Millennium_12th Edition_Marilynn Smiley

49 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine ARTS, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT ARTIST, WRITER Pensacola, FL AUTHOR Dolomite, AL TONYA HOLMES SHOOK An artist and writer, Tonya Holmes Shook has been teaching art since 1995 after spending decades in diverse roles. Beginning her career, she was an advertising editor for Herzstien’s Department Store. She also served as an artist for the Holmes-Shook Art Gallery in Wichita Falls, Texas, from 1981 to 1984, gallery and gift shop owner at Peachtree Plantation in Oklahoma, and columnist for the Comanche Times. She has been a public speaker and designer. Since the late 1980s, she has exemplified her artistry in one-woman and group shows, as well as in novels and short stories. Some publications include authoring “No Soft Place to Fall” in 2004 and “The Importance of Blank Spaces,” as well as “The Drifters: A Christian Historical Novel about the Melungeon Shantyboat People,” which took 18 years of research to complete and was based on her First-Place winning documentary at the Oklahoma State Fair. Her passion is to paint the history of the common man. Ms. Shook was director and coordinator of group shows at the Border Queen Book Festival in Comanche and Duncan, Oklahoma, and, in 2019, she was selected for a juried show at Breckenridge Fine Arts in Texas. She is a life member of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Drawing upon an innate calling to authorship from a young age, Adriene Joy Jones began writing professionally upon receiving an associate degree in 1999. Over the course of her career, she has authored eight books, including her first acclaimed book “Just Another Victim,” which details the true account of an assault of a young woman in New York in 1965. Other noteworthy books to Ms. Jones’ credit have included “A Different Bark,” “Meow,” “Bitter/Sweet,” “His Voice,” “Unfamiliar Knock” and “His Love Saved Her.” In 2020, Ms. Jones penned her most recent novel, “Her Last Plea,” a thrilling book about an innocent woman whose life was forever inflicted by a vehement rage. Her diverse range of books tell stories pertaining to interpersonal relationships between animals, as well as the lives of underserved families, religious dedication and unrequited love. Honing her style as the years progressed, Ms. Jones has leveraged her honest voice to shed light on difficult circumstances that are not touched upon by other authors, as well as portray real-life scenarios in a blunt fashion. In the forthcoming future, she intends to continue her writing ventures. ADRIENE JOY JONES

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