Tag Archives: writing

It pays real money at least

February 15, 2009parenting, writingfamily, job, retail, writingGeorgiaGeis

The alarm clock rudely wakes me at 3:15 a.m. I lay catatonic for at least ten more minutes before I stumble through the dark trying to be as quiet as I can. I grab the crumbled t-shirt off my dresser.

I can hear my dad in the bathroom so I rush down to the basement to avoid a loud conversation with him (see One Day at a Time).

I really don’t know what I was thinking getting a job that starts at 4 in the morning. Four or five months ago it seemed like a luxury after getting up at 2 in the morning to deliver newspapers. But, now it just seems crazy.

I work in the backroom of a popular department store several blocks from my house. I won’t tell which store except that it is not the evil Walmart. I was excited when I first got the job. “Hey I love shopping there it should be fun to work there. And I’m sure I’ll get an awesome discount.” I told my husband.

Well, it is as far from fun as a stroll through the Sahara Desert…barefoot. It is definitely not the cool job I had in college working in the stockroom of the campus bookstore.

Now that I’m starring down 40 years old this year, working in the backroom stocking toothbrushes and baby bottles is just not a great reality. And the discount is only a measly 10 percent and that is if you pay with cash (like that ever happens) or you charge your purchase on their high interest store card.

I really can’t complain. I’m off early enough to do some writing before I go get my son from preschool. And it is a real job that pays real money. Unlike the play money I get paid when my son and I play store or the check for a freelance project I finished months ago that I just know has to be in the mail.

Who do I think I am?

January 24, 2009Uncategorizedblogs, life, writingGeorgiaGeis

So I have decided to embark on this blog adventure. Join the millions, maybe billions of bloggers across the globe. The amount of new content that gets posted on the web each day boggles my mind.

Who do I think I am to start yet another blog?

What will I write about…my 90-year-old father and 82-year-old mother who recently moved in with us in our very small cape cod home, living in the suburbs and pining for the downtown life, my obsession with tomatillos, my husband who makes his own furniture, bread, beer, cheese and even sake, or my genus 4-year-old son (OK I exaggerate, but he can count to 50, almost).

I even dreamed about it last night. I was sitting at the computer for hours. And in true horror-movie fashion I had written something similar to “all work and no play…” I have to get new content up there right away I thought as I woke up this morning. My audience of at least 20 people is waiting and I don’t want to disappoint.

As a writer, especially a freelance writer, I struggle with the self-confidence to believe what I write is making a true contribution. I always say to my husband, “That has been written about already.” or “There are at least five books written on that topic.” In his wise way he responds, “So!”

I guess he is right. What if James Baldwin, Joyce Carol Oates or Octivia Butler thought that? What if I could never have been inspired by these writers?

What if those people who write blogs about getting into freelance writing like freelance writing gigs, and Angela Booth’s Writing Blog or blogs about juggling motherhood and writing, such as the writer mama, mommy writer blog, and creative construction thought no one cared? I wouldn’t have gotten all that great advice.

I have to get over the idea that I will come up with something that no one has ever wrote about or even thought about. I have to, like all writers out there, just put myself and my writing out there. Kind of like putting that proverbial note in the bottle. It may never wash up on the shore, but like my husband says, “So.”

Getting my creative writing mojo back

January 21, 2009Uncategorized, writingcreative, friends, life, writingGeorgiaGeis

My good friend Julie is visiting from Phoenix this week. She heard about the minus 10 degree weather and just couldn’t resist.

I first meet Julie when I had a one-line part in a friend’s play. The play was about whether gay people should be allowed to own house plants.

We soon found ourselves hanging in the same circle, you know the non-paid but highly creative underground theatre crowd. I was in my late twenties and it finally felt like I had found my tribe.

Surrounded by creative, fun, free people I found my voice. It started with a piece I did called “Random Thoughts” for a late-night coffee house show. I just put a bunch of thoughts on index cards and rattled them off. To my surprise, I was a big hit.

I went on to write, direct and produce a one-act play called “Cindy Sparkles.” Before an attentive standing-room-only crowd my words came to life. It was truly one of the best moments of my life. OK, it was only seen at a small gallery in front of 100 people, but I was on top of the world.

Next came a monthly performance night called “Take Out: Emotional Leftovers”. Comedy skits, monologues and poems were just flowing out of me. But now, like the sink in our upstairs bathroom, it has slowed to a trickle, really just a drip.

Where did I lose my creative mojo?

I moved from Arizona, got married and had a son. I have continued to write non-fiction pieces for work, but I lost that creative groove. Without knowing people in Denver and eventually Chicago, I just reverted back to my grade school-introverted self. I understand now how important it is to know supportive like-minded people, like Julie. But mainly, it is just me feeling self-doubt about putting myself out there again.

I’m determined, with the dawning of this new year, this new hope-filled Obama Era, to get out there and get my creative writing and performing mojo back.

Hey, I’m big in Japan…I think?

January 11, 2009Uncategorizedjapan, life, sub-prime, thoughts, writingGeorgiaGeis

Economic Tsunami

I was excited to see that people were reading and discussing my first published book, “The Economic Tsunami: How and Why the U.S. Sub-Prime Mortgage Storm Formed.”

Last summer, I co-wrote this book with my friend and former associate editor of TIME Magazine, Bruce E. Henderson. Since the book was published I have wondered how it was being received. Wondering if in fact anyone was even reading it. Unfortunately, the websites I recently found featuring reviews and comments about the book were in Japanese. I guess this makes sense since the only place the book has been published is Japan.

Here is an excerpt of a blog about the book that was translated from Japanese. “However, only part of this mortgage, this book is worth reading. 「住宅ローン」と一口に言うが、借り手から見て日本のそれとはだいぶ異なるのだ。 “Mortgage” and have a say in the mouth, not in Japan is different from the borrower a lot better. ただし読み飛ばしてはそういったところを見落とすので、本書を読む際には数字が出てくるところでは「徐行」して読んでいただきたい。 Skip But I miss them so, when you read this book at some numbers, “slow down” would like to read.”

So in other words, I have no idea what they are saying. And in a way my fragile ego may be glad.