Here on Hollywood North Magazine, it’s no surprise that a lot of our interview subjects have a lot of skills and do a lot of jobs, and a former writer on our site even covered that particular factor in one of his very first articles. It’s a valid point, my friend. A very valid point that you will have to wear a lot of hats, and I don’t mean in the style of some chapter-book kid or any other fictional character that stacks hats. I’m talking a lot of different jobs. Like me for example. I don’t just run this site, I also act, supervise sets for productions made by my friend, and do some other things as well, depending on where I find work. But enough about me, we covered that weeks ago. Let’s get back to the real focus of this article, L.A. Wade.
L.A. Wade not only has a cool sounding name, but some cool sounding content that recently came out. Her latest book The Adventures of a Recovering Sex Addict Vol. 2: Friends with Benefits but Mostly Liabilities, and a short film called Thirsty AF: The Adventures of a Recovering Sex Addict which both got released on the 15th and feature a character by the name of Cali Church who is a recovering sex addict. The book is about is a sequel to an earlier book that L.A. published, but we’ll get into that later. The second book explores the more exciting exploration of recovery after all the other earlier incidents and people can understand what kind of relationships we can encounter in this crazy world. There’s a lot of short stories packed in the whole thing for a great literary experience. As for the movie, it’s based off the first book, and features a support group as they make their way along to face the traumas and problems they suffered and hope to find an easy road to a better tomorrow. Before the double-release, I got a chance to speak with L.A. Wade and ask her some questions on the upcoming content. They both mainly focus on recovery from serious problems, but provide a powerful enough message so we can both learn and enjoy from the content.
So if you’re looking to recover from a lack of entertainment and information, sit back and read on as me and L.A. Wade talk about these two stories in great detail. After all, you might be Thirsty AF for all the details, and might want to go on an adventure of your own after reading this. By adventure, I mean making your own content, or going on a quest to find this book and/or movie.
HNMAG: So you’re releasing both a book and a short film at the same time. How did you coordinate the two to be released together?
L.A. Wade: Well, the first book was released last year, and I got the money to say that the Canada Council of the Arts were going to be able to support me in creating a short film based on the book. I’d been writing the book prior to applying for the grant, so we shot a proof of concept, and that allowed us to get the money. I then started getting ready to release the second book, to coincide with the release of the film.
HNMAG: And it sounds like they have a lot in common. Were they both inspired by the same stories you had?
L.A. Wade: Yeah, so I come from a background of a lot of abuse when I was a young child. It kind of continued when I went into adulthood and when I was married for 16 years, it came to an end and I started to barter for love. I started looking for sex in the society we lived in and discovered we’re a very hypersexual society. I decided to label myself a sex addict because that’s how everybody seems to be introducing themselves when trying to engage in intimate relationships. First comes sex, then the relationship. I thought that there was a lot of funny escapades that I would go through. My girlfriends would tell me lots of funny stories when they were dating, so I would say “These cocktails are crazy! I’m going on adventure after adventure with every date.” and I began to journal some of those dating experiences and put them together in a book. The movie extracts parts of that beautiful world around Callie Church and I’m able to build a world around her in a support group. That setting has diverse people who are going through their own addictions. In my heart I feel what will happen is that they will make this into an ongoing series because while it is a short film, it lands like a pilot series.
HNMAG: How did it feel turning these experiences into stories?
L.A. Wade: I’m a pretty transparent person, I started this whole brand with the intention of healing after all the things I’ve been through in my life. I do IG live, I asked people all kinds of questions in stream interviews, about sex, dating, and relationships. I would share my experiences and people would share their experiences with me. I have quite a catalogue of interviews with people who really just needed someone to connect to. I thought in order for me to do this in a larger way, it’s better to write these stories down and create an audio book. There’s so many ways to stream and get the message out. That was what I intended.
HNMAG: And your own experiences with addictions, were they a lot tougher compared to what happened in these books and the short film?
