Your Moment of Bohemia

As part of my gig with Bohemia--the literary journal I am fortunate enough to staff on--I will be writing a weekly blog assignment here catered to our fans/friends/bohemian followers. The rest of the staff are poised to write, as well, so feel free to visit http://bohojo.wordpress.com/ to check out my fellow staffers in all their glory!

For me: sometimes I will write on certain topics and other times, I'll post some fiction I've been working on so keep checking back weekly for that! :)

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Peeling myself away from March Madness has been a daunting task. Of course, being the one to break up the sour party amid the Texas loss so a conference room could ACTUALLY be used for work was not so much fun either.

But, as the saying goes: Life moves on.

:)

This week, I've been working hard on both the narrative for my Noir screenplay and a brief overlook on my novel (before sending it out to the next agent on my list). In doing these things around my work, I really haven't actively written anything for my Bohemia Day.

However, I do have something on my mind and, though it might get a tad "ranty", I'd like to be indulged for a few minutes while I try to figure myself out. :)


Last weekend, I happened to have an interesting altercation while out with the puppies. Fezz-man is getting big (as all Danes do) so most people don't bother me, but this one gentleman actually seemed to be up to no good. And, there I stood with two barking dogs who really wanted to take a bite out of crime. Said no-gooder took a step towards me and, deciding I wasn't worth it, moved on after barking back at my dog.

Two days later, as I'm relaying this story to a neighbor, I find out that she doesn't go out late at night with her dogs because she had nearly been kidnapped as a kiddo--twice.

I, motivated by her honesty, told her I had my own near-abduction story.

I've never polled those I talk to daily on their own experience with kidnapping but the comment left me wondering how many people have experienced that during their childhood. I found no statistics on the subject--I assume because near misses aren't reported. I know mine wasn't. So, even if there was data, it wouldn't be very accurate.

(Aside: I did read that about 2,000 kids are kidnapped every day.

Every. Day. Which is a number I just can't wrap my brain around. End of Aside)

Oddly enough, what intrigued me most about our conversation was the vast difference in our routines. While she doesn't take her dogs out past sundown unless she has to, makes sure she checks her surroundings, and performs all the cautionary actions of a normal adult, I step out carefree sans my glasses and assume anyone who comes by is just passing through. In fact, my only general reaction to someone is to take the dogs further onto their little plot of potty land to give me distance from said person. To really prove my stupidity further, I get an automatic guilt for even thinking the stranger could do something bad, telling myself that it's not nice for me to judge.

So, that's what has me thrown: two people who have similar not-so-good experiences in childhood but turn up with different reactions in adulthood. How does that happen? And, why am I not as guarded as she is? What is wrong with me?

My only guess is in the reactions in our personal stories. I didn't get her full account--which is fine--but I did surmise from her tone that it wasn't as throw-away as mine. Which, leads me to my answer. When I reflect back on my tale, I can see how clueless I was that day. In fact, it wasn't until years later that I realized how wrong I had taken that situation.

I've always been "trust first, ask questions later". And, that day, I did exactly that. I don't doubt that I would've gotten right into that car had my sister not been there to stop me. I was that trusting. Of a stranger.

And, despite my life experiences since then, nothing has changed. I've grown older, but that trusting little girl is still the first to give the benefit of a doubt. It really feels like I didn't learn my lesson. I'm that much of an idiot.

Maybe, on some other level, I also want to prove that I can take care of myself. I've always been the baby and I've pretty much always had someone by me to protect me against whatever threatened my Bambi self.

When I first started living on my own, I was so stoked and ready to prove that I could be on my own and handle anything. But, the problem is, instead of growing into a stronger, independent person, I've still kept my same, bonehead moves. While would-be troublemakers have gotten better and found me away from my big sister, I've completely overlooked what she was teaching me with her strong, defiant stance.

So, needless to say, it's time to get smarter...




*Kayla*

Time After Time

A couple days ago, I found--tucked away neatly in my SPAM folder--a shiny, new rejection email.

Of the glorious negatives that I've thus far received, this one hit a particular soft spot and reminded me: Be careful what you wish for.

Aside: Over the past weeks of searching for someone to buy my beloved first novel, I have acquired roughly four "No" emails (Is it sad that I have already lost count?). Each one--up until the last--felt like a generic, non-answer from some computer somewhere that never even read my entry. At one point, I even grumbled to Love at the uselessness of the replies. I wanted wholeheartedly for someone to not just say "We don't have time for you" but maybe "this specifically doesn't work" (and if they're feeling particularly nice maybe add "and here's why"). You know, make me believe that a human pair of eyes read the twenty requested pages!

I realize that any given agent's job is far too hectic to really give any discernible amount of critique to those not under their bill and that I'm writing to a higher level of the literary food chain, not my writing buddy a few states over. But--in my defense--if you think it's crap, tell me. I'd rather know right this moment that I have no possibility of getting my hole-punched manuscript into a publisher's hands than to trudge along for years and years, wasting time in the thought that someone, someday will tell me "Yes".

You might say that it's also not their job to know whether or not a story will see the light of day, but I say rubbish. That--in my pov--is a huge part of their job. I firmly believe that agents across the World receive piles of really bad crap every day; items that they read and just CRINGE at: A theory that leads me to believe that what I'm sitting on is at the very least a mediocore endeavor.

I should be encouraged that my letters don't say "You should probably look into a different career choice".

