Thursday, May 26, 2022

Grammy nominated artist and multi-talented producer, Meredith Brooks, speaks with Janeane about the 25th Anniversary of her Grammy-nominated song “Bitch” from her multi-platinum album, Blurring the Edges, and being honored at the 2022 SHE ROCKS Awards June 2nd, 2022


Meredith Brooks

For 25 years, Meredith Brooks’ Grammy-nominated song “Bitch” from her multi-platinum album, Blurring the Edges, has served as an empowering anthem for women around the world. She was among the first to reclaim the once derogatory term, and in doing so, pushed back against the stereotype of what a female Rock and Roll artist should look like, sound like or act like.

That same year, Brooks played an integral part in another first – a movement looking to place women at the center of the music industry (and out of the margins) as a featured artist in the all-women music festival, Lilith Fair, while also going on tour with Rock legends, The Rolling Stones. Recognized for her guitar playing prowess and blond Custom Shop Fender ’57 Telecaster Relic, Brooks is among a select few women to grace the cover of “Guitar Player” magazine.

An early adopter of ProTools and multi-effect units, she leveraged technology alongside classic guitars and amps, doing all the guitar work on her album. In the years since topping the Billboard Top 40 chart, Brooks has set about her work in the industry with intention: Working with artists like Hillary Duff, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Katy Perry; serving as a first call record producer through her production company, Kissing Booth Music; and as a mentor, helping to bring creativity out in others. “We have to honor all sides of ourselves. I want to help others build a foundation of confidence and feel good about their art.” 

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Laura B. Whitmore, a veteran marketer of the musical instrument and audio industries, and founder of the Women’s International Music Network and the SHE ROCKS Awards coming up June 2nd, 2022




Laura B. Whitmore, Founder

The Women’s International Music Network™ (The WiMN) brings women from all facets of the music industry. The organization produces events, creates opportunities for performance and networking and works to bring the conversation around diversity in the industry into the forefront. The WiMN seeks to create a hub to connect women in all facets of the music industry and works to expose role models, events and educational opportunities that focus on women in music.

Founded in 2012 by Laura B. Whitmore, a veteran marketer of the musical instrument and audio industries, the Women’s International Music Network site (TheWiMN.com) hosts interveiws, news, events, and a community forum for women from all walks of the industry. In 2020 they will launch the new She Rocks Podcast, featuring interviews with women in music. 

Laura B. Whitmore is a graduate of Hofstra University with a B.S. in Music Merchandising and an M.B.A. in Marketing. As the marketing manager for Korg USA for 20 years, she was instrumental in marketing, PR and artist relations for the Korg, Marshall, and VOX brands. She was also editor of Korg’s ProView Magazine. Prior to that, she worked in the Direct Marketing department of CBS Records.

In 2008 Whitmore left Korg USA and founded Mad Sun Marketing, a boutique agency that specializes in marketing, PR, artist relations, event production, graphic design, and more for music and audio companies. Past and current clients of Mad Sun include Positive Grid, ArtistWorks, 108 Rock Star Guitars, Academic Superstore, Acoustic Amplification, Agile Partners, Breedlove Guitars, Colby Amplifiers, Dean Markley USA, Korg, KVRaudio, MusicFirst, Muse Research, NewBay Media, Notion Music, Peavey, SIR Entertainment Services, SIR Stage37, SoundTree, Sterling Audio, Take Me To The River, and more.

Today she is the Vice President of Marketing for Positive Grid, an innovative, forward-thinking music industry hardware and software company.

Whitmore was the editor of Guitar World’s AcousticNation.com and the creator of the GuitarWorld.com featured blog series, Guitar Girl’d. She writes regularly for industry media outlets including Parade.com, Guitar World, Acoustic Guitar, MI Professional, In Tune and more. Whitmore has hosted and moderated many workshops and panels at events such as NAMM, Digital Hollywood, and SXSW on the topics of women in music, marketing, PR, apps and music making, songwriting, and more.

