Jacqueline E. Smith's Blog, page 58

Cemetery Tours Release Party

Last night’s release party for Cemetery Tours was a huge success!  We sold all of the books, ate all of the cake, drank most of the wine (I still have one bottle left over for me!), and all in all, had a fantastic time.  I have so many people to thank for that, but mostly my mother.  She really helped me put it all together, thought of everything that I forgot, and hired a fantastic interior decorator to help set everything up!  My friends, Bill and Brittany, bought the most amazing cakes with the cover of the book printed in icing.  I’m guessing they were delicious.  I didn’t get to eat anything!  I did get two glasses of wine, though, and probably ended up making a total idiot of myself.  Oh well.  It was my party, I could drink if I wanted to.  And I did.

Here are a few of the pictures!

I just love how the spine turned out!

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My family

The Wind Trail Publishing Team! Author and Graphic Designer, Benjamin Durham! I can not thank him enough for the amazing job he did on the cover design!

Me and Jessica! One of my favorite people in the entire world!

The cake! Isn’t it awesome?!

High school friends and our band director! The tall guy with the dark hair is my author friend, Stephen Harrison. You can check out his book here: http://www.amazon.com/AcaPolitics-Novel-College-Cappella-ebook/dp/B00607KPD4/ref=la_B00699W1VC_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380945238&sr=1-1

Things That Happened Today

I’m really sleepy, so this will probably be brief. 

1) This morning at around 1 AM, I finished Chapter 8 of the sequel to Cemetery Tours.

2) Cemetery Tours reached 150 likes on Facebook. 

3) I found out that people can “like” my author page on Amazon.  Look!!!  

http://www.amazon.com/Jacqueline-E.-Smith/e/B00F7BPXX6/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

4) My friend’s baby ate sweet potatoes for the first time and actually liked them.

5) I watched a few more episodes of Game of Thrones.

6) I made a late night attempt to straighten my hair before the party tomorrow, but my arm got tired.  I’ll finish it up tomorrow.

7) I bought a lot of wine for the party.  Drinks all around! 

8) Cemetery Tours has officially sold 100 copies on Amazon/Kindle!  

9) My friend took her 3rd out of 4 exams to become a CPA.  She’s really smart.  

10) I got a splinter.  I hate splinters.  When I was three, I spent hours playing on this rickety old wooden play set and by the time I went home, the palms of my hands were literally infested with splinters.  Ever since that day, I hate touching anything made of wood… fences, play sets, railroad ties, you name it.  

Frightening Flicks of Halloween

Since it is officially October, I will be in full-fledged Halloween mode for the next thirty days.  To begin the celebration, I have compiled a list of my favorite movies and television shows that I like to watch in preparation for All Hallows Eve!  Enjoy!

Let’s start with a classic.  The Blair Witch Project.  I love this movie.  It is so fantastically creepy.  I’m a big nature fan.  I love hiking and I love the woods.  When I worked as a summer camp counselor, there was this creepy old abandoned cabin that we would always pass on our way to the low ropes course.  It was so eerie and I’m pretty sure it will one day be included in one of my future novels.  Woods by themselves are creepy enough.  You can never know for sure what’s beyond the seemingly endless trees.  I think that’s why I love The Blair Witch Project so much.

Though I must admit, the first time I watched it, I didn’t get the ending at all.  My sister got really mad at me.

Suitable for an author of ghost stories, the next movie on the list is M. Night Shyamalan’s spooktacular The Sixth Sense.  I’ll never forget the night I first watched this movie, because it was the same night a string of tornadoes ravaged through Oklahoma City and we were feeling the effects all the way in Dallas, so it was already a creepy kind of night.  I’ll tell you, this movie about scared the pants off of me, especially Mischa Barton puking.  I don’t like puke.  I can’t even handle when my friend’s new baby spits up.  How does Mr. Shyamalan expect me to cope with a really creepy ghost lurking around in Cole’s room and puking?  Anyway, you don’t need me to tell you that this is an excellent movies and one of my favorite shows to watch to get me in the Halloween spirit.

