Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity

This podcast is a proud member of the Podmatch Podcast Network . Welcome to Season 12 of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity. This week, host & producer George Sirois sits down Mark Firehammer, a musician, an author, a co-founder of the MyFeelness Program, and the founder & acting director of the Creative Humanity Alliance. A living breathing hub of inspiration, Mark has proven hims...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois wraps up Season 11 with author Buddy Howard. After years of working in investment banking, Buddy - who believes that everyone has a story to tell, whether it's their own or one waiting to be written - decided to invest in himself as a storyteller by writing a novel. His debut legal thriller "The...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with fellow audiobook narrator Eric Priessman. Eric has built an impressive library of nearly 60 titles from all different genres, and he has most recently been given a very cool opportunity: entering the world of movie tie-in novelizations with the prequel to the 1980's cult classic f...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with author, memoirist, speaker, and coach Wendy Dale. Ever since she wrote and released "Avoiding Prison & Other Noble Vacation Goals," Wendy has been a strong advocate for memoirs and she has committed herself to making sure those who get into this genre of writing are giving the...

This week on Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with fellow author Jim Paulk. A graduate from the Naval Academy in the 1950s, Jim would go on to live an extraordinary life filled with adventure, anecdotes, tales, even near-legends, and after being told more than once that he should write a book, Jim took the plunge and liked it so much, he took...

This week on Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with acclaimed author, poet, and speaker Margaret Philbrick. Starting out in the literary world as a children's book author, she has extended her reach into fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. This brought about a great milestone in 2024 when her novel "House of Honor -The Heist of Caravaggio’s Nativ...

This week on Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with fellow podcaster and fellow author Richie Billing. After leaving behind his career in law, Richie took a chance on himself and shifted his focus into writing full-time. He has since published various pieces of short fiction, with one story adapted for BBC Radio, and after he published his debu...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with author Amanda Madison. While typical superhero stories fill comic book pages on a regular basis, Amanda is focused on taking those larger-than-life characters and making them the starts of their own series of novels. Her debut novel "Program 38: Sparks" is already available for pu...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with author, editor, teacher, and journalist John Dedakis. After several years behind the scenes of CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, John moved into writing his own works of fiction, and has also branched out into helping his mutual creatives through editing, speaking, and -...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with comic creator T.Y. Lee. A Korean-American writer & artist, Lee's main characters in his upcoming graphic novel are based on the "Rooftop Koreans," a group of armed small business owners who defended their businesses from their rooftops during the 1992 LA Riots. "Return of the...

This week on Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with acclaimed motion picture hair designer Bonnie Clevering. For over 50 years, Bonnie has worked with stars such as George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Barbra Streisand, Kristen Stewart, and more! With her expertise and attention to detail, she has done such a good job of main...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois welcomes Jenna Udenberg, founder of the nonprofit organization Above & Beyond with U . A full-time wheelchair user since she was seven years old, Jenna has made it her life's mission to advocate for disabled people everywhere. She became a Bush Fellow in 2020, and in 2023, she published her...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with up-and-coming author Bria Rose, who specializes in retelling classic children's stories as darker romance for the older crowd. Her current book that is out now, Her Dark Promise, is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and there are more in development for the near future. You can...

Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity is now a proud member of the Podmatch Podcast Network . On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with bilingual poet Katerina Stoykova. From Bulgaria to Kentucky, Katerina started writing and publishing her poetry over the past couple of years, and she is the founder and senior edito...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with the guest of honor for this weekend's Archon 48 Convention in Collinsville, Illinois, acclaimed author & producer Melinda M Snodgrass. After several years working in law, Melinda took a chance on herself and started writing. This resulted in the Star Trek novel "The Tears of t...

This week on Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with USA Today Bestselling Author G Michael Hopf. After being in the military, then moving into commercial diving, Hopf started his journey to become an author by publishing a children's book in 2011, and never looked back. He now has several books in different genres, including his acclaimed New W...

An ongoing theme on Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity is celebrating those who take many different creative paths to reach that personal success. In the case of this week's guest Samuel Chambers, the various paths he chose to pursue have been poetry, filmmaking, and animation. And even better, all of those outlets play a part in his short project "The Timid Bunny." Learn more about Samuel...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with Susan Hensley, author of "Art for Your Sanity: How Art Journaling Can Help You Manage Chaos and Unleash Joy. As a transformational coach, author, and speaker, Susan has realized that there was still joy within her creative endeavors that hadn't been felt since childhood. With the...

Welcome to the Season 11 Premiere of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity. After taking a couple of much-needed months off, host & producer George Sirois sits down with writer / producer / podcaster Alan "A L" Katz! With a career that spans several decades, Alan was an integral force behind franchises such as HBO's Tales from the Crypt (plus its two theatrical features Demon Knight and B...

ORIGINALLY POSTED 03/26/2019 On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host and producer George Sirois has a little something he needs to tell all of you, something he needed to tell himself. Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity exists primarily as a platform for creatives of all kinds (authors, filmmakers, stand-up comics, musicians, voice artists, painters, podc...

ORIGINALLY POSTED 10/16/2018 For Episode 4 of Excelsior Journeys, host George Sirois welcomes actress / writer / director / producer / yoga instructor Kristina Erikson. They talk about their time together at Marymount Manhattan College, Kristina continuing on her journey as an actress after graduation, how yoga played a major role in regaining the confidence in herself, how the highs and lows in h...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois celebrates the completion of 10 seasons by answering several audiobook narrating-related questions, and drops a very interesting piece of information regarding what to expect over the next couple of months. Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity exists primarily as a platform for creatives o...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with author & filmmaker Paul Skidmore. A lover of storytelling since his youth, Paul has dedicated himself to bringing those stories to life on both the page as short stories & novels, and as short films, sketches, and feature films shot in Tennessee. By doing so, he has attrac...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with author Nkrumah Mensah. For years, she had kept her works in a drawer, away from potential readers, until her daughter found one of her manuscripts and sent it to her book club, otherwise known as "The Battle of the Books." Suddenly, Nkrumah had a group of avid readers bullying her...

On this week's episode of Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity, host & producer George Sirois sits down with Mr. Michael Dennis. For years, Michael has served his community in Texas as a local pastor, but in addition to that, he has recently checked the box of a big item on his bucket list by trying out stand-up comedy. He has since not only found his voice on the small stage, but he has...