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Deborah Owens author of A Purse of Your Own
Demystifying Money ... Provide your audience the knowledge needed to build wealth and secure financial freedom

Deborah Owens is a speaker, author, columnist, entrepreneur, and radio talk show host. She spent two decades as a financial services professional working high net worth clients. During this period, one of her positions was vice president of an investment company. But, eventually, Deborah decided she wanted a change. Today, she is a financial lifestyle expert heading her firm, Owens Media Group, which creates and delivers personal finance content for multimedia platforms. Deborah's goal is clear, to provide financial empowerment programs to companies and individuals of all incomes. In 2001, Deborah was president the Entrepreneur of the Year award by the Business Women's Network.

The host of "Real Money," a personal finance talk show on the NPR affiliate in the Baltimore/Washington DC area, Deborah shares her enthusiasm, wit, and humor on a regular basis. A dynamic speaker who simplifies complex messages, she currently tours nationally as a featured speaker on The B.E.S.T. Tour, featuring Bishop T.D. Jakes, Magic Johnson, and Dr. Cornel West. In the past, Deborah has toured with Working Women Events, Everywoman's Money Conference, and the NASD Office of Individual Investors.

Deborah is also an author, having penned Confident Investing: A Wealth Building Guide for Women and Nickel and Dime Your Way to Wealth. And final steps are being taken to publish a new book called A Purse of Your Own! The 7 Wealthy Habits of Successful Women. Preview the book here.

Deborah's compelling and popular programs include:

• Investing with Confidence in Challenging Times
• Survival Skills for the Almost or Already Retired
• Wealth Building on Any Income
• Who Wants to be a Millionaire
• Financial Fitness Boot Camp
• Leveraging Your Employer Sponsored Retirement Plan
• Retirement Catch-Up
• A Purse of Your Own
• Effortless Marketing for Financial Professionals
• Nickel and Dime Your Way to Wealth (or Retirement)


Testimonials for Author and Wealth Coach Deborah Owens

"[Deborah] inspired our audience with the knowledge and information they needed to take control of their financial futures. She is a class act! ... She is not only incredibly knowledgeable, she has that uncanny ability to make everyone in the audience feel that she has a personal relationship with them, and they are important to her."
--Janet Wigfield, Director of Programming, Working Mother Media


"Your presentation was great! Everyone learned a great deal at the Leadership Conference."
--Kimberly Smith, Discovery Channel

"We recently hired Deborah to create a customized financial literacy workshop for our employees and she exceeded our expectations. Deborah's presentation was a big success!"
--Patricia M.C. Brown, President, Johns Hopkins Healthcare


"I am writing to recommend Deborah Owens ... [her] message of financial empowerment is critical in today's society ... [she] provides our audience with insight and practical application, which are critical components of TDJ Enterprises' mission to Educate, Empower, and Entertain."
--Bishop T.D. Jakes, CEO, TDJ Enterprises

Black Pearls Magazine interview with Pamela Samuels Young

Pamela Samuels Young is the Essence bestselling author of Murder on the Down Low, In Firm Pursuit, Every Reasonable Doubt and the forthcoming Buying Time. The former journalist and Compton native is the fiction writing expert for BizyMoms.com and is on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

Ella: Tell us about your passion for writing. Why do you write? What drives you? What impact do you want your book to make on the readers?
I definitely have a passion for writing. Nothing else could explain my willingness to sit in front of my computer for ten hours a day or my eagerness to rise at four in the morning to write before going to work. I enjoy creating characters and putting them in precarious situations. I want readers to get wrapped up in the mysteries I create, to love, hate and root for my characters, and to close each book and feel as if they got their money’s worth.


Ella: A Legacy is something that is handed down from one period of time to another period of time. Finish this sentence: My writing offers the following legacy to future readers...
I want to help destroy the publishing industry’s belief that only African American readers will read stories with African American characters. People who love mysteries want a compelling story. My primary goal is to write entertaining thrillers with diverse characters and a storyline that keeps readers turning the page.

