind, some of them are good, and some you need to trash. So, prioritizing your vision for yourself, like what do you need to do right now? And that’s doing your homework. So, and if you’re a student, that’s like the greatest place to be tapping into all the resources available to you. Because at a certain point, those resources and those mentors may go away.For me, it’s organization for sure.  

    Just you know, and there’s a lot of folks [who have it]. I don’t like the term ADHD. A lot of people are like, “I have ADHD.” It’s like if you got a lot going on in your head, there’s a lot of attention deficit because you’re managing so many different things that you are that you have to be accountable for. You’re a student, but you may have a part-time job, and you may have other responsibilities. So, time management is really key. And for someone like me, who’s a multitasker, which I’ve had to tone down. I’m at a certain age right now, and I can’t remember everything, but my mind is still going and going. I wake up with thoughts and ideas, and I don’t want to lose track of it. So having a wonderful calendar, I have this great, beautiful calendar that I use that may even have two years versus an annual calendar and files that I can reference. Organization is definitely key. 

    Sarah Jane Thomas  14:16 

    Well, I want to thank you so much for just sharing your story and your experience and your advice and I really–listening to you talk is it just fills me with happiness for some reason. You have such a way of expressing yourself in a way that’s very genuine, and I really loved it. 

    Carol Black-Lemon  14:36 

    Thank you. I appreciate that. 

  • Theresa McEvoy

    Theresa McEvoy

    Interview

    Transcript

    00:00 Victoria Bartolotto  

    Hello, everybody. My name is Victoria, and today we are talking with Teresa McAvoy, a professional creative working from and within South Carolina. As we get started, can you tell us a little bit about your current career and where you’re currently located?  

    00:14 T.A. McEvoy  

    I’m in Anderson, South Carolina.   

    I have been writing epic fantasy books for about six, seven years now. I started out as a paralegal and worked, and the legal background helps a lot with your author career.  

    00:33 Victoria Bartolotto  

    Awesome.   

    So, before we get into the details, we have a brief section of our interview called “One Career Sixty Seconds,” where you describe your job in sixty seconds or less, similar to an elevator pitch. Are you prepared?  

    00:46 T.A. McEvoy  

    Yes, I’m ready.  

    00:48 Victoria Bartolotto  

    You can go ahead.  

    00:49 T.A. McEvoy  

    Okay. I am T.A. McEvoy, an epic fantasy author and world-builder , best known for the Dragons of Vicari series. My work combines character-driven storytelling, ancient dragon lore, and interconnected fantasy realms centered on themes of hope, unity, and resilience.  

    Beyond writing novels, I also create audiobook productions, cinematic fantasy content for YouTube, and expanded lore that allows the readers to engage with the world of Vicari.  

    My goal is to create an immersive world where dragons are not simply creatures, but living emotional beings woven into the soul of the story itself. I don’t like them being just beasts.  

    01:42 Victoria Bartolotto  

    That’s great. Thank you so much.  

    01:44 T.A. McEvoy  

    Thank you.  

    01:45 Victoria Bartolotto  

    So as an author, is there anything about South Carolina or Anderson in particular that brings something to your work? I know it’s a fantasy series, but do you ever take some inspiration from South Carolina and implement that?  

    02:00 T.A. McEvoy  

    Sometimes, I do the forest because I have four forests in my books. Of course, they’re not called [the Forest], but they got their own special things like purple fire. But yeah, the forests. I can take the forests or the outdoors. That would be pretty.  

    02:25 Victoria Bartolotto  

    When you decided to start publishing, was there anything that helped you make that decision or was there some sort of defining moment that had an impact on your creative journey?  

    02:38 T.A. McEvoy  

    I’ve always liked writing. When I was in high school, I wrote mysteries and my best friend would read them. She would read all those books, but my dad didn’t think I could make it, so I went into law.  

    But I’ve always loved to write. My mom accuses me of having a vivid imagination. I am a self-publisher because I am very picky on the person who does my covers. Everybody wants these covers like this and that, but I have – no. And if I can’t connect with the cover designer, forget it. But I was very lucky. I’ve had this cover designer I’ve been working with since I started, and she is awesome.  

    03:25 Victoria Bartolotto  

    Can you talk a little bit about the self-publishing industry and why I understand being very picky. I’m a writer myself, so I know how it is to be wanting specific things. Can you talk a little bit more about the decision of self-publishing and how that experience has been for you so far?  

