Shirin Ariff’s empowering and heartbreaking memoir tells the story of how she experienced and survive trauma and abuse. When she re-married her second husband and moved to Canada, she was kept as a slave in her own home and endured her husband’s abuse. She hopes to show hope with her writing to other victims, learn more about her journey below.

Hi Shirin, thank you for discussing your memoir, The Second Wife, with us. Please tell us about yourself, where you are from and what your book is about. What inspired you to write it?

Hello! I was born in Kolkata, India and live in Toronto, Canada. I am a proud mother of four beautiful children, an award winning author, an inspirational speaker and women’s empowerment coach. After braving immigration to Canada and surviving cancer, I committed to helping women find their inner strength and become their own guiding force. My book is a memoir with a bit of self-help activities to make it interactive for the readers. There are several reasons for writing this book. I wanted to be heard. I wanted to leave a legacy of no abuse for my children. I wanted to be the voice of all those silently suffering women who are going through what I went through. I wanted the men to know the impact on us women when they hurt us. 

Medea Kalantar is the author of Honeycake: A Family of Spices, the first installment of her brand-new children’s book series which is currently available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Medea infuses valuable lessons on love and acceptance into her writing, celebrating diversity within families. Find out more below!

Thank you so much for answering our questions, Medea! Your children’s book, Honeycake: A Family of Spices, looks adorable! What is it about and what inspired you to create this book?

Firstly, I would like to say thank you for featuring me on Defective Geeks. I’m so honored and grateful to be given this platform to discuss the importance and the valuable lessons my books will give families around the world. I was inspired to write these books when I learnt that I was about to become a grandmother. My stories are all based on my own family, whose members come from diverse ethnic backgrounds. This unique mix is a perfect recipe, and it’s the reason why I call my grandchildren my little Honeycakes.

Jasmine Daya wrote about her own personal experience as a woman pursuing a career while she was pregnant. In today’s society, sometimes motherhood is seen as a “road block” to women who want to work. Under her pen name, Leia London, Daya shares her own adventures and challenges in a realistic but lighthearted story.

Learn more about this powerhouse of a woman and what she has to say to other women who are juggling their own life and dreams.

Thank you for talking with Defective Geeks about your book, Jasmine. Can you give our readers a summary of ‘Law Girl’s Bump in the Road’?

Law Girl’s Bump in the Road is a chicklit novel based on my life but slightly fictionalized for entertainment value. I learned that I was pregnant in my last semester of law school and the baby was due at the same time that I was supposed to start working at a law firm. After years of school, a baby at that point in my life was not part of the plan. In addition, I was dealing with cultural issues and ridiculous pregnancy advice. My background is Indian. Although I was extremely concerned, the pregnancy itself resulted in an entertaining adventure that is chronicled in the book.

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Asian American ComiCon was one of the best conventions I’ve been to in awhile, possibly a new favorite of mine. When I planned to attend the convention, I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew there were a couple of interesting panels I wanted to see and George Takei will be there. Definitely enough of an incentive to go, especially just to show support to fellow Asian-American creators and the community.

The afternoon turned out to be one of the more memorable and inspiring day I’ve had as a creative person and as an Asian woman.

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The Space Pirate Queen wants to treat Newt Scamander as her own personal fantastic beast, wink, wink! This episode is dedicated to the latest and greatest in JK Rowling’s Wizarding World: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Spoilers ahead!

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The Space Pirate Queen sits down with Marie Lu and Aun-Juli Riddle to discuss books, tea and how much sugar we had that night. Marie touches a bit on her current book projects (INCLUDING BATMAN!) and Juli talks about how she got started creating her geek themed tea over at Riddle’s Tea Shoppe!

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The President’s Shadow is the third installment in Brad Meltzer’s thriller fiction Culper Ring series. The books explore the deep, dark secrets of the US government’s National Archive in Washington DC through Beecher White’s investigations. Want to find out more and win a copies of the books plus a $25 Visa gift card? Find out more below!

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—Guest Post by Rob E. Boley, author of That Risen Snow: A Scary Tale of Snow White & Zombies

It seemed like an appropriately authorly technique to start this post by reminiscing about my first memory of the iconic character Snow White. The thing is, my memory sucks.

I do vaguely recall sitting in my childhood bedroom and playing with seven dwarf figures that my parents bought for me on one of our first trips to Disney World. The dwarfs weren’t very exciting—just frozen hunks of painted plastic with no articulation.

My first clear recollection of the lady herself was actually a parody from the 1980 comedy 9 to 5, in which three fed-up co-workers, played by Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Jane Fonda, enact revenge on their sexist boss, Franklin Hart, played by Dabney Coleman. In one memorable dream sequence, the three ladies get high and share their wild fantasies for killing Hart. In Tomlin’s story, she assumes the role of a chipper Snow White, complete with animated birds and fairy tale music. Tomlin plays the scene with the perfect amount of wicked glee and tongue-in-cheek innocence as she poisons Hart’s coffee. The scene not only played with the notion of a male-dominated workplace, but also the role of the stereotypical passive fairy tale princess.

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