Author Terrance Dean Serves it "Straight, From Your Gay Best Friend" in New Column

Author Terrance Dean Gives it to Us "Straight, From Your Gay Best Friend" In New Column on Interactive One's HelloBeautiful.com

New York - When ESSENCE Magazine best-selling author Terrance Dean speaks, everyone listens! Perhaps his explosive memoir, Hiding In Hip Hop: On the Down Low in the Entertainment Industry - from Music to Hollywood (Atria/ Simon and Schuster May 2008) had something to do with it. Terrance tore the lid off the down low culture within the testosterone-driven world of Hip Hop, when he revealed a new dimension in a world notorious for its larger-than-life masculine swagger. Bravely unmasking the deep secrets of a prominent gay sub-culture within not only the entertainment community, but within the confines of Hip Hop, Hiding in Hip Hop became the runaway, most talked about, most Googled book sensation of the year. Well Terrance Dean is back! Friday, February 12, 2010 will mark his debut as a contributing columnist/blogger on the Black Planet site "Hello Beautiful" at www.HelloBeautiful.com with a regular feature entitled, "Straight, From Your Gay Best Friend," also the title of his new highly anticipated advice book due out later this year from Agate/Bolden Books. Via "Straight, From Your Gay Best Friend" Terrance will give advice served with a mix of sass, wit, and humor to the thousands of women who write in seeking answers to everything from love, relationships, career, and family. The column will also enlist real-life personal stories, entertainment news, contests, and a sexy man of the week pictorial. "From 'Will and Grace' to 'Sex in the City' to the 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' it is commonly known and accepted that a girl's real best friend is a gay man. Well for those not lucky enough to know one personally, here I am! I will be the one to tell it to the ladies straight, no chaser, about life, love, relationships, and everything in between. I am so grateful to Hello Beautiful.com for having the vision to provide me and their readers with this wonderful opportunity," shares Dean. Always writing, Dean's Straight, From Your Gay Best Friend - Who Else Is Going To Tell You The Truth About Work, Relationships, and Having a Fabulous Life! will be released with Agate/Bolden Books in October 2010. In addition, Dean conceived the idea and concept for a tribute book, Visible Lives: Three Stories in Tribute to E. Lynn Harris, for his dear friend and mentor, New York Times best-selling author, the late E. Lynn Harris. Visible Lives is being released with Kensington/Dafina Books in May 2010. It is an anthology in which Dean enlisted fellow authors Stanley Bennett Clay and James Earl Hardy to write novellas in tribute to E. Lynn Harris who died in July 2009. "I wanted to create a project that honored and paid homage to one of the greatest black gay fiction writers of our time," said Dean. Author, speaker, educator and now advice columnist, Detroit native, Terrance Dean continues to make waves as an advocate for change and empowerment. Having come to terms with himself in a homophobic culture he has positioned himself as a vanguard in hip hop, always pushing the envelope. Dean has worked in the entertainment industry for over 15 years with heavy hitters such as Spike Lee, Rob Reiner, Keenan Ivory Wayans, and Anjelica Houston. Dean also worked with MTV Networks helping to produce live award shows and events including MTV Video Music Awards, Movie Awards, Hip Hop Honors, Rock Honors, Sports & Music Festival, and Choose or Lose. He is the founder/creator of Men's Empowerment, Inc. and co-creator of The Gathering of Men with Adeyemi Bandele, husband and spiritual partner of Iyanla Vanzant. He is also the author of Reclaim Your Power! A 30-Day Guide to Hope, Healing and Inspiration for Men of Color (Random House/Villard - May 2003). "There needs to be a continuum of open dialogue within the Black community, particularly within the Hip-Hop community. I am here. Let it begin with me," expresses Dean. "Straight, From Your Gay Best Friend" on the Hello Beautiful portal will be a wonderful extension of a much needed conversation." Hello Beautiful.com (www.hellobeautiful.com) is one of Interactive One's suite of sites targeting the African American audience. Hello Beautiful.com is a fun mix of fashion, beauty, entertainment and relationship talk carefully curated for the new urban woman. Check the column at http://hellobeautiful.com/author/terrancedean/ and send your your queries for the column to Terrance Dean at girlworkonyou@aol.com.