Jacqueline E. Smith's Blog, page 50
January 22, 2014
Something Meaningful
I am not a morning person. In fact, if you even look me in the eye before 11 AM, I will probably want to punch you in the face. I won’t, because I don’t want to get arrested, but I will want to.
Honestly, I feel sorry for anyone who has to be around me in the mornings, because I am so utterly unpleasant. I’m fully aware of my lousy attitude, but I usually don’t care enough to do anything about it. So, I go about my business with a permanent Stink Eye look plastered on my face and only talk to people if they address me first.
Now once in a while, I will actually put this state of incessant pre-noon brooding to good use and think up a new blog post or something great that I want to write in a story. Today, however, all I could do was how little good I actually do with my life.
People who know me might be surprised to hear me say that, because to them, I’m such a goody-two-shoes, and on paper, yeah, I guess I do qualify as the proverbial Good Girl. I’ve never been in any serious trouble. I made mostly straight-As. Graduated high school 3rd in my class and spent the next six years earning my BA and my MA. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t like to party. I’m responsible (although I hate admitting it), and for the most part, I always do what I’m told. There’s no getting around it. I am a Good Girl.
Here’s the problem with being a Good Girl though. It doesn’t matter. Yeah, all that is great for me and it’s really great for my parents, but what have I done in the past few months that has actually helped someone? Being well-behaved and making good grades is great and encouraged, but what good am I actually doing the world by existing in this narrow little world of impeccable self-control and obedience?
I’ve decided that one of my new goals for 2014 needs to be: Start doing more good.
I have done good in my life, but not for a while. I’ve volunteered time, I’ve given blood, I’ve donated to charity, but I feel like ever since I started working, my life has revolved around the sole purpose of making money, and that is simply no longer enough.
Money is awful, isn’t it? I mean, when we’re kids, we’re told that life is this beautiful and amazing thing full of wondrous creatures and new experiences and exciting adventures. We can be anything we want to be. We’re taught about the magic of science and heroic events of history and all the extraordinary things that human beings have done before us. I’m not sure where in the great timeline of our lives that that message changes, but as we get older, it gradually evolves from, “Wonder, awe, and opportunity,” to “Do whatever you have to to make money.”
I know, I know, I sound like a total romantic (not in the Lovey-Dovey sense, but in the Looking-at-Life-Through-Rose-Colored-Lenses sense). I have a terrible habit of projecting how I think life should be onto reality and I know that at least some level of acceptance is important or else I simply will not survive in this world.
I’m not even sure how my thought process led me from “Do more good deeds” to “I hate that I have to have money to exist,” but there it is. I’ll try to stick to the point.
This afternoon after work, I stopped by Target. I had a little birthday money left over, so I decided to buy the second Percy Jackson book and a hardback copy of The Fault in Our Stars. I’ve already read it, but it was on my sister’s Kindle and I wanted my own physical copy (although as an author, I am very grateful for the eBook, as a reader, I will always prefer real books). I reread most of it in one sitting.
Books like that one really make me think. I think of all the kids and adults in the world who are terminally ill or physically disabled and who would give anything for a shot at the kind of life that most of us take for granted. I am a healthy young person, probably as healthy as a person can get minus allergies and a mild anxiety disorder. I can do anything. And yet, out of some strange fear, or perhaps the idea that I have to keep my life on a certain track, I don’t. I’ve published a book, yeah, but for the most part, I’ve lived my life on the straight, narrow, and very conventional line, existing each and every day as though my time in this world is endless.
This life is a rare and beautiful gift. I want to write, and I will always write. It’s my Thing. It’s what I do because I enjoy it, not because I feel like I have to. Even now that I’m a published author, it still doesn’t feel like a job to me, and I love that I’ve found something that I enjoy that much. But I also want to start living life outside my safe little bubble.
It’s not enough anymore to simply be good. It’s time to start doing good.