In 2015 she and Brad Tolinski (former editor of Guitar World) launched a live event series called BackStory (backstoryevents.com) that is streamed live with major media partners like Guitar World, Parade.com and AOL.com. Guests have included Ringo Starr, Andy Grammer, Paula Cole, Orianthi, Colbie Caillat, Amy Lee, Ace Frehley, Roger Waters, Zakk Wylde, Tom Jones and many more.

Whitmore is a also a singer/songwriter and acoustic guitarist. She and her co-writer Jenna Paone will be releasing an album in 2020. She currently lives in Massachusetts and has two amazing children, Emma and Cole, and two sweet little dogs, Zillie and Luna.

Monday, May 23, 2022

Coming up June 2nd, 2022 - Meredith Brooks, MILCK and more to Join Honorees Dionne Warwick, Carmen Vandenberg and Yvette Young to be Honored at the 10th Annual She Rocks Awards The 2022 Awards co-hosted by Lzzy Hale (Halestorm) and Katie Daryl (AXS TV host) Virtual Red Carpet Event hosted by Lyndsey Parker (Yahoo Entertainment/SiriusXM)





Los Angeles, CA, April 21, 2022 – The Women’s International Music Network (the WiMN) is proud to announce honorees Meredith Brooks, MILCK, EveAnna Manley, Sherri Chung, Leslie Gaston-Bird, Lyndsey Parker, Julie Robbins and Kerry Fiero, for its 10th annual She Rocks Awards celebrating and honoring female artists, industry executives and media personalities throughout the music landscape.

They are joining these recently announced distinguished honorees for the 2022 She Rocks Awards: Iconic singer, actress, television host and former UN Goodwill Ambassador Dionne Warwick, GRAMMY®-nominated guitarist and BONES UK co-founder Carmen Vandenberg, and multi-instrumentalist Yvette Young, the front-woman for the math rock band Covet.

The 10th Annual She Rocks Awards ceremony will take place at 6:30 pm PT on Thursday, June 2, 2022, at a new location – The Ranch in Anaheim, California, and will be streamed live. The event will be a hybrid of in-person and virtual components, to adjust to the current times and worldwide fanbase that was created during last year’s all-virtual event.

This high-energy evening will include live music performances, awards and speeches, celebrity appearances, a fabulous online silent auction, and much more. A VIP gift box is also available — the ultimate She Rocks experience for those viewing the livestream from home. All packages and tickets are available for pre-order now.

The 2022 She Rocks Awards recipients include:

Dionne Warwick – Six-time GRAMMY® and Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, multi-platinum iconic singer, actress, television host, former UN Goodwill Ambassador and interior designer with her own WG Design Lab

Meredith Brooks – singer-songwriter and guitarist celebrating the 25th anniversary of her single ”Bitch”

Carmen Vandenberg – lead guitarist and one half of the GRAMMY®-nominated rock duo BONES UK

MILCK – singer/songwriter, leading advocate for women’s rights and celebrated role model within the music industry

Yvette Young – guitarist and front-woman for the math rock band Covet

EveAnna Manley – president, Manley Laboratories aka “The Tube Chick”

Sherri Chung – Award-winning film and TV composer and ​​Governor of the Music Branch of the Television Academy

Leslie Gaston-Bird – mixer, sound editor, author and a champion of diversity in the audio industry

Lyndsey Parker – Yahoo Entertainment Music Editor, SiriusXM host and author

Kerry Fiero – Founder of the Girl Power! Women Working in the Music Industry Conference

Julie Robbins – CEO of effects pedal manufacturer Earthquaker Devices

Hosted by PRS Guitars, this year’s opening performer will be Canada’s own Platinum Award-winning singer/songwriter/guitarist Tenille Arts, who was recently nominated for an Academy of Country Music Award for New Female Artist of the Year as well as a Juno Award for Country Album of the Year for her album, Girl to Girl.

Meredith Brooks, who will also perform at the event, is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of her ground-breaking smash hit “Bitch,” originally released in March 1997 from her multi-platinum album Blurring the Edges. The song rose up the charts each week before eventually reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, in addition to Brooks receiving nominations for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song at the 40th Annual GRAMMY® Awards that year.

