Many people struggle to achieve their dreams or to find a better life. Failures diminish their faith in their own abilities or possibilities of everything.At other times they are asked to give up on what seems to others as unachievable dreams and move on. Therefore, some do not get a chance to grow or to achieve their self-potential. However, the achievements and success of many, have proven that: if someone puts a lot of effort and tries harder, success is possible, even after the failures. They can move to a better life and even achieve what seemed for them to be impossible dreams! For example, Jon Mack, a beautiful actress and singer as well as a music producer, has been able to live out her dreams, utilizes her talents, and achieves self-potential. Do you wonder why? Because she had set goals, dreams and used her talents, which she has used towards best purposes. Not only to save animals but also to offer joy with her songs. She worked hard to get to where she is now. Along with singing and producing, she has performed roles in the following movies: Playing for Keeps (Connie), Mind Blown (Gertie McAffie), Stormageddon (Agent Smith), Blunt Force Trauma (Reggie), Spiders 3d (Doctor Stella), The Perfect Boyfriend (Marcie), Playing For Keeps (Connie), A Christmas Wedding Date (wedding singer), Stalked at 17 (Elizabeth), Dinocroc vs. Supergator (FBI Agent), Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (Ava Gardner). Her performance as Ava Gardner was her first appearance in movie industry. According to IMBD, Jon Mack is a staunch supporter of foundations that try to raise awareness of animal poaching and trophy hunting. I was fortunate enough to meet this talented actress and singer, and she was kind enough to let me interview her for the Non Profitable Portal #echaritygr I work for as a representative abroad. Emiliya Ahmadova: What attracted you to a career as an actress and a singer? Jon Mack: I started acting in theater productions my mother directed when I was just 5. Music was always a passion for me since I can remember. Emiliya Ahmadova: What has been your greatest accomplishment in the music and movie industries? Jon Mack: Seeing my career grow over the years and feeling that I’m learning more with each experience. With music, it was teaching myself a lot about the recording and production process which led me to my independence as an artist. Emiliya Ahmadova: What kind of roles have you performed throughout your career? Are you satisfied with these? Jon Mack: They’ve always been varied, which I like. I’ve played light and dark characters and always want to keep growing and exploring. I don’t think any artist is ever fully satisfied since that what drives art forward. Emiliya Ahmadova: Of all the roles you have played, which one is your favorite? Jon Mack: I don’t have any favorite at the moment but I have a few that I am quite fond of and those are usually the ones where I get to exist outside the box and take risks. Emiliya Ahmadova: Did you have to change yourself in order to be accepted into the entertainment business? Jon Mack: No. The only thing I had to develop was a thicker skin and resilience in the face of adversity. I don’t know if that’s changing or more likely growing. Emiliya Ahmadova: Who is your favorite actor and actress, and why? Jon Mack: I have many that I admire and they run the gamut from Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren to Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman and Christian Bale as well as those who are no longer with us likePhilip Seymour Hoffman and Health Ledger. There are so many talented actors that I still look forward to working with out there. It’s very inspiring to work with this caliber of talent because it raises the bar for everyone. Emiliya Ahmadova: What are you working on now? Jon Mack: I have some things in the works at the moment that I can’t talk about yet but will able to soon. What I can talk about is an episode that I’m finishing with my musical ego “Auradrone” that will be coming out in September 2018. Emiliya Ahmadova: When you face setbacks, how does that emotionally affect you and your work? Jon Mack: I think it emotionally affects every human when they encounter a setback but this is what makes us who we are and makes the successes that much sweeter. It’s not always easy but I try to keep my eye on the bigger picture at all times and that definitely helps. Emiliya Ahmadova: You are a founder and president of an organization that defends endangered species. Can you give us some more specific information? Jon Mack: I founded Defending the Endangered in 2015 as an effort to gather artists and use our talent to educate and join the fight against poaching and trophy hunting. We have been building and gathering momentum since and had our first event last year in Los Angeles. We are currently planning our next event very soon. More details are available at : www.defendingtheendangered.com Emiliya Ahmadova: What pushed you into this activity?
