The Day It Snowed In April

In Books

Paying Tribute To The Purple One

April 7, 2017 4 Comments

It’s surreal to think that it will be a year since the purple one passed away and it’s hard for me to not think of him daily, especially in the month of April. I anticipated Mayte Garcia’s book like many fans of his royal badness and read it searching for answers to the gaps of questions I had. I found her book was done very well and it gave me great insight to some of the things I wondered and thought during his period as the symbol. I also found a lot of similarities to how he romanced her and other women during this time to how he romanced me. Prince was old school cool and really would use the telephone a lot to romance a girl.

I am now happy I listened to my intuition and wrote my memoir, “The Day It Snowed In April.” It was also done out of love and to pay tribute to that romantic beautiful time I shared with him when we both were so young and innocent. I think fans can see Prince was a complicated soul to figure out and part of the mysteriousness was created by him; so that his world would operate the way he wanted it to. As Mayte stated in her book, it was known that a girl was either leaving Minneapolis or staying and those gestures of handshakes he would give a girl was noted to mean he liked her.

Prince always had multiple women in his life and most of them were protégé’s he was grooming, as this was the only way you could fit into his world. I recognized this immediately and he tried to fit me into his world as a protégé, but I didn’t want that. I wanted to be my own person with my own merits and my own career and not be in his shadow or his creation. And there was no way I would want to live in Minneapolis as I could never get use to the winters in Chicago!

Reading Mayte’s book gave me insight to how it would have been for me had I said yes to the “Diamonds and Pearls” video. As much as I wanted to work with Prince the timing was not right and I couldn’t do that video because my marriage was falling apart at that time and as always I put love before career. Prince will always be an enigma to many people and will be studied and talked about for years to come. I’m happy Mayte is at peace with sharing aspects of the pain and sorrow they endured over the loss of their children. And I believe she was indeed the love of his life. I think he pushed her away knowing he was the flawed one and that she still had a chance to be a mother someday. Like most romances he had, the women he wooed loved him dearly because he wanted them to love only him. He was possessive and extremely jealous, but eventually they would all leave him.

I know now he only wanted the best for me and I was actually spared by not working with him because my memories are all so wonderful and beautiful. I came to Hollywood a Playboy Playmate dating the hottest rock star that we have ever seen! There was nothing to top that and for him he knew he could not possess me, so there was no choice but to show me only the good side of him. Many of Prince’s women were in Playboy, Vanity, Carmen Electra, Kim Basinger, Anna Fantastic, but I was introduced to Prince by Playboy and I think he knew that would pose a problem because girls who pose for Playboy end up with may opportunities and options from other powerful men, rock stars, movie stars etc.

I’m sure the fact that Mayte ended up engaged to Tommy Lee of all people only added to his ongoing nightmare that he could not possess her any longer either. As usual, Prince struggled with his own demons and his own values of what was good or bad and he created his world to be exactly the way he wanted it to be. I also created and manifested my world to be the way I felt it should be for me. I think Prince knew when I wrote, “To be loved and in love having a comfortable life and my own family” on my Playmate data sheet that I wanted marriage and family first and foremost. I think that’s why he mentioned he was married to music so often. He knew what the women in his life wanted and most wanted fame and fortune.

When he found his soul mate in Mayte he found his true love, but the tragedy of not having a child with her was something he couldn’t get over and so he had to push her away and I think he did that out of his love for her. I wondered why he married so quickly after the greatest love he ever had and I think it was to make her move on from him. He was being unselfish by pushing her away from him because he knew she could bare children just not his children. I hope many friends, fans and former lovers are now at peace with his death. I’m sure more insightful stories will be shared over time and this is why I wrote out mine in “The Day It Snowed In April.” I didn’t want to forget him and that unique magical time we shared. I am happy, healthy and have a daily reminder of him in my tiny little teacup rescue that I named after him. I am so grateful to have found my soul mate and have a wonderful marriage, so I know the choices I made long ago led me to this moment in time.

I am happy I can now listen to his music and talk about him without crying. I have reconnected with many people from the Revolution and friends who knew him over the past year. I have shared my story for everyone to know him the way I knew him and I look forward to hearing about stories I have yet to learn.

In Books

Purple Love

February 14, 2017 1 Comment

Last week I officially launched my memoir, “The Day It Snowed In April” on my life and time with rock star Prince. It was my way of paying tribute to his unique style and music legacy with a purple theme party in Beverly Hills. The event was held at the home of Brad and Tina Hillstrom, who are natives from Minneapolis. I wanted purple carpet instead of red and for everything to be colored purple in honor of Prince. I even dressed little Prince up in a custom outfit so that he could live up to his namesake for photos.

We had so much rain in the days leading up to the event, I wasn’t sure if the weather would clear up? But it seemed like Prince was surely smiling down on us that day as the sun started to shine! Many long time friends enjoyed listening to Stereo Mike Creamer spin some of Prince’s music that he made during my time with him.

Purple love was in the air and even though it was “Fashion Week” and Grammy week, the purple unicorn singer, Justine Skye stopped by looking fabulous, along with America’s favorite letter turner, Vanna White and classic rock singer, Al Stewart.