Brooks shares, “I am excited to be a part of the She Rocks Awards especially on their 10th anniversary, and am honored to be receiving the Trailblazer Award. I look forward to performing and sharing the night with the other talented female nominees. I know it will be a great celebration!”

The landmark 10-Year Anniversary event is co-hosted by former She Rocks Awards honoree Lzzy Hale, world-renowned frontwoman of the GRAMMY®-winning rock band Halestorm and host of the AXS TV original series A Year In Music, joining fellow AXS TV host Katie Daryl, the acclaimed executive producer of highly-rated AXS Network and digital series The Top Ten Revealed and At Home and Social. In fact, Daryl sits down with Meredith Brooks today, April 21, to discuss her career and the upcoming She Rocks Awards, and recently chatted with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee Dionne Warwick about her career and the Awards as well. Additionally, Yahoo Entertainment/SiriusXM’s Lyndsey Parker will be hosting the virtual red carpet.

The She Rocks Awards pays tribute to women who display leadership and stand out within the music industry, and has become a standard at the NAMM Show. Previous award recipients include: Melissa Etheridge, Pat Benatar, Gloria Gaynor, The B-52s, Suzi Quatro, Colbie Caillat, Sheila E, Chaka Khan, Ronnie Spector, Orianthi, Lisa Loeb, The Bangles, the Go-Go’s, Cherie Currie of the Runaways, Cindy Blackman Santana, Margaret Cho, Amy Lee, Linda Perry and many more, plus a collection of role models from all walks of the music and audio industries.

The 2022 She Rocks Awards is sponsored by Positive Grid, Sweetwater, PRS Guitars, Reverb.com, Shure, Roland, Martin Guitar, Audacy, Berklee College of Music, Blackstar, D’Addario, D’Angelico, dw Drums, Fishman, Gator Cases, Gibson, iZotope, 108 Rock Star Guitars, KMC, Korg, Levy’s, MAC Cosmetics, Manley Labs, NAMM, Pigtronix, Soundgirls, Supro, Taylor, Tech 21,The Music People, WRiiG, Zildjian, AXS TV, Parade, Future Publishing, Guitar World, Musicradar and Guitar Girl Magazine. For information regarding She Rocks Awards sponsorship opportunities, please contact info@thewimn.com.

Learn more about the She Rocks Awards, purchase tickets, and find out how to watch the livestream the evening of the awards at sherocksawards.com.



Dionne Warwick, Carmen Vandenberg and Yvette Young 
Among Those to be Honored at the 10th Annual She Rocks Awards
The 2022 Awards co-hosted by Lzzy Hale (Halestorm) 
and Katie Daryl (AXS TV host)
Virtual Red Carpet Event hosted by Lyndsey Parker 
(Yahoo Entertainment/SiriusXM)


ABOUT

Founded in 2012 by the Women’s International Music Network, the She Rocks Awards honors trailblazing women from all areas of the industry– from educators, to label execs, manufacturers, non-profits, media, performers, engineers, and more. Past honorees include Melissa Etheridge, Gloria Gaynor, Tal Wilkenfeld, Nita Strauss, Pat Benatar, The Bangles, Suzi Quatro, The B-52s, Colbie Caillat, Sheila E., Linda Perry, Chaka Khan, Ronnie Spector, Lita Ford, Esperanza Spalding, Shirley Manson and many others. A complete list of previous honorees is here.

Each year, the She Rocks Awards attracts music icons, artists, industry professionals, fans and media for a one-of-a-kind event that shines the spotlight on women who stand out in the industry, and offers a high energy evening of performances, networking opportunities, giveaways, a silent auction and more.


