Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Thursday, March 7, 2013

The Real World:Nashville Edition


 As most of my readers will know I don't tend to share what is personally going on in my life. But with the most recent happenings it seems to be necessary to inform those who are curious as to what occurred. We shall title this adventure of Wt and Jule's "The Real World: Nashville Edition" So here's what happens when you take six people with vastly different personalities and have them stop being polite and start getting real...

It began with us moving out of our house and looking for a new living situation. One of our best friends (at the time) whom we shall name for this story Booby McRedHair approached us about getting a larger place because she was unhappy with the apartment she was living in. We understood that in accepting this arrangement along with her came her boyfriend Gamey McSlacker, and their two current roommates Gunny McPsycho and Casper the Gay Ghost. These names are not intended to be slanderous, but rather to bring humor to a time and situation that had been completely devoid of it.

We realized that moving into the living situation we were moving in six very different personalities: granted it was into a three floor townhouse so everyone had their space. The top floor had the master bedroom for Booby and Gamey and there were also bedrooms for Casper and Gunny. The middle floor was designated as Switzerland, one half the game room and the other half was the living room/dining room and kitchen. On the bottom floor there was a large room which we converted into our bedroom and there was the garage.

Now when we first moved in everyone worked day jobs except for myself since I was focusing on my writing which I mostly did at night. This worked for last than two months when both Gamey and Gunny both quit their jobs and began gaming almost 24/7. Now this would not have been a problem had it not been for the way gamey played, which was by yelling at the screen and constantly belittling the people he was online with. This became the source of our first major conflict.

By the time these issues had started to resolve themselves it was decided that Gunny would move into the gaming room thus allowing for two new roommates to move into his old room upstairs. This was decided without seeking our input or even meeting them prior to them moving in. With this move I began to feel very unwelcome on the middle floor and retreated into the bedroom where I stayed pretty much 24/7.

Even with all of this, we tried to see the positives in the situation. Julie and I had even discussed staying on another year beyond the one year mark. The Monday, mere days before "the incident", we had a household meeting in which we informed them of such. Looking back...well the signs were there, we just didn't want to see them.

That Thursday (Feb 21st) the power got turned off due to an old debt we were planning on finally taking care of literally the next week. But as luck would have it Booby, Casper, and Gunny were home. Now I should state that had they not both called in sick no one would have even known the power was off until it had already been restored. But as over-reactors would have it they decided to move the electricity bill into Casper's name. Meanwhile across town, my wife had left work early and was emptying out every account we had to pay the bill and get the power turned back on. Embarrassed and in tears, she texted everyone to let them know the situation had been dealt with and the power would be back on shortly.

The power came back on within six hours, but by then the damage had been done and the ball had started rolling. For the next day and a half no one in the household would speak to us. The hostility was palpable and culminated during the impromptu household meeting called the next day. The meeting began with them handing us an envelope that contained a threat stating that if we didn't get our finances in check that we could be evicted. We had never treated this as a landlord/lessee situation but as the six of them sat facing off with us. As Booby began to list off our many varied wrongs, I stopped her and asked a simple question “Do you want us to leave?”

Hemming and hawing around for a moment finally the answer was made of “Yes. We want you out.” We were then given the deadline of March 31st. As soon as we received this information we went through what appeared as the seven stages of grieving, which ended the next day...sort of...

Julie deciding that we were going to move out by the 1st of March and me agreeing to the challenge. We put out the call for places to stay and are now in the process of planning our next journey. At this point, we have some very good friends that have offered us temporary lodging. Where our destiny might take us is at this point unknown but we have received several offers within the Nashville area, one in Clarksville, one in Murfreesboro, and several well beyond Tennessee's boarders (Canada anyone?). By the end of March we plan to know more about where the spirits are leading us. but until then, we plan to keep it positive, learn from past experiences and as always Keep on writing.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

"The Next Big Thing" Blog Hop


Every author loves the idea that their book will be the next "must read" of the decade. We write hard, edit hard, and promote hard with that ambition. But sometimes we spent so much time focusing on this steps that we forget the fourth and fifth steps of the process, which are: Pray for luck, and form every alliance you can. Most readers don't choose between authors, they want them both. Period. So in this effort, we are banding together to promote each other in The Next Big Thing Blog Hop!