January 21, 2014
How Not to be Cool
Recently, I’ve received a lot of sweet and encouraging words about my posts. My favorite messages are the ones that say that I make them laugh. I love being told that I’m funny, mostly because in person, my sense of humor can be really awkward. I always think I’m hilarious, and people do end up laughing at me, but it’s usually because I’m being inadvertently funny while trying to be funny in a totally different, cool-person way. I’ve finally come to accept, however, that that’s just never going to happen.
I’ve never been very good at hiding my true nature. Trust me, I try. Even when I was little, I tried to make everyone think I was cool and adorable.
But the truth is I was crazy… and a little gross.
So, instead of telling you stories about how awesome and cool I am, I’ve decided to share a few stories that are actually true. And hopefully funny.
One of my mom’s favorite stories is the time she caught flipping the bird at the Easter Bunny. Let me just say right now that I was three years old and I did not know what I was doing. A few days earlier, I had gotten my middle finger stuck in our screen door. That was apparently the scariest moment of my little life up until that point because I still remember it. I thought I was going to be stuck in that door forever and they were going to have to chop my finger off.
Anyway, later that week, my mom and my grandma took me to see the Easter Bunny. I’m sure Mom and Mimi were really enjoying their day until they paid for the pictures and turned around to see me, standing right in front of the rabbit, and about ten other kids waiting to get their pictures taken, and shooting him The Finger.
“JACKIE! What are you DOING?!” my mom screamed.
“Showing him my hurt finger.” Duh, Mom.
At that point, my mom walked right up to that poor fellow in the rabbit costume and explained, with a distinct emphasis on every word, “SHE’S SHOWING YOU HER HURT FINGER.”
The rabbit just nodded, bobbing his head up and down. Good thing it didn’t fall off. That could have been even more traumatizing than the little kid with hobbit hair making rude hand gestures in the middle of the mall.
Sadly, I don’t have a picture of that day, but I do have a picture of the day I met Roger Rabbit. I was terrified of his movie as a kid, so I have no idea why my parents thought I wanted to meet him.
Clearly, I am not happy.
Speaking of things that scared me, nothing in my entire life, not even my intense fear of zombies, compares to the day I realized what it really meant to be afraid of something. To be honest, I still feel really guilty about it, because it stemmed from a really sweet gesture. Around the same time that I flipped off the Easter Bunny, my dad bought me E.T. the Extraterrestrial on VHS. That night, we all gathered around the television, turned off the lights, and played the movie.
I didn’t last five minutes. As soon as I saw E.T.’s creepy little silhouette running through the grass, I was done. I was so scared that I started bawling and my parents quickly turned the movie off. Now that I think about it, I think I had the same reaction to The Wicked Witch of the West, but my fear of her was nothing compared to the sense of sheer terror that E.T. ignited in me. My fear of him lasted for a ridiculously long time. I even had my dad go back and make sure he wasn’t hiding in my room after my cousin showed me a picture of him when I was nine.
I didn’t try watching E.T. again until the restored version was released on DVD, and I am proud to announce that I am no longer scared of him. I think the new CGI effects had a lot to do with that, as I’m still not overly fond of the puppet, but in this picture, he’s actually really cute…
Confession: Although I have successfully overcome my E.T. phobia, I’m still not okay with Yoda. Creepy little puppet, he is.
Along with being a little wuss who was scared of absolutely everything, I was also remarkably dumb. Although I do not blame my exposure to Disney for unrealistic expectations in men, I do blame them for misleading me on what should have never even been up for discussion.
For example, thanks to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, I truly and honestly believed that diamonds and rubies and sapphires came out of the ground looking beautiful and sparkly.
Like this. I can’t even tell you how long it took me to figure out that real diamonds do not look like this. I actually think I was in college before it finally hit me that Snow White totally lied to me. I don’t know why it took me so long. Granted, it’s not something that I think about very often. I just remembering being in a shop and I saw a garnet rock, the way it actually looks before it’s cut down into the diamond shape, and thinking, “Huh… that’s a funny looking garn… OH MY GOD.”