Coming up Monday 5/23 at 9:00am - Justine Bautista Ph.D. Student | Social Ecology UC Irvine and member of the Mental Health Youth Action Forum in DC


Justine Bautista

Ph.D. Student | Social Ecology
University of California, Irvine
B.A. | Psychology

Chapman University
B.A. | Integrated Educational Studies, 
Community Emphasis, Health Concentration
Chapman University
Pronouns: she/her


Justine was born and raised in Orange County, CA with roots in the Philippines. She is currently attending the University of California, Irvine for her PhD and Master’s. She graduated from Chapman University with a Bachelors degree in Psychology and in Integrated Educational Studies, and currently serves as a Research Fellow for the Connecting the EdTech Research Ecosystem Center (CERES). Justine has leveraged her skills in research to be able to understand how digital tools impact mental health outcomes in young people and how we can use media as a tool for creating lasting change.

READ MORE about the Mental Health Youth Action Forum in DC.

Thursday, May 19, 2022

Today is Mental Health Action Day! Here's what you can do to take #MentalHealthAction!



A message from Mental Health America!



Today is Mental Health Action Day. Mental Health America is proud to be a participating partner alongside 1,400+ other organizations, brands, government agencies, and cultural leaders from more than 32 countries. Together we encourage and empower people to take #MentalHealthAction.

What are you doing to take action today?

Take #MentalHealthAction in whatever way feels right to you, whether it's connecting with yourself, family, or friends.

Here are some ideas to get you started: 
Share your own mental health story
Wear lime green, the official color of Mental Health Month, and post online with #MentalHealthAction
Take a mental health screening
Practice meditation, yoga, or other self-care activities
Find a new support group or therapist
Start a Facebook, Twitch, or Instagram fundraiser (find tips here and here)
Shop MHA’s Store and take a picture with your merch to share online

Or, take the day as an opportunity to educate yourself further.

Whatever you choose to do, show us what you’re up to by tagging us and using the hashtag #MentalHealthAction.

Thank You,
Mental Health America

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Coming up! Amber O’Neal Johnston joins Janeane to talk about her timely new book - A PLACE TO BELONG: Celebrating Diversity and Kinship in the Home and Beyond

AMBER O’NEAL JOHNSTON





Author Amber O’Neal Johnston shares a guide for families of all backgrounds to celebrate cultural heritage and embrace inclusivity in the home and beyond.

Amidst heated debate around social justice and the shape that post-pandemic life will take, and while experts discuss educational freedom and school curriculum reform, little to no resources exist that meet our children and those who nurture them where it matters most: in the home. The home is where lifelong attitudes are rooted and affirmed. Where children learn the values that will inform how they move through the world. A PLACE TO BELONG: Celebrating Diversity and Kinship in the Home and Beyond by Amber O’Neal offers a path forward for parents of all backgrounds and educational choices who crave a culturally rich, life-giving home that fosters values of organic diversity and togetherness.

What does “a place to belong” mean? It means intentionally creating a space where children can clearly see themselves and others, a home where self-awareness, celebration of difference, and kinship are the norm. While messages on diversity, equity, and inclusion can get mired down in polarizing ideologies, A PLACE TO BELONG begins with the fundamental premise that parents love their children, value their communities, and want the best for both. Amber then guides parents to discover the magic of an inclusive learning environment where culture and childhood are honored in a cohesive and celebratory way.

Amber O’Neal details many ways for families to honor their cultural heritage and champion diversity in the context of daily family life, including:

· Fostering open dialogue around discrimination, race, gender, disability, and class

· Teaching “hard history” in an age-appropriate way

· Curating a diverse selection of books and media choices in which children see themselves and people who are different

· Celebrating cultural heritage through art, music, and poetry

· Modeling activism and engaging in community service projects as a family.


Every child longs for a place where cultural awareness, self-acceptance, and celebration are the norm. A PLACE TO BELONG gives parents the tools to empower children to embrace their unique identities while feeling beautifully tethered to their global community.

Amber O’Neal Johnston is an established authority on including diverse voices in traditional curricula and infusing culture and love for others into an intentional home environment. She shares her observations on education, living books, and world-schooling at HeritageMom.com. She is a regular contributor to the wildly successful Wild + Free homeschooling community, a frequent podcast guest on popular shows, and a coveted speaker at boutique conferences. 

