Jacqueline E. Smith's Blog, page 46

Thoughts on Adulthood

Today was a good day.  I drove out to Addison to meet a friend for lunch and on the way, I saw a train!  I’m not sure if 26 year old women are still supposed to get excited about seeing trains, but I love them! 

Seeing the train kind of got me thinking about what it means to be an adult.  I grew up thinking, “Okay… once I reach a certain age or cross a certain line, then I will be an adult.”  I believed that being an adult was something that would just eventually happen.  One day, I’d wake up and I’d prefer documentaries to Disney.  I’d stop geeking out over passing trains.  I’d stop secretly pretending to be a super hero while I work out.  I’d enjoy things like going out to bars and clubs more than I enjoy sitting at home with a book.  I’d start to appreciate the value of things like taxes and mortgages and new refrigerators.  I’d prefer heels and cute flats to bare feet and flip flops.

None of that has happened yet.  And you know, frankly, I’m not sure I want it to happen.  I like who I am.  And that doesn’t make me any less of an adult.  I know plenty of adults who love Disney and who prefer comfort to style and who don’t know the first things about taxes.  Life itself is a learning process.  We don’t reach a point where we’re full grown and suddenly we’ve got everything figured out, and I don’t think we’re meant to.  How boring would that be, to have all the answers all the time?

So, I will continue to go about my life, delighting over trains, marathoning Disney movies, and saving the world from my elliptical.

Oh, and building extravagant blanket forts for my cat.

Carry on, friends.

February Goal Achieved!

100 readers have added, reviewed, rated, or marked Cemetery Tours as “To-Read” on GoodReads! Aspiring authors, take note: GOODREADS IS AWESOME.

For Anyone Having a Bad Day

This has nothing to do with reading or writing or books. It’s simply a cute picture of a dog for anyone having a bad day. It made me smile. I hope it makes you smile too.

Note: It is not my picture or my dog.

Oh Look, Another Monday

Hello friends, and welcome back to the real world.  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I took a day off from blogging yesterday and drove out for Fort Worth to visit my best friend whom I haven’t seen in over a month (not okay!).    

Fort Worth is actually a really cool city, especially with the stockyards!  I even did a photography project in grad school featuring the stockyards.

 In actual book-related news, Cemetery Tours 2 is officially less than four chapters away from being finished!  I think I’m going to email my cover designer either today or tomorrow to get his opinion on graphics.  I’m also thinking of asking a friend of mine to take some new professional photographs for me.  I’ve never really done a professional shoot before, and I think it might be fun and beneficial.  

Finally, and this is exciting, Cemetery Tours has been selected for review by Book Viral!  http://www.bookviral.com 

I’m not sure when it will be up, but I will definitely let you all know when it is!  I’m so thrilled!  All you new authors out there, reviews are SO IMPORTANT.  I can’t even tell you.  

Anyway, this is going to be a short post because I’ve been under the weather today.  Fun, fun.  I think I’m just going to spend the rest of the day writing in my pajamas. 

Which, you know, is probably what I’d be doing even if I wasn’t feeling sick, but whatever.  

Under The Sea

My family loves attending musicals.  We live in Dallas, home to the largest Arts District in the nation, which is pretty cool since when people think of musicals and the arts, they usually think of New York or maybe California.  Just another example of how everything is bigger and better in Texas.

Sorry, but you know, it’s a running gag and has to be said.

Anyway, as I said, we are big musical fans.  My sister is even studying vocal performance at college and will constantly text me to let me know just what professional female vocalists are doing wrong.  Me?  Well, I just enjoy singing and dancing and a fun storyline.  Especially if that storyline happens to include my favorite Disney Princess of all time.

Not my picture.

I know I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog talking about my love for Harry Potter and The Hunger Games and Tolkien, but I feel I’ve only touched on my love for Disney, especially The Little Mermaid.  The Little Mermaid came out the year after I was born, so I literally grew up with Ariel.

My childhood revolved around Disney.  My bird was named Belle, my sweet kitty Jazzy was named after Princess Jasmine, but Ariel was always my favorite.  I know a lot of girls my age really connect with Belle, and in ways, I do too.  I’m a brunette and I think books are super cool, but I always wanted to be Ariel.

For one thing, she’s a mermaid, and come on, who would not want to be a mermaid?  I honestly never understood why she would want to leave the ocean, but she’s still the best.

