Karrine Steffans Talks Lil Wayne Pregnancy, Clowning Her Husband On Twitter & New TV Show

“I get this question a lot because I think people want me to define my brand and myself and people can’t seem to get a grasp on me…what I’m doing and why. I can’t define myself. I’m indefinable. I do what I do. I’m just living my life the way that I live my life. There are a lot of businesses that I own. I do a lot of everything and so if I’m able to share that some of it I can’t, some of it I’m just starting to share now and I do. I just don’t think that I can be defined; I don’t think anyone should be defined and put into a box because you begin to think that you are only this one thing. I just live my life and I do some of that publicly.”

“1999. I moved to LA the last month in 1999 I had a good teacher in Ice T who taught me a lot about LA and the business and how things run and I knew then when I moved here that I had to make my way. For a woman its difficult; for a pretty woman it’s very difficult learning how to use what you have, to get what you want, and taking that a step further to where then, you won’t have to use your looks and sexuality to get to where you need to go next. Its kind of a debate—walk into the room pretty, leave out the room smart. So in 1999 I tried to piece things a lot of what I wanted to do together, but I knew that I needed experiences that I could share; so I created those experiences. If you want to write abook about Eastern Europe you might have to go to Eastern Europe and take that trip then write the book, so I took the trip then I wrote the book.”

“Magic Johnson told me once, “Power is in ownership.” And those are just a few little words, but they’ve stuck with me forever and I knew that if I didn’t own it, I don’t want to be a part of it.”

“I’ve always been a writer so I wrote my first book when I was five. It was about kindergarden…it was 80 pages long front and back in my notebook paper….I remember binding it with some string and construction paper and I made a little cover and it was called “My Year In Kindergarden.” It was all about the shenanigans in my kindergarden class, when I learned the word “f**k” for the first time. This kid name Kareem wrote it on the board and I was like “what is that?” So there was a lot to write about. That was my first book and I loved it. That summer after kindergarden I was in Brooklyn with my grandfather and every morning my grandfather would walk to his job whenever he had me a couple days of the week. My grandfather, who I affectionately call Abuelo, used to stop and pick up the New York Times and I remember him opening it up one day and I had read to him my book about Kindergarden which I remember him laughing. My grandfather opened the New York Times and he stooped down and he showed me the New York Times best sellers list. He said to me, “You see this list? This is where all the best writers go. If you keep writing the way you do, you’re going to be on this list one day. Never stop writing.” I was five maybe going on six and it was the summer and he closed it up and kept walking and I never forgot that day. So in my head, at a young age, I thought I’m gonna keep writing and be on that list and 20 years later at 25-years old, I was on that list because my grandfather told me that’s where I belonged. He died when I was seven and I always felt like it was him the whole time. He told me and I feel like he carries me.

“I had been out of a publishing contract for a while and I had decided that I was never going to write another book again. DONE! Satisfaction killed me. It was like the industry sucks I’m over it and I was like in this Hemmingway stage of just wanting to be alone and not write and if I’m not writing I’m not doing anything else. You’re not talking about someone who has a day job, I don’t work at Macy’s or like waitress…like I write.  I came up with the concept of allowing my readers to write for me. Give them a chance. Everyone has a story, I’m not the only person with a story. Every single one of us if we told the truth for a minute, if everyone was just brave enough to tell the truth about themselves, their families, their husbands, their boyfriends, their partners, their friends and if you really told your story, then everybody would read it too. And they would assimilate with you and say “I know exactly what that’s like that’s what happened to me”.

“The president of the studio wanted me to write a show. We’ve been friends for 11-12 years now. I’m consistently turning down the president of a major studio. I don’t want to write a show because I feared that, it’s something I’ve never done. Finally, he showed me how to write a show and we started. He optioned the Vixen Manual then I wrote the script for that pilot which I just got finished after 2 years. I went through 10-12 drafts. Everyone in the studio has to agree and like everything. It took 2 years and 10 versions before it was ready to go out. Were deciding on the network currently for the Vixen Manual Show and I’m [going to] keep the title to myself, for now. I recently signed another development deal with FOX for Confessions and now has to be optioned for 1 hour long. My executive director can not be exposed quite yet, due to contract purposes but I’m super happy to have her. I have two development deals and two television shows underway. It will hit the screen but I don’t know when, television takes forever. I couldn’t work with any other writer but chances are Vixen Manual will probably come sooner because the script is complete. After development then production and we will still have to go in for pick-ups. I have no way of knowing when it will hit the screen.”