L.A. Wade: Absolutely not, I don’t hold any punches. So many do think this is about self-accountability. While many people think I threw other folks under the bus, it is more of me showing up to say they showed up, then I showed up, and we came together to create this experience. I think it’s a fresh perspective from being able to look on addictions to the perspective of recovery while maintaining the adventures of life. You don’t have to go into a corner and die just because you’re trying to be better at something. I’ve become everyone’s little guilty pleasure, because they come to escape. I refer to my books as self-help erotica, and they help people escape from sexual experiences while also hearing struggle and how it impacts both my life and those I interacted with.
HNMAG: What message do you hope both the books and the movie will bring?
L.A. Wade: I hope they will develop an empathy for people who are struggling with something that they can’t see. Trauma, Learning Disabilities, Internal Pain, I have PTSD and often people will ingrate your experience because you’re not able to articulate it in a particular way. I think that the book and the movie allows me to articulate an experience that becomes something of a universal truth that everyone can tap into and recognize their own insecurities through the exposures of my experiences.
HNMAG: You have a lot of experience with both writing and filmmaking, but do you have a favourite among doing the two?
L.A. Wade: I really enjoy directing, but I would say that writing has become my first love. I didn’t realize that until I started to write down what it was that I exactly wanted to say. I really enjoy the word and having a message that you want to be able to bring about without being too overt. I like the subtleties of education through popular culture, through film and writing, and I’m able to utilize writing in a diverse way.
HNMAG: The film is a short film, but could you ever see yourself making a feature with similar story material in the future?
L.A. Wade: I wouldn’t say I see it as a feature, but as an ongoing series. There are other writings that I have, for example I’m working on a book now called Finding the North Star, and it has nothing to do with sex. it is about 2 young people trying to discover who they are when both their parents have passed away and they’re raised in a town that is not racially diverse. But it used to be at one point, and so I’m taking people on a journey through a Nancy Drew of who we are as people that doesn’t necessarily always reflect how we look. The twins are able to go on an adventure after finding a box in an attic that is representative of what their family had gone through. That’s a book I’m working on that I would definitely consider for my first feature. Maybe not even me as a director, I would like someone else like Ava DuVernay to cover this story.
HNMAG: What other kinds of films have you made?
L.A. Wade: I’ve done a lot of visual podcasting, so I’d say I’ve done more TV than film. I had a 13-episode on DIVA TV with late-night cocktails where I interviewed people about love, sex, dating, and emotional aloneness. It was very educational and a lot of fun. I don’t shy away from shock value because a large part of my brand was stigmatizing things that are taboo. Educating people, empowering people, and I don’t understand healing people without laughter. Once you can laugh at yourself, you can move through an experience with a lot more catharsis.
HNMAG: How did you transition from TV to shooting this?
L.A. Wade: I’m just a go-getter, I looked at all the options. I had a really great grant writer and co-producer, Carlos Anthony. He had done a lot of short films on the non-union side, and when he saw the things that he was working on, he believed he could get me the grant money and he did. He showed me how to shoot my proof of concept, and once submitted for the grant, we had high hopes that we’d receive it because the writing is good (laughs) and it’s funny. I didn’t know that the story I would tell my girlfriends would become the stories I would tell the world.
HNMAG: Is there something you’ve never done before that you’d like to try doing?
L.A. Wade: I would like to try and do a feature. I’ve done a mini-documentary on Celina Caesar-Chavanne, the former Parliamentary secretary who wrote a book called ‘Can You Hear Me Now?’ and I followed her a bit on her journey after writing her book and some of the fallout that happened due to some of the things she stood for. It touches on a couple of issues and I look forward to bringing more of the documentary style to the screen because I have a lot of different ideas and I love the idea that film and television, specifically documentary making educates. I’m an educator and that’s what I love, to see how deceptive people are to the medium of written word connected to the visual medium.
This makes me both excited and relieved, excited that these stories are out there for the whole world to enjoy, and relieved that I haven’t gone through any particular issues like this. Except for maybe a harassment case or two, but those aren’t going to talked about anytime soon. I’ve told enough people already.
You can buy the new book right now, if you’d like some reading material. And check out the film too, it’ll be worth a lot of laughs. Even if you haven’t gone through something like that yourself. More importantly, keep an eye out for more of L.A. Wade’s content. What knows what she’ll make next? I’d like to see if there will be more short films.