ED- The Eerie Digest is extremely proud to present an extremely talented personality to all our readers. Marina Anderson has produced, directed, and performed in many facets of the entertainment industry and has got to be the most all-around gifted person that we have had the pleasure to introduced to date. Marina, how have you managed to do so much within your lifetime so far?

MA- Blush, blush.  In this business you have to keep pushing and finding new creative ways to make a living.

ED- Your family line has also had a history in the field of entertainment. Please tell us about them

MA-My mother was a contract singer to Warner Bros and gave it up to get married and raise a family. She continued singing, but only on a social basis…She sang with Bill Chadney and other major nightclub bands. Her voice surpassed Beverly Sills. My dad also a major talent – played in many known bands in his day (clarinet & sax) and opted to get steady income and get married. He became an aerospace engineer and inventor. Some of his inventions they used on the moon and Polaris missle… He later was an Imagineer for Disney.  Probably his favorite gig. Then there’s four-time Academy Award lyricist Ray Evans, my cousin (Silver Bells, Mona Lisa, Mr. Ed and Bonanza themes…) and another cousin Peter O’Toole. I think he needs no explanation. (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest has the great honor of presenting actress Mirelly Taylor, of NBC’s ‘Lost’ to all of our readers. Mirelly this is a real pleasure. We understand that early in life you had a near tragic accident that, upon your recovery, helped you determine your true path in life. Can you tell us all about it?

MT- I was 19 and in my sophomore year at SMU.  I ended up with a 16 inch skull fracture and major brain damage. I was in a coma for 3 days and the doctors told my Mom I probably wasn’t going to make it. So they allowed my little brother and sister into the room to see me before I went into emergency brain surgery.  It was quite horrific for my family.  Amazingly enough, I’ve always had a real kindred spirited connection with my little brother and as he touched my arm and said my name… My eyes fluttered and I woke up enough to recognize him and say his name. Now I immediately passed out after that but that split moment changed everything. I was out of the hospital in a few days and life became very clear to me at that moment. I had such clarity about what I wanted to do with my life and how what I was doing was more to go along with what had been set for me by my family and not necessarily what truly brought me joy and passion and fulfillment.

I quit school and enrolled into a two year conservatory for acting and was so driven and challenged by the entire process. I loved it. My life became very exciting and my dreams were now no longer concepts but real possibilities. That accident was the best thing that could have happened to me. It’s tragic that it sometimes takes a near death experience to make you realize what’s truly important in your life. (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest is excited to introduce Producer Carlos Etzio Roman to our readers. Carlos, Tell us about your production company and how it started.

CER- Well, I actually started back in the late 80’s with a company named ZIO Productions. The movies ‘Mismatch’ and ‘Lady Law’ were produced under that label and later transferred to the new Roman Pictures label, established in 1999.

Roman Pictures was created because I decided to have more control and to fulfill my dream of having a company run by people that could be also like a family. People that will care about each other and also about the quality of the work they do for our company. It took many years and many people, but, little by little I think I have accomplished my dream. Now I have a group of people that are all for the success of Roman Pictures and every project we take on.

My top associates, Assistant Producer and actress, Sharon Carpenter-Rose and Cinematographer and Special Effects guru, Lewis Fraga, are at the front helm with me, making sure what we produce is only top quality, no compromises here, from scripting to casting through production to post and finished product: mistakes are not an option., and there’s no such thing as ”that’ll do.” (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest would like to present a fabulous actor, Christopher Stadulis, to all of our readers. Christopher, we understand that you are employed as a New York City firefighter and pursue a career in acting as well. What inspires you most in the career of acting?

CS- To be able to have the ability to take audiences on a journey by telling a story, having emotions come out of them is very gratifying for me. Once I’m doing very well financially and have made a name for myself, there are a number of issues worldwide that I’d like to get involved in, financially, as well as volunteer my time to try to make a positive impact in the world before I exit.

ED- We also discovered that you won the award of Best Supporting Actor in the NYC Downtown Film Festival. Please tell us about the film you were in and the role that you played.