Follow: HeritageMom.com |IG: @heritagemomblog

Monday, May 16, 2022

Monday May 16th at 9:00am - THE CANDY HOUSE by American Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan - NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2022 BY VULTURE, BUZZFEED, TIME, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, VOGUE, AND MANY OTHERS



“A thrilling, endlessly stimulating work that demands to be read and reread.”

—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review



Jennifer Egan’s bravura and brilliant new novel, THE CANDY HOUSE, a sibling novel to her Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, has just been published to rave reviews and massive attention, including profiles in Vogue, Time, and the Los Angeles Times and rave review in The New York Times and The New York Times Book Review.

THE CANDY HOUSE is a very smart novel asks big questions about the totalizing and flattening effects of digital culture, privacy, and surveillance – while also being a huge pleasure to read. It is one of this spring’s most hotly anticipated novels.Vogue’s recent profile of Jennifer Egan can be found here: https://www.vogue.com/article/jennifer-egan-profile



Scribner is thrilled to announce the publication, on April 5, 2022, of Jennifer Egan’s new novel, THE CANDY HOUSE. A sibling novel to her Pulitzer-Prize and National Book Critics Circle-winning A Visit from The Goon Squad, THE CANDY HOUSE is a triumph of imagination and empathy and every bit as bravura, brilliant, and exhilarating as its predecessor.

Spanning decades, with an intricate plot and interconnected characters, THE CANDY HOUSE is that rare thing: a book that is both pure pleasure on the sentence level and wildly ambitious in scope. In these pages we meet a tech billionaire who ushers in a new age of enhanced digital sharing, the anthropologist who unwittingly enabled this new era, “eluders” who seek to retain privacy and discretion in the face of the onslaught, and the “proxies” who impersonate them, plus record producers, aging rock stars and movie stars, spies, publicists, writers, academics, mothers, fathers, and children. Set in San Francisco, New York City, suburban country clubs, a beatnik forest enclave, the desert, and the mysterious nation of X, with entwined characters and plot points that overlap with A Visit from the Goon Squad, this is a dazzling achievement.

In THE CANDY HOUSE, Egan does in a few pages what it takes other writers a whole novel to accomplish, and she does it again and again. She can infuse everything from a suburban little league game to a cubicle in a tech office with mystery, meaning and purpose. And while this novel asks big questions about the totalizing and flattening effects of digital culture, privacy, and surveillance, its strengths are also in the narrative, in the intimacy of the relationships between the characters, in its humor and joy, and in its many forms of love. This remarkable novel is, in the end, a huge pleasure to read.

Praise for THE CANDY HOUSE:

“Does what only the best and rarest books can: peel back the thin membrane of ordinary life and find transcendence on the other side.”

—Entertainment Weekly


“Inventive, effervescent…Egan’s prose is as lithe and knowing as ever…in these intricately woven pages.”

—Oprah Daily


“A marvel of a novel that testifies to the surpassing power of fiction.”

—The Boston Globe*


“Radiant…exhilarating…Egan opens windows on entrancing new worlds, in which what happened depends on who’s telling the story.”

— Slate


“This is minimalist maximalism. It’s as if Egan compressed a big 19th-century triple-decker novel onto a flash drive.”

—The New York Times


“The pleasure is in watching the details. Every little nuance works.”

—Vox


“Egan is a one-woman R&D department of language."

—New York Times Book Review


“Fiction at its best gets at our…secret selves in ways the internet can’t…Egan’s audacity is welcome.”

—USA Today



THE CANDY HOUSE has been named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by


TIME: “A complex, compelling read that showcases Egan’s masterful storytelling.”


EW “Another multi-narrator masterpiece about searching for meaning in a crazy world.”


VOGUE: “A dazzling feat of literary construction that belies the profound questions at its core: Does technology aid our sense of narrative or obscure it?”


GOOD HOUSEKEEPING “You don't have to read A Visit From the Goon Squad to love this sibling novel to Egan's stellar hit…complex and intimate.”


OPRAH DAILY “Inventive, effervescent…Egan plaits multiple narratives and techniques to underscore the manifold ways our own desires betray us in a brave new coded world.”