Dumb. Kid.
The other example I have of my sweet and simple trusting nature (at least when it comes to Disney movies) stems from my repeated viewing of The Lion King when I was six years old. My took me to see that movie at least five or six times because my grandma was really sick and my mom was pregnant with my sister, so he got to entertain me.
After one such viewing, we were driving (I think to the supermarket), and I was looking at my new Lion King trading cards (all of which I still have). I found one with a photograph of a warthog.
“Look! It’s Pumbaa!” I showed him.
“It is! You better not call him a pig or else he might charge you!”
That, of course, was a reference to Pumbaa bowling into those hyenas that called him a pig, but as a young and embarrassingly naive little girl, I didn’t realize that. Thus began the next five years of actually believing that warthogs understood the word “pig.”
When you think about it, it isn’t much of a stretch. I mean, dogs understand “sit” and “fetch.” Why couldn’t a warthog understand the word “pig?” Not that I’d ever get brave enough to actually go up to a warthog and yell “PIG” at him, but still.
Speaking of yelling things at animals, I had a friend who was absolutely convinced that if you yelled at an emu, it would fall over and die. Fortunately, I never bought into that one. But the warthog thing? Oh, that lasted forever.
There I am, watching my Disney and believing every life lesson those characters taught me. You can tell from the blank look in my mind, there is absolutely no brain activity going on in this picture.
So there you have it. My childhood in a nutshell. I like to think that today, I’m a little wiser and a little less gullible, but then again, I want to write for a living. Maybe wisdom and reality are simply beyond my reach.
January 20, 2014
Fortune Cookies
Okay, here’s the deal. I know I’m supposed to be a grown-up and everything, but my favorite part of eating Chinese food is still breaking open the Fortune Cookie and reading my “fortune.” I actually hate the cookie part. I’m not sure what Fortune Cookies actually are, but I’m fairly certain they’re not actually cookies. I think they’re more like dehydrated cardboard. But still, the fortunes are fun.
Today, my fortune read, “Be assertive. Your ideas are worthwhile.”
That’s actually a really great piece of advice, because the truth is I am not assertive at all. I like to think I’m a go-getter and that I exude confidence, but that’s only me when I’m doing what I love or having fun. In a lot of real-world situations, I prefer to keep to myself and not talk to anyone. Basically, I become a little hermit.
You will not see Hermit Jackie on this blog or if you want to talk to me about writing or publishing or books. If you talk about those things, you will meet OMG-I’M-SO-EXCITED-I-LOVE-ALL-OF-THESE-THINGS Jackie. She’s very loud and very confident. Hermit Jackie is different though. She is actually very intimidated by most people and will try too hard to act cool and will then end up looking like a total loser. Well, Author Jackie does that cool, but at least she’s kind of funny about it. Hermit Jackie is just embarrassing.
I think the Fortune Cookie really was onto something, though. I really want to make things happen. I want to finish my second book and see the first one go up in sales (which actually has been happening thanks to a lot of you and GREAT reviews!). If there’s one thing I would tell every aspiring author, it would be do not underestimate the value of a good review. Every time I’m browsing the Kindle store or Amazon and I see a book, I ALWAYS read the reviews. Actually, I have several other things I would say to aspiring authors, but that’s definitely one of them.
In other news, I’m still working on the sequel. I’m getting so close to finishing it, guys! I just need to work harder and spend a little more time on it and a little less time planning my dream trip to Europe on Pinterest. But you know, a girl’s gotta be prepared, right?
I feel like I really should be writing more about my work and my book, but I really have nothing except for thank you all for buying and for your readership and… here’s hoping you like the second one!
January 18, 2014
Of Zombies, Reviews, and Country Music
Okay, there is something I have been meaning to ask… well… anyone who will listen, actually. It’s about zombies.
