We Speak Authors
Hollywood film director and author Elizabeth Blake-Thomas on overcoming personal challenges to write her new book, ‘Living With Intention’
Elizabeth Blake-Thomas is a film director, author and founder of mental health practice Medicine With Words. Elizabeth, who is British but based in Los Angeles, directed this year’s release ‘Hunt Club’, starring ‘American Pie’ star Mena Suvari alongside Casper Van Dien and Mickey Rourke, as well as the new film ‘Caralique’, which is out now. Over her career she’s worked with many well-known actors including Tony Todd, Natasha Henstridge, Jodie Sweetin, Malcolm McDowell and Lou Diamond Phillips. Elizabeth’s new book ‘Living With Intention’, published on 19 December 2023 by Wallace Publishing, aims to help people find clarity, purpose and peace in their lives. Her previous books are the novel ‘Arabella’ and the helpful guide to Hollywood, ‘Filmmaking Without Fear’. Elizabeth is also a monthly contributor to Health & Wellbeing magazine, offering insight into how to live a more purposeful, healthier life.
You directed the new film ‘Caralique’ – tell us all about it.
“It’s about a young, determined fashion designer who wants to bring more colour into the world. The story came to me in a format that required a lot of rewriting, but I was immediately interested because it was a mother-daughter story, and because these were people who had faults and flaws. I always enjoy telling stories with these types of characters. It’s an inspirational film, because against all odds, Caralique manages to live her dream. It’s a special film for me too, because it stars my daughter, Isabella Blake-Thomas. It was great to work with my daughter in real life and do something with her that she’s incredibly passionate about.”
What was your experience directing Mena Suvari in ‘Hunt Club’, which was released earlier this year?
“We filmed in Mississippi in a big park. All the crew stayed in cabins and we filmed for 15 days in various places around the park. I loved working on the stunt fight scenes, as well as the intimacy scenes with Jessica Belkin. The story is based on the premise that a daughter is trafficked and murdered and her mother seeks the people out who did it, to get revenge.
“I’m an ambassador for child trafficking awareness. So even though this is a horror movie, it still has a message. It’s just a different way of getting it across.”
You’re a storyteller – not just as a film director, but also as an author. Can you tell us more about your new book, ‘Living With Intention’?
“This is my third book and it means so much to me. I was bullied as a child and also on set a few times – it made me realise that I had to transform my life. The book is called ‘Living With Intention’ because I have clear goals, and I make very definite decisions on how I live my life; I have a strong belief in finding purpose while maintaining peace and clarity. This book guides others to live in the same way, using the tools and exercises I created to teach the methodology.”
How will the book help those who read it?
“It aims to teach the reader how to become self aware, by looking after themselves and maintaining clarity and a healthy mindset.”
“The world is filled with so much noise that I always encourage others to take time for themselves.”
“With tools such as ‘pyramid of purpose’, cabinet cleanse’ and the ‘kintsugi technique’, the reader will really begin to transform their lives.”
Who do you think should read this book and why?
“The exercises in this book never really end. It might be that you fill it out every six months or every year. Maybe you can leave it for as long as five years, or use the exercises daily. It’s great for the individual as well as for the people around them, because it can help families to bond. The exercises are fun as well as creative – it doesn’t matter how old you are, you can still get something out of each exercise.”
Featured photo credit: Isabella Blake-Thomas
Howard Bloom has spent a lifetime reinventing what it means to think big. The man Britain’s Channel 4 once called “the Einstein, Darwin, Newton, and Freud of the 21st century” took the stage at the New Worlds Conference in Texas with a message that stopped the room cold and followed attendees out into the night. “Nature doesn’t just want us to go to space,” Bloom told the crowd, “Nature needs us to.” The line has since become something of a rallying cry for a new generation of explorers, capturing the urgency Bloom believes humanity can no longer afford to ignore.
It’s the kind of sweeping, provocative thinking that has defined Bloom’s career for decades, even as that career has taken him through more than one lifetime’s worth of reinvention. In the 1970s and 1980s, Bloom was one of the most successful publicists in the music industry, building the public profiles of artists including Prince, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, and Styx, and helping launch the careers of AC/DC, KISS, and Run-D.M.C. His approach to public relations was famously described as an applied science rather than simple hype, and New York Magazine once noted that his brain functioned like “the most thorough and efficient” storage system in the business.
After developing chronic fatigue syndrome in 1988, Bloom shifted from shaping the careers of others to shaping ideas of his own, authoring acclaimed books on human evolution, mass psychology, and cosmology, including The Lucifer Principle and Global Brain, the latter of which was the subject of a Department of Defense symposium drawing participants from DARPA, the State Department, IBM, and MIT. His writing has appeared everywhere from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal to NASA’s own Cosmos and Culture.
Bloom’s advocacy for space exploration runs just as deep as his scholarship. As founder and head of the Space Development Steering Committee, he has worked alongside figures including astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon. His latest venture, the Howard Bloom Institute, continues that mission, tackling collective intelligence, evolutionary psychology, cultural innovation, and artificial intelligence with the same conviction that has defined his career. “The biggest breakthroughs don’t come from consensus,” Bloom has often said. “They come from necessary ideas.”
More on Howard Bloom and the Howard Bloom Institute can be found at howardbloom.net and https://howardbloom.institute
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