    03:42 T.A. McEvoy  

    For self-publishing, it was easier for me to do it because I knew what I wanted and I knew what I didn’t want. The only thing you can get very aggravated with is KDP [Kindle Direct Publishing] and Amazon because they keep changing their mind.  

    My recommendation is unless you really want to, do not do the KDP Select because they restrict it for ninety days, which means you can’t publish your books anywhere else.  

    I didn’t do that. I went wide. Now, Kobo has it where it’s sort of like KDP, but you can publish it, and people can have a membership there. They can read your book or even listen to your audio book for free, and you still get paid, but they let you do it wherever you want. So, I think Kobo’s a better idea.  

    04:35 Victoria Bartolotto  

    I know you mentioned having a book cover designer. Can you talk a little bit about the process of editing your novel and going to somebody and freelancing people to help you work on your books?  

    04:50 T.A. McEvoy  

    Most of the editing I do myself, but I have like seven stages of editing, so it takes a while. They’re broken down into dialogue, world building, and grammar. That’s what was OK for me.  

    I don’t know about some people. I have a background in legal, so of course I’m very critical. Whenever you’re doing motions and stuff, they have to be critical. So, you’re going to need to be so critical.  

    But you can do it. Now sometimes some people do need an editor because they don’t catch the spelling or the grammar. It’s one thing, but you can do it pretty well on your own. I would, though, except not for a book cover. I would never do it. Never. I don’t know how. My book cover designer is awesome. She’s really sweet. I will give her an idea, and she’ll give me four or five ideas. Then I’ll say, “well, can you take this one and put it over here?” And she’ll say, “let me see,” because she’ll do it.  

    06:00 Victoria Bartolotto  

     That’s great.  Because I know in comparison to self-publishing, traditional publishing, you don’t get as much of a say in your cover or your editor or, you know, the specific nitty gritty details of something that self-publishing would give you. I understand that you have a lot more freedom in it.  

    06:23 T.A. McEvoy  

    It can be, a little. You also have to learn how to do your marketing and stuff. But that’s where I say AI works good for marketing. Do not use it in your books, but you can use it for your marketing. I’m real picky about writing like that. No, that’s where your imagination has to come in, too.  

    06:47 Victoria Bartolotto  

    So, having a legal background, you said you did paralegal work. What was the, I guess, motivation behind wanting to switch from legal work to creative work? And if you had any fears about doing that and kind of transitioning, and if there was some sort of fear, what inspired you to continue beyond it?  

    07:10 T.A. McEvoy  

    Well, partly I stopped working, and we moved from Texas to South Carolina. My mom is bedridden, so I’m a caregiver. A lot of that has to do with making sure she’s comfortable. I can be there whenever she needed me. I’ve always loved writing and she always got mad at me for not writing. But I was afraid when I first started writing that nobody would like my books. My first series was just about the elves. The dragons came into it but, I went into the Dragons of Vicari, and I’ve always loved dragons. Not like how most people want to make the dragons into beasts or, shall we say, glorified mouths that carry on from point A to point B. My dragons have personalities.  

    08:02 Victoria Bartolotto  

    That’s great! Do you have any advice for students or young adults who want to pursue becoming an author? Is there any interest, do you think, that they should have or any kind of programs you think they should look into?  

    08:18 T.A. McEvoy  

    Well, I would definitely tell them to look into critical writing because critical writing will help. Also, you better love to write and find a genre you love to write in. I know some authors go from one genre to another, but I stay with everything. Find something that you really love to do.  

    And then be very careful after you publish your first book, because all these people are going to say, I can do this. I can do this for you. Ninety percent of them are just scammers. So be very careful.  

    08:53 Victoria Bartolotto  

    Thank you so much for talking with me. I really appreciated it.  

    08:56 T.A. McEvoy  

    It was nice meeting you.  

    08:58 Victoria Bartolotto  

    Yes, it was nice meeting you as well. Have a great day.  

    09:00 T.A. McEvoy  

    You too. Bye-bye.  

  • Deanna Taylor

    Deanna Taylor

    Interview

    Transcript

    00:00 Victoria Bartolotto 

    Hello everybody. My name is Victoria, and today we are talking with Dr. Deanna Taylor, a professional creative working from and within South Carolina. As we get started, can you tell us about where you’re from and what your current career is? 

    00:13 Deanna Taylor 

    Yeah, so I’m originally from Georgia. I grew up in a little place called Kenneth Hall, Georgia, and I am currently working in out of Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina. And my career, I am a consultant, and I work in the room of Creative Arts Education and Wellness. 