Ella: Pamela, introduce us to your book, Murder on the Down Low.
In Murder on the Down Low, a string of successful, attractive African-American men are being gunned down on the streets of L.A. and no one knows why? When a shocking revelation connects the baffling murders to a contentious wrongful death lawsuit, the deadly scandal erupts into a tale of lust, lies and vengeance.

Ella: What inspired you to write this story?
I have a crystal clear recollection of exactly when the idea for Murder on the Down Low came to me. I was watching an Oprah show featuring J.L. King, author of On the Down Low. I was completely stunned as I listened to his insider’s account of the mindset of men on the down low, who are guys (many of them married) who profess to be straight but have sex with other men. My emotions during that sixty-minute program went from shock to anger to fear. I was driving to work the next day, still disturbed by the show when a thought came to me. What if a serial killer was targeting some of L.A.’s most prominent family men who weren’t quite what they appeared to be? Within 24 hours, I had sketched out the basic plot for Murder on the Down Low.

Ella: What major issues in today's society have you addressed in the book?Murder on the Down Low gave me an opportunity to both entertain and raise awareness about HIV and AIDS. While African-American and Latina women make up only 24% of the female population in the United States, we account for more than 80% of the total AIDS diagnoses for women, according to the latest statistics published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. I wanted to communicate to women that in order to change these disturbing statistics, we must take responsibility for our own bodies.

Ella: Did you self-publish?
While my first two novels, Every Reasonable Doubt and In Firm Pursuit, were published by Harlequin, I was forced to self-publish Murder on the Down Low after my agent wasn’t able to sell it. I really didn’t want to self-publish, but I wasn’t about to sit on the sidelines and accept the publishing industry’s view that there isn’t a large market for the type of book I’m writing. They’re wrong.

Self-publishing Murder on the Down Low was definitely the right decision for me. The book has received tremendous praise from readers, particularly book club members. My decision to self-publish was further validated when Murder on the Down Low was selected as an Editor’s Pick by the Black Expressions Book Club. Just recently, Murder on the Down Low was a finalist for the 2009 African American Literary Awards in the mystery category alongside, two incredibly talented writers I have long admired: Walter Mosley and Tananarive Due.

Ella: Why did you decide to write legal thrillers?
I’m a big fan of legal thrillers, but I got tired of never seeing women or African-Americans depicted as lawyers in the novels that I read. So, I sat down at my computer and started writing the kind of legal thriller that I wanted to read. I wanted a diverse cast of characters and a protagonist who wasn’t always a white male.

Ella: Share with us your latest news, awards or upcoming book releases.
I’m thrilled that Murder on the Down Low is a finalist for the 2009 African American Literary Awards in the mystery category. I don’t need to win. Just being nominated alongside Walter Mosley and Tananarive Due is honor enough.

I’m extremely excited about the upcoming release of my fourth legal thriller and first stand-alone novel, Buying Time, which goes on sale November 1st. In Buying Time, Waverly Sloan is a down-on-his-luck lawyer who comes to the aid of terminally ill people in desperate need of cash. Waverly finds investors eager to advance his dying clients thousands of dollars—including a hefty broker's fee for himself—in exchange for rights to their life insurance policies. Once the clients take their last breath, the investors reap a hefty return on their investment. When Waverly's clients start dying sooner than they should, both Waverly, and a high-powered lawyer who’s bucking to become the next U.S. Attorney General, are unwittingly drawn into a perilous web of greed, blackmail and murder.

Ella: How may the readers contact you and purchase your books.
Author Website: www.pamelasamuelsyoung.com
Author Email address: author@pamelasamuelsyoung.com
Check out my online media center at Black Pearls, here.

MURDER ON THE DOWN LOW
ISBN: 978-0-9815627-0-4
Price: 14.95

Murder on the Down Low by Pamela Samuels Young
Buy Murder on the Down Low at Amazon.com


Buying Time by Pamela Samuels Young
Purchase the book.

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