Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity

Dara Kalima is not just a rising voice in the New York City writing community; she is also a member of the New York Urban League of Urban Professionals, the Vice President of Poetix University, the co-founder of The Art of Breathing & Writing, and the founder of the Black Authors Collaborative. She has multiple tools at her disposal that she wants to use to help you succeed, so let her get you...

Thank you to iiPublishing and the Black Authors Collaborative for bringing me back for another Publish Me seminar. You can see the whole seminar on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyB8Yg96foM Publish Me II: Beyond the Writing is an online panel discussion that continues the discussion about how to navigate the writing industry for current and future writers, authors, and editors alik...

Film score lovers, you are not alone. After speaking with Rocky IV & Transformers: The Movie composer Vince DiCola, host & producer George Sirois sits down with the manager who made the episode possible: Peter Hackman, Executive Vice President of Media Music for Bohemia Group. They discuss how they both grew up loving film scores, how Peter organized events for composers that took place wh...

This week, host & producer George Sirois sits down with film & video game music composer, performer, and arranger Vince DiCola. They discuss how Vince got into the music business, how his collaboration with Frank Stallone led to co-writing the hit song "Far From Over" for Staying Alive, how he went on to compose the score for the 1985 smash hit Rocky IV, how his work on the sequel...

This week, host & producer George Sirois sat down with Tracy Staten, performance coach and founder of Magical Mindset, a program dedicated to tapping into your passions and bringing them out in ways you never thought possible. We discussed how she realized her calling in life, the steps she's taken to making it a reality, what she offers to potential clients, and more! Stay to the end to h...

For the Season 3 premiere of Excelsior Journeys, host & producer George Sirois sits down with Kimberly Spencer, a high performance coach who founded her own company Crown Yourself and has helped more than 800,000 people over the past several years. They talk about how Kim was inspired to move into this field, her early clients, the success she has built for both herself and those around her, a...

For the Season 2 finale of Excelsior Journeys, host & producer George Sirois reached out to listeners and readers for questions to answer about his history as a writer, his experiences as an up-and-coming audiobook narrator, the future of the podcast for 2021 and beyond, and more!  For the applications for both guests and sponsors, please visit www.hesgotit.com/excelsiorjourneys .  For George&...

Host and producer George Sirois sits down for a truly spirit-filled conversation with Greta Brokaw, author and founder of Heart Medicine Devotions, which encourages women everywhere to study God's word for themselves. They discuss how Greta grew up as a pastor's daughter, how she made her way back to the church after a long period of self-discovery, how she blossomed as a true leader when...

Host & producer George Sirois sits down with seven-time award-winning author Jennifer Irwin, whose debut novel A Dress the Color of the Sky has become a sensation on social media among readers around the world. They discuss Jennifer's inspiration for her main character, the unexpected twists and turns that accompanied the book's development, the upcoming sequel and unrelated third nove...

On October 17, 2020, the Tennessee Screenwriters Association invited producer / writer / director / friend of the Excelsior Journeys podcast Gilbert Adler to speak and answer questions at their virtual convention called ScriptCom. Gilbert's choice of moderator for this event was host & producer George Sirois, so you get to hear the full Q&A where stories from Gilbert's previous tim...

This week, host & producer George Sirois sits down with multiple National Novel Writing Month winner and USA Today Bestselling Author Jason J. Nugent, and they discuss how Jason got into writing, the feeling of pride you get when you complete NaNoWriMo, the selection of his pen name while writing in the horror genre, his first public signing at Wizard World St. Louis, and much more!  For more...

For the third week of National Novel Writing Month, host & producer George Sirois sits down with USA Today Bestselling Author Cameo Renae. The two spoke about Cameo's team - beta readers, editor, formatter, etc. - as well as her journey from writing short stories to becoming a novelist and dealing with fans almost overnight, how she reached the USA Today bestselling charts, and so much mor...