    00:36 Victoria Bartolotto   

    Before we go into the details of your profession, we have a brief section of the interview called “One Career Sixty Seconds,” where you describe your job in sixty seconds or less in an elevator pitch style. Are you ready? 

    00:49 Deanna Taylor  

    I’m ready. 

    00:50 Victoria Bartolotto 

    All right, let’s start. 

    00:52 Deanna Taylor  

    Okay, so I started in eighth grade, and I really loved science. I moved through my career into science, and so now I focus on STEM learning through creative arts, mostly in the realm of making jams, jellies, and preserves, and attaching that to the way that people move through life and are coached. There’s also a little realm of taste testing in there and adding in the element of matching their taste test and what kind of fruit and preserves they like to what their business career or their coaching style is like as well. 

    01:32 Victoria Bartolotto  

    That’s so interesting!  With working in the culinary arts, specifically with preserving, is there anything about South Carolina, in particular, that is unique to preserving, or does it have some kind of influence on you? 

    01:47 Deanna Taylor  

    Yes, so I actually use only locally grown fruits, and those are harvested from my backyard. The tie to South Carolina is that I use pears, figs, and muscadines, and muscadines are really known for growing in the South. As a matter of fact, some of my clients don’t even know what a muscadine is. So, giving them the cultural piece of how it came to be here in South Carolina is one interesting piece.  

    The other part is I harvest the fruit from my backyard and then the neighbor’s backyard. So, my grandfather got me into looking more at the locally sourced fruit, because he started sharing the craft and everything with the people at his church. So now we harvest the fruit from people’s backyards, mostly his elderly neighbors and folks that aren’t able to get into the backyard, to get the fruit. We salvage it from going to waste, and then I turn that into jams, jellies, and preserves, and we share that with the community. I give some back to the neighbors as well. 

    02:50 Victoria Bartolotto  

    I know you mentioned in the form that you filled out that you started preserving over quarantine and COVID. Can you talk a little bit about that, and how that story puts you on the trajectory to be where you are now? 

    03:04 Deanna Taylor  

    Yes, so I moved to where I am now. I moved to Kershaw County in 2020 during the height of COVID. I was about six to seven months pregnant, and we moved to this space where it was like room for growing all these fruits and things, and I noticed that the squirrels and the birds were having a good time eating up all the fruit.  

    My grandparents taught us, and instilled, you do not waste food. You don’t throw anything away; you do not waste food. I grew up in that era where you know you saved everything; scraps and all of that. I started going back to my roots of asking my mom, my grandma, “Hey, y’all used to teach that canning thing, or y’all used to try to get me to do that, can you teach me again, because I want to pay attention now.” 

    So, I got into it because I wanted to save some of the fruits and not have things to go to waste. Then I just started with taste testing and letting neighbors and friends and family members taste the preserves and things, and then kind of progress from there. Now people request them on a regular. Folks have been asking for new flavors. I’m like, “Yeah, we gotta see about that one.” 

    04:17 Victoria Bartolotto 

    I know you also mentioned that you have a book that you wrote. Can you describe the process of going from doing the physical making of canning and preserving, and how you kind of put that down onto the page, possibly? 

    04:32 Deanna Taylor  

    The canning process, even picking up the fruit, is more about family and community, and bringing all of those elements back into the kitchen. Making it relevant for the generation that we have now.  I mentioned earlier that I was pregnant, and that was our second child in 2020. So, I have little people at the house that are also involved in the process. They help pick the grapes and wash the pears. To me, the book was looking more into those family connections and making sure that the kitchen is a place where it’s a lab. You’re in there experimenting; you’re trying things out. You’re seeing, “Do the kids like this? Do you like this? What kind of herbs things are you going to put in there?” So, the cookbook is actually a cookbook and a text. 

    My colleague and I collaborated on it and worked on it together. Her name is Dr. Regina Seifra, and it’s a cookbook. It’s a text, because we wanted to bring outdoors and like the growing process and bring it and put it on a plate for the children. There’s activities in there where let’s say, for example, in one chapter they’re going to create their own herb garden, and then they kind of plan ahead for the recipes and they grow the herbs that they’re actually going to use in the recipes and the food for later on. So, making a connection for them between growing and what you’re eating on your plate; that you can actually go through the experimenting phase and figure out what it is that you like and what you don’t like, and how things get there. 

    06:14 Victoria Bartolotto   

    I feel like that’s such an important story, even for like adults now just figuring it out. A lot of people don’t know where their food comes from. Learning about that process, I think, is something that a lot more people should know. So, you do this full-time. Was there any kind of moment in your creative journey that solidified that you needed or wanted to do this full time, or was there something that really kickstarted you into this, other than COVID? 

