SoapBox Chatter

I realize that most of this is exercise/healthy living related, but I'm sure the majority of it can apply to anything you are personally and professionally going through. Purge the negativity with positive thoughts!

The Trigger:  "Homecoming"

Genres:  fiction | drama | memoir

The Response:

It's funny... I remember this place being a whole lot bigger. The halls were longer, staircase wider, furniture much larger. Standing here now...I feel a bit like Alice after taking a nibble of the cake marked "eat me." I guess it's kind of silly to think a house and everything in it would grow up too. Everything in this place has aged twenty years in my absence, yet it all looks so brand new. Like I'm seeing it all for the first time. I guess, in a way, I am. Calling my mother's decorating style "eclectic" was putting it mildly. When I lived here, "tacky" was among my many choices of words to describe it. It never occurred to me that it might have hurt her feelings until now. So many things probably hurt her feelings. Leaving the way I did all those years ago most likely tops the list. Now I stand here...inside, just across the threshold of a place and standing right in front of a woman, that I could not wait to get as far away from as humanly possible. So many thoughts...so many feelings... but only one word...beautiful.

If you don't...somebody else will!  

Don't sell yourself short...or sell yourself out!

TITLE:  Untitled (currently filed under "Gabrielle and Caleb")

GENRES:  Fiction, Chick-Lit, Romance

STATUS:  In Cue

SYNOPSIS:  Gabrielle Salinger accepted being alone and existing solely on bad take-out, cold cereal, and her daily cup of joe. Starving herself literally and figuratively, she threw herself completely into her freelance writing career after a dramatic break-up with her former fiancée, losing a ton of weight and equal amounts of self-confidence. Love appears to be on the horizon again when she is contracted to maintain the foodie blog of Caleb Castellanos, a handsome chef / restaurant owner and all around Renaissance man who tries to satisfy more than her need for adequate nourishment. Family secrets and her body image have made Gabrielle skeptical about lasting love. Not to mention that Caleb is not at all the type of man that Gabrielle envisioned as a soul mate. Their vastly different worlds collide in a cacophony of romantic bliss and tragic betrayals.

INSPIRATION:  This is the very first full-length fiction novel I've ever wrote...and finished.  Why do I call it "My Accidental NaNoWriMo?"  Because I wrote this 90K+ word novel within the 30 days of November 2008 (yes that long ago and it still sits unpublished) and I didn't discover the existence of NaNoWriMo until well into December! 

Honestly, I have no idea what made me to write this. I just remember I watching Obama winning the Presidential race on television and all of a sudden this story began to flood my head.  It was like I had been abducted by aliens. I did nothing but write all day and all night.  My family thought I had literally lost my mind.  So did I because I had never done anything like this or written anything like this before.  It was scary and thrilling.  Honestly, I never want to neglect my life and children like that ever again, but the rush of creativity and focus was the stuff a writer's dreams are made of!

After finishing it, I put it away and didn't touch it for almost a year.  Right before intentionally participating in NaNoWriMo 2010 (which successfully produced "Eat It Too"), I dug it out and re-read it.  While writing it, I never realized how much of my own life I inserted into the characters and plot.  Those of you know know me have already figured out from the synopsis that Gabrielle is 90% me...but me NOW, not me back in 2008!  It was like I wrote what I wanted for myself...and some of it came true.  While it is a beautiful love story...full of desire and passion... it all came from a place of great sorrow, pain, loss, and betrayal.  I know now that writing this story...in the crazy way that I wrote it...was solely as a means to escape all of that.  I needed to feel warmth, acceptance...love.  I wasn't getting it in my real life...so...I wrote it.  And I've been writing it ever since.

It was nearly impossible to choose an excerpt to share as the story is very involved and intense.  Hopefully this will be enough to whet your appetite.  

EXCERPT: Gabrielle and Caleb: "And So, It Begins"

As always, your comments here (or on the excerpt post) are always welcome! 

The Trigger:  "Blind Hope"

Genres:  fiction | drama | relationships

The Response:

I wish things could be different. I really do. But then again, no I don't. If I really wanted things to be different, they would be. "You're a guy," she says. "When you really want something, you'll move heaven and earth to get it…come hell or high-water!" She's right. And I have moved heaven and earth to get everything I have…except her. I didn't have to. She was always there. Effortlessly. Sometimes I loved it. Sometimes I hated it. Very rarely, if ever, did she know when I loved it. I never made it a secret when I hated it. She would turn herself completely inside out to just make me smile. Every day she'd step in to the abyss of faith, desperately clinging to relentless blind hope that this time…this moment…this action…this gesture…this dress…this meal…this kiss would be the "one." The one that would make me return and reciprocate. Whether it was, or wasn't, she never knew. I'd selfishly watch her leap off that ledge, crash into a thousand pieces, pull herself back together, climb back up, and do it all over again…and again…until today. Today, she put herself back together…and walked away. I wish things could be different…and well… now, they are.

Since we are in "back-to-school" mode and because I was recently interviewed by Bianca Tyler on her show "Let's Talk" about my book, "Your Big Sister's Guide to Surviving College," I thought it would be fun to post an excerpt for you. This is one of the funny little stories of survival that I love to share with my "little sisters" heading off to school for the first time. Enjoy :)

I love to tell this story to youngsters (did I really just say "youngsters"?). It's a funny story, yes, but at the same time, it is about responsible drinking. I just told you about watching your drink and knowing what's in it. Here's what happened to me...

