Apparently, I Lied

So I thought I would get back to blogging after the weddings subsided, but I lied, apparently and certainly not on purpose. It's been almost four weeks since the last wedding I was obligated to and life seems to have said, "Nope, you're not done yet."

I get back to work and find out that my boss has somehow attracted the attention of Glenn Beck because of her school and the performing arts group that I'm the vocal coach for. So for the last two weeks, the kids and I have been working relentlessly to prepare for the fundraiser hosted by Mr. Beck himself. Then we find out that the fundraiser he was coming to town for has been postponed until October! I have a pretty big commitment that I will NOT be able to get out of, as much as I'll want to as it approaches.

I'm bummed. My kids will still get to perform, but not in the same capacity and they've been working so hard. "That's show business,"Seems to sum it all up, but it doesn't appease me.

I almost wanted to tweet him and express my disappointment that he postponed this fundraiser. Maybe I still will.


~Lady Jane

AWAL

I didn't realize how out of commission I would be with two weddings in the family. However, one already happened and the other yet to. Thus, my absence. The first was for my sister in-law and the second is for my niece, yes I have a niece old enough to get married. (I am much closer to her age than I am to her mother's.

I love weddings, families coming together, love is in the air, traditions being carried on, etc. So after this weekend, I hope to be back more regularly.

Stay tuned,

Lady Jane

The End of the World As I Know It

I'm sitting here with my laptop (several open tabs) and my smartphone nestled beside. I close a few tabs and it lands on Facebook. I then receive a notification on my phone that someone liked my photo on Instagram and am immediately distracted by that little red circle on my Facebook app (they're in close proximity). I go to check it and realize that I have stooped to the lowest level of degradation for a technology addict. I never thought it would come to this.

I am ashamed.

~ Lady Jane

The Next Big Thing

So I've been tagged to do this blog hopping thing by a new writing pal, Katie. I'm somewhat qualified to participate as I am a writer and I do have a few stories in my head that would be fun to talk about with people other than myself. There are two Works in Progress (WIP) that are battling for my attention.

1. What is the working title of your book?
- Thanks to my witty husband, I'm calling it Premarital Existence.
- Blaming Jane

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
- The first one came to me as a junior in high school. I think I was looking for YA literature and wasn't really finding it.
- Blaming Jane came from my sister when we discovered that Jane Austen is a distant cousin related to us through marriage. (Pretty cool huh?)

3. What genre does your book fall under?
- Probably YA but could fall possibly under the NA tent.
- Memoir probably but I think it might better fit as a play.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
- This is a toughie...I would want some young-ish characters since they are in their first or third years of college. This guy could do. Maybe slightly longer hair. Don't ask me who is, this is what Google, cooked up for me.

I've been told, you write what you know, and I know blond hair, blue-eyed girls very well. I think Julianne Hough could play my heroine in a movie. After all, she is starting to appear more and more on the silver screen. I think this picture really captures the down-to-earth girl I've imagined and I think these two could make a cute and believable couple.

As for the other MS (manuscript) I cannot picture anyone else playing me but me. Ha!


5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
- It's hard to find yourself while you're trying to find Mr. Right.
- A modern-day "Little Women" family with all of the problems of Jane Austen characters.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
- I don't think I would ever self-publish. I hear it's difficult and writing a book has been a challenge enough.
- I think this book/memoir would be really interesting to an agency, since there are genealogical ties.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
- Since it's first inception in 2001, I think I'm still working on my first draft. I have a difficult time finishing anything, probably because I don't always see the ending.
- Right now it's a just an idea with a few thoughts jotted down.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
- What the Doctor Ordered by Janette Rallison
- I haven't read it yet but Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo sounds like it could be very similar.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
- I think the number of books appropriate for me at age seventeen were few and far between so I decided to write one that I figured other seventeen year olds would want to read.
- My sister inspired me to write Blaming Jane because of our genealogical connection and the fact that when upon inspection our lives do resemble those of her characters.