This week, host & producer George Sirois sat down with K.M. Robinson, a bestselling young adult / fantasy author and multimedia marketing strategist. They discussed K.M.'s history as a writer, how she discovered the maximum usage for social media tools such as Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, and much more! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/excelsior-journeys/donations

We're starting off National Novel Writing Month 2020 with a conversation with New York Times and Seven-Time USA Today Bestselling Author Melissa Storm. Melissa not only shares her writing history, but also how her marketing expertise, how she created her multiple businesses including LitRing, Novel Publicity, Your Author Engine, and more! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/excelsi...

It's only fitting that, on the week of Halloween, host & producer George Sirois sat down with Daniel Farrands, who was not only the screenwriter of Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers but its most vocal champion of the infamous Producer's Cut that was finally given a commercial release in 2015. The two had a very detailed discussion about how Daniel was inspired to come up with thi...

For this week's episode, host & producer George Sirois sits down with acclaimed New York Times Bestselling Horror & Fantasy Author John Skipp. The two talk about John's evolution from short stories to novels, his musical collaborations with the original guitarist from Megadeth, his journey to Hollywood which resulted in the painful experience of working on A Nightmare on Elm Street...

This week, host & producer George Sirois sits down with Bram Stoker Award-winning author Tim Waggoner. They discuss how Tim discovered writing in his teens, his evolution through several short story submissions, how he moved to writing novels, his start in movie tie-in novelizations, and much more! For more information, please go to www.timwaggoner.com. Support this podcast at — https://redcir...

On Saturday, October 3, host & producer George Sirois was invited by fellow author Dara Kalima to be part of a 5-person panel on Zoom, presented by IIPublishing, the New York Urban League Young Professionals, The Black Authors Collaborative, and Poetix University. The presentation was called Publish Me: The Business of Writing, and George was graciously allowed to present the audio in its enti...

Host & producer George Sirois has teamed up with a nonprofit organization called Make Way for Books, which provides proven programs, services, and resources to over 30,000 young children, parents, and educators throughout southern Arizona every year. This week, he speaks with Make Way for Books representative Ethan Myerson, who gives some great detail about the organization, its progress, how...

This week, host & producer George Sirois sits down with Joe Ruback, one of the most visible New York Giants fans in the past twenty years, and discusses how he started the look that earned him the persona "License Plate Guy," how his fandom of the Giants began and evolved, the players he's met as a result of attending all home & away games for nearly two decades, how his connec...

This week, host & producer George Sirois sits down with one of his personal heroes: voice over actor Neil Ross. They discuss Neil's years in radio, his transition into voice over work with commercials and industrial videos, his move into animation where he became the voice of such iconic characters as Shipwreck in G.I.Joe and Springer in Transformers: The Movie, working with Hollywood lege...

If you're a fan of classic TV, then you know the name Stanley Livingston, most well-known for playing the role of Chip, the youngest son on My Three Sons. But you may not know about his acting experience before and after, his transition into producing, his experience with Cinerama, and much more. Host and producer George Sirois sits down with Stanley, who has some amazing stories to tell. Supp...

Host & producer George Sirois sits down with two-time Emmy nominated actress Kathleen Gati, who has been on an amazing journey over the past several decades. Kathleen shares quite a few stories about being a part of daytime and prime-time television, acting in both America and Hungary, being a part of two vastly different Emmy Awards events, and much more! For more information about Kathleen,...

To start off the next 50 episodes of Excelsior Journeys, host and producer George Sirois sits down with accomplished voice over artist and vocal coach Christina Smith. They talk about how she was inspired to go into voice over, her training, working in various media such as radio commercials, animation, and video game, and much more! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/excelsior-journe...

For Episode 50 of the Excelsior Journeys podcast, host & producer George Sirois sits down for a fascinating chat with Ryan Kasprzak about his decades of experience in acting, dancing, choreographing, competing on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance, and his latest venture as Dance Supervisor for the #AndPeggy tour of Hamilton.  Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/excelsior-journey...