The Omen.  I actually watched the 2006 version before the original, but needless to say, the original is infinitely better, mostly thanks to Mr. Gregory Peck.  I’m a Christian, so the idea of demons and Satan are extra creepy because I do believe in them.  After all, if you believe in one, you must believe in the other.

Okay, so I am supposed to be a mature 25-year-old woman with a Master’s degree, but the truth is, I am a huge kid at heart.  Another one of my favorite ghost stories comes to life with Casper.  I want that mansion.  Seriously, it is the coolest building ever.  And the scene at the end when he comes down the stairs for the dance?  I tear up every time.  No joke.  Great family-friendly Halloween movie!

Another classic, Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  I think this was the first Rated R movie I ever saw.  My mom let my sister and me watch it when we were really little, I think because she has a huge crush on Gary Oldman.  This is a beautiful movie.  It’s actually one of the few movies that I enjoy more than the book.  The book is nice and creepy, of course, but I was very disappointed by how un-romantic it was.  Come on, Bram Stoker!  What, do you think I read this for the vampires?  The movie adaptation, however, has everything a good Halloween movie should have; a haunted castle, suspense, a chase scene, vampires, monsters, a creepy tomb scene, and just enough romance to make a girl sigh.

Growing up, I used to be obsessed with all those haunted reality shows on The 13 Days of Halloween or something.  My mom, my sister, and I watched all the specials every year, because they were so interesting.  However, for some reason, I could never really get into ghost hunting reality shows.  That all changed the day I discovered Ghost Adventures.  I’m glad I found them too, because they inspired the paranormal investigation aspect of Cemetery Tours.  Thanks, guys!

You’ve probably heard of these guys.  They do an YouTube series called Marble Hornets, and let me tell you that watching it alone at night is probably one of the worst things you can do.  This web series is terrifying.  Slenderman?  No thank you.

I’ll admit it.  I am a huge fan of M. Night Shyamalan’s earlier works.  The Village is one of my absolute favorites.  At first, I was very disappointed by the “twist” at the end, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve grown to appreciate the movie more for what it is.  It’s an incredibly interesting and well-executed concept.  I also loved seeing Adrien Brody play Noah.  He did a fantastic job with a kind of character who isn’t often seen in movies in such a way.

Okay, like I said, I am a huge kid at heart.  No October is complete with a Scooby Doo marathon.  Honestly, I really don’t think anyone ever outgrows those meddling kids or their dog.

My sister’s and my favorite Scooby movie is Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. It is an absolute Halloween must.

I love the live action Scooby movies too. I especially love that they cast Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything cuter than them together as Fred and Daphne.

One of the best classic Scooby movies: Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School. My favorite was always the purple vampire girl. I always wanted to be her because she was pretty and had the best hair.

Another great vampire classic, Interview with the Vampire.  I love how this is actually an autobiography of a vampire.  It’s not just the scary bits.  It goes into what it would be like to live that life.  It’s fascinating.  It’s a dark, beautiful, mystifying movie that I would recommend to anyone.  Anne Rice is a great author, and one day, I will finish reading The Vampire Chronicles.

My Ghost Story Caught on Camera.  All I can say is some of these episodes make me want to spray my house down with Holy Water and then never go anywhere ever again.  Seriously, even for skeptics, this is a really creepy show.  Real people with real photographs and videos of unexplained figures and anomalies.  It really makes you think.

The pumpkin carving classic for my family, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  This is the movie we watch every year on the day before Halloween.  How anyone can not love this movie is beyond me.

“I got a rock.”

“If you try to hold my hand, I’ll slug you!”

“Awwwwwww!  You didn’t tell me you were gonna kill it!!!!”

My absolute favorite M. Night Shyamalan movie, Signs.  It’s actually one of my sister’s favorite movies of all time.  She is scared to death of aliens, and this movie freaks her out to no end, but she seriously loves it.  The scariest part for me is the scene when you can hear the aliens just outside on the porch, hitting wind chimes as they pass by the windows!

