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Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's to show that she

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Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and

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Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me

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Speaker 1: advice to many occasions. In incasion didn't notice, I'm not broke.

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Speaker 1: You know. He'll be interview with celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and

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Speaker 1: industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do. It's

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Speaker 1: what he likes to share. Now it's time to hear

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Speaker 1: from my man, Rashan McDonald money making Conversations. Here we

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Speaker 1: come working the money making Conversations. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald.

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Speaker 1: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and

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Speaker 1: start writing your own. Now you can be motivated by

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Speaker 1: their success because their stories can offer direction and help

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Speaker 1: you reach your goals through your planning and committed effort.

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Speaker 1: My interviews provide the consuming business owner access to celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs,

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Speaker 1: and industry decision makers. My next guest is Sister Soldier.

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Speaker 1: She is a New York Times best selling author. Her

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Speaker 1: debate book, The Coldest Winter Ever Soul over a million

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Speaker 1: copies and introduced the world to the quick witted, bow old, fashionable, erotic,

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Speaker 1: soulful and undeniable, complicated character of Winter Santiago. The sequel

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Speaker 1: to The Coldest Winter Ever, Life After Death is out

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Speaker 1: now you can buy right now. Previously, as you know

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Speaker 1: the background on Sister Soldier recording artists with the hip

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Speaker 1: hop group Public Enemy. She's best known as a political activist,

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Speaker 1: educative urban youth from underserved communities. A graduate of Rutgers University,

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Speaker 1: her first book, So Like I Said Earlier over a

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Speaker 1: million copies. It was recognized in Essence, Emerged magazine as

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Speaker 1: when He was a best seller in It was included

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Speaker 1: the PBS Great American Read Program, and currently has over

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Speaker 1: a million copies. In Prey Please Work with the money

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Speaker 1: Making conversation discussed her new book, Coldest Winter Ever Life

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Speaker 1: After Death Sister Soldier, He thank you for welcoming me.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad to be it. Well, I'm happy you know

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Speaker 1: this is We're coming into a new year with a

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Speaker 1: fantastic book. Uh was a It was a people year

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Speaker 1: for a lot of people. How did it affect you

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Speaker 1: and did you write the book in twenty twenty or

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Speaker 1: you started it prior to that. The book definitely in

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Speaker 1: that year and was a very difficult year. I think

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Speaker 1: all around the world. I don't think that anybody will

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Speaker 1: forget uh every on every level personally won't forget it. Politically,

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Speaker 1: will never forget it, financially, won't forget it, you know, culturally,

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Speaker 1: won't forget it. So it was a very uh difficult

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Speaker 1: year for everybody. With that being said, when you work

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Speaker 1: in the show, a book is complicated in this because

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Speaker 1: there are a lot of complex care but a lot

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Speaker 1: of familiar characters, and a lot of people have been

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Speaker 1: waiting on this book, the sequel to this book, because

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Speaker 1: when this character, you know, in the previous book, they

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Speaker 1: want to know what happened to the character. Tell us

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Speaker 1: about that journey of writing the book. You say, we

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Speaker 1: wrote it to twenty, but I thought that was a thought,

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Speaker 1: says Prid Landed chapters, landed storylines, talk about that walk

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Speaker 1: with those steps. Okay, well, actually, when The Colds went

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Speaker 1: to Ever first published in nine, which I really think

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Speaker 1: it's but in is the number that everybody wants to

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Speaker 1: go with, so that's fine. When it first published, I

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Speaker 1: wanted to write a sequel, you know, immediately I began

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Speaker 1: thinking about a sequel immediately. But then I thought about

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Speaker 1: the fact that the cold This Went to Ever is

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Speaker 1: a cautionary tale. It was something not to glorify the

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Speaker 1: drug lifestyle, but to expose it and show how it

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Speaker 1: how drugs destroys the whole family. Ultimately, so because the

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Speaker 1: Code This Went to Ever ended with went to Santiago

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Speaker 1: being convicted and sentenced to a mandatory minimum of fifteen years,

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Speaker 1: I wanted that to resonate in our community, for people

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Speaker 1: to really feel, you know, the absence of her presence

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Speaker 1: or the absence of the presence of someone that you

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Speaker 1: really love or you really missed, because that's what happens

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Speaker 1: in the real world when our loved ones gett incarcerated,

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Speaker 1: and it's serious. So for everybody that was out there

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Speaker 1: quality of the drug game, you know, glorifying it and

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Speaker 1: glamorizing it, I wanted to make it clear that it's

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Speaker 1: not a game, it's a death style, not a lifestyle,

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Speaker 1: and that the whole family can get destroyed once you

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Speaker 1: get involved in it. Well that's important because we do

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Speaker 1: have a family here, you know, you have us. So,

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Speaker 1: like I said, I haven't I didn't read the first book.