A friend of ours (who we'll call Aaron for the purpose of this story) was having a house party, and in typical house party fashion, there was wall to wall people and lots of booze. The kitchen was transformed into a giant walk-in bar. Actually it looked more like a mad scientist's lab. Lots of bottles everywhere and people mixing (and drinking) away. Concoctions of all sizes, colors, and octane levels came out of there. I was on the dance floor (what used to be the living room) sweating to death with a friend who we will call Martin. At the next song change, we decided to take a break. Martin said he was going to make us a drink. About five minutes later, he emerged from the kitchen with a 32 oz. Big Gulp cup filled with chartreuse liquid. I said "What in the world is that?" Martin replied with a grin "I like to call it Antifreeze". I asked an appropriate question…"What's in it?" I really should have asked why it was green! He said, "Oh a little of this and a little of that… just try it. It's good." Being that I was thirsty and hey, Martin was a “friend,” I took a sip from the cup. It was good. It tasted like Kool-Aid, and I was hot and thirsty. It took me about ten minutes and a couple of songs on the dance floor, but I drank the whole cup.

Shortly there after, I felt like a balloon that someone was slowly letting the air out of. The room was swaying and I got really sleepy. I went to Aaron and asked if I could lie down on his bed for a minute. He led me to the room, and I sat down on the bed. He said he would let my friends know where I was and shut the door. The next thing I remember was my friends waking me up telling me it was time to go. I was so groggy and sleepy. My eyelids felt like they weighed a ton. They were begging me to get up and put my shoes on so we could leave. I said "Alright! Alright! Turn on the light so I can find my shoes!" Silence. Then giggles. "Christie, the light is on." The light couldn’t have been on because it was pitch black to me. I told them to stop playing around and turn on the light. They insisted it was on and continued to laugh at me. I was slurring so I assumed that was what was so funny. I thought to ask a stupid question, but wasn’t sure if I really wanted to know the answer. "Are my eyes open?" More giggling. Actually it was beginning to sound like guffawing now. Someone (I don’t know who because it was pitch black) said, "Yes, your eyes are open, silly, now c'mon! Aaron wants his bedroom back!" The lights were on, my eyes were open, but all I saw was darkness. I screamed to the top of my lungs, "I'M BLIND! I'M BLIND! OH, GOD, I'M BLIND!" All out side-splitting laughter ensued all around me. I felt arms around me helping me up as I was screaming and crying that I was blind. I felt myself being carried out and down the stairs to the car. I heard talking and laughing (all about me of course) while being whisked through the darkness. My thoughts turn to Martin. That @#$%&*!!! He did this to me! What the hell was in that drink? What if my eyesight never returns? I began to panic. My friends were trying to reassure me that I was just sloppy drunk and that I would be better in the morning. This was all a hallucination. I was not convinced. I began to do what every person in the world does when drunk and not in control of bodily functions. I prayed to God that if he gave me my eyesight back I would never drink again.

When I awoke the next morning in my dorm room bed, I could see. Lucky for me, He is a forgiving God. Lucky for me, I had good friends to take care of me and to make sure that I didn’t murder Martin in the cafeteria the next day!

Funny, right? Yeah, it’s funny because I am still here to tell the tale. Think about it… this story could have had a tragic ending. I could have gotten alcohol poisoning. I could have been raped! I was lucky. There are many girls out there who were not as fortunate. Don’t add your name to that roster!

Click "Published Work" in the sidebar to get more information and/or to order copies of "Your Big Sister's Guide to Surviving College."

If you are thinking I am going to rip up the movie version of this best selling novel, you thought WRONG!  This was one of those amazingly rare occasions when Hollywood actually got it right!  

This past Monday, I was invited to a media screening of the Dreamworks film, "The Help," and it was nothing short of fabulous.  I was just fifty or so pages shy of finishing the book before seeing the movie so I pretty much had it down.  For those of you who don't know of the book or movie, The Help is a story set in Mississippi during the civil rights movement...right around the time of the deaths...excuse me...assassinations of JFK and Medgar Evers.  It centers around the lives of a handful black maids and the white women they work for in this trying time in the segregated south.  It is a beautiful, emotional, and hysterical story about the relationships between the maids, between the maids and their white bosses, and between the white women in high-society.  While it is a period piece and the era itself plays a big role in the story, it goes so far beyond race and class.  It is about the struggles of women of all ages, classes, races.  It is about love, friendship, and acceptance.  It's about knowing who you are and beliving you are worth it.  Some got it...some didn't.  Yes, I am glazing over the plot because, well I want you to read it and/or see it for yourself... duh!

Now I am a self-proclaimed book snob and a movie snob.  I am a writer, after all, and I get really pissy when Hollywood screws up a good book (or a Marvel comic but that's another story).  While there were several parts of Kathryn Stockett's masterpiece left out, the core integrity of the book which is the relationships between these remarkable women, was entirely in tact.  And the missing pieces were not really missed...they were good and yes, important, but if they were kept in, the movie would have been like five hours long!  Everything that needed to be there was there.

When I read books, I always picture in my head what the characters look like and usually I choose actors.  Did I see any of these actresses in my head...NOPE.  Outside of Viola Davis as Aibeleen, I was kind of skeptical of the choices for these iconic roles.  All of them were nothing short of brilliant.  I have no doubt there will be some Oscar nominees...and maybe even winners...out of this group of gals.

So for you book snobs like me who will flat out refuse to see a film made from one of your favorite novels for fear it will be reduced to toilet paper at the hands of Hollywood...fear not, my well-read friends.  Many are definitely called and The Help is one of the chosen few.