Maybe that's saying something. End of Aside.

To get back to my story--the newest "No, thank you" letter actually had some human wording to it with the agent saying that she wanted to get into the book (she read the prologue and chapter one), but it didn't happen. And, she said that with her packed schedule of authors, she couldn't devote the time to me to make it jump out at her.

This rejection has a somewhat different taste in my mouth. It's uplifting to the point that she at least thinks it has potential (otherwise I have no doubt she would've said so). It also tells me that my query writing is on track (i.e., even if the two chapters she read didn't quite fit the bill, the query at least intrigued her).

The downer is that it begs the response for me to muddle through and recheck the entire project, maybe construct an alternate opening. Although I'll do what needs to be done, I've been majorly procrastinating (partially because I got into another book in the Patterson series, partially because I've been busy with LIFE, and partially because I have other writing projects that are either more pressing or more interesting).

So, for now, I'll buckle down and spend the next week doing an overhaul of sorts to make sure it really is as pristine as I can make it. Because, even though I'd rather work on the fun sequel, there won't be one if I can't get the first one of the ground.

Sometimes the truth hurts.


*Kayla*

Your Moment of Bohemia

As part of my gig with Bohemia--the literary journal I am fortunate enough to staff on--I will be writing a weekly blog assignment here catered to our fans/friends/bohemian followers. The rest of the staff are poised to write, as well, so feel free to visit http://bohojo.wordpress.com/ to check out my fellow staffers in all their glory!

For me: sometimes I will write on certain topics and other times, I'll post some fiction I've been working on so keep checking back weekly for that! :)

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Whew! Just finished my round of articles for the upcoming issue and I can't wait for our annual proofing party to see just how high the bar has been set yet again. :) Seriously, our staff is awesome!

One of the perks of being able to work on such a great publication is the artists we meet out in the community. My first music interview was with Beautiful Disturbance. I was so nervous meeting them because I knew they had been travelling and had acquired a pretty good fan base, so I had my work cut out for me. I managed to get a tape recorded in about an hour and all the questions answered that I could possibly have. I worked for a few days shelling out the piece that made it to print and was even more ecstatic that they loved it as much as I did. When our release party rolled around, they played an acoustic show for us that totally made my night!

They, honestly, are some of my favorite people. So nice and down to Earth and just humble in how insanely talented they are. I really can't wait to see what happens with them next because they deserve every bit of notoriety that they get.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of helping out with their first music video. Love had a school project that involved shooting such a video and the BD crew was pumped and ready to make that happen! We met around lunch time at Legacy Cafe & Art Gallery (because James--the owner--is a Bohemian friend and all around awesome person) and the band up in front of the shop.

Yours truly was tapped to run the PA system. Woot!

Not as hard as it looks because Lord knows, I wouldn't have been able to do it if it was.

 
The band got to do full takes of the song since our crowd wasn't as unruly as was expected. Though, that's not to say they weren't noshing it out in the street (safely) because they were definitely rocking just as hard as the band was.

View of the rocking from my seat.

And, of course, the crew (Love and his buddies) took some pauses to get their shots set up. The three of them were all over the place and got a lot of really interesting angles.

At the end--after all the shots were done--the crowd, band, and filmmakers got together for a big photo group shot that was taken by some of Love's classmates/friends who were in the area and stopped by. It was a great moment in BD history and I feel so lucky to have been a part of it.

Taking a moment :)

I think that day exemplified what I love about Bohemia and our mission. We get to be a positive medium for these bands and artists and showcase them in such a way that displays our own art: Artists furthering Artists. There's no other way to put it. I meet so many people that are just hungry in this area for new sounds and new sights and new reads and Bohemia gets to be one of the sources to combat that starvation.

In turn, we get to really know the people whose stories we tell. We can help them out with future projects and they willingly help the Magazine out when we are in need.

It's a great community and I'm so lucky to be a part of it.


*Kayla*

Busy as a Bee

Listening to Pandora just really gets my creative juices flowing, unless of course I can't find the particular song to help me "feel" the scene I'm trying to write. Then, it kind of sucks. :(


Not that it happens often.


On the bright side, I've had a full two weeks of physically working on things that have me really excited...or I've been working. :)


Last weekend--when I wasn't working--I got to spend some time on a movie set, mainly getting to know those participating. Love had a much bigger role than I did, but I was asked to write a little something, so that's definitely on the To Do List.


This weekend--also around working--I was lucky enough to do another awesome interview that will be in the next issue of the Magazine. It's so rewarding to be able to tell the stories of some of the most talented people around Waco. And, I'm still surprised when they like what I do, as well. Very surreal. Though I definitely have my favorites, each one is just as exciting as the one previous. Which is really good and definitely keeps me from getting burned out on the process.


I also got to help with a music video that Love is doing for one of my favorite bands (although I'm biased because they let me interview them early in my short career!)--which will be the topic of my next post. They really are the best people to work with. Love and I have had the pleasure of working on a few things both with the Mag and out of it and I can't say enough on how much I love them. :)


This coming weekend is a big one for the Magazine. We're having our first annual silent art auction with bands and a DJ and food and drinks. I, for one, am really excited to see our fans/readers come out and support us. And, I might also be jealous of the people who will swipe the goodies that are prime for the taking!


:) Our Journal is really one of the best in the area and I can't wait for everyone to see what we have for them next!

*Kayla*