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“To Every Mother Whose Child Only Knows Half the Story.”

New York Times bestselling author Attica Locke’s newest novel Guide Me Home is the final installment in the trilogy of books that have followed the life and career of our hero Darren Mathews. A black Texas Ranger committed to bringing the guilty to justice no matter how high they may sit, whose world is an entanglement defined by strong family traditions and an alcoholic mother who has sold him out to his enemies.

With this story of unexpected turns, surprising unholy alliances, and a race to find a missing black girl who may already be dead, Attica shines a light on the mysteries and shrouded nature of motherhood. With the waning days of the Trump administration as its backdrop, Attica excavates where the secrets lie, what stories have been told and left untold between Darren and Bell, and asks a profound question – do our mothers deserve grace and maybe love even in the fractures of the unknown?

As Attica herself says, this is a story that she could only have written now because of where she is in her own life today. In the in between place. Sending her own daughter off to college this year and all the emotions that come with this process. Also, having a deeper understanding and grace for her own mom – once seen through a glass darkly, now known.

Attica’s final destination is suggested in the dedication of the book. For every mother whose child knows only half the story.

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The Forsaken.

Quentin Vennie, Co-Founder of Equitea Co., wrote a searing memoir, Strong in the Broken Places. A raw story of his life growing up in the inner city of Baltimore, MD where he faced food deserts, a complicated relationship with his father who was in and out of jail, and his own addiction and multiple suicide attempts. His unexpected path out of the darkness of his life through yoga, meditation, juicing and his mom's support is a blueprint for us all as we face the mountains and the valleys that are part of living. Since our first interview three years ago, Quentin has had to face any parent's worst nightmare - the death of his 17 year old son Christian from accidentally ingesting fentanyl. In real time, Quentin is facing questions about the changeable nature of grief, anger and forgiveness. And his biggest question - Why didn't God intervene to save his son's life?

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Who are You Underneath it All?

Yogi Aaron has lived the life of a disruptor and a warrior. From starting a nude yoga movement that was underground sensation in New York and Los angles, to surviving an accident on the Himalayan mountains that left him with a femur broken in two, to today challenging our firmly held beliefs about stretching and drawing our attention to the hazards he believes it can cause to our bodies (his own story around how stretching impacted his body is harrowing) – Aaron is constantly asking us to pause and question our beliefs about what we think we know. And to strip away the convenient stories we tell ourselves so that we can get to get to the heart of who we truly are. Controversial? Absolutely. Funny? He’s known for his laugh. Underneath it all is his ask that we learn to confront ourselves. Because when we can do that, we have to start dealing with the person we find once the layers are stripped away.

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Love the Flaws and Uncertainties of Life.

There is theme that quickly emerges from my conversation with Seana Kofoed. If you want something in your life, you can’t sit around waiting for someone to recognize your worth. Go out and create it for yourself. And in the pursuit of creating that something that can sometimes be elusive, you can’t be afraid of failure. Because the failure is the byproduct of actually doing the work; sometimes you fall. Now you start to understand why a little girl who wasn’t always encouraged to be an actor has starred in two Broadway shows alongside Matthew Broderick (Night Must Fall) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Proof). Been nominated for the prestigious Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress in a play, starred in multiple television series - including her latest role as Commander Chase on NCIS Hawaii – and started her own production company Film Camp Productions, that has produced the two feature films 30 Miles From Nowhere and Clearmind.

And if a thriving career wasn’t enough, Seana says that raising her two kids is the most important role she has. Looking at the broadness of her life today, Seana says “I’ve reached a point where I’ve learned to love the flaws and the uncertainties of life. I’ve been surprised by not needing to cling so tightly to what I thought I wanted for myself and my trajectory.”

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Art is Beautiful Even When it Depicts Ugliness and Strife.

Kim Watson is an artist, photographer and an author. He views his work as having the potential to be a catalyst for change. In his newly released book and forthcoming documentary Trespass: Portraits of Unhoused Life, Love and Understanding, Kim gives us an intimate view of what life is like for the homeless people living on the streets of Los Angeles. The stories are sometimes brutal. People are not always rescued from their bleak circumstances.

With his stunning photography and precise storytelling, Kim helps us see the full humanity of people we often want to turn away from on the streets of our cities. He tells us the story of a young girl who lives in a car with her parents as they move from that car to motels rooms and back to the car again. He tells the story of a once famous jazz musician who has found himself on the streets, but the music still burns within his soul. He tells the story of a disabled, wheelchair-bound young woman who does crystal meth to stay up at night so she will not be attacked when she sleeps. And she is pregnant.

Somehow with his lens and his pen, he elevates these people in such a way that we can see our own humanity through their sufferings, their triumphs, their memories. Admittedly, with complication, Trespass is beautiful. And that is as Kim intended it to be. He says that one of the things about doing the book, is that he wanted it to be beautiful because he wanted us to see the beauty in the art. Because that leads us to see the beauty in the person.

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Nick Prefontaine survived the unthinkable. A snowboarding accident at the age of 14 where he landed on his head, with only a pair of thick goggles protecting his skull as a he was flung down the mountain. In a coma for almost a month, even the doctors said the prognosis was grim. When he finally awoke, he had to learn to walk, talk, and even swallow again. How he survived and rebuilt his life one small step at a time, is miraculous. What he did with his life after that, is a testament to the power of the human spirit, and what a person can do with the support of his family, and the inner spirit and strength to overcome all the obstacles life puts on his path.

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Never Let a Closed Door Keep You Out.

Kate Miller has had a prolific career as an actress – from starring on Broadway with Carol Burnett in Moon Over Buffalo, to working the soap opera scene in New York on One Life to Live, to working opposite Tom Selleck in CBS’s Blue Bloods, to her latest role as Amanda Shaw in Hightown, Kate has done it all. Not bad for a woman I met in her 20’s playing a rambunctious Tatiana in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with a theater company performing on the streets of New York City.

In an industry that is known for discarding women after a certain age, Kate did the impossible and reinvented herself and her career in her 40s – in Los Angeles! Despite the doors being closed to her. As she says no one in Hollywood was interested in her when she showed up to begin her television career in Hollywood Land. But she persisted and those doors eventually opened to her.

Today, Kate is sanguine about those times she was wandering in the wilderness of an industry that worships at the altar of youth. Kate used those hard times and the down times that she faced, as a catalyst for huge growth and personal changes that she says were necessary. She got married. She bought a house. Made a posthumous peace with a mother with whom she had a complex relationship. All the stuff that grown people hopefully do – settle into their life. Learn a few lessons. Live.

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Live the Life You Want to Have. Be the Person You Want to Be.

Robyn Vie-Carpenter-Brisco has a big name and has built a big life of many different existences. Author. Crystals and semi-precious stones expert. President of the Board of the History Museum in Baton Rouge. Self-proclaimed Goddess of Joy. Today, she is the founder of The Confidence Conference. A nonprofit organization that she is building to address the decline in young girls' confidence and belief in themselves (the numbers are worrisome). She says that this advocacy and passion is the one that will be with her for the rest of her life. More poetically she states that in her work today she is “making space for women and girls to understand that they are magnificent.”

Robyn has lived an expansive and unexpected life, and she has lived it on her terms, because as she views it the life you are experiencing is the life you've decided to experience. Hers has been a life defined by love, gratitude and joy. She reminds us that if you are getting the gift of another day, you have the opportunity to create something new. You have the opportunity to live the life you want and be the person that you want to be. You can decide to love yourself in a way that is meaningful.

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