GLAMOUR: “Very funny, penetrating, and impactful.”


USA TODAY “Tech guru Bix Bouton creates ‘Own Your Unconscious,’ a technology that allows users to access and share every memory they’ve ever had. It’s a concept so killer, it’s hard to believe such technology doesn’t already exist.”


LITHUB “It is very good.”



Plus PARADE, BUSTLE, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, SEATTLE TIMES, THE BOSTON GLOBE, TODAY, KIRKUS, BOOKPAGE, THRILLIST, and the TAMPA BAY TIMES



About the author:

Jennifer Egan is the author of six previous books of fiction: Manhattan Beach, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; A Visit from the Goon Squad, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Keep; the story collection Emerald City; Look at Me, a National Book Award Finalist; and The Invisible Circus. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Granta, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. Her website is JenniferEgan.com.

Monday, May 9, 2022

Coming up Monday 5/9 at 9:00am - Yuran, a third-year PSCI major at University of California Irvine, and Vice-Chair of WISE PAC



Hello! My name is Yuran, and I am a third-year PSCI major. I am the Vice-Chair of WISE PAC. I am interested in mental health because I want to become a high school counselor in the future, hoping to help students/youth in need

Sunday, May 8, 2022

Coming up Monday May 9th at 9:30am pst - DICI - the multi-talented Italian born, Milan and Miami artist creating infectious tracks and dynamic, professionally directed and produced videos



In less than two whirlwind years – from summer 2020 to spring 2022 - DICI has evolved from a quarantined 17-year-old freestyling rhymes and mastering the Pro Tools rig in his bedroom to emerging rap star with thousands of worldwide followers, a popular critically acclaimed indie EP on his own label (DICI Records) and an ever-growing discography of more than 17 singles. Since dropping his self-titled debut in January 2021, the multi-talented Italian born, Milan and Miami raised artist’s infectious tracks and dynamic, professionally directed and produced videos have garnered massive press hits, over 5M combined Spotify streams and YouTube views and over 100K Tik Tok followers.

“305-INTERLUDE” from that debut collection alone has scored over 378K streams on Spotify – where it blew up after being included on the taste making “Chill Rap Vibes 2021” playlist - and over 555K views on YouTube. The hard-hitting videos (13) for most of DICI’s tracks – including “305-INTERLUDE,” “u n i,” “Will You Stay,” “4Door”, “Flip” and his most recent single “Do What I Can” – have been directed by Associated Press and Emmy winning director and cinematographer Brian Bayerl of Greendoor East Productions and promoted by UE3 Promotions. The video DICI and Bayerl shot for “Shibuya” – a homage to the rapper’s half Japanese heritage on his Mom’s side – was shot at the state of the art Robot Studios, with DICI surrounded by fast moving images of Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo created on an LED wall called the Volume – a technology used in the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.”

While working diligently on his developing creative aesthetic, ever maturing and insightful narrative flow and composing and production skills, DICI often posted short video snippets on YouTube to keep his eager fan base in the loop about what he was working on. He called these posts “DICI Doses,” which is also a play on the Spanish word for two.

While a year of COVID-19 and its resulting quarantine kept many established artists off the road and in ongoing career shuffle mode, the down time from school gave DICI – free from his extracurricular lacrosse and weightlifting schedule – a chance to focus on his true passion. Along the way, as he learned how to create beats and sonic textures and record his raps over those, he became an ultra-prolific writer. Testament to his prolific songwriting, once in a single week when he was caught up with his schoolwork, he went on a tear and wrote and produced four songs that became his 2021 signature singles “Flip,” “Art of War,” “Five Rings” and “I’ve Been Dreaming.” DICI’s other tracks this past year include “Something’s Right” and “Something’s Right (Dance Mix),” “E to S,” “u n i,” “Will You Stay,”” Do What I Can” and the upcoming “Left To Right.”