    06:46 Deanna Taylor  

    I would say my children. I have been in education for over twenty years, and I have done all kinds of studies, and I’ve worked in different settings. However, making sure that what I’m doing is bringing me joy, and being able to integrate what I do with what the children do has been one of those things. I’m not going to go the traditional job route, I’m going to move more into this creative space, more into the space where I can bring them to work with me.  

    How many children ask, “Mommy, can I go to work with you?”  My kids really like it. They enjoy being able to even get on a video camera and tell out the process. Like, “Okay, Mommy, first we pick the grapes, and then we do this.”  

    So going through the process and learning the names and being able to teach them is something that I wanted to be able to do. That pushed me, or pivoted me, into the space of being able to bring the real world to life for them and wanting other children to be able to enjoy the same thing, 

    08:02 Victoria Bartolotto  

    Yeah. Wow, that’s really sweet. Before thinking about doing this full-time, did you have any kind of fears about entering a creative industry that isn’t well known as a lot of other industries are? Was there anything that might have held you back from doing it full time? 

    08:19 Deanna Taylor  

    Yes, so I was leaving a position that had state benefits and all the things. So, jumping into it, I will say one of the fears was of failing or not being successful, but I had to learn to define success for myself and what that looks like.  

    Then also learning that just like I learned with my science degree, I may not be explicitly using that right this moment, but just like I learned with that degree, if you try something, you can tweak it and then make it better. Your business, and even with a business, doesn’t have to stay and do the same thing year in and year out. Although some businesses are well known for doing their own thing. On the creative side, if I do the same thing over and over, I don’t think I would have much of an audience.  

    To me, it brings the spice piece in, just like I have spices in my pear preserves, or whatever. I need a little cinnamon, I need a little all spice, if I put the same thing in plant and just pears by themselves, no offense, but in a jar of pears and nothing else, you need a little something to spice it up. I think jumping in scared and also knowing that there’s other avenues and ways and pivots that you can make within a business. That it’s fine, it’s okay, you’re being creative with multiple things, not just your actual medium that you’re using to express. 

    09:52 Victoria Bartolotto  

    Do you have any advice for young adults or students who possibly have an interest in starting their own business or jumping into something new?  Are there any particular skills or knowledge that they should have before entering either the preserving industry or just something creative in general? 

    10:09 Deanna Taylor   

    So, I would say my piece of advice is to stay true to you. Be authentic in what you do, because that’s what sets you apart and kind of makes it. Yes, there are tons of people out there making preserves. There are tons of people out there creating with their hands, creating with their minds, voices, whatever. But there’s something about you that makes you unique. So, focus in on that part and let that part shine through.  

    I don’t think there’s many people, at least I haven’t found any, that has an education and human resources background that now makes jellies and jam, so I kind of blend those things together.  

    Using that unique advantage and using it to your advantage, to speak to the world and to make something that you love and enjoy doing. Family is also very important to me, so sticking to those values and things that are important. Yes, making money is great; it pays the bills, but being happy in what I’m doing, actually bringing joy to other people, and telling my story is something that is priceless, for lack of a better word.  

    I was trying to find something that wasn’t so cliche, but it’s good, I’m going to use it. So that’s the advice I would say: be true to yourself, be authentic, do your thing, and like let that thing that makes you unique kind of make you shine, and go for it with that. 

    11:39 Victoria Bartolotto 

    Yeah, thank you so much. That was amazing, and I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today. 

    11:46 Deanna Taylor 

    Okay, you’re welcome. Thank you very much. It was great meeting you, Victoria. 

    11:49 Victoria Bartolotto 

    It was nice meeting you as well. Have a great day. 

  • Paul Mento

    “Read, read, read. Novels hold a wealth of knowledge, experiences, and creativity.” 

    Quick Facts

    Education: Undergraduate School

    Years of Experience: 37 Years

    About

    A producer, writer, and director at Silver Hand Productions, Paul Mento has been tinkering with the camera since elementary school. As his passion turned into a career, he primarily works with documentaries, short films, and commercial media. Mento’s documentary, “Howard Pyle, and the Illustrated Story,” was recently accepted by the George Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts in Los Angeles.  

    Originally from Wilmington, Delaware, he initially became interested in shooting Super 8 films, borrowing his father’s equipment. “I was part of Explorers in high school, which had a program that centered around advertising and media,” he says, “I was immediately hooked.” 