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Speaker 1: I read the second book, Outstanding read from cover to

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Speaker 1: cover all right, Julie, I would tell you how I

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Speaker 1: read books. I get up in the morning. But from

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Speaker 1: interviewed on a writer about the book, I read it

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Speaker 1: the day of and I got up at two o'clock

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Speaker 1: in the morning and I read it and it was like, uh,

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Speaker 1: it was it was very colorful, it was very Uh.

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Speaker 1: The characters, I always like to say, uh, what were you?

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Speaker 1: Were relatable? I thought, And I thought because of the

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Speaker 1: fact that you know, they were emotionally driven, they were passioned,

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Speaker 1: they were tied to a belief, and they were honest people.

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Speaker 1: And I think for shines the most in your in

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Speaker 1: your book and in all your previous writing. This book

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Speaker 1: is called Life After Death. The honesty of the characters

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Speaker 1: talking walkers through the steps and the honesty of the characters.

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Speaker 1: And are you reaching from certain people that you know?

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Speaker 1: Are these just your imagination? These characters are definitely characters

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Speaker 1: from my imagination. And I think the key to writing

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Speaker 1: these kinds of characters, for any author or aspiring author,

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Speaker 1: is that you have to be able to uh, completely

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Speaker 1: distance yourself from the characters that you create. You can't

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Speaker 1: look at it as you want to control the character

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Speaker 1: or you want to control the character's voice, the character's desires,

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Speaker 1: whatever the case. So for example, Winter Santiago is very

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Speaker 1: different from sister Soldier. How Winter would answer a question

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Speaker 1: is completely different from how I, the author would answer

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Speaker 1: the question. So I can't start trying to slip my

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Speaker 1: personality into her personality without corrupting the character. If I

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Speaker 1: want the character to be genuine, I have to have

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Speaker 1: let the character have a life of its own, if

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Speaker 1: you will. So for each and every character in the

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Speaker 1: in the books that I write, I don't let sister

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Speaker 1: Soldier interfere in the character, no matter what. Well it's

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Speaker 1: it's important to hear. But let me when when they

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Speaker 1: sit over the information I reading about the background, he

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Speaker 1: was saying, all those soldier, you know this is a

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Speaker 1: nonfictional Winter went to San Diego's fiction. Both said she

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Speaker 1: and are real. That's what just the state in that

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Speaker 1: bio and in fact fictitious. Winter is realer than you

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Speaker 1: talk about that when you say that, when you said,

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Speaker 1: even though you said these are made of characters, the

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Speaker 1: statement is that she's realer. When you say realer, what

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Speaker 1: do you mean when you say that? What I mean

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Speaker 1: is that she uh is She's a representation of probably

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Speaker 1: you know, a million of the young ladies in the

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Speaker 1: cood and in the suburbs and the rural areas across

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Speaker 1: the whole United States of America. And and it becomes

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Speaker 1: obvious that she's a representation because of how great the

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Speaker 1: love for her is, because of how high the sales

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Speaker 1: of her story is. All of that is uh is

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Speaker 1: obvious when I first wrote the book, the amount of

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Speaker 1: her hundreds and then the thousands of letters I got

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Speaker 1: about went to Santiago made it clear to me that

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Speaker 1: she is real and real as personified uh In in

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Speaker 1: the lives of real people in our neighborhoods who feels

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Speaker 1: she's real because she represents their sentiments or their emotions,

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Speaker 1: or their challenges, or their lifestyle or you know, or

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Speaker 1: their fantasies, fantasies of who they would like to be.

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Speaker 1: E R. Dot ai no interesting thing when because you're

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Speaker 1: a performing artists and uh, I was blessed in my life,

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Speaker 1: you know, a stand up comedian and I got to

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Speaker 1: experience Heights of Deaf Comedy Jam performing in Madison Square

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Speaker 1: Garden and that laugh is that live performance is really

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Speaker 1: filled with a dream. You know, from a standpoint as

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Speaker 1: a writer, and I have a sitcom writer. I've written dramas,

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Speaker 1: I've written reality shows and things like that. So that's

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Speaker 1: a different level and from when I was a performing

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Speaker 1: artist as a stand up comedian and and because it

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Speaker 1: wasn't as raw and as a as a performing artist

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Speaker 1: and you're out there rapping, that's a raw form of entertainment.