This next movie is actually the scariest in my opinion, because it could actually happen.  I’m a believer in alien life, but not so much in alien invasions (though I am convinced I saw a UFO when I was 5).  I’m a believer in demons and ghosts, but I believe that my faith in God will protect me from demons and if there are ghosts in my house, I’m pretty sure they’re friendly.  The Strangers, however?  Home invasions?  No way.  Feeling threatened in the one place you’re supposed to have complete and utter sanctuary?  Having someone break into my house is probably one of my absolute biggest fears.

So, if home invasions are my biggest real fear, my biggest fake/monster fear is ZOMBIES.  I am absolutely terrified of zombies the way that my sister is absolutely terrified of aliens.  I think it has something to do with them being empty shells.  You can’t reason with them.  You can’t talk to them.  There is no humanity left at all.  That being said, I love The Walking Dead.  I actually began watching it because I’m so scared of zombies and I guess I’m kind of a masochist.  The number of nightmares I have has gone up considerably since I started watching, but you know what?  It’s such a good show that I don’t even care.  By the way, I totally watch for the zombies, and not for Daryl Dixon.

Seriously guys, he’s just not hot at all.

Like not even a little bit.

No, of course I’m not shallow. I appreciate television shows for their substance.

Yeah, anyway…

Okay, here’s another movie that you should never watch alone at night.  Paranormal Activity.  Now, I’m not sure how many bad sequels this movie has spawned, but they all sucked.  The first one, however, genuinely scared the living daylights out of me.  I first saw it around midnight a few Halloweens back.  My friends and I were screaming so much, I woke up with a sore throat the next day.

Finally, I saved the absolute best Halloween movie for last… Hocus Pocus!!!  I feel like nothing I say can do this movie justice.  It’s simply the best.  I’ve already watched it once this year and it’s only the second day of October.  I’ll probably watch it at least two or three more times before Halloween actually gets here.  One of my  best friends has actually never seen it, so that needs to be remedied immediately.  How can you live 25 years an NOT watch the best Halloween movie of all time?  Seriously, there is nothing I don’t love about this movie.

You may have noticed that I left one Halloween cult classic off the list.  Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.  While I am a huge fan of the opening number, This is Halloween, I hate to say that I have never been able to get into this movie.  I’ve tried!  Believe me, I’ve tried!  So many of my friends just rave about it!  I guess I’m just not a Tim Burton fan.  I mean, I enjoy Edward Scissorhands and I liked his version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory better than the creepy original, but for some reason, I just get bored during most of his stuff.  I didn’t even try to watch Frakenweenie, however, because the freaking previews made me cry.

Happy October, everyone!

PS – I have sold 97 copies of Cemetery Tours!  Anyone want to help make that an even 100?  It’s on sale! 

Cemetery Tours: Jacqueline E. Smith, Benjamin J. Durham: 9780989673402: Amazon.com: Books

Not to Brag or Anything…

But I totally got Tweeted by The Todd tonight.    

 

 

I’ve also been proposed to by Zak Bagans from Ghost Adventures.  Maybe I should remind him of this.  

 

Okay, that one was sort of bragging.  But still, it was really cool.  

Good night, all! 

How (Not) to Plan a Party When You’re On a Budget

As you may or may not know, I am hosting my very first release party for my very first novel, Cemetery Tours!

(Insert obnoxious self-promotional web links here: https://www.facebook.com/CemeteryTours )

Whenever I go to plan a party or a baby shower or a bridal shower, I always think two things.

1) This will be so much fun!

2) This will be so easy!

Wrong and wrong.

Okay, so it has been fun.  Lord knows I love planning parties, especially so close to Halloween when I get to make weekly trips to Party City, pretending to be on serious business mission but secretly eight years old again and taking in every bit of all the Halloween music and decorations and costumes and fun.  But it has also been stressful and a lot, a LOT of planning and budgeting, both of which I apparently suck at.  (Grammar people, leave me alone!)