Ariel was never the perfect daughter or the perfect Princess.  She’s adventurous, she’s stubborn, she likes to find things out for herself, she’s curious, she’s rebellious, and she follows her heart even when everyone else tells her she’s wrong.  Ariel literally swims against the tide.  She also never lets anyone or anything stop her from having fun.

Finally, Ariel is just super awkward and adorable.  Could any other Princess actually get away with combing her hair with a fork – excuse me, a dingle hopper – at the dinner table, in front of a handsome Prince?  I don’t think so.

As soon as I heard that the musical adaptation of The Little Mermaid was heading to Dallas, I wasted no time in purchasing tickets.  Long story short: best money I ever spent.

Seeing Ariel brought to life in front of my eyes was nothing short of magical.  Unlike the original Broadway production where the mermaids all had tails and “swam” around on roller skates, Ariel and King Triton actually floated across the stage like they were swimming.  The set and costumes were beautiful, dazzling, and, not to sound girly here or anything, very sparkly!

Not my picture.

Not my picture.

Not my picture.

Ariel was portrayed by Broadway alum (and a member of the original TLM cast) Chelsea Morgan Stock.  She was incredible.  I’ll admit I had a hard time warming up to Sierra Boggess.  I’m not sure why.  Probably because she wasn’t Jodi Benson.  But Miss Stock was amazing.  Her Ariel was just as adventurous and warm and stubborn and adorable as she’s always been.  I especially loved her scenes with Eric Kunze AKA the dashing and dreamy Prince Eric (with an equally amazing singing voice).  I’m tempted to say I liked their relationship more in the musical than I did in the movie.  Blasphemy, I know, but they were so cute.  I don’t want to give away any spoilers for those who haven’t seen the musical, just know that I cried at the end.

Not my picture.

There were a few things that they changed from the movie that I would have recommended they left alone.  For example, I’m not sure if this is the way it was in the original Broadway production (I know they made a few alterations), but Flounder, Ariel’s best little fish friend, had a huge crush on Ariel!   I’m sorry, but I found that odd.  My best friend has been trying to convince me for years that the Flounder in the movie had a crush on Ariel and I always told her that she was crazy because A) Flounder is like Ariel’s little brother or maybe even her talking pet and B) HE’S A FISH.  But she remained convinced that Flounder was just pining for Ariel the entire movie.  I was very reluctant to admit to her that the musical people apparently agree with her.

Not my picture.

For the record, all the live pictures are photographs from the Dallas production.  None of them are my pictures.

These, however, are my pictures!

With this Trident Pen, I shall finally rule the Seven Seas.

And after I was done crying my eyes out over the beautiful ending, my family and I went to eat delicious Texas Barbecue.

If anyone should wish to contact me, I shall be in my pajamas, marathoning every Disney movie I own.  Especially The Little Mermaid.

Just For Fun

In honor of Friday, I thought I’d take the day off of business stuff and just post something fun.  Okay, it’s still sort of about writing, but it’s silly and cute, not “hey, go buy my book” and miniature progress reports.

I was going through some of my old stuff the other day and I found a few of the first books that I ever wrote.  They’re not actually my books, more like little kid versions of Disney movies, but I did find one book that I wrote called, A Scary Book for Halloween.  It went something like…

“Mummies scare people on Halloween night.

Spiders bite on Halloween night.

Pumpkin faces glow bright on Halloween night.

Meow go Halloween cats.

Ghosts arise on Halloween night.

Witches go back and forth through the air.

Frankenstein.”

I have to admit, I cracked up.  I spent an entire book (or like, six pages) writing about all these monsters and what they do and I ended it with “Frankenstein.”  Smart kid.

A few other gems include lines such a page from my Dallas book, “This is a cactus that is sharp,” and “This is a tortilla growing in a tortilla patch.”  Now, I don’t know if I thought I was being funny or if I actually believed that tortillas grew in tortilla patches, but I still got a pretty good laugh out of it.

I also found an old alphabet book that I wrote.  I was particularly impressed by my choice for O.

It’s kind of cute.  I was smart enough to know what an opal was but not smart enough to know not to write my lower case a’s backwards.

I also found a few of my Disney books…

I was so obsessed with Ariel.

This one was written before I figured out that J and L are not the same letter.

Apparently, Prince Philip was not important enough for color.

“Prick your finger!”