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Speaker 1: When you out there writing what compels you and drives

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Speaker 1: your passion as a writer, Sister Soldier, I think that uh,

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Speaker 1: myself as a writer is is the top is the top.

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Speaker 1: In other words, as a music performing artists or anything else, really,

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Speaker 1: a writer clearly tops all of that because I have

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Speaker 1: a very vast imagination. I have thousands of stories in

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Speaker 1: my head. I love the whole process of researching, reading, studying, uh,

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Speaker 1: traveling new world, learning new cultures, new languages, experiencing new

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Speaker 1: things and being able to draw from all of those

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Speaker 1: things at once. And it's a real challenge. And when

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Speaker 1: you're creating a character, it gives you a greater respect

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Speaker 1: for for God then you may have ever had, because

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Speaker 1: you say, Wow, it takes all of this energy and

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Speaker 1: all of this imagination, and all of this effort, and

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Speaker 1: all of this passion and all of this soul to

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Speaker 1: create this one inanamant character. And here the Higher Power,

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Speaker 1: the maker of all souls, has created each and every

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Speaker 1: one of us, and each and every one of us

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Speaker 1: has something unique about us, and each of us has

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Speaker 1: a backstory. It just makes you say, well, a hundle law,

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Speaker 1: how great God is you? Know, it's really it's really

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Speaker 1: great talking to you. I want to thank you for

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Speaker 1: taking the time to discuss your book. This out now

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Speaker 1: Life after Death, the sequel to the Code is Where

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Speaker 1: in the Winter Ever Winter? Being a the lead character

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Speaker 1: in your in your novel series. You know, you said

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Speaker 1: something earlier. We were talking about drugs and you was

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Speaker 1: talking about that lifestyle and you your goal was not

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Speaker 1: to glorify it. That's why she went to jail fifteen

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Speaker 1: years and it served every year of that in prison.

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Speaker 1: And that's very important in your storytelling dynamics. And then

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Speaker 1: so when I when I look at the reality of

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Speaker 1: what life is your education, you know, your degree graduate

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Speaker 1: of Rutgor University. Tell us how important that it is

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Speaker 1: and how its important. Is that's part of your legacy.

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Speaker 1: When you're talking to young people about your career and

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Speaker 1: you're talking about your career as a writer. Now, well,

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Speaker 1: I think the university level is important. Uh, not for

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Speaker 1: the same reasons that maybe other people think it's important.

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Speaker 1: I think it's important because like for somebody like me

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Speaker 1: who came from the Bronx and then came from the

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Speaker 1: poor suburbs, you know, after the Bronx, Uh, going to

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Speaker 1: a university and seeing the facility itself is a very

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Speaker 1: amazing experience. Going out on the yard and seeing all

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Speaker 1: of the organizations that the university offers and realizing that

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Speaker 1: anything you ever imagine in your life you can learn

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Speaker 1: and master in a university is a very, uh wonderful feeling.

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Speaker 1: So if you're standing there, you just arrived, it's your

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Speaker 1: first week on campus. You can join an organization to

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Speaker 1: row a boat if that's the thing. You want to

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Speaker 1: rote a boat, You want to play the piano, you

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Speaker 1: want to be in the science club, you want to

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Speaker 1: do experiments, you wanna jump out of airplanes, you want

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Speaker 1: to shoot rifles or whatever you wanna do. And on

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Speaker 1: a university level, Uh, in a major university, it's an

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Speaker 1: opportunity that's there and all of the resources there. I

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Speaker 1: spent my whole young life wishing that I owned a piano.

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Speaker 1: And when I got to the university and I went

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Speaker 1: to the music the campus for music, I went into

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Speaker 1: a building in every single room had a piano. And

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Speaker 1: because I was a student and I had a student,

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Speaker 1: I d I could access that piano. I could master

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Speaker 1: that piano if I studied it. So I just think

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Speaker 1: universities are amazing, and that young people should try to

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Speaker 1: take it to the university level, not for the sake

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Speaker 1: of prestige or arrogance, or even for just social activity,

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Speaker 1: but because the sky is the limit with expanding your mind,

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Speaker 1: mastering some skills and talents, and being able to own

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Speaker 1: and control your own business. And that's important. And I

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Speaker 1: wanted to make sure I talked about your your college

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Speaker 1: education because you know it changed my life. You know,

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Speaker 1: my degree is in mathematics, and my minor and sociology,

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Speaker 1: and and I like you why I went to college

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Speaker 1: and it changed me and and it changed me in

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Speaker 1: so many ways because it showed me there's so many

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Speaker 1: avenues of what I could be. And when you promote

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Speaker 1: the value of that, it's it's incredible. But I know

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Speaker 1: we have a few minutes left. And the amazing thing

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Speaker 1: about the novel is that you don't really want to

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Speaker 1: tell the story because you want people to read the story.