Now that the party is drawing nigh, I thought I’d share a bit of my infinite wisdom.  Today’s topic: How Not to Plan a Party When You’re on a Budget.

Note: These aren’t issues that necessarily relate to me or my party planning.  But they are good to acknowledge.

1) Invite everyone on your Facebook list and assume most of them won’t come.  People like parties.  People like food.  People like books. People will come to your party.  Even people you don’t know!!!

2) Tell everyone that they should bring their kids because you’re going to have arts and crafts.  This doesn’t work if you don’t know how many kids are coming, how old they all are, and it especially doesn’t work if you can’t think of a good craft suitable for all ages.

3) Go out of your way to plan a fun, casual, low-key release party and then spend every dime of your paycheck on a lot of decorations, candy, and things that only sort of remotely relate to the book and the party.

I’m really thinking I need a ball pit. Not Bazinga.

4) Open yourself up to temptations like State Fair tickets, cheap Halloween movies that you loved as a kid, the newest Nicholas Sparks book, and maybe, kind of sort of preparing yourself to finally get that tattoo.

You don’t understand. I really think this book will be a lot different than his last one.

5) Buy about five liters of every different kind of soda because you’re not sure which kind your guests are going to want.  This is not only not-budget-friendly, but also wildly unhealthy and sugary.

6) Wait until the last minute to order your books from the printer so that you have to pay for a lot of books to be rush-delivered to your doorstep (Mine should arrive Wednesday).

7) Have your friends offer to help you out with party stuff, but then let your controlling, obsessive compulsive nature get the better of you and go ahead and do everything yourself anyway.

8) Instead of buying things you actually need for the party, go ahead and spend $40 on a new hair straightener because your sister (who, by the way, already has straight hair) took the one you used to use away to college.

Prizes

This afternoon, I wrapped the prizes for the Cemetery Tours release party. I think Midnight approves.

The Great Pumpkin

“There are three things I’ve learned never to discuss with people; religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.”

Wise words, Linus.  Wise words.

As an author of a ghost story, of course I love all things Halloween!  Here are a few of the pictures I took yesterday at the Arboretum.  Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

All photographs copyright Jacqueline E. Smith © 2013

 

Autumn is in the Air

Just a short post for tonight, because I really want to go and get some writing done.

This afternoon, my mother and I took a trip to the Arboretum.  I love going to the Arboretum, especially in the fall, when there are over 2,000 (not an exaggeration) pumpkins and gourds on display.  Naturally, I took my camera (besides writing, my other great love and creative outlet is photography).  I’ll probably post pictures in a couple of days.  This weekend is going to be all about RELEASE PARTY PLANNING!

In the mean time, please enjoy this lovely not-photoshopped-at-all water lily.

Okay, maybe it was photoshopped a little.

 

The Write Stuff

So, I’ve always heard that the difference between a writer and a non-writer is that a writer writes.  This is pretty much true.  If you want to become a writer, you just have to sit down, grab a pen and paper, or maybe a laptop, and go for it!  However, I’ve realized that being an author, and more specifically, a publisher, is a lot more than writing.  It’s a lot of fun, trying new things, learning about the industry, and figuring out new ways to get your book out there in the world.  However, I find that I am terribly missing the essential aspect of a writer’s life, and that is writing.  

I’ve been working on three separate manuscripts ever since I finished Cemetery Tours.  That’s probably not a good idea, but I love all of them so much!  Unfortunately, i’ve been spending so much time working on Cemetery Tours that these other manuscripts have sort of taken a back seat.  I don’t necessarily mind.  I love Cemetery Tours and I really want people to read it and enjoy it and spread the word. However, I am reaching the point where I am really, really wanting to just sit down and write.

Next week is the Cemetery Tours release party, so I’m already planning on it being fun and hectic.  The week after that, however, I’m anticipating life returning to at least a little normal, so I’m really hoping to get in some good, quality writing time then.  I do love being social and everything, but I also really value my me-time.  If I don’t get enough of that me-time, I tend to get a little… moody.  I get really cranky, I withdraw from everyone, and then I start thinking about selling all my stuff, buying an RV, and running away to the west coast.  That’s not something that needs to be happening.  At least not anytime soon.