    What captivates Mento about filmmaking are its interdisciplinary roles, all working towards one project. In addition, he is inspired by the involvement of multiple skills across the team, from researching to camera operation. He encourages aspiring filmmakers to read and engage critically with literature, for it can serve as a springboard for ideas. 

  • Glenn Meganck

    Glenn Meganck

    Interview

    Transcript

    00:00 Victoria Bartolotto 

    It’s okay. To start, could you do the favor of introducing yourself? Spell out your name, tell us where you’re located currently. And yeah, we’ll start there. 

    00:10 Glenn Meganck 

    My real name is, that I rarely use is Glenn Meganck. And right now, I’m in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 

    00:20 Victoria Bartolotto 

    Okay. Can you tell us a little bit about your job? I know you do multiple things, songwriter, ghostwriter, author. Can you just tell us just a little bit about what you do and what you specialize in? 

    00:35 Glenn Meganck 

    Well, that’s it. Every day I do some writing and some music. Both are equally important to me. So, I tend to write every morning, seven days a week, and then switch to music at some point in the afternoon, and work on more songwriting and recording and that sort of thing. I’m always working on at least two or three novels at a time, it seems, these days as well, under a lot of different genres. So, there’s no one kind of thing that I do in terms of that. 

    01:07 Victoria Bartolotto 

    I know one of your books, “Booking a Killer Vacation”, is set in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Is that correct? 

    01:16 Glenn Meganck 

    Yeah, that’s a J.R. Ripley book, and that’s more like a light mystery, which I do a lot of those. I did a bunch of them in a very short period of time, and now I just do a few here and there, but…  

    It was something I had never done before, and then I just sort of fell into it for a couple of years where people were asking for them, a publisher. And so, I ended up doing about, nine a year for a few years. Kind of cranking them out until I got kind of tired of it, because it really wasn’t what I did. I really didn’t even know the genre at all. It was like, “oh, I better read some of those and see what they do.” 

    02:01 Victoria Bartolotto 

    Can I ask specifically about that book? What about South Carolina or Myrtle Beach itself drew you to that specific location? What did you think was unique about it that you were like, “yeah, this needs to be set in South Carolina?” 

    02:15 Glenn Meganck 

    Well, for that genre, of these sorts of cozy light mysteries, that are amateur sleuths, right? So the setting is important. You want someplace unique and that makes sort of like its own little world that can be fun and has enough interesting things going on. Not necessarily a small town, but most of them are in a small town. I mean, there are a few that are probably in New York City that people do, but in general, they tend to be a either real, a fictionalized version of a real town or again, just something you make up or use like Myrtle Beach. I like Myrtle Beach and I’ve been there a lot. And it was a good setting. And I just finished a couple more of them. And it has a nice vibe.  

    I love music. I mean, I’m a musician. So, the next one, when I finally got back to doing more of them, the next one, which comes out in, I don’t know, a couple of months, maybe, that one involves music as well. And of course, in the Myrtle area, there’s lots of live music and bands that come through and theater. So I was able, in the ’60s kind of music and stuff, so I was able to incorporate that. Then in the third one, which I wrote already as well, but I don’t know when that one comes out, but that one involves more surfing. So, it has people surfing yeah, so. But yeah, it’s just a fun place. And because it’s a place a lot of people know and have been to, at least in this country, and lots of tourism. It has a lot of interesting characters too, the kind of people that come there and the partying and then the motorcycle events and things like that too.  And yet it’s a small, sort of a small town feel in and of itself, you know? 

    04:10 Victoria Bartolotto 

    Definitely. Overall, throughout your creative career, was there a defining moment that you can think of that led you to wanting to become an author or wanting to do kind of multiple pen names? Was there anything that really stood out to you when you were like, “yeah, I want to be a writer? Yeah, I want to pursue this kind of career?” 

    04:34 Glenn Meganck 

    The writing and music, I’ve always been since the youngest that I can remember. I loved to read. I didn’t grow up in a household where reading mattered or music. I mean, my grandparents loved music and played, but my parents weren’t into music, didn’t play at all. They listened to country music, but they didn’t play any instruments and nobody read books in my family except me. And, I always wrote whether it was writing poetry or whatever, when I was a little kid. And I always wanted to learn the piano and then the guitar and whatever so I just kind of started on my own with all that. And it’s just sort of like a compulsion. I’m not happy or satisfied if I don’t do it.  