CS- It was for my role as High School Lacrosse coach,  Coach Roberts, in the short “TRANSITION”, which is based on a true story.  Coach Roberts is a hard-nosed coach who’s against one of his players, Chris Jamison, coming back on the team after Chris beats Cancer. Actor, Anthony Bradford, who plays the role of his real life brother, also wrote “Transition”. I definitely want to work with Anthony again as well as the Director of “Transition”, Doug Bollinger (Directed “Waltzing Ana“ and “Mail Order Bride“). Doug and Anthony were both very easy to work with, Doug gave great direction and both werfe open to collaborate with the rest of the Actors in this project. Being open and flexible can create something unimaginable.

This award for me was especially sweet because long time Actress, Holland Taylor, won Best Supporting Actress in this same film festival for her role in “Streetcar”, which was out of 42 films. Holland has been nominated for five Emmy’s and won an Emmy for her role on “The Practice”. She also won a TV Land award for “Two and a Half Men”. So this is great company to be in! To view the trailer to “Transition”, please go to www.transitionthemovie.com. (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest is happy to present another ‘new face’ to Hollywood and our readers. Amy Ricalde has appeared on several TV shows and commercials. Amy, tell us something of your prior training with the ESL Workshop and also the course with Steven Garrin.

AR- Training with Steven Garrin really jump-started my career in voice-overs years ago.  He has a no-nonsense approach to coaching that really helped me own the craft. Where others considered a recording wonderful, he provided insightful tips for making the experience resonate for listeners. The additional training in specialized areas such as ESL has improved my flexibility and skill.

ED- Your original focus was on television commercials. You’ve done work for such brand names as Cartier and Tiffany. How was this to shape your ambitions?

AR- Brand names like Cartier and Tiffany are brilliant at maintaining a significant amount of brand equity and connectivity with their audience.  The benefits of that experience have been long lasting. It enhances my awareness of emotional triggers and how to best use effective messaging to build brand loyalty.  This continues to shape my ambitions for delivering compelling messages that resonate and increase the perceived value of brands. (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest is thrilled to interview an author with a novel that is the heart of The Eerie Digest fans. Dave, tell us what influenced you to become an author.

DS- My father,  mostly.  He was and is still an insatiable reader.  He always read to me at bedtime when I was a kid – and usually it was some pretty scary stuff, at least for someone my age.  ‘King of the Cats’- Poe kind of stories, the stuff that gave me nightmares and pissed off my mom…  But it also made me seek out those kinds of stories once I could read, and more than most boys I think I always liked reading comic books, horror, science fiction and fantasy, and at some point I just said, hey – I think I’d like to try this.

ED- As an author what great writers inspired you the most?

DS- So many to mention… H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Dean Koontz, James Rollins.  But I have to say, Dan Simmons and Robert McCammon were – and are my favorites.  I’ve always admired how they started with some truly terrifying horror novels, but refused to be shackled to the genre, and instead excelled at whatever they chose to write (although you could still see the telltale fingerprints of their earlier horror skills in the themes and atmosphere of every new work. Say what you want, but for my money, Simmons’ Carrion Comfort was possibly the scariest vampire novel ever written and still one of the greatest horror novels I’ve ever read.  And I re-read McCammon’s Wolf’s Hour and Swan Song every couple of years. (more…)

ED- We are very excited to present to the readers of The Eerie Digest director Erik Cieslewicz. Erik, how did you get your start in directing film projects?

EC- In 2000 I was largely directionless; I was a college dropout who pursued story telling with a punk rock band that had just broken up.  I was living in my parent’s basement and working at the local Wal-Mart.  While I had re-enrolled at UW-Marathon County, the small two-year school didn’t require me to declare a major and I was coasting.  That entirely changed when I saw the film Fight Club.  Fincher’s hyper-kinetic visual story showed me that film could be more than just a book you watched, it was a living medium that brought an experience, not just a narrative.  I was hooked on film from that point on and started looking for deeper cuts in film before making it my goal in life; I started watching everything from Wes Anderson to Stanley Kubrick.  Shortly afterward I transferred from that small two-year school out to UW-Oshkosh to study in their film department, which produced alumni like Kristofor Brown.  They put a camera in my hand my first semester in 2003 and I’ve been doing some sort of production ever since.

ED- What was your earliest project?

EC- While I did quite a few student projects in the early 00s, I did my first independent production in 2005 right before my last year as a film student.  It was a niche comedy called The Problem with Playing a Game (Whose Name Sounds Like Walo 2).  It was a mockumentary about six kids whose life revolved around the popular video game series Halo. It was a huge learning experience for me; my first indie project was a project that I was directing rather than holding boom or PAing. (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest is quite pleased to introduce another great cast member from the web series show, ‘The Resolve’. Kyle Hester is an up and coming actor who throws himself into his roles. Kyle, tell us what influenced you in your decision towards an acting career.