Whenever I write, I like to put on a television show or movie that I’ve seen a thousand times, you know, sort of just to keep me company while I type. Last night, I decided to watch the pilot episode of The Walking Dead.
Now, I’m absolutely terrified of zombies, but for some reason, I just love movies and books about them. Maybe a sick, twisted part of my brain just really likes being scared. Anyway, in most movies and books I’ve seen and read, I can’t help but notice the characters never use the word “zombie.” For instance, in The Walking Dead, the zombies are called “walkers.” That makes me wonder if, in these universes where these stories are taking place, do zombie books and movies not exist? Because I have to tell you, if I saw this…
… coming at me from down the road, my first thought would be “HOLY #@!% ZOMBIE!” followed shortly by “OH MY GOD I’M GONNA DIE.”
But you see what I’m saying? Because I’ve read and seen all these zombie stories before, I know that a walking corpse is called a zombie. Since these people have no idea what these things are, I can’t help but assume that zombie movies and books simply do not exist in these worlds.
Okay, this seemed like a lot more pressing issue as I was falling asleep last night than it does now, but I’m still curious to see what people think.
In other news, Cemetery Tours got another AMAZING review, this time, from a fellow blogger here on WordPress! I “pressed” the review earlier, but here’s the link again because it is just such a great review!
http://aprillwood.wordpress.com/2014/01/18/book-review-cemetery-tours-by-jacqueline-smith/
Finally, I received a message from Jessie Lee Cates (the awesome country artist who sings my new favorite song, “Scotland”). She read the blog post that I wrote about it and has selected me to be her February fan of the month! I’m so excited! I’ll write more about it in the days to come, but in the mean time, you should definitely go check out her website! She’s awesome!
Well, I’m going to go write some more on the sequel. I’m having a girls night with a friend I haven’t seen in a few months tonight, so I want to be sure to get some work done!
Talk to y’all later! :)
Book Review: Cemetery Tours, by Jacqueline Smith
What a WONDERFUL review by April Wood! Everyone go check out her blog! Thank you so much, April!
Book Review: Cemetery Tours, by Jacqueline Smith.
January 16, 2014
New Facebook Page
Since Cemetery Tours will soon no longer be my only book, I figured I needed to make myself an author page on Facebook. :)
January 15, 2014
Best Song Ever
Note: The Title of this Post has Nothing to Do With the One Direction Song… Though I do Enjoy that Song.
Those of you who’ve followed my blog for a while (or maybe not… I’m pretty sure I mention it every day) know that I am a true blue native Texan.
I am very proud of my Texas heritage and I love pretty much everything about the Lone Star State. Unique, beautiful, and Southern, with a rich and diverse history, what’s not to love?
Every one of these images depicts a land that is very near and dear to my heart and that will always be home to me. As much as I love Texas, however, a very significant part of my heart also beats across the Atlantic Ocean.
In Scotland.
Recently, my sister and I have been talking about returning to our ancestors’ homeland (well, one of them – we’re also Welsh and French and German and Irish, but we have quite a bit of Scottish blood on both sides, and I inherited my curly hair from my Scottish great-grandfather, so we just go with it), so Scotland has been on both of our minds for a while now. That being said, last night, I was browsing iTunes and I searched for songs with the keyword, “Scotland.”
That’s how I discovered the song “Scotland” by Jessie Lee Cates. It’s a country song… as in Texas country music… about SCOTLAND.
As a Texan, I should probably also mention that I have a distinct fondness for country music.
Well, it turns out that Miss Cates is from Tennessee, but you know, we Texans like Tennessee country just fine.
Anyway, “Scotland” is a fun, catchy tune about a Southern girl with Scottish heritage who longs to visit her homeland that she’s never seen “to learn about life when her granddaddy’s granddaddy played the bagpipes.” I. Love. This. Song. I love everything about it. I’m Texan by birth, but Scottish (somewhat) by blood. I love both lands with all my heart, and I feel like when I return to Scotland (hopefully this summer), a part of me will feel like I’m going home.