But the first book I ever “wrote” was inspired by Donald Crews’ Shortcut.  I still remember my pre-k teacher reading it to us like it was yesterday.  It was about a group of kids who had stayed out past dark, so they decided to take a shortcut home along the railroad tracks.  Near the end of their journey, they heard a train whistling in the distance, and they knew it would be coming along the tracks.  In my head, that train whistle in the night was so eerie, and I remember feeling chilled and a little scared.  It was the first time a book had gotten to me like that, and I was fascinated by the idea that words on a page could be so powerful.  I decided right then and there that I had to have that book, but instead of going out and buying it, I wanted to recreate it for myself.

So, there you have it.  A small glimpse into the early days of my writing career.  Hey, we all have to start somewhere.  You know, I didn’t realize that writing was what I wanted to do with my life until my junior year of college.  Looking back, I can’t believe it took me that long to figure it out.  I’ve been writing for fun and therapy since the day I learned the alphabet.  Granted, it took me a while to master a few letters, but overall, I think I’ve got them down.  Though I’m still a little iffy on 5′s if I’m being totally honest.  My hand has just never felt comfortable writing 5′s.

Anyway, before I sign off for the day, I also wanted to share this adorable picture of my kitties when they were babies.  Sadly, my sweet Rusty (the orange one) is no longer with us, but Jazzy (the one with the tongue) is still alive and happy, even though my sister says that in this picture, she looks like an “aloof doofus.”  Mean.

Have a happy weekend, everyone!

The Downhill Slide

Yesterday morning, I was feeling a little stumped.  I was also in a rotten mood, but that was mostly because of the weather and I don’t sleep as much during the week as I probably should (I make up for it on weekends though!).  I knew I was nearing the end of the first draft of my new manuscript, but I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to tie everything together and make it all fall into place.  Finishing a book can be really intimidating.  You want to make sure you’ve covered everything, left no stone unturned, or any mystery or plot open or unsolved (unless, of course, you’re planning a sequel).  

Speaking of sequels, I need to find out when the new Mediator book by Meg Cabot is coming out!  I love that series.  Heck, I love everything she writes.  I kind of want to be Meg Cabot when I grow up.

Anyway, thankfully, I got past the stumped-ness after hours and hours of literally staring at a blank wall and imagining every possible outcome, solution, and scenario.  I knew how I wanted it to end, I just need a little guidance on how to get there.  I’ve finally managed to write out a miniature outline for the final few chapters and have mostly determined that I’m four and a half chapters away from being finished!  Yaaaay!  

Once that’s finished, the next order of business will be reading through and editing it myself before sending it off to my real editor, making sure my beta reader (AKA my sister) likes it and doesn’t think it’s crap, and consulting with my brilliant cover designer.

 

Seriously, he’s just the best.  I do not know where I’d be without him.

And yes, this was a cheap shot at getting my book cover out on your news feed.  Sorry.  

Long story short, I’m really close to being done and I hope that I can still make my self-imposed summer deadline.  That’s one good thing about being an indie author, the only deadlines you have to abide by are your own.  Unfortunately, I’m a really easy going boss and I cut myself a LOT of slack.  I’m actually really good with other people’s deadlines (thank you, six years of higher education).  If you give me an assignment and a date by which I need to finish, you can bet you bonnet that I will have it done.  If you don’t give me a deadline, however, I am going to do whatever I want, whenever I feel like it.  I’m just kind of a go with the wind, free spirit like that.  

Well, that’s all for tonight.  I’m about to head out and take a walk around the park with my friend and her doggy.  I hope you all have a pleasant evening! 

Oh and also, I got new glasses!  I can see!   

Books and Chocolate

I knew when I woke up and saw that it was once again gray and muggy outside that it was going to be a bad day.  My beautiful, sunny, warm weather had abandoned me and I fully intended to take it out on the world by making everyone around me miserable.  I mustered up the worst attitude I could, went into work at my day job with a scowl on my face, and waited for someone to say or do something that would give me the opportunity to make their day a little worse.  

However, as it turns out, today hasn’t been a bad day at all.  It’s actually been a really great day!  I mean yeah, the weather is still gross and I miss the sunshine, but I hear a lot of good music today on the radio (“My Girl” anyone?), I ran into one of my best friends at the supermarket and we shopped together, we both bought ourselves enormous boxes of Russell Stover’s Valentine’s Chocolates (on sale!), Cemetery Tours is still selling, and I received my copy of Seance, the book that I reviewed for my author friend over in the UK.  

I guess God or the fates or the universe just wasn’t in the mood to deal with me being a brat.  So they sent me friends and books and chocolates!  Seriously, do I really need anything else in life?  

