Today’s guest is Maryann Reid, award-winning author and TV/radio social commentator. Maryann has been featured by countless media outlets including USA Today, Essence, Glamour, The CBS Early Show, and The Wendy Williams Experience. In addition, she is a popular guest lecturer at colleges—where she has taught writing and business skills to groups who want to lead their ideal life on their own terms. Maryann has been profiled in The New Yorker, Newsweek, Oprah.com, and NBC Nightly News for her innovative approach to life and solving its complex issues, including creating the uber-landmark event Marry Your Baby Daddy Day. This event originated from her third book, Marry Your Baby Daddy (St. Martin’s Press, 2005) that was optioned by Hollywood actress Holly Robinson-Peete and Dolores Robinson.
Maryann’s latest book is This Life: A Novel. Publisher’s Weekly says “Reid, the originator of the Marry-Your-Baby-Daddy movement, returns with a sexy, entertaining story… fans will enjoy the twisty plot, steamy scenes and trove of old secrets unearthed.”
Of today’s post, Maryann says she’s passionate about finding meaning in the chaos of life, not resisting the chaos, but learning and thriving in it. At times, learning to live with it.
Check out the trailer for This Life: A Novel. You can connect with Maryann on Twitter @realalphanista, on Facebook, and on her blog. Maryann welcomes ideas and collaboration. Her website is www.maryannreidinc.com.
Writer, Interrupted
Writers don’t need peace and quiet all the time. Chaos ignites problem-solving skills that stretch creativity. This was exactly what happened to me during one of the most traumatic times of my life before I moved 10,000 miles away from home to the United Arab Emirates.[pullquote]Writers don’t need peace and quiet all the time. Chaos ignites problem-solving skills that stretch creativity.[/pullquote]
I hadn’t published since 2007. My contract with St. Martin’s Press ended when the market crashed, and everything else seemed to end, too. Less than 2 years later, I filed for bankruptcy. It wasn’t because of too many lavish dinners, but I was literally living from check to check or royalty to royalty with short adjunct stints in between. When the contract ended, everything seemed to combust and explode all over my life. I had just signed a lease to a new apartment, and another publisher didn’t pick up a book I spent months writing. I was stuck.
I was literally hustling for the next few years between consulting gigs and failed book proposals.
