Hello everybody,
My latest short story, Girls Night In, is on Amazon.com. It’s about best friends, Jasmine and Sienna. Jasmine is Sienna’s first married friend with a child. Even though Jasmine isn’t as available as she used to be, Sienna misses her and plans a girl’s night in, but as the night progresses, Jasmine and Sienna realize they don’t always see eye to eye. So, what changed? More importantly, will Jasmine and Sienna find a way to salvage their friendship?
Hello everybody,
Many monumental things have altered the state of my life this past year. Those things have made me want to become more balanced and disciplined. As a result, I have kept my body, mind, and soul in balance. It has not been easy, but it has been necessary. That said, I have a few projects I need to finish.
I began my short story project a while ago but got sidetracked due to medical issues. However, I still intend to complete my project and add a bonus story bringing the total number of short stories to twenty. Every time I publish a new story, I will write about it on my blog, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter pages, so you will not miss a thing.
My latest short story, Weird Timing, is currently available on Amazon.com. It’s about a young woman named Yasmin, and it’s her first week of college. She just moved from the city to live in a small town where she shares a dorm room with her new roommate in the middle of central Illinois. She meets a guy with potential while navigating college life, but it gets complicated when she tries to seek shelter in the middle of a tornado warning. Yasmin is trying her best to get acclimated to her new life, but will she be able to figure it all out?
I hope you check it out and like it.
I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.
Happy reading,
Janina
These last couple of months have been surreal. My family and I have been trying to cope with this new way of life, but it’s been tough. We had so many plans, which have thus been canceled. We never imagined 2020 would be like this. It’s been a strange year, to say the least. Hang in there, folks.
One of the ways I’ve been coping has been to focus on my writing. As you know, I have a short story project where I’m publishing one short story a week until the end of 2020. I’ve recently released number five of nineteen. My latest story, This and That is about Brandon and Leslie. They’ve been married for ten years and have reached their boiling point. When Leslie finds an engraved lighter in Brandon’s pants, she plays detective, but will she like what she finds?
It’s available on Amazon now.
Hello all,
How are you? If you’re having a good day, please keep having a good day. Life is so hectic right now and I want to prompt you to always try your best to find things that make you happy. The things that make me happiest right now are the sun, when my husband brings me a cup of coffee in the morning, kickboxing, tasty plates of food, carefully made drinks, my son’s laugh, YouTube fail videos, messaging with my siblings, and Audible.
As you know, I’m in the middle of a short story writing bonanza. This is the second week of my short story project and my latest story, Peeling the Onion is out! It’s about Bryant and India who are happily married. Everything is perfect except for one thing, Bryant’s best friend Jay. Jay comes over unannounced, drinks and eats everything in the house, and stays for weeks at a time. Jay’s presence is driving India crazy. A wedge begins to build between Bryant’s and India’s relationship even though Bryant is trying his best to keep the peace between the two people he loves the most. Everything is coming to a head and Bryant is being forced to make a choice, but whom will he choose?
It’s available on Amazon now.
Yep, you read that right. I’m publishing one short story a week until the end of 2020. That’s nineteen short stories in all, but before I get into that, I want to talk about COVID. I know how difficult this time has been for all of us and I want to wish you and your families safety, love, and happiness.
So, how have you been keeping yourselves entertained? Have you been making daily trips to the grocery store? Are you binge-watching old TV shows? Are you reading? Ah, reading. I love reading. Reading is my thing and I have the perfect story for you to read. My new short story, Friendship Schmendship will definitely keep your mind off of COVID.
It’s about Jessie and Natalie, twenty-something roommates navigating their lives together in a small, two-bedroom apartment. Their world is filled with copious amounts of alcohol and selfishness, but not much money. Things take a turn for the worst when Jessie realizes she’s had enough of Natalie’s shenanigans. When Jessie confronts Natalie with the truth, Natalie hits Jessie with some painful truths of her own. Will this blowout strengthen their friendship or end it? You don’t want to miss this. It’s available on Amazon now.
So what are you waiting for? It’s time to get your read on!
