Why I Finally Said Yes to the Journal

I’ve been a storyteller longer than I’ve been anything else. Before I even knew publishing imprints existed, before I understood the mechanics of a manuscript or the weight of a memoir — I was a thirteen-year-old girl in Queens with a notebook and something to say. By fourteen, the writing turned serious. Angry, honest, necessary. It didn’t matter if anyone read it. It mattered that it existed. Spice & Soul Media was born from that same urgency — the belief that the stories that live closest to the bone deserve the most careful, fearless telling. That’s what we do here. We season the narrative. This Journal is where that work gets personal. You’ll find craft conversations, behind-the-scenes looks at what it actually takes to produce a book from the inside out, reflections on the creative life, and the kind of transparency that most publishers keep behind closed doors. I’m not most publishers. Right now, I’m in the final stretch of two simultaneous releases under the Assilem 9 Collection — Confessions from a Body Bag: The Memoirs (15th Anniversary Revised Edition) and Stir Asylum Craziness: Diary of a Paranoid Personality (17th Anniversary Revised Edition). Seventeen years. Fifteen years. These aren’t just books — they’re proof that your work doesn’t have an expiration date.

Seasoning the Narrative, one post at a time.