The Manicheans

Howdie and happy Friday! It appears I have been nominated as a participant of the One Lovely Blog Hop by the wonderful C.L. Schneider (check her book The Crown of Stones here and her blog here). This blog hop is designed to show our readers a more personal side to ourselves. Gosh knows I’m trying to do that every day LOL. I haven’t been on this platform a lot lately, and I apologize, but books don’t write themselves and if I don’t sacrifice at least something, the Manicheans Trilogy will take decades to finish. I promise though, you won’t be disappointed with the final result.

Alright, I’ve been challenged to list seven interesting facts about me. The rules are that I share 7 Lovely Facts about myself, and links to at least 15 blogs that I enjoy reading. If I’ve nominated your blog (see names below) please don’t feel any obligation to join in but, if you do, please link back to the blog of the person who nominated you (that would be me!), share facts about yourself and nominate 15 blogs (or as many as you can).

As Julie Jones would say, here goes nothing:

1) If I was given a choice, be imprisoned for life, and write, or stay free, but don’t ever write again, I’d choose imprisonment. Obviously, I never wanna be given that choice, but freedom of speech to me is more important than freedom of movement. Once you prohibit people from thinking and saying whatever the heck they wanna say, society is doomed. Abuse of power and censorship are death to me. Isn’t it what we fall victims to when terrorists kill because we’ve expressed ourselves? And why should I be afraid of speaking my mind? As long as I’m not inciting riots and violence, I’m free to speak and think whatever I want. That’s what the First Amendment tells me anyway. Now people’s understanding of this fundamental right is a total different ball game. And we have a tendency to take this particular right for granted. Restrain me to a chair, and prevent me from going anywhere, I’m gonna go mad real quick. But tell me I can’t say this, or that, and I might not be as aggressive. Stealth oppression is the worst.

2) I have four cats, but I’m no cat lady. I’m jumping on a lighter subject with this one. First, who determined the number of cats that makes someone a cat lady? Four cats is nothing. And no, I’m not in denial. If I had four turtles, would you call me a turtle lady? (I think this would sound offensive to some people.) Seriously? My house is clean. Doesn’t smell. My cats are cute. Like holiday calendar cute. I work, I shower, and my boyfriend is as much in love with these cats as I am. Therefore, revise your cat lady judgmental statements. So what, you’re jealous I have so many furry pussies to keep me warm at night? Your loss.

3) Unlike a bunch of people out there, I don’t hate Iggy Azalea. Who raised their hand and asked “Who the crap is Iggy Izalea-something spelled weird, whatever that name is?” Yes, I did that too. Thank God for Wikipedia. She’s a white rapper from Sydney, Australia, and she’s pretty popular right now. Some black hip hop artists are just slamming her for stepping into their territory, claiming hip hop is black culture, not white culture, blah blah, bunch of unnecessary drama and bad publicity, that made me like this Iggy chick even more, and these haters even less. The appropriation of anything just doesn’t scream tolerance to me, now does it? As soon as you say “it’s mine”, you sound like a selfish prick. Who made you the owner of anything? As long as you have the talent, and work your ass off for it, freaking take the reins. Drive, speed up under the influence, and crash for all I care. Black, white, yellow, green, at the end of the day, it’s hip hop, it’s music, it’s words on a page. It’s freedom of expression again! Jealousy, and under the belt jabs are just another sign of immaturity.

4) I’m lactose intolerant. Who cares if I can’t eat cheese, right? Or ice cream? Or drink milk? I don’t really care either. I can live without all of that. The problem is that sometimes, I’d like to eat cheese, because cheese is delicious, and well, I gotta pay attention to how much I eat. Lesson learned: pleasure causes pain too.

5) I learned to parallel park by crashing into cars. I say “crashing”, I should use “brushing”. Well “hitting softly” if you’re really technical. The reason is when the parking spot is really tight, and you gotta park, you have to jam yourself in there. Bumper to bumper, push the car in front, and the car behind, and tada, you just created your personalized parking spot with one half of the car on the sidewalk, the other half into a tree. And if you own a Smart car, you can park in any direction you want! Isn’t that sweet? We can’t say whatever we want, but we can park however we want! Life is just so full of surprises.

6) People have suffered from my elbows. And I will explain. In New York City, when the subway, or the street, whichever, is packed, and I’m talking not even one square foot of personal space available, when you move, and exit the car or have to walk through a thick crowd of tourist who just don’t give a flying banana about standing right in the middle of the intersection taking pictures of tall buildings, and not speaking English, so they can’t understand when you curse at them, sometimes, you gotta use the elbows. And the elbows work like this: open the arms like two powerful wings, and engage. The only issue with the elbow hit is that once I sent a girl flying to the other side of the underground pass, and the other time, a kid took one elbow in the face. It’s horrible, but I didn’t intend to hit anyone. I was just trying to walk out of the crowd. If you don’t live in a big city like New York, you won’t understand what jampacked is. I don’t really use the elbows that much anymore, now I’ve switched to breaking the crowd with my forearm-it works like a blade. I’ve noticed it’s less lethal, and I can sleep at night.

7) Last but not least, I’m a licensed attorney but I’ve never practiced. And it’s a good thing because it gives me an edge. I know about the legal world, and am truly inspired by it, but I feel like a spy. I know their secret, I belong to their private club, but I’m not really one of them. LOL The Manicheans takes place in a law firm. Brace yourselves.

Well, that wasn’t too bad. Now onto the nominations:

1) Minnie Lahongrais

2) James Garcia, Jr. 

3) Nina D’Arcangela

4) Axel Howerton

5) A.F. Stewart

6) Julianne Snow

7) Kim Koning

8) Clarissa Johal

It’s not fifteen, but eight very good blogs from great authors! Now hop on!

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And remember, 32 Seconds is still available for 99 Cents on Amazon, and will be promoted in a ginormous book tour this February. You gotta love it!

32 Seconds by Johanna K. Pitcairn – YA Psychological and Paranormal Thriller

To the average onlooker, the city of Los Angeles represents glitz, glamour, and the celebrity lifestyle. But to seventeen-year-old Julie Jones, the city is a vast host of problems she’s longing to get away from. The latest? An unfortunate disagreement with her ex-boyfriend Mark—one that could land her in some serious hot water.

So rather than face the troubles that torment her, Julie decides to run away from her old life and start fresh somewhere new. But her parents aren’t on board with the plan, and she soon finds her bank accounts frozen and her wallet empty.

With just seventy-five dollars and a full tank of gas, the troubled teen is far too stubborn to turn around and head home. So what’s a girl to do?

What Julie doesn’t know is that her travels are about to take her somewhere unexpected—a place where she’ll be forced to come face to face with the ghosts of her past in order to secure her future.

A tale of redemption, hope, and freedom lost and found, 32 Seconds is a thought-provoking exploration into the human spirit and the nature of forgiveness.

Click here to access the ebook. Happy reading!