So delicious… and they’re all DARK chocolate! The best!

Yay books!

I’m always so excited to get books by fellow indie authors.  I’m in the process of setting up my office, but when I do, I want to have an entire bookshelf dedicated to works by indies.  It is so, so, so important to support each other.  The publishing world is changing, but we’ve still got a long way to go.

I’m getting very close to finishing the sequel to Cemetery Tours.  When I was writing the first one, the last few chapters were the easiest to write.  For some reason, with this one, I’m still trying to figure out just how to make everything fall into place the way it needs to.  I’m sure I will, I just don’t know how much longer it will take.  Hopefully not too long, because I am super ready to get to publishing AND to get started writing something new!  

I hope you’re all well, and if you’re not, go eat some chocolate and read a good book.  I guarantee you’ll feel better.   

 

All the Best Actors Play Rosencrantz

Apparently, BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH also played Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead!  I must find a link to see this beautiful work. 

So now, we have Shakespeare and Harry Potter and SHERLOCK!  Could the fandom gods possibly love me more?!

Geeking Out

Okay, guys.  So yesterday, I was scrolling through Tumblr, browsing the Harry Potter tag, and I came across something about two of my favorite actors from the franchise, James and Oliver Phelps.  I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love the Weasley twins, how Fred was my fictional boyfriend for like eight years before JK Rowling MURDERED him, and how I actually felt like I’d lost a friend after I finished reading the seventh book.  Fortunately, I can live happily knowing that James and Oliver are actually both alive and well.

They are also apparently going to be starring together in a new movie.  A remake of Hamlet.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2349632/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1

I don’t know if I’ve told y’all this… BUT I LOVE SHAKESPEARE.  I especially love Hamlet.  It’s one of my favorite plays.  I also love Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Twelfth Night, Macbeth (I could write a whole blog post about why I love Macbeth, and maybe I will someday), etc…

I’m not sure how he did it, buy my high school English teacher had this way of teaching all of us Shakespeare, among other great things, in a way that made all of us love it.  We even ended our first semester with a trip to Shakespeare in the Park where we all had an absolute blast.  That love for the Bard stayed with me all the way through college.  I even wrote and illustrated an ABC Shakespeare children’s book for a Children’s Literature class.

Desdemona and Othello.

Romeo and Juliet’s nurse.

The Weird Sisters from Macbeth. Fair is foul and foul is fair…

Anyway, James and Oliver are going to be playing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in new version of Hamlet, at least according to that IMDB link.  If you’ve only read or seen Hamlet, you might not think a whole lot of those roles.  Their scenes with Hamlet are amusing, but that’s more due to Hamlet pretending to be mad than any sort of character development or connection to Rosencrantz or Guildenstern, and I don’t know about anyone else, but I didn’t really care when I heard they’d been killed at the end of the play.  Easy come, easy go.

However, if you’ve read or seen Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, you’ll know that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two of the greatest (and most philosophical) characters in the entire play!  Reading the play was a complete and utter joy, but the movie, staring Tim Roth and Sirius Bla – I mean, Gary Oldman, is just about the best thing ever.

Tim Roth as Guildenstern and Gary Oldman as Rosencrantz (they think). My friend and I always said that she would be Guildenstern and I would be Rosencrantz because I was kind of this spacey, happy doofus and she would always yell at me. It was funny.

I wish, more than anything, that once they’re done shooting Hamlet, then James and Oliver would star in their own version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.  Still, having my two favorite twins from my favorite series ever starring in one of my favorite plays ever… I will not complain!

Weasley Twins + Shakespeare = Pure Happiness

In other good geeky news, I found these AMAZING pictures on Pinterest.

As if the glorified combination of Harry Potter and Shakespeare wasn’t enough, now I get Disney and Van Gogh?!  Is it my birthday?!  Seriously, I thought I couldn’t love anything more than Fred and George as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but these pictures are SO BEAUTIFUL and I love Disney Princesses almost more than anything and I don’t know a soul who doesn’t love the art of Van Gogh.

Or this episode of Dr. Who…

I’m not even much of a Dr. Who fan and I could watch this episode over and over and over again.  And Matt Smith is actually the cutest human being alive.

Alright, well, I’ll let you all enjoy the rest of your evening while I sit here in all my geeky glory.  Chapter 27 of CT2 is coming along nicely.  For all the Luke Rainer fans, he gets a little bit of the narrative in this one!  I’m excited!  He’s such a fun character to write.  Good night, all!