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Bestselling and Award Winning Author Lee Mathew Goldberg Discusses His Latest Work, The Ancestor

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Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of THE ANCESTOR, THE DESIRE CARD, SLOW DOWN and THE MENTOR from St. Martin’s Press. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the 2018 Prix du Polar. ORANGE CITY, his first sci-fi novel, is forthcoming in 2021. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. Lee’s Latest book THE ANCESTOR is a work of pure mastery, from start to finish the story captivates as much as it enthralls the mind and senses. We had a chace to catch up with Lee for an exclusive interview. This is what he shared up with us.

Talk to us about The Ancestor and how the historical aspect of the book linked together to formulate the plot and storyline in the book? 

The Ancestor is about a man who wakes up in the Alaskan wilderness with amnesia and believes he was a prospector from the Gold Rush in the 1890s. About a third of the book takes place in the 1890s as he remembers what led him to be frozen, so the novel is really a mix of historical and a present era. As he recalls more parts of the era, who he was become revealed as well that affects him in the present since he did many bad things back then in pursuit of gold. 

Within every good story comes a lot of research, in The Ancestor the story takes place in Alaska, how did you come about using Alaska as the place in which the story would take place and was it difficult to come envision the characters walking through the Alaskan forefront? 

Yeah, there was a lot of research for this one. I read a ton of books that took place in Alaska and during the Gold Rush there like Klondike by Pierre Berton and the Floor of Heaven by Howard Blum. Since the book takes place in a made-up town, I didn’t want to visit Alaska and have it color my imagination too much. It was also written during a very cold and frozen winter in New York City, so it wasn’t too hard to imagine the cold and snow.  

All of your books can be paved for the movies, The Ancestor is no exception, if you can pick any Hollywood actor to play the role of the lead character Wyatt, who would it be and why?  

100 percent Jake Gyllenhaal. So if you reading this Jake Gyllenhaal give me a call! Not only is he a great actor but he takes chances with his roles going back all the way to Donnie Darko. This would be. dual role, since he would also play Wyatt’s supposed descendant Travis. It’s definitely a meaty roll he can dig his acting teeth into!

You have been writing for many years, is there a common theme in your style of writing and if so how could a new writer adapt that theme to develop their own style of writing? 

My books have a lot of thriller elements to them and tend to deal with obsessions. My debut is about a man trying to break into Hollywood who does some terrible things. My next book the Mentor deals with obsessive writers and The Ancestor is about a man obsessed with learning who he was and a new family who reminds him of his own. I say you should always write what interests you rather than what you think a reader may like. A style of writing tends to develop naturally.

Now that The Ancestor is behind you I am sure your fans want to know, what’s next? Do you have any projects in the works and have you given any thought of writing your next book outside NYC?

Yes, I have a YA series coming up in 2021 about a girl in the 1990s grunge scene who runs away from home to become a singer. The starts in LA up to Seattle so there’s no NYC in that one!

Michelle has been a part of the journey ever since Bigtime Daily started. As a strong learner and passionate writer, she contributes her editing skills for the news agency. She also jots down intellectual pieces from categories such as science and health.

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Lifestyle

The Message Women Need Today: Cathi Carrier’s Mission to Bring Back Self-Worth

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Many women spend years quietly stepping out of the frame, avoiding cameras, hiding behind filters, or brushing off compliments because they no longer recognize the person staring back at them. It is not vanity that drives those moments; it’s a deeper feeling of slipping away from yourself. That emotional weight is something Cathi Carrier has witnessed for more than three decades, and it’s what shaped the mission behind Purely Bella.

Cathi didn’t build her career in a boardroom. She built it in a treatment room, one client at a time, listening to stories that rarely make it into conversations about skincare. Women would sit down and immediately apologize for their appearance, convinced they were “too late” to take care of themselves. What she saw instead were women who had given so much to others that they had forgotten how to give to themselves.

Her understanding didn’t come from textbooks. It began when she was a teenager struggling with acne that felt bigger than a skin issue; it affected her confidence, her social life, and even the way she carried herself. That experience gave her empathy long before she had professional expertise. She knew what it meant to feel uncomfortable in your own skin, and she never forgot it.

In her treatment room, skincare became something deeper than cleansing and moisturizers. It became a place where women were welcomed without judgment, where they could talk openly, exhale, and feel seen. Over the years, she learned that skin reflects far more than age or stress. It reflects how much space a woman has allowed herself to take up in her own life.

Stories like Sara’s stayed with her. Sara, a retired schoolteacher, walked in with her shoulders rounded and her spirit dulled. She apologized repeatedly for her skin, barely making eye contact. Carrier designed a simple treatment plan, but the real change came from the conversations, the consistency, and the small moments where Sara started to reconnect with herself. Months later, Sara hugged her and said she finally felt like herself again. That transformation, skin healing paired with emotional renewal, is what convinced Carrier that skincare can be a form of healing when done with intention.

Still, she reached a limit. Her treatment room could only help one woman at a time. The desire to create a greater impact pushed her to start Purely Bella, a brand built to carry her philosophy beyond the walls of her spa. The transition wasn’t glamorous. She had to learn manufacturing, sourcing, regulations, and everything in between. But she stayed focused on real women and real results, clean formulations that worked, without the fear-based marketing the industry often leans on.

Purely Bella’s mission is rooted in a simple promise: you don’t need to turn back time to feel beautiful. You need to move forward with confidence and grace, knowing your best self is not behind you. Cathi believes this deeply. She speaks often about how a morning skincare routine is not just about products, it’s a daily choice to care for yourself, a reminder that you matter.

Her mission is also a response to the pressures women absorb from the world around them. Society is quick to tell women their value fades with every birthday. Cathi rejects that entirely. She wants daughters to grow up watching their mothers feel proud in photos, not hide from them. She wants women to recognize that aging is not the enemy; the real enemy is the culture that tells them to shrink as they grow older.

In a crowded beauty landscape, Cathi Carrier is not asking women to chase perfection. She is inviting them to remember who they are, and to step back into the frame with confidence.

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