Stacey Powells
I was born three weeks late during a sweltering summer because my mother said I was trying to finish the book, “Island of the Blue Dolphins.” I still read it every few years. Eating donuts from the Helms Bakery Truck, going to the Reseda Drive-in Theater, and having a crush on an unattainable Catholic boy was part of my growing up in California’s San Fernando Valley. So was losing my virginity in 1975 on Halloween, but not with the Catholic boy.
In 1977, I left the Valley for a college far away from Los Angeles, but still in California so I wouldn’t have to pay the out-of-state fees. I was a promising geologist but couldn’t wrap my brain around chemistry and physics. I ended up graduating HSU with a BA in Theater/Playwriting and ironically, began a long career in the music industry. I worked for Paramount Pictures for almost 20 years, licensing music for television shows such has “Happy Days,” “Laverne and Shirley,” “Entertainment Tonight,” and the first “Arsenio Hall Show.” The Jim Henson Company and Multicom Entertainment are still some of my clients.
My first marriage happened on Cinco de Mayo in 1984. We weren’t catching any fish in the Sierra Nevada rivers so instead, drove to Reno and eloped. I eventually gave birth to two boys: one a Capricorn, the other a Taurus. I kept them but ultimately left their father which was followed by a brain breakdown, anti-depressants and a psychologist. Not having any single- parent role models, I sucked as a single parent. Nonetheless, my boys, whom I call the ‘two-man swarm,’ eventually left the hive. They’ve launched their lives in two opposite and separate directions. One good, one not so good.
Vowing to never marry again, I proved myself wrong by meeting my match and marrying him on a beach, in the mountains, in 2010. I spend my time writing in a variety of genres, playing pickleball and traveling the world with my current, and final, husband. My book of personal essays, Empty Cupboards, launched in 2022 and reached #1 on Amazon in several categories. I’ve been a journalist for over 20 years and am a 2020 Jeff Arch Fellowship winner. My play, “Stirrups,” was showcased at the 2016 New York Theatre Festival and has been produced in several small theaters. I have written pieces for Island’s Magazine, Divulge Magazine, Santa Clarita Living, and The Eastern Sierra Wedding Guide. I also co-host the TV interview show and podcast “Slightly Filtered” streaming on lpptv.us and various other media outlets. I read several books at a time and my guilty pleasure is watching natural disaster videos. With all that his happening on our planet right now, I’ve decided that if I’m to be reincarnated again it will be as a humpback whale so I can spend summers in Alaska, winters in Hawaii, and can have as much blubber as I want and nobody will care.
In 1977, I left the Valley for a college far away from Los Angeles, but still in California so I wouldn’t have to pay the out-of-state fees. I was a promising geologist but couldn’t wrap my brain around chemistry and physics. I ended up graduating HSU with a BA in Theater/Playwriting and ironically, began a long career in the music industry. I worked for Paramount Pictures for almost 20 years, licensing music for television shows such has “Happy Days,” “Laverne and Shirley,” “Entertainment Tonight,” and the first “Arsenio Hall Show.” The Jim Henson Company and Multicom Entertainment are still some of my clients.
My first marriage happened on Cinco de Mayo in 1984. We weren’t catching any fish in the Sierra Nevada rivers so instead, drove to Reno and eloped. I eventually gave birth to two boys: one a Capricorn, the other a Taurus. I kept them but ultimately left their father which was followed by a brain breakdown, anti-depressants and a psychologist. Not having any single- parent role models, I sucked as a single parent. Nonetheless, my boys, whom I call the ‘two-man swarm,’ eventually left the hive. They’ve launched their lives in two opposite and separate directions. One good, one not so good.
Vowing to never marry again, I proved myself wrong by meeting my match and marrying him on a beach, in the mountains, in 2010. I spend my time writing in a variety of genres, playing pickleball and traveling the world with my current, and final, husband. My book of personal essays, Empty Cupboards, launched in 2022 and reached #1 on Amazon in several categories. I’ve been a journalist for over 20 years and am a 2020 Jeff Arch Fellowship winner. My play, “Stirrups,” was showcased at the 2016 New York Theatre Festival and has been produced in several small theaters. I have written pieces for Island’s Magazine, Divulge Magazine, Santa Clarita Living, and The Eastern Sierra Wedding Guide. I also co-host the TV interview show and podcast “Slightly Filtered” streaming on lpptv.us and various other media outlets. I read several books at a time and my guilty pleasure is watching natural disaster videos. With all that his happening on our planet right now, I’ve decided that if I’m to be reincarnated again it will be as a humpback whale so I can spend summers in Alaska, winters in Hawaii, and can have as much blubber as I want and nobody will care.
