JUDE
bradley
Author
Speaker
Producer
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Spiritual Consultant
history
Prime Mincer Literary Journal -- Volume 1 Number 2 -- Summer, 2011 (Review)
"It is truly shocking to know that Prime Mincer is a young magazine still in its first year of publication. This edition is packed with insightful, daring, and creative work that will appeal to a diverse readership. So many poems, stories, and nonfiction pieces stood out and demanded to be heard. This is certainly a magazine you will have to hold in your hands to enjoy the punch it delivers."
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AIMEE NICOLE, NEWPAGES.COM, Summer, 2011
The Wild Wild West, the Series -- by Susan E. Kesler (1988 and 2018)
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This project was the quintessential labor of love. In early 1987, when I first met Sue Kesler, she had the germ of an idea to construct a book about her favorite TV show when she was growing up in the 60s... "The Wild Wild West." The show starred Robert Conrad as James West and Ross Martin as his partner, Artemus Gordon, two handsome Secret Service agents whose duties fell far beyond just protecting the President.
The show proved to be the true origins of steampunk, combining anachronistic, sci-fi gadgets (and villains) with the raw, naturalism of the old West. They exhibited a unique style of justice as our heroes introduced an entire generation to karate, hidden weaponry, clever disguises, and so much more, all wrapped up in the grace of old-world opulence.
Little did Sue know when we met, but I, too, had been a die-hard fan of the show. Together, with determination, visualization, and some help from a great circle of friends, we managed to "self-publish" in the days long before it was in vogue, or easy. Sue invested a significant amount of money and even more hours into bringing the book to fruition.
Granted, the final product was flawed. Garage publishing will do that. But it was fabulous! It awakened long-sleeping memories for thousands of our customers who enthusiastically ordered the book, even pre-press. It was as if Jim and Arte had new life breathed into them by these two crazy chicks in Hollywood with a dream.
The best part of the project, by far, became my longstanding friendship with Sue. She and I have worked on numerous other projects together in the years since and each and every one has been a joy, and lots and lots of laughs.
In 2008, I reworked the entire book as a .pdf download, for a new generation of readers. While significantly punched up, full color images, re-edited text, and even some new interviews, the download process was problematic.
Now, I'm happy to say, in 2018, we published a completely reworked version as a 30th Anniversary Edition. It includes a chapter on the launch of the original book at the 1988 San Diego ComiCon, some shots from a book interview show and some new material. While the original, soft-cover book is still out there as a collectible, this new version is available on Amazon.com and through links on our website, wildwildwestbook.com.
​https://www.facebook.com/wildwildwestbook/?notif_id=1521024827321641¬if_t=page_fan&ref=notif
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1988
2018 30th Anniversary Edition
METRO, Expressions in Orange County
Talk about a labor of love, when I took the helm as Editor-in-Chief of this beautiful magazine, I couldn't believe my good fortune; to be able to build a project from the ground up about my two favorite topics... the arts and art education.
We featured articles about museums, architectural projects, individual artists, the art of food and dining, theater profiles and reviews and so much more.
We were, however, ahead of our time for the O.C. market. The well-received first issue struggled for identity in an area that had not yet achieved cosmopolitan status. Regardless, one of my favorite memories of my life is the excitement of receiving the first issue from the printer. Anyone who's been in publishing as long as I have understands that feeling.
A magazine office was dynamic, overflowing with energy and filled with clicking machines and massive light tables scattered with slides and half-tones. There was a constant sense of urgency, yet it wasn't tense, but rather, thrilling. Every i dotted and t crossed came with a sense of accomplishment and perfection, and the acrid smell of new ink with that distinctive sound of a freshly glued, perfect-bound spine cracking open for the first time, cannot be described. You would've had to live it.
Magic's in the Bag - Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags & Sachets --
by Jude Bradley and Chere Dastugue Coen (Llewellyn, 2010) - NOW available as a Kindle eBook and in a new print edition on Amazon.
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I first met Chere Dastugue Coen while we were both working as journalists at Variety in Los Angeles. She was a native of New Orleans, Louisiana and I had grown up just outside of Boston, not far from Salem, Massachusetts, better known as Witch City. We were both surprised, as we talked about the more mystical elements of our upbringing, how many similarities we shared. It turns out the North and the South had a few things in common.
I had already been making spell sachets and selling them at local metaphysical stores, and Chere had her share of experiences doing the same thing. She was already a noted author of historical women's fiction with a strong following, and I had a lengthy background in journalism and ghostwriting. It was a meeting of the minds when Chere suggested a book combining our experiences with the occult.
Sold on the proposal to Llewellyn Worldwide, "Magic's in the Bag" emerged from our mutual creative spirits. The amount of research we did was staggering, but the most joy for me was discovering the pervasiveness of the culture of the craft.
It was a long distance effort, since Chere had returned to her home state and I was still in L.A., but it was a fabulous experience. The chapters fell together as if the universe had been waiting for us to write them, and we couldn't have been more pleased with the final product from Llewellyn.
The 2010 version of the book has been out of print since early 2018, so in September, Chere and I received our book rights back from Llewellyn and issued the Kindle version and, as of January 2022, a new print version of "Magic's in the Bag," now available online through Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Google and B&N. It's better than ever! Get your download copy today and let the magic begin!
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