This is how wonderful the online world can be: it can make connections between people who would never otherwise meet, providing them with resources they need. (It can also highlight the holes in your publicity department, showing where you’re missing crucial sales.) By the way, when I use “F2F” above, Read more…
Last month when New York mom La’Shanda Armstrong deliberately drove her van into the Hudson River she and three of her four children died. Her oldest son, La’Shaun, survived after he escaped from the sinking vehicle and swam to shore. I connected with Armstrong because my book, Sister of Silence, Read more…
Having waited more than 20 years to hear Maya Angelou speak, I was not disappointed when she appeared at West Virginia University Friday night. I doubt the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, among many other books, knows how to disappoint. I was a little surprised she Read more…
Here’s a bit of news you won’t read on The Daily Beast. My recent trip to New York had some wonderful highs and some serious lows, among which was being robbed. That’s a first for me, and one I’d rather not have experienced. I sure hope the thieves who broke Read more…
I hate it when I have the scoop and have to hold it–only to lose it to someone else. That’s the world of breaking news, though, and the first person who nails the story gets to run with it! Not that it matters, but I had the story at 7 Read more…
Lashanda Armstrong was “a happy, loving, bubbly child who would come through the door and tell you jokes to get you to laugh. She loved to dance, she loved music. She loved Beyonce!” That’s how Armstrong’s aunt, Angela Gilliam, described her niece, saying that was the Lashanda everyone knew and Read more…
Rick Shartzer was right. All I needed to do was be patient and let my hard work and perseverance pay off. “It’s only been a month,” the Cleveland school teacher said. “I know, but patience has never been my strong suit,” I whined. (I know I was whining, because I Read more…
Let’s face it: NPR has made its share of colossal goofs—one of which continues to unravel in public this week, even as nuclear reactors melt down in Japan. If fan (or un-fan, or hate) mail is anything to go by, then the firing of radio journalist Bob Edwards was the Read more…
NOTE: This originally appeared as “Cassandra’s statement: July 15, 2008” and was first published several years ago. –Daleen I know some visitors to this site will be friends or even family members. Some of you will doubt the validity of my mother’s book; however, I can assure you, as one Read more…
The thing about working for the media is, you sometimes take all the “glitz” that goes with it for granted: tight security, rubbing shoulders with celebrities, or gaining access when other people can’t. But when you change places, you tend to notice these things. Or at least I did, when Read more…