10. What else about your book might pique your readers' interest?
- There's possibility for a sequel
- It's kind of a tell-all about living under the shadow of wealth.



Check out some other writers my friend Katie also tagged to post today...

Darci Cole
Ryan Dalton
Trisha Schmidt

Okay this is so not fair, all of these writers have author-y sounding names already. Probably because they already are.


Happy reading!

~ Lady Jane

Unfinished

I've realized something about myself as a writer: I never finish a project I start. There's always something impeding me from the task, whether it's life or another writing project that appears to be more promising. With that being said, I think I've finally found a writing project that holds some promise for accomplishment. It's a new direction for me (writing in the first person) it will somewhat resemble my own life (a teacher) and the highs and lows of creating relationships out of thin air whilst finding a soulmate.

I can't admit that I came up with this project all on my own. Like Oscar Hammerstein I have to give credit where credit is due; I've been watching old episodes of Parenthood on Netflix and a character uttered a phrase that I thought would be perfect for a book title (did ya really think I was going to give that away? Especially if I want to use it as a title).

Thanks television for giving me yet again another epiphany!

~Lady Jane

NANO, NANO

No, not Nanu, nanu from Mork and Mindy. November is National Novel Writing Month where writers try to bang out 50K words in a month. This is a very ambitious goal for me as I feel that I'm a novice writer even though I've enjoyed it since I was nine. At first for National Writing Month (Nanowrimo) I thought I would upload a story I've been working on for the last three years. I don't know if it's because of Halloween or that I'm reading Frankenstein with a few siblings, but I decided to take a completely different genre to run with for this Nanowrimo project. It's a drastic turn from the normal fluff that I write (chick-lit). I decided to summon my darker side and write a zombie plague tale. It has the potential (I think) to be nail-biting, gripping, and all those other adjectives that a zombie novel is supposed to be.

So wish me luck as I dive into the unknown of my darkest spaces to create the most chilling tale...I've ever written.

~Lady Jane

P.S. While checking some stats, I noticed that people found my blog through zombiestat.com, pretty funny if you ask me. I only just told you about this project. How did you know?!?

Scripts

Why can't people just follow a script! Life would be so much easier for me to deal with if they would just react the way I want them to.

I am a product of the 90s. I still think that it was only a decade ago. And because I am a child of the 90s, I glean how to relate with people watching sitcoms and dramas. So it's no wonder that I become discombobulated when people don't follow a script. What do sitcoms reflect if not real life? However exaggerated. How else are they able to portray real emotions unless its coming from a real place? Say what you will about my research, but I think I'm a little ahead of the curve.

I remember having a terrible conversation with an English teacher in community college about art. We were talking about "The Necklace" a short story by Guy de Maupassant where the main character is faced with a moral dilemma: whether or not she should tell her friend about the necklace. My professor proceeded to ask the class if we see examples like this in daily life. I brought up television (big surprise) and how so many sitcoms have used this dilemma. Then she railed on me for using pop culture as a means to prove my point. "Pop culture is down here. It's for the masses." I can still hear her say it, pardon me whilst I cringe. I proudly reminded her that in her first lecture she told us about how art is artificial and good art feels real. Let's just say for arguments sake that pop culture falls under the umbrella of pop art. With that being said, the sitcoms that use these types of moral dilemmas bombard the television screens of the world and almost every 90s family sitcom cued the sappy music to make a point about what was moral and ethical. So what if it is for the masses? It's the masses that are relating to these kinds of ideas. Mass this, professor!


Lady Jane

Lofty Ambitions

So I'm thinking about writing a play about how my grandpa and grandma met back in the 40s. I've never written a play before. Ever. Sure I've performed in a few plays but writing one seems a lot more arduous and daunting than learning just my own lines and few of the other characters'. The research is going to be difficult because they've both passed on and my own mom doesn't know as many specifics I would need to really flesh out their story.