    The pen names is because when I started out getting published, I remember I was still living at home. I was young. One day I was home alone and, at my parents’ house, and a girl came knocking at the door and wanted to meet me because she’d seen an article about me in the paper. It just freaked me out, you know, and it was a book that came out under my real name. And I hadn’t thought about it at the time. This was when I was living in Florida. It just freaked me out that people knew who I was. And so, I liked the idea from then of using pen names, because I like being anonymous.  

    So, I’ve done a lot of books and a lot of music where, and for the longest time it was new book, new name. New record, new name. Just so nobody would ever know who I was because I like my privacy. So, I’m still not keen on a lot of that. I know, especially these days of social media and everything, it’s kind of hard to remain anonymous. And of course, publishers or music people and whatever in the business, they don’t want you to be anonymous because that doesn’t sell, it’s not good for business. It’s not good for your career. In a perfect world, I would be completely anonymous. 

    06:54 Victoria Bartolotto 

    Yeah, I can relate to that a little bit. I’m a writer myself. I’m in school to become a writer and I’ve been thinking about pen names and things like that because, like you, I really don’t like people in my privacy, especially with, like you said, social media. Everyone wants to know who you are. Everyone wants to know everything about you. And it’s like, that’s not how it should be. Celebrities are people too. 

    07:20 Glenn Meganck 

    Exactly. I’m not in it for that. I don’t care about celebrity stuff. I don’t care about other celebrities. I don’t care. I mean, for a long time I lived in LA full of celebrities and the gym I would go to was full of all these really well-known people in every aspect of the arts, especially, actors and musicians and writers. I mean, because it was in this little studio in this area of town where they all went, and that’s where I happened to live and go too. But it didn’t mean anything to me, and I just wanted to be left alone.  

    And when I would go to the gym, I never talked to anybody. I always felt like, I always feel invisible, that nobody sees me anyway. I can just come and go, and nobody notices me. And then one day in the gym, a woman came up to me and said, “my friend is afraid of you.” I thought, “huh?” I never talked to anybody. And she said, “yeah, you come here every day. You never look at anybody. You never talk to anybody. You’re just kind of freaking her out.” So, I said “I didn’t even know you saw me, I just feel like I’m a ghost.” 

    And the other thing, for you as a writer, what evolves though, uh, with the writing. What kind of writing do you do? Do you have any preferences? 

    08:43 Victoria Bartolotto 

    I’m very into historical action, very much like treasure hunting. I love any kind of contemporary story that involves history, that involves big impacts on the world. Right now, I’m currently writing a treasure hunting series that takes place in Key West. So I’m super excited about that project. I’ve been thinking about it for so long. So, I really want to go in the direction of kind of this contemporary adventure that isn’t so much commercialized. I feel a lot of things are, especially commercialized fiction nowadays. I feel it’s so quick and rapid and not deep, if that makes sense. 

    09:27 Glenn Meganck 

    Oh, sure. I mean, the market right now, because the people who run the business, they’re business people. They’re not the kind of people who, when you read about the days when Hemingway and stuff was writing, where the editors really loved books and cared about books. Now they’re just marketing people and that’s all they care about; how many followers you have. Whatever kind of book succeeds, they just want more of those. So, it’s tough. But so like with yours, I mean, so you have historical elements in it too, or just more of a modern day? 

    10:04 Victoria Bartolotto 

    It has some historical elements. I did a lot of research on this one fleet of Spanish ships that went down in the Keys, and there was someone who went and found all the treasure in that, fleet. One of my questions was, for the novel to take place, because it is obviously fictionalized. I don’t want to just pull directly from history and do whatnot. But one of the questions I had was, “what if there was a third ship?” Because there were two that went down. And so, I’m like, “what if there was a third ship with a secret treasure on it that no one knew about?” And it draws from some people who actually lived in Key West. It draws from this one guy who actually owned it at one point before America bought it. Not Mel Fisher, I know who that is and that’s who like found everything. I actually went to go see his museum there and I did like the whole walkthrough which was an amazing experience. 

    11:05 Glenn Meganck 

    I’ve met him in the past a long time ago yeah. 

    11:07 Victoria Bartolotto 

    Oh really? Oh wow! That’s cool! 

    11:10 Glenn Meganck 

    Because he lived in Florida so I met him there, yeah. 

    11:15 Victoria Bartolotto 

    Yeah, kind of just really want to incorporate the history of Key West and how it kind of became the kind of big tourist spot that it is now. Maybe draw a little bit of attention to how it’s not just a tourist spot. There’s actually a lot of history here that no one really knows about. So that’s kind of my goal with that novel, with that series. 

