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More about Nancy
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Southwest Blend online magazine is a division of Free Spirit Promotions, a company owned and operated by mother and daughter team Nancy J. Reid - Editor and Production Director (aka Madame Geek), and Lisa D. Smith - Editor and Marketing Director. (aka the Social Secretary). Together they offer over 40 years of marketing, photography, and editorial experience in, fund-raising, event planning, marketing and tourism. "We are exploring the Southwest USA one cactus (and one margarita) at a time." We make a good partnership with talents and personality traits that complement each other--Nancy is the tortoise and Lisa is the hare.
Then & Now: It
all began when Nancy, a successful
wildlife artist, writer, and photographer, led tours from Los
Angeles to Kenya, East Africa. This ultimately led to her moving to
Kenya - bringing a young Lisa along - and working out in the field for
writer and conservationist Joy Adamson, of 'Born Free' fame. Nancy was
the past editor of the "Born Free" newsletter and wrote conservation
articles for other publications throughout the early seventies.
Unfortunately, Joy Adamson was murdered, and the unrest in Kenya made it
time for a change. Nancy and Lisa relocated to England, and toured
Scotland, England and Wales on a fundraising and conservation awareness
effort for World Wild Life Fund using Nancy's wildlife paintings and
photography. Nancy and Lisa then did a fund raising tour for the
National Cancer Association of South Africa.
They settled in South
Africa where they started a magazine called 'Splash!' - a travel,
lifestyle and leisure publication. Due to political pressure they left
South Africa and returned home to California.
Once in California, it wasn't long before the old 'publishing bug' took over, and in 1997, Free Spirit Promotions was born. Since then, Nancy and Lisa have enjoyed traveling throughout the Southwest, and have published regional coloring-in / activity books for children, a print magazine called 'The Blend Magazine' which grew into 'The Southwest Blend Magazine', and of course, SouthwestBlend.com. Continually being updated with interesting travel, leisure, lifestyle, and event news, podcast interviews, and photo tours of the Southwest--plus featuring 'The Burro Express' an email newsletter that is read by over 180,000 subscribers weekly; SouthwestBlend.com has a loyal readership of over 1.8 million readers/unique visitors. In January of 2008, they launched Champagne Sundays, an online radio show that airs every Sunday (except major holidays) from 11 am to 1 pm, PST. They also launched their own blog.
More
about Nancy: I began my career primarily as a Wildlife
Artist working in pen and ink, pastels and oils. I have painted
commissioned works including portraits, landscapes, seascapes, pet
portraits, still life and florals and have exhibited in the USA,
England, Scotland, Wales, Kenya and South Africa.
Living
in East Africa and
working for Joy Adamson of "Born Free Fame," gave me the
opportunity to study
wildlife up-close and personal in their natural habitat. My job with Joy
was to follow Penny, Queen of Shaba, who was fitted with a radio
collar. I tracked her movements every day, noting her behavior. I was
also responsible for shopping in Nairobi for supplies. Our tented camp
was located in Shaba Game Reserve just outside Isiolo, Kenya.
I
have always been concerned with the destruction of our planet and the
disregard for the place on earth that our wildlife should have. I have
used my paintings mostly as a way to raise funds for various causes,
including a two year speaking tour throughout England, Scotland and
Wales on behalf of World Wildlife Fund; and a two year+ tour
throughout South African on behalf of the National Cancer Association
of South Africa. These tours led to being written about in over 50
South African newspapers, appearing on three radio programs
and on the television show, "Good Morning South Africa" and Great
Britain's show "Pebble
Mill At One." Please click on photos to enlarge. For more of my
paintings, please click here.
To listen to
a recent interview with Nancy with radio show host Lillian Brummet
from Conscious Discussions, please double click the Play button below:
More
About Lisa: Lisa was raised in Kenya,
England and South Africa, having left the states at 1½
years old. Her lifestyle in these countries has given her a very open
and inquiring mind, a love for travel, wildlife and natural places,
and a passion to protect our planet and it's inhabitants.
She is a keen photographer, a musician, songwriter and
singer, a writer, editor, and is the "social secretary" or marketing
director of Free Spirit Promotions.
Her love of music led her to starting a band, "Human Spirit" that
played in the San Diego area for 3 years, until the time constraints
of running a magazine requiring a lot of travel, made it impossible to
do both. Now, as co-host to Champagne Sundays, she loves to interview
other musicians and give them the opportunity to be heard.
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