But I have a wonderful opportunity to display my work. The performing arts group that I'm working for is working on opening their very own theater. I'm nervous, I'm thrilled, I'm a jumble of conflicting emotions. What's better than on opening night knowing whether or not you have the chops to be a writer? Already, you have an assorted group of people, different ages, races, religions all coming to view your work. I wouldn't do this good of a job if I hired the test subjects myself.

I've tried to get my writing out to friends for research sake and I've concluded that unless one of my friends is an editor with an unlimited amount of time to devote to reading, I will never really know what my friends think of my writing.


Lady Jane

The Pop Culture Allusion

My husband and I love to watch The Big Bang Theory and also pause to read the vanity cards at the end of the show. This is where I learn so much about Chuck Lorre and the television business in general. In the most recent episode of TBBT in the vanity card is where I learned that the writers of TBBT watch Downton Abbey! I love reading allusions in literature, but it's just cooler for a pop culture fiend like myself to see allusions to another great program that is leaps and bounds in a completely different category being referenced. I think I missed my calling: writing for a popular television show. My whole life is television, just ask my siblings.

Blogging

Do you ever feel like everyone else has their life figured out? That you're the only scrambling to find something to create, produce that is totally and completely yours? I have a friend, Danny, who has always had her act together. I met her back in 2005 in an English/History humanities course at the local community college. She had just graduated high school, myself out of it for the past three years. She knew what courses she had to take to get her associates degree banged out in exactly two years with an impeccable grade point average to boot. I, at only a mere 21 was completely speechless at this independent, go-getter, hippie 18 year-old. It's because of her that I even finished going to college, not only because she pushed me and encouraged me along the way, but I'm a bit competitive too...(with myself).

Now, she has a very successful craft, sewing, cooking blog along with a precious daughter and doting husband to take of. I've never actually asked her how many hours of sleep she gets at night. Those determined types must survive on something else other than food, water, and sleep. I bet it's some secret elixir that only inductees into the "It Must Get Done At Any Cost" club get after strenuous tests to prove their eligibility. I'm still applying.

At the risk of sounding like a bitter, jealous teenager I'm actually very proud of Danny for all that she accomplishes and still looks great doing it!

I love you Danny and thanks for keeping me in check.

~Lady Jane

p.s. you seriously should check out her blog though, it's amazing!

http://mommyforreals.blogspot.com

Literary

One of my favorite movies is Stranger Than Fiction. It is perhaps the most unique film to grace the silver screen in decades.

I love that: Will Ferrell is an understated funny, Dustin Hoffman exudes literature professor and eludes to his Rain Man days with his bombarding questions about numbers and figures, Emma Thompson is so obsessed with how to kill Harold Crick that she flirts with suicidal psychopathy.

There are too many scenes to name that are memorable. However, I'll do my best to highlight a few.

"Well Harold, I'm sad to admit that there is nothing literary about you." Prof. Jules Hilbert (Hoffman)

I cry a little inside every time I hear that. My whole life is about writing and making connections about life through the films I watch. Shakespeare even believed that "all the world's a stage..." so when I stop to ponder about my life I wonder "Am I the star of my own show?"

Another favorite film (for different reasons) broaches this very topic in a dialogue between two characters, The Holiday.

It is this scene that Kate Winslet's character receives sage advice from a retired Hollywood film writer that she is not acting like the heroine of her own life. "Iris, in the movies, we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are the leading lady, but for some reason you're behaving like the best friend." She realizes that she is merely acting upon outward stimulus, not choosing what to do before a situation presents itself.

I have found too often that I let others determine my role in this life. When I don't show up wearing the same clothes as everyone else, that's not weakness on my part, that's courage to be myself, to go against the norm, to swim upstream, etc. etc.