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Speaker 1: Can you can you tell us about some of the

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Speaker 1: characters that have carried over into the sequel that you

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Speaker 1: are building upon in the sequel Life after Death. Yes,

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Speaker 1: In Life after Death, you will see, of course, went

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Speaker 1: to Santiago. He's the main she's on the main stage

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Speaker 1: in the spotlight. And then you'll see Midnight, of course,

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Speaker 1: because whenever you see Winter, you have to see. You

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Speaker 1: will see went to sister Push Santiago, and she has

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Speaker 1: a book of her own and she is quite dynamic,

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Speaker 1: if I should say so myself. And uh, you'll see

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Speaker 1: the man that Push ended up being married to. Um,

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Speaker 1: you will see Ricky Santiago. Oh that's a big one

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Speaker 1: because you know everybody loves him. And you'll see even

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Speaker 1: Lana glimpses of Lana Santiago. Uh. So, yeah, it's all

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Speaker 1: of the characters that you met in the Coldest Whenever.

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Speaker 1: And for some of the characters like went to his

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Speaker 1: friends in Life after Death, you'll see more in sight

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Speaker 1: until went into Winter's friendships, and the characters the same

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Speaker 1: characters from the Coldest Whenever, but after fifteen years of

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Speaker 1: serving uh prisons, Like you said, you're gonna look different,

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Speaker 1: walk different, talk different, and because the life they live

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Speaker 1: now is different. An incredible read. I'm just gonna let

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Speaker 1: you know I read it and uh and I would

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Speaker 1: recommend it to my friends and putting in my newsletter,

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Speaker 1: putting on my social media. A great novel. You're you know,

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Speaker 1: you're the blessing of this conversation I'm having with your

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Speaker 1: sister soldiers that you know, you're transcending person. You know,

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Speaker 1: like you said, you come from the Bronx. You know,

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Speaker 1: you're you're You're happily married, you have a child, you know,

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Speaker 1: you live in a life of that you want to live.

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Speaker 1: And I feel as a writer, as a successful author,

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Speaker 1: just tell me this. Uh, you know, we we do

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Speaker 1: these things creative. I was fortunately be with Steve Harvey

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Speaker 1: and we did uh, act like the lady, think like

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Speaker 1: a man, and nobody told us we would sell books,

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Speaker 1: and we sold three million copies. How did it feel

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Speaker 1: to realize you had a best seller in your hands? Well,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you. I like the reaction of the

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Speaker 1: people in the neighborhoods that I grew up in. So

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Speaker 1: I likeve Like, Uh, if I walked down the street

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Speaker 1: in Hallman, you know, I'll hear people whispering, Oh oh,

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Speaker 1: there she go, it's the girl. What girl? Even though

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Speaker 1: I'm grown with you a woman? Right, I wrote the book,

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Speaker 1: but the book the book, she wrote the book. So

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Speaker 1: I love that kind of feeling because it's a neighborhood

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Speaker 1: that's familiar to me, its people that's familiar to me,

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Speaker 1: and it's even better than any award or any you know,

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Speaker 1: official kind of congratulations that you can get when you've

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Speaker 1: seen your own people totally engaged in the words that

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Speaker 1: you've written on the pane. It's fantastis words. And thank

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Speaker 1: you for allowing me to speak to you and have

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Speaker 1: an honest conversation by a brilliant writer, a brilliant artist

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Speaker 1: and an amazing talent. And keep translating in the world

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Speaker 1: with your colorful style of writing in your and your activism.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations, Thank you

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Speaker 1: for welcoming me, and thank you for putting me in

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Speaker 1: your newsletter. Absolutely, girlfriend, you's the thing you as they say,

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Speaker 1: you are the one, she one, sheat one right there

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Speaker 1: the book, the book that's right and the name of

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Speaker 1: that book is you know, Life After Death by Sister Soldier. Again,

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Speaker 1: I want to thank everybody who comes to Money Making Conversation.

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Speaker 1: If you want to see more interviews or hear more interviews,

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Speaker 1: please go to money Making Conversation dot com. Um Ble

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