Retroality's "Reimagine That!" podcast, episode 21! ............................................................ Chris Mann's special guest, Beth Maitland (pt 1 of 2), on returning to "Y&R," reinventing herself as a creative-living brand/author, and seeing changing realities in daytime in the post-soaring-ratings (and egos!) era; also: intuitive "Reawakenings" dream

Listen to the podcast here

Beth Maitland (pt 1 of 2) ... "Rethinking the Drama" ... In this exclusive and candid interview, Emmy-winning actress, author and Drama Queen Bee creative living expert Beth Maitland opens up in depth to "Reimagine That!" host and Retroality.TV founder Chris Mann about her three-decade-plus tenure asTraci Abbott Connelly on CBS's "The Young and the Restless." Recently returning to the iconic daytime drama's canvas for an indefinite stay (much to the viewing public's, including Marie Osmond's, delight), this newly-Twitter-savvy and Facebook-friendly fan favorite discloses how "Y&R" has been "a gift" in her life since joining the series in 1982. 

Though she has not been a full-time player since the mid-'90s (somebody get this lady a contract, STAT!), she has remained in the Genoa City fold off and on since 1999 -- all the while witnessing drastic changes in the daytime television landscape. While "Y&R" has remained TV's number-one soap, and one of four network sudsers to escape cancellation this millennium, Beth cautions that the genre is not out of the woods yet. "Watching the way daytime has changed," she says, "the number of the shows that have been canceled, the few shows that remain, I hope that (the industry) doesn't dishonor daytime and eliminate it entirely. But the writing is on the wall that we're not finished with the change."

Since leaving the show on a full-time basis, this multi-hyphenate talent has reinvented herself as a crafty quilter, a teacher, a horse enthusiast and, most recently, as an instructional book author -- her first tome, "Bewitching Fresh Stitching: Enchanted Needle Series Book One," rolls out in eBook form next week and as a print book in September.

More on this episode to post soon ...