It's a Take-My-Breath-Away May

The countdown begins for the long-awaited memoir I Ran Into Some Trouble (August 1, 2018), check out the new book trailer. I have to pinch myself...

And, the reviews coming in for we: an adoption and a memoir by Ben Barnz (November 1, 2018) take my breath away...

“There is so much raw emotion in these pages—it is captivating, enthralling, and ultimately full of love and hope. Ben writes truth after truth about bringing a new child into this world—a complicated task always, regardless of personal situation. Once you read the first page you'll need to know how this particularly unique story ends—and Ben will beautifully tell you.”— Samantha Bee

“I read this book once. Put it down on my bedside table and carried it around in my heart until I picked it up again and read for a second time…then a third. It’s that good. It’s that compelling. Mr. Barnz’s heartrending honesty is about becoming yourself so your children can take their place in the world.”— Felicity Huffman

“Ben Barnz’s beautiful book is a moving reminder of the capacity of love. His account of how this one family was created is a roller coaster ride of emotions & a tidal wave of hope.”— Jesse Tyler Ferguson

“At once heart-warming and gut-wrenching, We had me on the edge of my seat. Ben Barnz brings his story to life with such honesty, vulnerability and humor, that I could not put it down. A must-read for anyone who has ever been a parent or had a parent. I did the same ugly-crying while reading as when I saw Kramer v. Kramer and Terms of Endearment for the first time. It will make you want to hug your people.” — Mark Feuerstein

“Part memoir, part love letter, part haunting tale, We speaks in simple truths. What it means to be a father, a son, a partner, an adopted family. What it means to hold your baby girl knowing you may have to give her up. This gem of a first book burns deep with feeling, humor and the grace of salty tears. We is a work of shining honesty.”— Jodie Foster

Wyatt-MacKenzie signs Taylor Dayne memoir for Late Fall 2018

SHOWTIME! I remember when I first saw this ad. Now I love it even more, crossing generations with this jam... 



So, when I saw the subject line of an agent email, the air left my lungs in one whoooosh. Time stopped and my inner ears began to itch. It was from an NYC agency: “Taylor Dayne inspiring memoir.” That was late November, and I immediately scheduled a call, which was with the agent, joined by other agents, Taylor’s fantastic manager, and I believe some quiet executive assistants. I made it through the “first round” interview, and a call with Taylor was scheduled in December. I’m sure my voice was quivering, but I tried to focus on how I was the right woman at the right time for this book, meanwhile my inner 20-year-old was jumping up and down and screaming. When I heard Taylor laugh, I felt like I had scaled the mountain.

I had no idea how many other publishers were being pitched. Months went by and I had almost convinced myself that it wasn’t going to happen when an email from her manager came in with “Call me” in the subject. I did. Two months later, after I danced with all of the legal eagles and the literary agents, in late April I received the signed contract.

Here’s the deal announcement. Just wow.

Grammy-nominated pop icon Taylor Dayne’s memoir, TELL IT TO MY HEART: How I Lost My $#*T, Conquered My Fear, and Found My Voice; is about a little Jewish girl from Long Island, Leslie Joy Wunderman, who made it against the odds, sold over 75 million records, worked with Michael Jackson, Elton John, and Whitney Houston, and is now on her 30th-Anniversary Tour; a parable of female self-empowerment which captures Taylor’s life growing up in a blue-collar home, becoming a chart-topping musician circumnavigating the globe, rediscovering faith and traditions, and being a single-mother of twins by choice, to Nancy Cleary at Wyatt-MacKenzie, by Todd Shuster at Aevitas Creative Management in association with Konrad Leh of Creative Talent Group (World English).

Here’s Taylor’s TED TALK from last year, which made my dizzy with full-circle moments. She talks about finding our unique talent, something you create and share with others. She says, “I planted my seeds, as my life purpose rooted, I was recognized, and success came.” Uhm... yes... like, right now.



And on a really funny personal note, she says when describing a man, “Give me Brad in ‘Legends of The Fall’.” My heart fluttered. Hey, I got him! To me, Wyatt and MacKenzie’s father was just that. At the 1993 Deadwood Rodeo he walked around like he owned the place, tight jeans with a Copenhagen ring, beat-to-hell Tony Lama boots, and I’d be damned if he didn’t have a crooked grin when he tipped his dirty Stetson at me. Lordy.

My heartstrings snapped, though, at Taylor’s words, “Where is my hero?”

Here’s a video with Taylor’s Billboard Hits... was it the soundtrack to part of your life? TELL IT TO MY HEART will be available in Nov/Dec 2018.

Wyatt-MacKenzie signs Ben Barnz memoir for Fall 2018

We’re ecstatic to announce Wyatt-MacKenzie’s acquisition of WE: AN ADOPTION AND A MEMOIR by Ben Barnz for a Fall 2018 release.

Ben Barnz is an independent film producer, and business partner with his life partner filmmaker Daniel Barnz. Together they formed We’re Not Brothers Productions and produced the feature films Cake (starring Jennifer Aniston, Sam Worthington, Anna Kendrick, William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman) and Phoebe in Wonderland (starring Elle Fanning, Patricia Clarkson, Bill Pullman and Felicity Huffman). We’re Not Brothers Productions has most recently teamed up with Plan B’s Brad Pitt to take Ryan Wash’s story, of an openly gay black debate champion, to the big screen.

WE: AN ADOPTION AND A MEMOIR is universally relevant in its examination of family and belonging.

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On September 8th my adopted daughter was born.

On September 11th two planes flew into the Twin Towers.

On September 12th my daughter’s biological father legally contested the adoption.

WE tells the story of the harrowing six-month litigation that followed my daughter’s birth, but it’s also a memoir.  

WE is about growing up in the eighties during the height of AIDS, when to be gay felt like a death sentence, and when the concept of same-sex families didn’t exist. It is about auditioning for my future husband’s film in Los Angeles and eventually falling in love. It is about our commitment ceremony because marriage was not an option. It is about the day we met a terrified mid-Western girl who was seven months pregnant and carrying our daughter. It is about coming up against my own moral center and having to do what is right when what I wanted to do was wrong. 

 

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Every year, over two million children are adopted in the United States alone.

WE is one story about creating a family, and about how much has changed in thirty years. In the 1980s, gay fathers were invisible; in 2000, eight percent of same–sex couples were raising adopted children; in 2009 it was over twenty percent and “the trend line for same-sex couples in particular is absolutely straight up.” (Adam Pertman, E.D. Adoption Institute)