In the words of Tabatha Heart, "This blog hop is like a game of tag. One author posts and tags five other authors who link back to their website the next week and tag five new authors. If you follow the blog hop long enough, you’re bound to find some books you’ll love! Maybe you’ll even discover a book that ends up being the Next Big Thing."

I was tagged by her, so to learn more about her and/or her book, Visions in Stone, check out her website!

And so, without farther ado, the questions for this blog hop . . .

1: What is the working title of your book? The Six Sides of Love (The Chosen Family Chronicles- Volume One)

2: Where did the idea come from for the book? The first short I wrote for the "Love is Always Write" queue from my Goodreads group.

3: What genre does your book fall under? Contemp GLBT fiction, Drama

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? I'll be blogging about this in the future, because the book has 18 characters, all of which are featured.

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Dealing with everything from breast cancer, sex changes, and weight issues, these six stories show the importance of having a strong chosen family.

6: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I have several presses in mind to publish with, so here's hoping.

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? It's still working, I'm hoping to finish it by the end of January

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? I'm not really sure, but open to suggestions after you read it.

9: Who or What inspired you to write this book? I am inspired by everything, including my chosen family who are all characters in their own rite.

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? With this one book having so many characters, everyone can relate to someone in this book, if not several someones. Also it's written in short story format, with all the shorts making one larger story arc.

Here is a list of authors who will be joining the hop for week 27 on December 26th. I hope you’ll visit their blogs next week and learn more about their books. Maybe one of them will become your new favorite author! And with that . . . Tag . . . YOU'RE IT! . . . .

K C Wells     Stephen Osborne     John Simpson                               Sedonia Guillone
         J P Barnaby  and  Poppy Dennison

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

My TV "Wish to Watch" List

      For a long time, I have avoided watching TV, except with my family on Sunday nights. I have a few friends in Lebanon who have gathered together every week to "catch up" and watch whatever the majority of us were interested in. So we watched things like Glee, The Glee Project, Spartacus, True Blood, 1 Girl 5 Gays, Girls, Political Animals, Game of Thrones, and The Newsroom. I loved the fact that these shows created conversations, helped us as a family bond together. Even if someone fell asleep (mostly me I admit), we were still together, cocooned in each other's affection. This shows and a few shared movies helped us come together.
     I grew up thinking that watching TV was a solitary event, that it was a way to get away. It was a way to escape the unbearable reality of reality. So when I make the decision to become more socialable, I gave up TV. And for a couple years, I did not watch it at all. And while I'm glad I took that time away, I am glad that I am starting to learn balance. I really enjoy watching some shows by myself, but moreover I love watching shows that I can use to start a discussion.
     So now that I have cable again, I've been exploring everything I'm switchly interested in. I watched Boss, and was not a big fan.I watched Games of thrones, and was bored. I have also learned I am a big fan of great dialogue, which is why I love Spartacus and Bunheads. I also love plots twists and turns which is why I love Once Upon a Time. I tried to watch Grimm, but I found I didn't relate or care about the characters, and I think the same is happening with The Vampire Diaries. My two favorite TV writers right now are Ryan Murphy, which is why Glee, American Horror Story, and The New Normal are all on my watching list; and I love Shonda Rhimes, who created Grey's  Anatomy and Scandal. I am currently watching Switched at Birth, and am getting sorta addicted.  So, right now my TV "wish to watch" schedule is . . .

Switched at Birth Season 1 Sept 3rd
A New Normal Sept 11th
Glee Season 4 Sept 13th
Smash Season 2 Sept 17th
Grey's Anatomy Season 9 Sept 27th
Scandal Season 2 Sept 27th
Dexter Season 8 Sept 30th
Once Upon a Time Season 2 Sept 30th
The Vampire Diaries Season 4 October 11th
The Walking Dead Season 3 October 14th
American Horror Story Season 2 October 17th
Touch Season 2 October 26th
Spartacus Season 4 January 2013
Bunheads Season 2 Spring 2013