Now that I have pummeled that tangent to death, here's another great quote from Stranger than Fiction:
"Did you just say 'little did he know?'`I've written books on little did he know. I've taught courses on little did he know. I once taught a seminar all about little did he know. Little did he know. That means there's something he doesn't know, which means there's something you don't know, did you know that?"  - Prof. Jules Hilbert

Even though Professor Hilbert is fiction, I'm jealous of his knowledge of third person omniscient. I've been to my share of English Teacher conferences and have thoroughly enjoyed myself, call me a nerd. Too late, I already did. I wish I could go every year. There are so many interesting, unique, thoughtful, inventive ideas on how to teach English to the digital teenager.

So my goal is to try to be more literary. Find moments in my life as a SAHM to explore the literary side. I guess that means, back to the book.

Until next time!



~Lady Jane

Cultural

I should probably do some research before I start complaining, but I hate to research, and I'm an English major (a very complex individual)... Anyway, I would really like it if someone did a research paper on which cultures are the more openly exuberant.

I've met my share of a few cultures, okay I'm lying, most of them have been from watching TV. But I did meet a few rowdy Italians in London on a trip with the hubs back in the day and boy howdy were they loud and proud of it.

So what I'd like to know is if my in-laws' reserved nature is cultural because it's all foreign to me.

Maybe it's the feisty Irish, the boisterous Mexican, the passionate French in me that overpowers the reserved English nature. (I've got quite the pedigree) On a side note, not joking my grandmother's mother was Mexican so that makes me...drum roll please an 1/8 Mexican. Although to look at me no one would consider it.

But I digress.

So who wants to take on that project? Or find the research for me?


~Lady Jane

Nerd

I'm not gonna lie, I've always had a kindred connection to the geeky and let's face it ridiculous. Heck, I even asked my blind date (I call him husband now) if he liked Star Wars; an important measuring stick for future dates. If he didn't like Star Wars, he was going to learn to like it. We watch a few TV shows on the SYFY network, our favorite being Warehouse 13 and Alphas, another favorite is Doctor Who. It completes the trifecta.

We are impeccably perfect for each other:

We know a plethora of useless pop culture trivia. I have now become my mother's own search engine. Ask Jeeves? No way, ask me.

We know lyrics to otherwise unknown tunes.

We both get excited when we find a Cheeto shaped like a caveman's club.

We speak in accents to each other usually no one else is around.

After a blissful (hectic, exhilarating, momentous, etc.) nine years of marriage, we're still as nerdy as we've ever been, perhaps even more so.

And on that gushy note, I'll be excusing myself now.


~Lady Jane

Obstacles

It started out as the camping trip from he- you know. We forgot our blankets, pillows, sleeping bags and had to turn around and drive back for them after we already left an hour and a half later than I wanted to. Then while driving I remembered that we forgot to bring our box of chips and hot dogs, I suppose it wasn't that big of a deal since we were coming closer and closer to civilization and could buy another pack of hot dogs and a couple bags of chips. When obstacles get in my way I immediately think of, "who is trying to stop me from going? or doing this thing?"

Similar obstacles befell me when I started my first day as a vocal coach. My babysitter got into a fender bender leaving school and I had to bring F with me which meant working it out with my husband to meet me at the studio to pick F when he got off work and switch cars. Then as I was heading out to my husband's car and I tried to turn the lock with my key, nothing happened. F was already in bed by the time I was done teaching. Hubby couldn't come and rescue me. Luckily, I had a spare key which turned out to be for the lock and nothing else.

I wonder if that's why my hair is falling out in thick strands? Am I stressed? I suppose these new hats of home ownership and voice teacher that I've donned have magical properties that release my hair from its roots.

I try to remember that there is only so much I can control. I'm trying to be better about sorting through the mail and reminding myself to pay the bills (hubs has been the primary bill payer for about the last nine years of marriage). There are days where I feel really in control of my life, but when obstacles find their way to me, I lose my footing. Blogging has been my stabilizer though since I haven't devoted time to write more in my book. It's nice to have a release that I can always come back to, something that I know I will never tire from.

~Lady Jane