    11:37 Glenn Meganck 

    So that’s it, you’re planning it as like a series? 

    11:40 Victoria Bartolotto 

    Yeah, I want it to be a three-book thing. 

    11:43 Glenn Meganck 

    Yeah, that’s a good way to look at it. Anyway, again, my advice is because I remember sometimes, again, when I was starting, you’d write a book and you’d think “that’s it, that’s just all I want.” But then the publisher would want more. And like, wait, there can’t be more. I mean, that was the end, but they wanted it to be a series because it did well enough and they liked it. 

    I had thought, well, I boxed myself.  Where am I going to go? How am I going to do that? But you find a way. Now, whenever I do a book that even as a standalone, I always tell myself, leave some room that it could be a series. And then to get back to your point again with the pen names, though, the way it develops too, because of the business side of it over time as it’s become harder and harder and tighter and tighter and more labels become more important. 

    So certain pen names and most of the names I use are just ones that I can’t say anyway, even though they’re pen names or names that publishers asked for. I do the ghostwriting too with other authors. But so, if you have a certain name, for a style of book that you do, then if I write a book that’s like the, what was the one you said, the Myrtle Beach one? I forget the titles because I write so many books in a year. But the Myrtle Beach series, when you write a book like that, and then you say you write a book that’s more like Carl Hiaasen kind of novels, which are kind of Florida thrillers, but there’s a lot more sex and violence and all that kind of stuff. Well, you can’t very well do that under the same name because it’s a different audience, they’d be offended by the language or whatever. So it’s better the publishers would rather that was under a different name.  

    So your name sort of becomes your label. They know you’re buying a certain name that they’re going to get a certain kind of book, right?  If you buy a James Patterson book, you know what kind of the vibe and feel and language are going to be, right? Or if you buy a, I can’t think of anybody modern. I mean, but they’re a lighter novel or someone who writes literary things. 

    The business just expects you to stay within that. And the bookstores, they don’t want a cozy mystery by someone who writes hard thrillers. Well, no, that’s not going to fit or that doesn’t sell. They’re looking at that name. They would rather have it under a new name. than the other name, even though people know that name. They would rather you start with a fresh name. So, the little things of the business that come up that, you know, for better or worse, that’s the business. 

    14:40 Victoria Bartolotto 

    With changing up the names, because every time you take a new name, you kind of get a fresh blank page, fresh slate. Is there any kind of fear that comes up that maybe the project isn’t going to work out or maybe dipping into this genre isn’t going to be received well? Is there any kind of fear or something around that that you experience? 

    15:02 Glenn Meganck 

    Not for me, because I don’t care. I mean, I do what I like to do, and it’s all I’ve ever done, you know? So even within a certain genre, if I don’t like it, I’m not going to do it, and I don’t need to do it. So, I don’t do it for the money. I don’t do it for fame, clearly. I just do what I feel like writing, and it has to excite me. It has to make me want to sit down the next morning and do some more of that and have it in my head like you, you’re a writer you know, so it’s in your head. 

    You couldn’t pay me enough to write something I didn’t want to write. And whether it succeeds or not in a genre, again, I’ll get asked to do things and I can’t go into them because they’re for other well-known authors. But, in genres that I don’t necessarily write in, they’ll say they’re stuck and, “oh, can you help me?” And I don’t really want to, but people ask and it just becomes, “oh, fine, I’ll help you.”  

    Then it’ll often be where I have to research the genre a little bit. And then even then I’ll kind of twist it to the way I see it, like one that I just recently doing with, again, a bestselling author, but I thought, when he first asked me to do it was because he felt like he couldn’t write the next one. I said, “yeah, no, I’m just not the right person and I don’t want to write it, it’s just not my thing.” And I said, “you went too dark and that kind of violence. I just don’t gravitate.” And he said, “well, don’t make it like that. Make it sound like me but make it like you too. And you can make it what you want.” 

    Ah fine. I just try to always truck myself out of jobs. So, things succeed. I’d rather write what I like and have 10 people like it than write something I don’t like and have a million people like it. You know what I mean? Because I would. And I would be out of it and I’d feel like I’d cringe. So, I worry about failure if I’m happy, though I’m never happy. So that’s different. 

    17:11 Victoria Bartolotto 

    As we kind of wrap up, do you have any kind of advice or skills that you would give to college students like me or people in high school that maybe want to pursue becoming an author? Do you have any kind of advice to give to those kinds of people? 

