The Life Chaotic

"I hate busy. I guess it's better than dead." ~ Megan Bostic

Yes, I'm quoting myself. Sue me.

These days it's mostly been the day job, which has somehow trickled into my life. It's because my position as Marketing Coordinator has morphed into something bigger than anyone imagined it ever being I think. I was hired for social media. To post things to Twitter and Facebook and to blog. But social media has transformed into something so big, and my job has also transformed into something more because I've taken it upon myself to learn and grow as a legal marketer, so lately, I've been having to get to work early, and stay there late, and bring it home.

Don't get me wrong, I love what I do. After all, I get to post crap to Facebook and Twitter. And now Linked In (and I'll eventually get to Pinterest and Tumblr and other sites when I get the time). I get to write articles and edit. I get to be imaginative and create ads like the ones below.

I get to think outside the box these days, like we started a whole new website/blog for the founding partner (who happens to be my dad) and his cat, Maxx.

I get to tinker with our website unless things get messy, like it gets hacked, then I call in the big guns. I can only do so much.

Plus, I'm on our Fun Committee, so I get to plan our office parties, and we have fun ones.

I really do love my work. And the lawyers I work with, I know a lot of people have negative feelings about personal injury attorneys, but really, these guys see seriously injured people. People who have been damaged because someone else was negligent, or careless. They believe in what they do and I believe in them.

Other than the day job trickling in to life, there's also that pesky book I'm trying to publish, one I'm trying to write, a soccer team I'm coaching, a boyfriend I'm entertaining, two teenage girls I'm raising the best I can, a garden, a house, and a body that needs to kickbox or walk a few times a week, and maybe eat on occasion.

On a separate note, Jenny Milchman, who I know through ABNA, and whose debut novel, Cover of Snow came out January of this year, is in my neck of the woods and I get to meet her tonight for the first time. I'm terribly excited.

I started her book ( I hope to finish it before tonight, but it doesn't look good) and so far it's excellent. You should go get it and read it and tell all your friends about it.

Okay, enough about me. How are you doing today? Anything keeping you away from your projects?

FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: The next step in the Indie Publishing Process

I finally got my typos typed up and sent off to Lori. She's on vacation though, so she'll get to them when she gets back. I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders. 

So, next steps...

New Dissected Cover

1. Set sale price and buy UPC code for book. I'm still debating this because I'd like to see a $1 for every book sold go to my favorite charity, Mary Bridge Children's Hospital. But I don't want to set the price so high people won't buy it. It's a little long than NE was, so I think I could set the price at $9.99 and still donate a $1 to MBCH. Or I could donate for awhile and see how it goes I guess? What do you think? Is $9.99 too much for a 216 page book?
2. Upload the new cover and book to Createspace and Lightning Source and get proofs from each.
3. Make sure they look good.
4. Start marketing.

I should be marketing already, but really, I've been so busy with life stuff and I'm suffering from exhaustion, which I'm hoping to take care of in the next couple weeks with a trip to my doctor (she's out of town for another week and a half).
 

Wednesday Writing: A Tattered Life

I've not had much time to work on this, but it's my new WIP, based on the 2011 tornadoes that tore through the south. Jock Jaden who doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself, is having a fling with white trash, Payton behind his cheerleader girlfriend's back. He's supposed to be home with his mom picking up tornado debris from his yard. 

He has a lot to learn. 

Feel free to leave comments, but don't forget, it's a first draft.

We fling our seat belts off, move in and reposition our bodies so we’re as close as possible. My hands immediately make my way up Payton’s skirt, hers to my hair. Our desperate lips press together, having missed the forbidden taste of the others for the last twenty-four hours. She climbs up and straddles me, hands moving from my hair to my face. I don’t know why, but I love when she cradles my face in her hands. It feels very…intimate, which sounds stupid coming from me, because I’m not one of those overly sentimental guys. The rest of the gory details I save for Eli.

We sit quiet as we always do when it’s over, for a few minutes anyway. “I should take you home.”

“The bus.”

