Let's Talk About It w/Kottyn

Bio: Candis Y. McDow is an Atlanta native, author, freelance writer, and poet. She has written for over 40 publications, most notably: Chicken Soup for the Soul, Essence, Business Insider, Cosmopolitan, and Yahoo! You can find her memoir, Half the Battle, available on Amazon. Book Synopsis: Half the Battle is a memoir entailing a mental illness discovery. After taking prescribed steroids due to severe insect bites from a family vacation, life took an unexpected turn that changed everything forever. The journey is a rollercoaster equipped with suicide attempts, hallucinations, hearing voices, and ultimate self-discovery and purpose. All the best, Candis McDow

I wrote Astra The Lonely Airplane, a rhyming children's picture book, after my husband's job as Chief Pilot of a corporate jet came to a grinding halt during the COVID-19 pandemic. I sat her beautiful interior one last time and openly wept, feeling sick to my stomach wondering what would become of her, and how long she would in the hangar before being flown again. Astra The Lonely Airplane, (Brandylane Publishers, Inc.), a rhyming picture book, was released on March 2, 2022. The book is appropriate for children ages 3-10, and includes a 3-minute video with an up close and personal tour of Astra with the real Captain Dan, (my husband), along with a two-page-glossary. The second book in the series, entitled Astra In Hollywood, was released on March 4, 2024 during ?Read Across America Week.? The sequel picks up where Astra The Lonely Airplane leaves us, as Astra is getting settled in to her hangar in Hollywood. She finds herself surrounded by three new friends: Lana, a sleek beautiful Learjet; a giant cargo plane named Hank; and Helen the crime-fighting helicopter! When Lana, Hank and Helen are each faced with unexpected problems, Astra discovers that you don't need to be the fastest, strongest or bravest to be important. It's being a good friend that makes you a star!

I've always been a writer, and I've always worked with dogs (to my parents horror). While my friends were accumulating college debt, I was making a living grooming dogs. I've also trained dogs. After divorcing my high school sweetheart, I traveled to Africa (Tanzania) when I was 30, & that changed my life. I returned, took CLEP exams, and started going to college---paying as I went (majoring in Africa area studies). I got an assistantship to grad school, but there were no jobs when I graduated, so I joined Peace Corps, serving as a 'town planner' in Blantyre, Malawi. I've been back to Africa 4 more times, and I've c volunteered in urban India, and was a U.N. Volunteer in Africa. I wrote The Pleasure Seeker because I know what it's like to be an 'other'. People believe so many myths about others, and now, with the internet, those myths spread faster. Jews are actually a minority in the U.S,A., and most of us are secular. We're not Zionists. But Sikh are even more of a minority, and are constantly confused with being either Muslim or Hindu...and are often attacked out of hatred. The book is based on real African and music history.