KH-First I would like to say thank you for giving me this opportunity.
My first memory I have is being in a play in the 3rd grade. I guess the feeling of being onstage kind of stuck. I carried that feeling to audition for the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston and then on to Cal Arts in Los Angeles.

I have had a wonderful time meeting many creative people along the way.

ED- You played three roles in the movie ‘Andersonville’. Please tell us about those roles.

KH-I booked a small role by the name of “Sergeant of the artillery” which you will find me credited with on IMDB. The funny thing is..that role was the very least of what I did in the movie. I ended up playing 3 parts..all speaking roles..
The first day on set, I was next to an actor rehearsing a scene with John Frankenhiemer, the director. The actor was struggling with the lines and John looks around very frustrated and he says..”does anyone know these lines”?. (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest is very excited to introduce Mystery author Brenda Chapman to all our readers. Brenda, our readers thrive on the mystery genre. Please tell us how you began writing in our favorite venue.

BC- I’m delighted to speak to your readers about my passion – the mystery genre.

Probably way too much of my spare time over the years has been spent reading mysteries and thrillers. I remember as a child reading British author Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five and The Secret Seven and wishing I could go on hols (or holidays as we non-Brits say) in exotic locations and drink ginger beer and have exciting adventures with a select group of friends and a dog named Scamper. Perhaps this was because my reality was childhood in an insular town of 2000 on a bleak stretch of highway on the north shore of Lake Superior. When I turned eighteen, I moved away to university to study English literature with a focus on poetry because reading and churning out essays were two of my strengths in high school. Sadly, an English degree gave me few marketable skills so I continued on to teachers’ college and wound up teaching special education for a number of years in Ottawa. Throughout those years, I dabbled in writing poetry and articles but didn’t take writing on seriously until I won a writer/editor job in the federal about ten years ago. After a few months writing government-style documents on the benefits of pesticides, however, I realized that this was not the writing career I’d envisioned, even in my least inspired moments. I began to crave a creative outlet and so began writing a book for my daughters, who were twelve and nine at the time.  Since mysteries had given me so much pleasure as a kid, this was naturally the kind of book I chose to write.

ED- Tell us about your early work in Short Stories and Poetry and how you prepared for your career.

BC- I took a year-long creative writing course in university from a transplanted American poet. He focused on poetry and short stories, and I was excited by the assignments, more so than in any of my other courses. He taught me so many skills that I rely on to this day – the cadence of a sentence, the importance of precise language and the pitfall of melodrama. He had a real aversion to overwriting a scene, and years later, I came to realize that I share this philosophy. I continually scrutinize my work to make sure the writing reads true, without false emotion and with every word doing its job.  Short stories and poetry are an excellent training ground for developing style, imagery and economy of language. (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest is honored to interview author Shanise Craft for all of our readers. Shanise, Tell us all about your book ‘Harsh Reality, Impossible Dream’.

SC-Harsh Reality is my autobiography. It tells how although I didn’t receive God until I was an adult. He was there for me throughout my entire life just covering and bringing me through one hard time after another.

ED- What inspired you to write the book?

SC- As a General Manager of a Luxury Car Dealership I did a lot of work in the community. I was often asked to speak at different engagements for many foundations. People showed a lot of interest when hearing my life story and always wanted to hear more. So after praying for a very long time, God laid it on my heart to tell my story so that it may help another person from making the same decisions and mistakes that I have. (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest is excited to present a Hollywood favorite, and one of our Media Partners from LA, Eric Zuley. Eric, tell our readers how you first became interested in media entertainment.

EZ- I’m excited to have the opportunity of being interviewed by The Eerie Digest. Well what made me first become interested in media entertainment was just to follow myself around and keep my own records of what I am doing in Hollywood. Then I came up with a idea of ‘WHAT-U-NEED’. Providing what you need in entertainment.

ED- What were your biggest inspirations in getting started with your work?