Long story short, if you love country music and/or Scotland, go check out the song “Scotland” by Jessie Lee Cates. I can not stop listening to it.
January 14, 2014
One More Quick Post Before the Day Ends
I only get to say this once a year, so here it goes.
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!
Ergo, as a birthday present, you should all go buy my book. Okay, you don’t really have to. I just figured I’d take advantage of a great sales pitch.
But just in case you’re inclined…
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cemetery-tours-jacqueline-e-smith/1117000854?ean=9780989673402
Cheerio!
The Liebster Award
Last night, I got an early birthday present. I found out that I was nominated for The Liebster Award! Thank you so much Nicole Sloan for nominating me! Here’s a link to her blog: http://nicolesloanswriting.com
The rules for Liebster Award are as follows:
Each nominee must link back the person who nominated them.
Answer the 10 questions which are given to you by the nominator.
Nominate 10 other bloggers for this award who have less than 200 followers.
Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
Let the nominees know that they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them
***
My answers to the ten questions I was asked are…
1. What is your favorite color? My favorite color is cerulean.
2. If you could visit any place in the world, where would it be? Australia
3. What is your favorite sport? Baseball
4. If you could be in a movie, which movie would you choose? The Lord of the Rings
5. Who is your hero? Harry Potter.
6. Do you prefer iPhones or Android phones? iPhone!
7. What is your favorite song? At the moment, it’s Heaven Knows by Five for Fighting. Overall though, I love Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.
8. If you could have any animal in the world as a pet, what would you choose? Dragon! But if that doesn’t count, than either a tiger or a dolphin.
9. Do you know how to play a musical instrument? I do! I can play the piano, the flute, and the piccolo. I also took a semester of guitar.
10. If you could restart your life knowing what you know today, would you? Nope. I’m happy with where I am and the life I’ve lived so far.
***
I nominate the following bloggers for this award…
http://beingcreativebc.wordpress.com
http://heatherellisbooks.wordpress.com
http://archaicsugar.wordpress.com
http://aprillwood.wordpress.com
http://thenewcslewis.wordpress.com
http://dragoneystory.wordpress.com
http://tracyjamesjones.wordpress.com
http://talainsphotographyblog.wordpress.com
http://michellejoycebond.wordpress.com
***
My ten questions are…
1) What is your favorite book?
2) If you could do anything in the world, what would you do?
3) If you had one superpower, what would it be?
4) If you could visit a fictional world (i.e. Narnia, Middle Earth, Hogwarts, etc…) for a day, where would you go?
5) Where is your favorite place in the world?
6) If you could meet three people from any time in history, who would they be?
7) Why did you start keeping your blog?
8) What do you hope to accomplish in 2014?
9) What is your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?
10) If you could be any Disney Character, who would you be?
January 13, 2014
Mission Accomplished!
Hey, y’all! I’m back.
After a simultaneously productive and lazy weekend, I’m excited to announce that I finished the first draft of the short nonfiction manuscript I’ve been working on. Hopefully will start the editing on that tonight so I can get it out there relatively soon. I’m meeting with my graphic designer on Thursday. I love working with him. He’s always so enthusiastic!
It’s been a lot of fun working on this project, but I really am ready to get back to the Cemetery Tours sequel and finally finish that up. Not only do I want to begin the publishing process, but I also really miss my characters. I like writing them!
In other updates, I literally just had a new idea for a story as I was eating lunch. Not that I need any new ideas. I have at least four planned after Cemetery Tours, not including more possible sequels, but this one… I don’t know… it might have to be bumped up in front of stories that aren’t quite as developed yet. I’ll think about it.
That’s the best thing about writing. There’s so much freedom. That’s really all I want out of life, to be free, with never-ending possibilities.
I guess that’s pretty much all for now. As always, I’ll keep you updated! Happy Monday!
