Excelsior Journeys: The Road to Creativity
Inspired by the international bestselling young adult / science-fiction novel Excelsior, this weekly interview show puts the spotlight on both up-and-coming and established creative talents who share their journey to success.
Episodes
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 Nativity" was named one of the Top 100 I...
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 debut novel "Pariah's Lament," he start...
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 purchase, as is the second part of he...
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 - tapping into his past - news repor...
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 Rooftop Koreans" focuses on a new g...
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 maintaining continuity in films that yo...
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 book "Within My Spokes: A Tapestry o...
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.
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 editor of Accents Publishing, as well as ...
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 the Singers," and in the next severa...
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 World Series, and he's always on the...
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 and The Timid Bunny by clicking HE...
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 help of art journaling - keeping a ...
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 Bordello of Blood), Freddy's Nightma...
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, podcasters, etc) to share their journeys ...
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 her life prompted her to create her s...
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 of all kinds (authors, filmmakers, s...
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 attracted various crew members, actors, m...
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 into telling them what happens nex...
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 also connected with other comics, ...
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