EZ- Biggest inspirations would have to be God, and helping others that deserve and appreciate my help. I want to make a difference in the entertainment industry. I would love to give credit to a couple people that have inspired me on my path to success: James Zuley, my Father; Ryan Torres and Windy Myers of AEM MANAGEMENT (AEM stands for Avenue Entertainment Management). They were the first ones to get me my first agent and big time commercial which was the ‘AXE BODY SPRAY’ Limo commercial. I played the music star in the commercial and it can be seen if you Google Eric Zuley. Another would be c4cmedia.com. They have been my programmers for the web master stuff for two years (Made a lot of what I have possible); my partner Devon Guzzie; My X girl friend Vanessa (For never really truly being behind me in my dreams and what I really wanted to do. Her negativity motivated me to be successful and push harder!). (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest is proud to present Esteban “Steven” Escobar, The publisher of Diversity News to all of our readers. Steven, you have become a Media Partner of ours over the internet linking some of the best news throughout the Film Industry. How did you originally get started in this field of media?

ESE- Well, I started to show interest in design, entertainment field since high school. I created a bilingual (English & Spanish) publication named News/Noticias. I got contributors and it was distributed free in high school and via U.S. mail. Later joined the Yearbook Staff as people editor during my senior year at U.S. Grant High School. When I graduated in 1994 I enrolled in Los Angeles City College and selected my mayor as Journalism. While going to college I was still running News/Noticias was distributed all over Southern CA. Well it was time to get a job, so I walked to this employment agency where I saw in this conference room the word “Diversity” I did like the meaning and in 2003 I decided to create a new company with a new vision, mission and values and the is when Diversity News Publications was born. Why publications, well while I was in college I also was running The Colleague the was distributed in College only. So by creating Diversity News Publications I would not limit the company to one publication. So the goal is to run couple publications to serve and targeting specific market or group, not only here in CA, the plan is to go national and then international. Diversity News (Revista Diversidad), a print publication was born in 2003 and distributed free all over Southern CA, via U.S. mail to different states. Thanks to the technology Diversity News Magazine stopped printing and in 2007 I register DiversityNewsPublications.Com a company in Washington have already register Diversity News. The was a website with different pages, but I was not happy, so in 2009 I decided to take it to the high level and hire a webmaster who gave Diversity News Publications a complete makeover. As you may see DiversityNewsPublications.Com coverage have been the best because we cover events and we write about them and the is what event organizers/publicists wants.

ED- Tell us about your entertainment company, Diversity News Productions.

ESE- Well, when I register the company I decided to register all other divisions and yes Diversity News Productions was created around 2003 to present and the is to start promoting events for our selves and clients. Diversity News Publications have been hired as independent consultant and makes the necessary arrangements to run a smooth event in partnership with event organizers and promoters. Also to do videos for our company and clients as well and share them online or via DVD. (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest would like to present actress Natasha Blasick to our readers. Natasha, we understand that you originally came from Odessa in the Ukraine near the Black Sea. Tell us about your early life there.

NB- I grew up in the Soviet Union times, and remember being a Pioneer. A Pioneer is a little like being a Girl Scout or Boy Scout in America except that it led toward being an official member of the communist party. History interrupted that plan. I loved marching. It was a thrill to guard a monument honoring soldiers, a statue with an eternal flame. I wore a uniform and solemnly marched and stood at attention. After the wall came down 7UP, the soda, was popular. We called it “ZUP”. I went to a supermarket where the snobby clerks informed me they didn’t have ZUP, they had “Seven Up”. It was very new and exciting. I was so young when the wall came down I don’t feel it in relation to any political views. My communism was fun. My first acting was a monologue about how Lenin planted a tree. We were dancing on the streets when the USSR collapsed. Someone asked me why and I didn’t know. Swan Lake played over and over on all the TV channels.

ED- Tell us about your move to America and the change to your new life style here.

NB- Even on the flight over it was eye opening to see the landscapes of different countries. The ocean is huge. As I flew I could feel the bigness of the world. I brought two suitcases; one of them was only for Teddy Bears so I wouldn’t be lonely. Believe it or not I’m a mail order bride. My sister’s friend opened up an online dating agency and she asked me to join. It’s very common now but then it was a pretty new experience. I didn’t really have any goal to get married or leave my country but I met my future husband Martin. He’s a composer for tv/film. I’d never been around creative types. In fact I got my master’s degree in marketing. The “bohemian” lifestyle was totally new. I guess opposites attract. (more…)