Jon Mack: My lifelong passion for animals and all wildlife. I grew up on a farm and that probably had a lot to do with it. I’ve always been absolutely in love with animals and trying to help them since they truly are the voiceless and innocent. Emiliya Ahmadova: Have you been involved in other charitable activities? What was your part in it/them? Jon Mack: I have worked with a few animals charities over the years including my role as a celebrity ambassador for the Heaven on Earth which is an amazing group of people who rescue and rehabilitate homeless and abandoned cats from the highest kill shelters and streets of LA. They basically take the most hopeless of cases and give them a home no matter what. I was involved with them for many years before I started DTE. Emiliya Ahmadova: Did you ever have difficulty with any characters that you played? What was the role, and why was it challenging? Jon Mack: No, not really difficult. All roles should be challenging but I’ve never had trouble with them. Emiliya Ahmadova: Your talent as well as achievements inspire many. What would be your advice to the victims of abuse–or any struggling soul? Jon Mack: I think to anyone who is struggling right now…Please never ever give up on yourself. This is the key that has given me the strength to survive the mad world of Hollywood and world at large. We’ve all had our battles and life is a series of battles but what matters is your belief in YOU. No one can give that to you and no one can take that away. This is the force that will move mountains in your life even when all things look dark. We must know that there is an inner spark in us that can indeed surpass these obstacles. Why do authors put endless efforts into creating a piece of art derived from imagination, knowledge, or experiences? Let’s try to find out.Some write to make money. This helps them to pay bills, to have a roof over their heads, and to support their families. Others choose this path because of their love of creating something new, something that can captivate a reader’s attention. There are still others who have a different agenda – a need to educate the population, warn, inspire, and/or lead readers in the right direction. I have met a few authors whose fictional books cover the reality of what is going on in our lives and in this chaotic world. It is a known fact that the Devil exists, as Hell does. There is an ongoing battle in this world – a battle between good and evil. Demonic forces constantly try to destroy our relationship with God and to take away any chance that we might have to enter paradise. If you look around, what do you see? Conflict/Wars:
Along with conflicts/wars, we are witnessing cases of domestic abuse, drug addiction, violence, increased crime rates, lost lives due to crime, and depression or illness. Marriages fall apart. Some walk this earth feeling lonely and dejected, either filled with hate or low self-esteem. Are these elements caused by choices, mistakes, wrong desires, the thirst for power, mind illness, or greed? Or is there something else that causes destructive events? Chaos in this world is caused not only by humans’ own will and actions, but also by evil forces that indirectly push mankind into a life of sin by planting the desires of greed, power, and lust. They feed our emotions with anger and jealousy, and push us into a depressed state of mind. K.R. Morrison tries to show the real side of evil, as well as its battle for the human soul, in her book, Be Not Afraid. K.R. has lived in the Pacific Northwest for over 20 years. Be Not Afraid is the first book in her four-part series, Pride’s Downfall. Be Not Afraid is the marvelous story of Lydia’s struggle with dark forces. A woman whose life is peaceful suddenly faces dark forces that put her in great pain and trouble. Her entire family becomes the prey of a cunning and evil vampire—one that represents the devil himself. She has two choices—either to accept defeat or fight for the future of humanity against the dark forces that are after every human soul. The way the author depicted the classification and the love of Jesus makes one emotional. In her marvelous masterpiece, she shows us how a cunning demon enters someone’s life possessed by one goal—to destroy. This is what Satan does best—he takes every step to hunt a soul down and take God’s grace from it. Only faith in God and constant prayer stand in his way. In order to find out what pushed K.R. Morrison to write Be Not Afraid, I decided to ask her a few questions. Emiliya Ahmadova: When did it dawn upon you that you wanted to be a writer? K.R. Morrison: I don’t believe I ever “wanted” to be a writer. This tangent in my life was pretty much pushed on me by circumstances that it seemed I had no control over. Emiliya Ahmadova: Is it true that the topic of Be Not Be Afraid was inspired by your dream? K.R. Morrison: I can’t say that it was a “dream” as much as it was a nightmare. Emiliya Ahmadova: Can you please tell us what it was about? K.R. Morrison: It was very short, but I could sense everything about it. I was being bitten by a vampire—even now the memory makes me cringe—and I could feel my veins collapsing and my heart speeding up, then gradually slowing. That’s when I woke up. Once I realized it had been a nightmare, I sort of fell back to sleep and dreamed another scene that’s in the book. It didn’t stop there. Instead of becoming a mere memory, the dream(s) kept going through my head, and every time the story got longer and more detailed. This went on without ceasing for about three weeks. At this point, it took about an hour to go through the entire thing. Then it would start over again, all the time I was awake. Once I finally wrote it all down (in about two weeks’ time), the dream left my head. Emiliya Ahmadova: What was your purpose of writing Be Not be Afraid? K.R. Morrison: At the time, it was merely to try to get it out of my head. But as I wrote, it seemed to me that there was a message I was supposed to convey. And when saints and angels, and God Himself, came into the picture, I knew this was much more than the alleviation of a pesky nightmare. Emiliya Ahmadova: What was your hardest scene to write? K.R. Morrison: Anything in which the vampire actually did his dirty work. Scares me to even read those scenes—I can hardly believe I wrote them. But I did—with one hand over my eyes!! Emiliya Ahmadova: Why did you choose a vampire as your main evil character? K.R. Morrison: This character was not of my doing—as noted above, that was the main culprit in the nightmare. Emiliya Ahmadova: What is the most important thing about your book in your opinion? K.R. Morrison: It shows the love between people and faith that never gives up. Emiliya Ahmadova: Does Be Not afraid carry a message? K.R. Morrison: It is this: God loves all of His creation, humans especially, and will never turn aside from anyone who seeks Him—no matter what religion or belief. Emiliya Ahmadova: In what format your book can be bought and where? K.R. Morrison: Good question—let me go look those up…Best place, I guess, would be Amazon.This is my author page. Emiliya Ahmadova: Have you written any other books? K.R. Morrison: There is a prequel to this one, called UnHoly Trinity. My third and fourth books in the series have not been published yet. www.amazon.com/Unholy-Trinity-Prides-Downfall-Book-ebook/dp/B01BIGXDC6/ref Emiliya Ahmadova: How long on average does it take you to write a book?
K.R. Morrison: This one took a month or so of feverish writing. Thank heavens my family left me alone so I could get it done. The other two (which was one, but then was split because it was too large) took a year or so. My fourth took a couple of years due to having to work full-time. Emiliya Ahmadova: How long on average does it take you to write a book? K.R. Morrison: This one took a month or so of feverish writing. Thank heavens my family left me alone so I could get it done. The other two (which was one, but then was split because it was too large) took a year or so. My fourth took a couple of years due to having to work full-time. |