See you next week with a new story!
Recently, I visited The American Writers Museum in Chicago and brought my son along for the ride.
One of the first exhibits we saw was the Children’s Literature Gallery. There is a beautiful mural painted on one of the walls along with ample seating and a bookshelf filled with children’s books. There is also an area where you can listen to Langston Hughes’ poems.
There is also an area dedicated to L.M. Alcott’s, Little Women.
Across from the Children’s Gallery is a room filled with plants! This temporary exhibit is called Palm: All Awake in the Darkness. It is dedicated to the life and work of poet W.S. Merwin. At the end of the exhibit, there is a pile of blank, white paper and pencils with a sign urging each patron to write a note. These notes are to be sent to Merwin to be planted underneath newly planted palm trees in his Hawaiian garden. This made my son and I feel connected to both nature and Merwin’s work. We wondered if a palm tree would be grown from our words. We loved this exhibit.
Afterward, we entered a room with a long hallway. There were interactive, glowing, rectangle tiles aligned on a wall. This exhibit was called the Surprise Bookshelf. My son was immediately drawn to the wall and began turning the tiles. Some were filled with more information, while others smelled like food. It was very interesting.
On the opposite side, there were portraits of writers. When you turned the tile, one could read more information about each writer including an excerpt from their work. One could spend hours here.
Here is something that has crossed my mind more than once:
Most artists find process fascinating mainly because we all do it differently and writers are no different. This area of the museum is dedicated to the mind of a writer. It is genius.
It’s been a long time since I used a typewriter, but when I sat down, I remembered how to set the paper and the margins. My son was fascinated by these ancient typing machines. He even requested one! It’s true what they say, everything old becomes new again.
I love this quote:
I found The American Writers Museum both interesting and well-put-together, which is why I recently purchased a membership. I urge you to all check it out if you live in Chicago or are in the Chicago area. It is fantastic!
I just had a piece published by Chicago Literary Map.
If you haven’t heard of Chicago Literary Map, you should check it out. Here’s what it’s all about:
“Beyond the bright lights and cityscapes, stories unfold. Some are true, others are fiction, showing you a side of the city that often goes untold. Chicago Literary Map is charting the text and putting it in the palm of your literary-loving hand.
Navigate Chicago on a new level, guided by the voices who have been, where updates bring new vignettes from around the city.”
Rad, huh?
Please check out my piece called Ohio Street.
If you’d like to more about the creator of CLM, Stephanie Plenner, please follow her on Twitter: @splenner. You can also follow Chicago Literary Map here: @literarymap.
Your turn. What was it like where you grew up in Chicago?
A few months ago, I stopped working on my novel. I was scared to finish it because I knew I’d have to tackle some painful childhood memories and I didn’t want to deal with them. I wanted to leave them in the past where they belonged.
I did everything to prevent myself from thinking about them including starting new projects, planning trips, and drawing, but it didn’t work. I had the urge to finish my novel, but I couldn’t. Not until I dealt with some issues.
I made the decision to stop pushing away the pain, even though the thought terrified me. And I knew a scratch of the surface wouldn’t do. I was going to have to sledgehammer that bad-boy open. I needed to feel every emotion. It wasn’t easy. In fact, it was downright painful, but this is bleeding on the page. This is writing born from pain. This is the feel of writing.
I jumped in head-first and started off by interviewing my parents and then each one of my siblings. It forced me to look at the same situation from many different angles, which is a phenomenal gift, but difficult. Their truth was not my truth and vice versa. Since we’re all individuals with our own take on each situation, our perceptions were different. I had to come to the realization that this is okay. This is real.
Then I had my sister interview me. In the middle of the interview, I let everything go and shouted out my feelings. I wasn’t expecting that to happen. It shocked me, but it was also liberating.
I’m glad I decided to interview my family because it recharged my novel. I am now able to look at it with mature eyes.
The process of writing this novel has been incredible. It has broken me down mentally, built me up, and challenged everything I am and thought I was. I am emotionally drained, but enlightened in a way I never thought possible.