I started Twitter in 2007, and started following people back because I knew what the hell it was about before anyone knew what it was. Twitter is not even new anymore. When you follow everyone back, there are so amazed to see that because no other celebrity will. It’s a marketing thing and it amazes you. There is no harm in following people back, it doesn’t matter but new followers feel the love and gratitude. Fans appreciate the love, just a tweet back. I look at it from a marketing stand point.”

“Everything is strategic. There are no accidents happening. When I tweet outrageous stuff it’s for marketing purposes. Everything is business!”

“Wait! What!? I’ve never tweeted that. Get the f**k out of here. Who said that? That’s impossible. Me and Wayne don’t have a sexual relationship. We haven’t had once since before my first husband. I’m one of the few women who hasn’t been pregnant by Wayne. YOOOOO! That’s so super off! It’s important for people to understand that I’m not going to tweet about my life every 5 seconds. I’ll tweet erotic s**t and random randomness but not everything I tweet about is about me. It’s only the internet. I live above the influence- not even a possibility!”

“No, but we did have a conversation the other day about something he heard about, that didn’t actually happen. It ended well. He was having an emotional moment, God bless his soul. I told him, I’m not a fan, I’m your friend and he said something that didn’t make sense but he apologized.”

“The first time or the second time? …. I don’t think I ever told him. I think he just found out. We don’t have those type of conversations. He maybe found out through me. It doesn’t matter to our relationship. When we do see each other we share pictures and do the parent thing.”

“Yes, I am still with my husband. We are not divorced, we are not getting divorced- at this time. Tomorrow is a whole another day. As of right now, we’re good.”

“My husband is very new, he is very green. When I did my first tweet, everyone thought I was talking about my husband and some bullshit blog put all these tweets together and said I wrote a letter to my husband. Why would I do that on twitter? This is crazy! You’re an idiot! It was random tweets I HATE YOU … random, randomness. One of the lines was “give back my MAC computer,” that tweet as random as it was, came from the Monica and Brandy song when it first came out. That’s a line from that song. My husband went online and read these things and he was upset. [I said] “Honey, your not my fan your my husband”. But I had just gave him my MACbook and he was using my MAC at the time. But now he’s good and he gets it.”

“I talk to him more than I see him because the show keeps him busy and it’s back this Friday, I think. Umm, so we had dinner last month….He’ll be in my life forever.”

“Are they not together? I don’t know what’s going on with these people. I thought they were back together because she was at the game on Valentine’s Day. I think that people can decide whatever relationship they want and what to settle for. There are no rules to open relationships. I hope they work it out.”

“Yes, I’m gorgeous nothing is wrong with me. I got my boobs done because they didn’t match.”

“There so many of them. Well the best one I got recently was yesterday and he says, ‘I really want you in my life and that was it.'”

“I cried last night because my high school boyfriend who I’ve known since I was 13, I think. Him and I fell out when I was about 17 or 18 because he had a dependency problem and he stole from me. I never saw him again and that was in the Bronx in 2005. I loved him, he was my high school sweetheart. I’ve always thought about him but I assumed that he was dead because of his strong addiction. The other night, I couldn’t stop thinking about him and I told my friend from DC, that I need to find him. I was trying to find anything about him. I’m searching and searching and I find him and he’s sober and is a sober counselor and now lives in LA.”

“Ummm, WOW. I have so many fears. My biggest fear is settling, like being like everyone else. I don’t want to be a old lady looking back saying should’ve, could’ve, would’ve.”

“I always have [had] my heart broken, who knows 12 or 13.”

“I don’t really have regrets. I don’t regret anything and God has a plan.”

“I was a young woman, I was already a mom and we had just moved to LA. I would tell her, you were worth it! I wish I could tell her that she is a star [even] then. Everyone was attracted to me then because I have a light that attracts certain people and certain things, but no one told me I had this certain light. People don’t want you to know how special you are because then you would know that you were too good for them.”

“Umm, in 5 years I would be more of a publisher, less of a writer which I’m moving into now. I’m sure I’ll write, but I’ll publish. Television and film, that’s obvious. I want a night time Emmy award-that’s in my future. I homeschool my son, so my son will be graduated by then, and I’ll manage his music. He will be on the road, living out his dreams.”

“To keep coming back for more. I think for me and I think about this a lot, when I’m dead what are they gonna say? I want my legacy to be one that broke free of fear and stopped caring about anybody but me. I don’t care what anybody thinks or feels, I only care about me and learning that it’s actually the right way to me. Fearless and Selfish.”

For all things Karrine, visit her web site or follow her on twitter.

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