New Video “Left to Right” is set for release in mid-May (date TBA in conjunction with a media exclusive)


Articles and Reviews (over 100)

Monday, May 2, 2022

Coming up Monday 5/2/22 at 9:00am - Vanessa Hua, award-winning, best-selling author and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022 BY Vulture, Electric Lit, Ms. Magazine, The Millions, Book Riot, Vanessa shares her forthcoming book, Forbidden City


 LISTEN 

Vanessa Hua, award-winning, best-selling author and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. For over two decades, she has been researching and writing about Asia and the diaspora. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Magazine, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Newsweek, among others. Her books, which integrate many of the themes she covers, are critically-acclaimed. A River of Stars was named to the Washington Post and NPR’s Best Books, and was called a "marvel" by O, The Oprah Magazine, and "delightful" by The Economist. Deceit and Other Possibilities, named a New York Times Editors' Choice, received an Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature and was a finalist for a California Book Award, and a New American Voices Award.

Vanessa Hua's forthcoming book, Forbidden City, has already been hailed “magnificent” by Publisher’s Weekly, and is getting rave reviews. I've pasted materials below Hua's new book, as well as some of the articles she's written, establishing her as a voice for the Asian American community.

A Ballantine Hardcover & eBook | On Sale April 19, 2022


“Hua’s provocative latest follows a bold and shrewd woman as she navigates China’s political scene amid the Cultural Revolution. . . . Hua masterly presents Mei’s attempts to leave the Lake Palaces with their ‘power, secrecy, and isolation’ behind as she processes her trauma. This finds a brilliant new perspective on familiar material via its story of a young woman’s brush with power. It’s magnificent.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)


“Vanessa Hua has written a grand, cinematic, and captivating novel. With robust and compassionate imagination, Hua brings to life a heroine who has been relegated to the dustbins of history.”

—Cathy Park Hong, author of Minor Feelings

“In this intriguing and suspenseful story, Hua tells of a girl who becomes a lover and worshipper of Chairman Mao, plotting revolution after revolution. How to negotiate the maze of the Forbidden City? How to escape?”—Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Woman Warrior

“Forbidden City is a wonderful novel, immersive and fascinating. Vanessa Hua writes with an audacious mix of intimacy and narrative sweep about one of the most enigmatic figures and most misunderstood moments in history.”—Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins

“Vanessa Hua’s captivating second novel is an act of resistance and reclamation. Forbidden City explores questions of power, ambition, and visibility through a lens that is both clear-eyed and compassionate.”

—Chloe Benjamin, author of The Immortalists

“Arresting, beautiful, and epic, Forbidden City left me breathless by the last page. Hua’s writing is propulsive and packed with rich historical details and exquisitely crafted characters. Mei’s story will stay with you long after reading.”—Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept

“Gripping and vital, Forbidden City charts the sensual, intellectual, and moral awakening of a young woman who forges her own identity from beneath the shadow of Mao Zedong.”

—C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold



ABOUT THE BOOK
On the eve of China’s Cultural Revolution and her sixteenth birthday, Mei dreams of becoming a model revolutionary. When the Communist Party recruits girls for a mysterious duty in the capital, she seizes the opportunity to escape her impoverished village. It is only when Mei arrives at the Chairman’s opulent residence—a forbidden city unto itself—that she learns that the girls’ job is to dance with the Party elites. Ambitious and whip-smart, Mei beelines toward the Chairman.

Mei gradually separates herself from the other recruits to become the Chairman’s confidante—and paramour. While he fends off political rivals, Mei faces down schemers from the dance troupe who will stop at nothing to take her place and the Chairman’s imperious wife, who has secret plans of her own.

When the Chairman finally gives Mei a political mission, she seizes it with fervor, but the brutality of this latest stage of the revolution makes her begin to doubt all the certainties she has held so dear.