Guest enjoyed vegan appetizers by Deliteful meals and chef Karen and purple cupcakes from Swirls. We had a purple punch compliments of Purple Haze and Blackhorn imports. A big thank you to publicist Tiffany Ladner and Anolan for all the organization that went into creating such a memorable afternoon. I gave autographed copies of my book in giftbags along with sponsored gifts from ThinEssence, Delightful meals, Parfaire, Green Leaf, and Expert Insight Publishing. My gorgeous purse was compliments of Grace Nowak and my hair and makeup was done by Emily and the Four Season’s Salon in Westlake, compliments of Yamaguchi. My hair had a shade of purple in it compliments of Louise at Urban Dyebar and I was driven in style to the party in a Rolls Royce compliments of Royal Exotic cars. Special thanks to William Kidston for all the lovely photos and to my Playmate sisters, Deborah Driggs, Barbara Moore and Sandra Taylor for all the love and support!

Half of the proceeds from my book will go to benefit Prince’s charity, #YesWeCode. This is my way of paying it forward and keeping his desire for children’s education in the forefront of his legacy. I thought it was fitting to officially launch “The Day It Snowed In April” in February, the month of love because of the pure love that I know we all shared for Prince and all the amazing music he gave us. You can get “The Day It Snowed In April” now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble in Hardcover, Paperback and Kindle and the Audio version will be out soon! If you enjoyed the book, share the purple love and give it as gift and please don’t forget to give me a review on Amazon

In Books

Holiday Blues

December 6, 2016 1 Comment

As we approach the end of 2016, I can honestly say I can’t wait to have it over and done with. This has not been a pleasant year for me. We battled an 8 month IRS tax audit that I’m grateful we prevailed in and is finally over, but it took up a lot of tedious hours of my time. We lost a lot of great musical artists such as, David Bowie, Glenn Fry and our beloved Prince. This was especially hard on me given my memories of such a precious innocent time in my life. I felt a strong urge to write them all down before I would be too old to remember the details anymore. If someone had told me that I would write a memoir on the most intimate details of my life this year, I would have told them they were crazy and I didn’t have that kind of time. Given that tax audit was taking up most of it and on top of that I was dealing with other added things like being producer on our Emmy award winning Amazon Prime series, “The Bay.” And then of course we had the never ending saga of the election and the constant battle with friends over those two candidates that it made me want to pull my hair out and scream at the top of my lungs at certain times.

In addition to all of this we were trying to sell our houses and consolidate and simplify our lives, given our kids are grown up and not around as much. As a realtor, I had many things to deal with such as repairs, showings and tenants that also took up alot of my time. Time is something that is abstract and goes by so fast and it’s something we can never get back. Sometimes looking back on time spent with beloved people in our lives that are no longer with us can often give you the blues, especially around the holidays. So to say I have the holiday blues this is year is really being honest. I didn’t feel like putting up a tree or entertaining and the holidays seemed to be upon us way too fast for me to catch my breath.

I am grateful this horrible year is ending and am optimistically looking forward to the new year with the completion of my memoir, “The Day It Snowed In April.” Although I didn’t set out to write a memoir on my life this year, I’m happy it turned out the way it has and I’m very proud of the book, as I feel it was directly inspired by Prince for me to tell our beautiful story now. Writing the book helped me grieve through the pain of his death and I got to relive those beautiful moments all over again as I laughed and cried reading it back. My life reads like a Jackie Collins novel and it’s hard to believe this was actually my life. People come in and out of our lives teaching us and guiding us through laughter and pain and helping us grow into the person we are at this very moment in time.

Prince was one of those mystical magical moments of my life at a time when we were both young and innocent with lots of zest for life. I’ve always had a spiritual connection with him and he’s been a constant thread throughout my life so I pondered on why that was and had to write it all down. I was amazed at how fast I wrote the book and how much of it poured out of me, cleansing my soul and bathing me with love. When I read it back I cried like a baby and I struggled with whether I even wanted to release it? I let a few close personal friends read it that knew Prince and my time with him to get their opinions. I watched for signs and prayed that Prince would guide me to what he wished me to do.

The signs appeared in white owls screaming outside my front door during a full moon that told me this had to be Prince! They came to my door three nights in a row flying around me while I continued writing. Then I had a gift on my birthday, June 25, which I discovered was also the day “Purple Rain” was released. I never knew this until I started writing the book. That gift turned out to be the tiniest rescue dog that I renamed Prince. Now anyone who knows Ronn and I would have said that they would have never seen me with such a small dog. He’s only two pounds, but has the biggest personality and reminds me everyday of Prince and puts a smile on my face. These signs told me that Prince now wants me to share this time of his life because it was the happiest time in both of our lives. Like the iconic musicians before him, Prince wants his fans to know the person he truly was and the person he became because he was an inspiration to all who encountered his soul. He was so special and mysterious even to those who actually knew him. So I believe many books, movies and documentaries will be yet to come on his life. My story is just part of what was his journey and its a beautiful heartfelt one that I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed living it.

I want to give half of the proceeds from the book to Prince’s charity #yeswecode and I want fans of the book to spread the love and share it because it is meant to be an inspirational tribute to a man like no other. You may preorder the book here before the worldwide release date of Feb 1, 2017. I ask that you give me a review for the website and like ripples in a pond spread the love and share it with someone YOU love! I will autograph preorders for FREE!!!