“Right. The bus.” She shot me a glare. Payton never lets me take her home. Not all the way anyway. It was the bus, or back to the diner, or back to school, or a few blocks away from home. Never just home. One day I think I’ll follow her and find out why.

I pull up to the bus stop, glance around to make no one is looking, then lean in and give Payton a peck on the cheek. She slides out of the truck and grabs her backpack. Before shutting the door she leans in as says, “Jaden, I—,” but stops short. She looks at her feet and stays quiet.

“What is it girl? I gotta get home. My mama’s gonna have my hide as it is.”

Looking back up she flashes a sad smile and says, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay, babe.” I watch her step back from the truck and stand next to the bus stop. I shake my head. For sure, that girl and I have little in common, but there is something between us, I’m just not sure what it is.

Reasons I write what I do

People sometimes ask me why I write the stories I write. You know, the young adult stories about death, mental illness, violence, depression...other than just saying, the stories intrigue me, I've been trying to dig deep and come up with a  more, um, valid reason. Maybe valid isn't the right word.

Intrinsic?

Here are some things I've come up with.

• I'm drawn to sad songs.
• I like to write characters with flaws.
• I'm around teenagers all the time.
• At one time or another I've known most the people in my stories.
• At one time or another I have been certain characters in my stories.
• Stories of unrequited love break my heart in a profound way.
• I write better when I'm in a deeply emotional state.

I think mostly I remember how I felt as a teenager and how all my problems seemed like the end of the world and I believe I still have the ability to convey that emotion, because in some way, part of me is still there, that girl who sometimes felt abandon, who made bad choices, who struggled with peer pressure, who faced things in life that at times made her want to give up, yet she somehow made it through. Yes, she still lives inside me and helps me tell my stories.

Some friends and me back in the day (circa 1986). I'm on the right.

Monkey Madness Monday: Writerly Stuffs

Grumpy Monday Gorilla

I've been diligently typing up these changes for Lori, the gal doing my formatting. Okay, diligently may not be the right word, but I'm doing it where I can fit it in. I've been working a lot at my day job and taking that work home, and have the BF now and something is wrong with my body that makes me want to sleep too much, which feels like one step above narcolepsy, and for which I'm making an appointment today, and I've been to music gigs and soccer tournaments for Things One and Two, but I have been typing them up and the beginning of the book has way more mistakes then they taper off, but I'm getting closer toward the middle, so there you have it...

I got to meet my 2k11 friend Bettina Restrepo last week. She was in Seattle for one night only on her way to a cruise to Alaska. I drove up to Seattle (about a 40 minute drive, but it was rush hour and I don't know Seattle, so I'm sure I was in the busiest part so tack on another 20 minutes). We had dinner in a little cafe called 5 Points, which looks kind schmoozy, but I'd give the food 5 stars. Then we walked around, stared up at the Space Needle, went into the Chihuly store (I had to inform her that the REAL Chihuly Glass Museum, which she wanted to call chilupa, and I couldn't blame her, was in Tacoma, and that our store had things you could buy for $20 as opposed to the $5000 items in the Seattle store). I'd also brought my copy of Illegal for her to sign, so that was very exciting.

Last week I also found out that Jenny Milchman, who I met through ABNA, is going to be in town next week, so I get to go to a book club and meet her. I immediately bought her book, Cover of Snow and will start reading it and pray to god I can finish it by next Thursday.  A normal person can, but a person like me who has not committed to reading a book since, um...let me think...December (don't judge me, I've been busy) is worried, but I'm going to read it as much as I can because I want to read it for Jenny's visit. So super excited about that.

Also found out that a panel I'm to be on was accepted to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs 2014 Conference in February. My friend Gae suggested me to this lovely graduate student who was putting it together. The panel is, In Sickness and In Heath: Writing About Illness and Loss for Young Adults. I'll be on the panel with writers Selene Castrovilla (The Girl Next Door), Jolene Perry (The Next Door Boys), Katherine Ayres (Macaroni Boy) and graduate student Roberta Borger.

So, good times and good news for last week...and getting close to getting that book finished. Still shooting for end of October release date on Dissected. That means I need to get my ass in gear. I have a few free days this week, going to make it happen.

Happy Monday.