Category: Featured

Love Is Messy

SA Smith

Love is love is love is love. That’s all it is. Green or red, black or white, male or female. All your life you have been searching for love. For that special person that looks into your eyes and gets you, completely. Who you are, where you came from, all Read more

SA Smith

SA Smith has always loved the magical life. She is the bestselling Amazon author of FOREVER, her four part young adult paranormal romance series. She is an advocate for women of all shapes and sizes. Believing that we are all enough just as we are, and needing to spread that word far and wide. Having been diagnosed with CRPS over 12 years ago, SA also uses her writing to increase social awareness of the disease. Writing is her passion. She often tells friends that writing is a journey for her. It’s like spending time with friends. "I just follow my characters along on their adventures, like a fly on the wall, and see where they take me." SA currently lives in Florida with her best friend/husband and their one son.

Virgin Ties

Jacqueline Cioffa

Excerpt from Jacqui Cioffa’s book  The Vast Landscape High School sucks ass. The boys are rotten, girls stupid cows. Harrison isn’t unpopular. She splits her time between drama geeks, nerds, cheerleaders, and popular seniors. Secretly, she hates them all. That stupid jock she had a mad crush on. Felt her Read more

Jacqueline Cioffa

A retired, international model, and celebrity makeup artist. Co-Author of Model Citi Zen, the guide. Founder of http://modelcitizenmakeup.blogspot.com/. Author of numerous prose pieces in various literary magazines. Most recently published in Little Episodes Brainstorms the anthology, among esteemed artists Sadie Frost, Melvin Burgess and Todd Swift.

A Tale of Two Daddies

Virginia and Donna

(… it was the best of times… it was the worst of times.) In the course of more than twenty-five years of friendship (and writing seven books together), we have discussed pretty much every subject under the sun at least a dozen times, and in a variety of moods from Read more

Virginia and Donna

VIRGINIA DEBERRY: Prior to becoming a successful plus-size model, Vice President of BB/LW modeling agency, spokesperson for Hanes Hosiery, editor-in-chief of Maxima magazine and bestselling novelist, Virginia taught high school English for 10 years. She is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo. Virginia currently resides in New Jersey where she is social media consultant and a founder of the New Brunswick Jazz Project, a non-profit jazz presenting organization. She also blogs about aging with style, wit and wisdom. DONNA GRANT: Donna spent more than a decade as a model, represented by the 12+ division of Ford. She has been featured on the pages of many magazines including Essence and McCall’s. Grant served as the Managing Editor of Maxima before her writing career. She attended Barnard College and is a graduate of New York University. A Brooklyn native, Donna is at work on a children’s book and is a founder of Footsteps to Follow, a group that presents career path information to youth in the five boroughs. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband. Best friends for nearly 30 years and writing together for 20, DeBerry & Grant are the “author” of seven novels: Uptown, Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made, Far From the Tree, Better Than I Know Myself, Gotta Keep on Tryin’, What Doesn’t Kill You, and Exposures.

Love Wins

Lauren Halsted

John sits in the New York City office of the Human Rights Campaign, slightly hungover from the previous night’s festivities, but still basking in the satisfaction of a major victory. It has been a long fight, and John has the battle scars to prove it. He spent countless days lobbying Read more

Lauren Halsted

Lauren Halsted Burroughs teaches English at Cuyamaca Community College in San Diego, CA. She began her career in writing as an editorial assistant at Surfing Girl Magazine almost two decades ago, and has worked as a journalist, grant writer, online content writer, and has dabbled in research and academic publishing. She is happiest when spending time with her two young children, family, and friends and/or playing in the ocean.

Love is Love: The Reality of LGBT Latino Community

Stephanie Ortez

Certain challenges come with being a Latin individual living in the U.S.A. It can be difficult to embrace a new culture, while keeping your roots and simultaneously staying true to your home traditions. When I first moved to the US some friends laughed at my accent, strangers judged me based Read more

Stephanie Ortez

Stephanie is a highly caffeinated mother of two wonderful boys. She is hopelessly addicted to non-fiction books and literature that moves her to tears. She is an admissions advisor for George Washington University online where she assists homeschooled students internationally. Stephanie lives with Bipolar Disorder, PTSD, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. She is a passionate mental health advocate, member of Stigma Fighters. Her writing has been featured on The Elephant Journal, The Mighty, The Organic Coffee Haphazardly and Feminine Collective.

Forever Daddy’s Girl

Julie Anderson

I have been fortunate lately. Really fortunate. A wake-up call came, and I was called back home. Back to my parent’s nest of protection. Whenever I travel back home, I travel back in time. It is impossible not too. Home is where my heart is, it is also where our Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

Romantics

Richard DeFino

I know how you resent smoking, but what if I was to tell to you that my love for you was eternal, and as I said this, I took a long drag from my favorite menthol flavored cigarette, would you still resent smoking? Or what if I, on double bended Read more

Richard DeFino

Ricky De Fino grew up in New York City and currently resides in Buffalo NY. When he isn’t writing about his anxiety and his crazy Bronx upbringing, he enjoys watching countless hours of television with his wife Andrea, cat Bebe and dog Zeke. Two years sober, good coffee and veganism keeps him sane. His work can be found in Two Cities Review, tNY Press, Purple Pig Lit, Dialougal and Cycatrix Press.

The LA Story of a Kept Woman

Dori Owen

Noun. 1. A woman who is given a home and money by a man who she has a sexual relationship with. 2. Lover. A significant other to whom you are not related by marriage. 3. Paramour. A woman who cohabits with an important man. Syn: Mistress. Courtesan. Writing this, I Read more

Dori Owen

Dori Owen is a storyteller, writing from small town Arizona, after living a few decades in California as an LA Wild Child, with a brief stop in Reno. She settled into grownup life as a project manager, collecting an MBA and a few husbands along the way. She is a shown artist and her favorite pastime is upcycling old furniture and decor she finds from thrift stores. She lives with the cat who came to visit but stayed. The love of her life is her grown son who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her essays and poems have been published in RAW&UNFILTERED VOL I, StigmaFighters Vol 2, and Love Notes From Humanity. Her blogs have been featured on The Lithium Chronicles, Open Thought Vortex, Sudden Denouement, and The Mighty.