    17:25 Glenn Meganck 

    Well, just kind of what I was saying. I mean, write because you love it. Don’t write because you think you’re going to make money. Don’t follow the trends. Just write what you love because you’ll find your audience. It’s easier now in some ways because you can always self-publish, indie publish, whatever, and get started and get your name out there. So instead of trying to be like everybody else, which is how I feel about life in general. There’s an old song called “Dare to be Different”. And that’s how I think. Don’t be afraid to be different. Don’t be afraid to say what you feel.  

    And another thing people get into when they write their first book is they hold back because they feel, well, “I can’t put too much in it because what will I write about in the next book?” Don’t worry about it. Just throw everything. It’ll come. And for me, and again, this is just my advice. Plenty of people will tell you different, but for writing and music are two things that I absolutely love. And just, I mean, I can’t live without them. I do them every day just because I can’t not do them and I’m not satisfied if I don’t. But they’re also the two things I would never go to school for personally, because I don’t want anybody else telling me how to do it.  

    Isaac Asimov, when people would ask him, how do you write a novel, he would say, write a million words. I mean, all these people, they would say, don’t go. I mean, all you’re going to learn is how someone else did it. If you want to be unique, do it your way. Just don’t worry about the rules or whatever anybody else tells you. Just go figure it out your way. And that’s, that’s what I’ve always done. And whether people like it or not, I mean, I don’t care. So it all worked out okay for me anyway. 

    So, I mean, I had a friend who, her father, an old girlfriend, whose father, he had been in World War II as an American soldier. And when he got out, he wanted to be, he was an artist, a painter, and a writer. And they decided to stay in France after the war. And the mother taught at an American school. And he would paint in the summer and write in the winter. Never sold anything. Couldn’t sell a painting, couldn’t sell a book, couldn’t sell anything, right? Until he was about, let’s see, I would say he was 55 or 60 years old. And then out of the blue sells a book for half a million dollars. And took off from there. They made some movies, some other books, but I mean, he just kept doing what he did. And he again, did it under a pen name because he didn’t want anybody to know who else. And he wanted to paint under one name, do his books under another name, and have nobody know any of the names. And when he died, he had a huge warehouse with full of thousands of paintings because he didn’t even want anybody to see him or make them for sale at that point. He just thought, oh, I don’t need money now, so I’m not even going to try to sell them, right? He just hoarded them all.  

    20:23 Victoria Bartolotto 

    Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today. 

    20:32 Glenn Meganck  

    Yeah, thank you. 

  • Glenn Meganck

    Glenn Meganck

    “Write because you love it. Don’t write because you think you’re going to make money. Don’t follow the trends. Just write what you love because you’ll find your audience.” 

    Quick Facts

    Years of Experience: Over 25 Years

    About

    While he is known by a variety of aliases, Glenn Meganck is an author, ghostwriter, and musician. With an interest in piano and poetry as a child, the love for creating is what fueled Glenn’s passion for pursing the arts as a full-time career.  He dabbles in a bit of everything, from writing light mystery novels to rock songs, and maintains an important balance of creation between them all. 

    As his books span across multiple genres, Glenn is an advocate for the use of pen names in order to differentiate his work personas from one another, as well as direct the audience to what kind of book they are reading. “Your name sort of becomes your label,” he remarks, “They [readers] know you’re buying a certain name that they’re going to get a certain kind of book, right?  If you buy a James Patterson book, you know what kind of the vibe and feel and language are going to be, right?” 

    Even though he has been immersed within the traditionally published world for a long time, Glenn also highly regards self-publishing, as it can be more accessible for authors to get their work out and into the world than traditional publishing. 

    He stresses the importance of writing for passion rather than for money. “You’ll find your audience,” he says. “Instead of trying to be like everybody else…don’t be afraid to be different. Don’t be afraid to say what you feel.” 

  • Marlanda Dekine

    Marlanda Dekine

    “Take your time.” 

    Quick Facts

    Education: Graduate, Furman University, University of South Carolina, Converse University 

    Years of Experience: 20 years

    About

    Marlanda Dekine is a Listening Poet, lending herself to write, publish, and read aloud poems. As a child, Marlanda wrote poems to process difficult emotions, and while she attended Furman University, participated in her first poetry slam. She highlights poets like Saul Williams and Patricia Smith, crediting their readings as models for her own performances. 

    As a Listening Poet, Marlanda has opportunities to collaborate with artists across all mediums. She emphasizes the importance of creating as often as possible and practicing without external validation. Marlanda advocates for professional workshops with other writers in order to “stretch your ideas of what is possible,” and insists on only keeping the feedback “that makes your work better.”