  

Small World

I often find that when I try to be deep and philosophical, I start out with good intentions, but then I end up nonchalant, careless, and, to be quite honest, eager to get done.  Something that comes with being a writer is passion, and to write passionately, you have to feel passionately.  I’ve got to tell you, it can be exhausting trying to put your most emotional thoughts and feelings into words.  You want so much to convey what you are feeling, because you feel that if you do, then your readers will somehow begin to feel the way you do.  

This isn’t really going to be one of those posts.  I’m not even sure how that paragraph evolved to be honest.  Yeah, what I’ve been thinking about recently is sort of deep, but it’s nothing like I’m-going-to-crawl-into-the-street-drop-to-my-knees-and-invoke-the-Heavens passion.

It all started the other day when I overheard the familiar phrase, “Oh, what a small world!”  

Of course, we use that phrase to make note of shared acquaintances, coincidences, and similar ideas and experiences.  However, it got me thinking about the notion of a “small world.”

 

Naturally, one of the first things to come to mind when you hear the phrase “small world” is the Disney ride.  It’s actually one of the few attractions I did not get to experience.  But of course, we all know the song.  

“it’s a world of laughter, a world or tears
its a world of hopes, its a world of fear
theres so much that we share
that its time we’re aware
its a small world after all

CHORUS:
its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small, small world

There is just one moon and one golden sun 
And a smile means friendship to everyone. 
Though the mountains divide 
And the oceans are wide 
It’s a small small world”

I understand the point that the lyricist is trying to make.  It means even though we all live different places and we all have different lives, we are all part of the same world, we are all family members in the human race, we are all the same.  Speaking in a matter of humanity, it’s true.  We are more alike than we are different.  We all deserve to be valued as equals and treated with respect.  Location doesn’t matter.

However, I also believe that when we say the world is small, we are inadvertently limiting ourselves and our perception of what’s going on around us.  When I was younger, I was so aware of how many new and exciting things were waiting for me out in the world.  I thought all the time about everything I wanted to do and see and experience.  As I’ve gotten older and more aware of the world around me, however, I’ve begun to suspect that life and experience tends to have the opposite effect.  There are times that, because of everything going on around me, I find my point of view narrowing considerably.  Whenever I become aware of this, I go back to songs and memories I loved as a child, trying my hardest to hold on to that sense of awe and excitement, but it can be difficult at times.  

Just the other day, I found myself disappointed over something very small and trivial.  I sat around moping, drank a glass of wine, and just felt sorry for myself.  The next morning, I was still a little down.  However, on my way to work, I listened to a song that reminded me of the path that I’m on, namely my books and my ultimate goal, and I realized that that little disappointment was nothing.  It didn’t effect my longterm goals in the slightest.  I know what I want out of life, and I can’t let anything stop me from going after it.  

It’s so easy to get distracted, to let the little things get you down.  It’s easy to be seduced by everything society tells you you need in order to be happy.  It’s easy to compare yourself to everyone around you and feel like a failure or a loser.  I know.  It happens to me all the time.  It’s times like that when I need reminding that the world is so much bigger than my piddly little problems.  

It’s a big, bright, beautiful world!

I think our problem as a society is that we have become so absorbed in our own little worlds that we forget what else is out there.  We become blind to possibility, to learning, to experiencing.  I love how it feels to get out of my own mind, to go beyond my own world, and to experience someone else’s.  It’s something I need to do more often.  I’m trapped in my own mind 24 hours a day, and let me tell you, it’s hectic in here.  

I’m not sure if this post has made any sense at all.  I try to be articulate and eloquent and all that good stuff, but it is very likely that I just come across and rambly and crazy.  Oh well.  It wouldn’t be the first time.  

As for Cemetery Tours, it sold very well in this first week!  I’m so thrilled!  I had, of course, hoped it would do well, but I’m not sure I was expecting this!