I didn’t want those memories to bleed into my current work, but the truth is, that wasn’t authentic. I needed to bust open the memories from my past to write what I am meant to write and I’m glad I did.
Now back to work.
My sister and I recently finished our collaborative picture book. I’ve got to tell you – it feels amazing! It took a lot of hard work, motivation, and serious revision, but we’re finished. It looks awesome and I like the way it reads.
I am proud of us!
This work is especially important to me because it’s about growing up as a multiracial kid, a subject I know all too well.
I grew up in Chicago in an area called Ukrainian Village and went to a grammar school in Humboldt Park; a neighborhood that was a stone’s throw away and mostly Puerto Rican. Many of the students that attended my grammar school were 100% Puerto Rican. My sister and I were not. We were genuine Poliricans – half Polish, half Puerto Rican. It doesn’t seem like such a big deal now, but it was back then. I didn’t and still don’t speak Spanish or Polish. To people in these very strong communities that is a no-no. It looks lazy and like you don’t care enough about where you came from, but that is incorrect. All that means is that neither language was available to you. If you were not immersed in a particular language, chances are, you did not pick it up. That’s what happened to us. It had nothing to do with us being lazy or not wanting to connect with our cultures. It didn’t have anything to do with the kinds of people we were or the kinds of people our parents were. It did however, have everything to do with the environment we grew up in. Now try explaining that to a child. I can tell you from personal experience that all of those things don’t matter because kid world is different from adult world and it comes with its own rules. Kids can be loving and enthusiastic, but at their worst they can be as cruel and illogical as any adult.
I was told that I wasn’t Puerto Rican because I didn’t speak Spanish in the 7th grade. When I stood up for myself, my classmate asked if I was calling her mother a liar because that’s who she got that idea from. She was the tallest girl in my class and she was towering over me in a threatening way. For a moment, it scared me. Would she really hit me? I didn’t know. All I knew was that you never wanted to call somebody’s mother a liar in grammar school because it could get you punched. So I did what any kid my age would do, I backed off and let it be. I never believed what she said, but I never liked her or her mother again. From that day on, I refused to be her friend.
What she said to me divided us. It made me feel like I was not good enough to be Puerto Rican, that even though I had this blood running through my veins, until I spoke Spanish, I would never be good enough for that girl and all of the other Latina’s that spoke Spanish. To them, I would be just be an imposter, a fake, different.
Being different is the worst thing you can be in grammar school. Nobody wants to be different. Everybody just wants to fit in and blend and exist because nobody wants to be made fun of. Everybody just wants to be left alone. Most days, I was, but some days, I wasn’t. So, I just got quieter and quieter. All I wanted to do was disappear. And I was disappearing or at least my self-esteem was. That’s how it all started. That’s when I learned how to bury my feelings. That’s where it lay until this one day when I took my son to the park.
This older kid singled him out and told these little girls not to play with him because he thought my son looked weird. Weird to kids nowadays seems to be the new racial epithet. And he wouldn’t let it go. He was berating him and my son didn’t know what they were saying because, well he was two, but I did and it brought back all of these horrible memories of being ostracized by ignorance. All because he looked different. It made me angry.
So, in order for my son to be accepted into their world he had to look like them? Who told them that nonsense?! Where did they pick up that ideology?! I wanted to leave and never take my son back to that park, but my husband said no. That we weren’t going to just walk away and hide. That doing so would be teaching our son that he’s not welcome to play where ever he wanted to and that is not a good lesson to teach a child. You know what? He was right!
And then one of the little girls said something that changed everything. She said, “WHO CARES IF HE LOOKS WEIRD. I DON’T CARE!” And I wanted to applaud that little girl and I was, on the inside, because even though she didn’t know it, she was standing up for my son, for people of color, for me. I knew then that my son and this world would be okay. And that is how our picture book was born.
It’s a book that is long over-due, a book that kids like my siblings and I have been waiting for our whole lives. We are currently shopping our PB around and we’re hoping that it gets picked up soon. This world needs this book and more books about being multiracial; about acceptance and love.
Our fingers are crossed.
