Jacqueline E. Smith's Blog, page 61

Celebrating September!

Well, folks.  It’s here.  It is September 1 and we have 16 days until Cemetery Tours is released!  I still don’t think it’s really sunk in for me.  I know it will.  But there’s still a whole lot of work that needs to be done.

In honor of September 1, however, I have decided to make the first two chapters of Cemetery Tours downloadable as a free PDF.  I hope that y’all enjoy it and will be back to buy the book on September 17!  Or any time after that, really.  :)

So, without further ado, here it is!  I hope it works!

Cemetery Tours Chapters 1 & 2

Cemetery Tours © Jacqueline E. Smith 2013

Rambling

So, my friend and I ended up not seeing Blackfish.  It turns out that her movie app on her cell phone lied to her about times and we missed the only showing of the day.  That was alright, though, because honestly, neither of us felt like being depressed today.  Instead, we ate lunch at a trendy restaurant that probably neither of us are actually cool enough to eat at and then went and watched Letters to Juliet (for the record, that movie is a lot less depressing than Blackfish).

We had kind of a funny conversation on the way home.  I’ve always said that of all my friends, she and I are the most alike.  We’re both pretty easy-going, straightforward, and we agree on a lot of the same stuff.

This afternoon, we started talking about the 1993 Halloween classic Hocus Pocus.  I don’t even remember how we got on it.  Maybe because I bought Halloween candles today?  Not sure.  Anyway, we started talking about how much we both love it and she says, “That movie used to scare me so much when I was little.”

I said, “Me too!  I was really scared of the book with the eyeball.  And of Billy.”  I love Billy now, though.  He’s awesome.  The book?  Eh… still kind of creepy.

She goes, “I was scared by the idea of three evil witches kidnapping children and eating their souls.”

That’s when I realized that I was a really demented little kid, because secretly, I always wanted to be them.  Specifically, I wanted to be Sarah because she wore purple and she was the pretty one.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but I am really, really girly.

Every time I watch the movie, I find myself rooting for them and I’m always really disappointed when they die.  I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one though.  Everyone loves Winnie, Mary, and Sarah, right?  They’re hilarious!

There is absolutely no point to this blog post other than I thought that was kind of an amusing conversation.  I guess I’m kind of procrastinating too.  I really need to be editing and uploading right now.  Instead, I’m writing a blog post and listening to the theme song from Friends on repeat because I had a dream about it last night.  I always wanted a Joey, but to be honest, I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up with a Chandler.  And I am just fine with that.

Okay.  I’m going to actually go do my work now.  Bye!

Quick Cemetery Tours Update

On a Cemetery Tours related note, I have spent the last week going through and editing the book (I swear, the edits NEVER END!) and will be spending the rest of the evening making changes to the manuscript.  Next week I’m hoping I’ll be able to spend a lot of time MARKETING.  That’s going to be the big thing these next two weeks!  Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it’s getting so close!  I’m nervous and exciting and ready and terrified! 

Blackfish

Tomorrow has the potential to make a big impact on my life.  My best friend and I might be seeing Blackfish, the new documentary that primarily focuses on the killer whale, Tilikum, who drowned his trainer, Dawn Brancheau in 2010.  It also touches on captivity and the way animals, particularly killer whales, are treated at SeaWorld.

The first time my family took me to SeaWorld, I was seven years old.  I am not exaggerating when I saw that that one visit changed my life.  I fell utterly and completely in love with the ocean and everything in it.  I loved the sharks, the dolphins, the coral reefs, the sea lions, the orcas, everything.  I spent my entire childhood reading every marine life book I could get my hands on.  I watched all the little kid documentaries, I constantly drew pictures and made clay sculptures of whales and dolphins, and, when I got old enough, I went to SeaWorld Camp.

To this day, my weeks at camp were some of the greatest moments of my life.

Spanky and me. Sea Lions are my favorite.

Swimming in the Killer Whale’s medical pool.

Otter Hammock.

 

Now, I hear arguments all the time that people should not be interacting with these wild animals, etc…  But I never thought it was a bad thing.  This sort of interaction and exposure has given me the gift of a lifetime; a deep and profound love for something completely beyond myself.

It’s true, I love writing and I want to be an author, but my lifelong dream has always been to work with marine mammals.  I used to want to be a trainer, but as I’ve gotten older, I realize that I’d rather volunteer my time with conservation and rescue/rehabilitation efforts.  And when the day comes that I have the funds to do so, that is exactly what I plan to do.  (Maybe I should make that my catchphrase:  Buy a copy of Cemetery Tours, help save a dolphin!)

I can’t, as a person who loves these animals, say that captivity is okay or preferable.  It’s horrible to take an animal from their home and put them in a pool solely for profit.  But SeaWorld does not do that anymore.  At least, that’s what we were told at camp.  And although I can not speak for the organization or the big corporations, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the people who work with those animals love them with all their hearts.

I’ll be honest with you.  A part of me is dreading seeing Blackfish, just because I know it’s going to break my heart and make me cry.  I’m terrified that everything I thought I knew about the place I’ve loved for so long and that taught me to love these beautiful animals might have been a lie all these years.  But I feel like it’s been too big a part of my life to ignore it.

I love those animals and I always will.  I want what’s best for them.  And I hope that no one thinks badly of me for my lifelong relationship with SeaWorld.  I don’t regret it.  It taught me more about life and love than anything in the real world ever could.  I just hope it hasn’t come at a cost.

Staying Focused

I pretty much love everything about writing, but my absolute favorite party has to be the very beginning.  That first moment you get a brand new idea for a story and you’re so excited about it that you make a whole new Pinterest board and a new iTunes playlist entirely dedicated to this one idea.  It’s new!  It’s exciting!  You can see it!  You can practically breathe it.  

Then that little angel who lives on your shoulder taps you.  

“Eh-hem.”  

Oh right.  I have a book that’s coming out in about three weeks that still needs my attention.  In fact, I really need to get the ball rolling on that.  Like, I shouldn’t even be eating or sleeping or breathing.  I should just be focusing on that book.  

It’s a good problem to have.  You know, to be so excited about a new idea that you forget about everything else.  Then again, I really want to be working on this new idea when I still have a zillion things to do, not only for Cemetery Tours, but for the three other books that I have in the works!  I wish I could clone myself.  That way, I could work on all five of the stories at the same time!