Tag: Self Help books

THE HOUSE ON BLACK LAKE HAS BEEN ADAPTED TO SCREENPLAY. GO TO HOME PAGE TO VIEW CINEMATIC TRAILER FEATURING TOSH YANEZ.

Earlier this year I started a group called WAM JAMS!  to create a community of writers, artists and musicians to  meet and create original work. Collectively we have bargaining power and a far wider reach to other communities to barter and share resources and talents. By doing so, I felt we artists could create our own philosophies and change our country and world from the inside out.

I also created the group for greater autonomy and control over my career and success. I was weary of banging on the door of the gate keepers, trying to play by their rules. I found myself reediting my book to fit the commercial desires of agents, and seeking to change my look or attitude for acting auditions. I was performing the roles of women that did not reflect my depth and complexity or the deeper and more profound issues of my women friends. I listened to stories of years of rejection slips and genius in isolation, working against the status quo - many driven to the point of giving up, and felt the need to do something. I saw in the hopelessness of others an opportunity to help artists find their way to their dreams - and this has become my mission.

As with bands of animals, communities are created to protect the individual and to fulfill their needs. We have the opportunity to create new dreams, to visualize a totally unique and visionary view of how we would like our communal world to evolve.

Alexandra, the heroine in my book, makes a promise at a shrine in return for an unmarked face - Truth for Beauty. As I finished my book I realized that I, like my dear heroine ,had a price to pay. The truth is that I made my own deal at St. Joseph's shrine. I suffered a paralyzed vocal cord after the birth of my son and the affliction was deemed permanent. I was an actress and voice-over artist with a powerful voice. How was I to live the rest of my life as a freak who could barely speak above a whisper? My vow at the shrine of St. Joseph - to follow my manifest destiny in return for the return of my voice led to the downfall of all I believed important in my life. But it also created this book and pushed me far beyond my former boundaries. It fostered independence, autonomy and free thinking. My two sons, educated in truth,see no boundaries around who they may someday become.  It is my supreme desire to find the eternal truth, unencumbered by the laws and mores of society, that drives all of us.

And so I made the decision to lure other artists out of hiding and have them tell their stories, expose truth, create new forms of art - a renaissance out of the darkness of the commercial age. My goal is to create something new and spectacular - a blend of theater, music and art - something the world has never seen. We turn to cable and blogs - longing for truth lost inside boxes and on screeens. But I envisioned something far more human. As in all social upheaval change starts with one voice - and in my case this voice is a miracle of God. In one human being lie all the mysteries of the universe.

AB