FORBIDDEN CITY (Ballantine; On sale 4/19) is an epic yet intimate portrayal of one of the world’s most powerful and least understood leaders during this extraordinarily turbulent period in modern Chinese history. Mei’s harrowing journey toward truth and disillusionment raises questions about power, manipulation, and belief, as seen through the eyes of a passionate teenage girl.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vanessa Hua is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of the novel A River of Stars and a story collection, Deceit and Other Possibilities. A National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, she has also received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing, as well as awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, among others. She has filed stories from China, Burma, South Korea, and elsewhere, and her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. She has taught most recently at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Coming up Monday 5/2/22 at 9:30am pst -- Lauren McBrayer, Head of Business Affairs for an entertainment company in Los Angeles, talks about her new release - LIKE A HOUSE ON FIRE





  LISTEN  

This electric and seductive debut novel is about a woman at a turning point in her life, and what happens when she discovers the spark that makes her feel whole again. After twelve years of marriage and two kids, Merit has begun to feel like a stranger in her own life. She loves her husband and sons, but she desperately needs something more than sippy cups and monthly sex. So, she returns to her career at Jager + Brandt, where a brilliant and beautiful Danish architect named Jane decides to overlook the “break” in Merit’s résumé and give her a shot. Their relationship quickly becomes a cornerstone in Merit’s life. And as Merit starts to open her mind to the idea of more—more of a partner, more of a match, more out of love—she begins to question: What if the love of her life isn’t the man she married. What if it’s Jane?


Lauren McBrayer, LIKE A HOUSE ON FIRE


Coming up May 2nd at 9:45am -- Emmy-nominated screenwriter Sascha Rothchild, who has written and produced lauded shows such as GLOW, The Bold Type, The Baby-Sitters Club, and The Carrie Diaries, talks about her fictional debut, BLOOD SUGAR




Emmy-nominated screenwriter Sascha Rothchild has written and produced for lauded television series like GLOW, The Bold Type, The Baby-Sitters Club, and The Carrie Diaries. Now she brings this signature sparkling wit and irreverent charm to her fiction debut, BLOOD SUGAR, a dark and utterly delicious noir thriller about Ruby Simon, an absurdly charming murderess accused of killing her husband—which is, ironically, the only murder she did not commit. Readers will be enraptured by this smart stunner of a novel and its loveable antiheroine, cementing Rothchild’s status as one of the most dynamic, inventive storytellers writing today.

Rothchild is currently show-running Netflix’s series spin-off of the To All the Boys film franchise, XO, Kitty, and she is set to make her first foray into film with her screenplay, Who Invited Her, already optioned by DreamWorks with Reese Witherspoon attached to executive produce. 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Ruby Simon has some skeletons in her closet—three, to be exact. But though she may be a murderer, Ruby is not a sociopath, She is an animal-loving therapist with a thriving practice. She has felt both empathy and sympathy. And she has long-lasting friendships, as well as a husband, Jason, whom she adores. But when Jason dies suddenly, the homicide detectives at Miami Beach Police Department begin to question why so many people have died within arm’s reach of Ruby. . . and to doubt her happy marriage.

Ruby suddenly finds herself accused of her husband’s murder—a murder she did not commit, despite the suspicions of her vicious mother-in-law and a scandal-obsessed public. As she undergoes questioning, Ruby’s mind races back to all the details of her life that led her to this exact moment, and to the three dead bodies in her wake. Because although she may not have killed her husband, Ruby certainly isn’t innocent.

Alternating between Ruby’s memories of her past crimes and her present-day fight to clear her name, BLOOD SUGAR is a twisty, clever debut with an unforgettable protagonist who you can’t help but root for—an addicting mixture of sour and sweet



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sascha Rothchild is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter, who has written and produced lauded shows such as GLOW, The Bold Type, The Baby-Sitters Club, and The Carrie Diaries. In 2015, she was named one of Variety's “10 TV Writers to Watch.” Rothchild has written for LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, Elle, and the Miami Herald, and adapted her article, "How to Get Divorced by 30" into both a memoir and a screenplay for Universal Studios. She graduated from the honors program of Boston College summa cum laude, with a major in theater and screenwriting. Blood Sugar is her debut novel.

Coming up 10/2 on KUCI - PBS SoCal new documentary, The Cheech - Janeane speaks with Director Varda Bar-Kar

The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture  of the Riverside Art Museum showcases the actor's collection of more than 700 pie...