Life of JEM: My Life In The Inland Empire

A BLOG ABOUT THE ZANY CHILDHOOD AND ADULT ADVENTURES OF A GIRL FROM THE INLAND EMPIRE WHO MOVED OUT OF THE INLAND EMPIRE ONLY TO END UP BACK IN THE INLAND EMPIRE.

Sunday, April 20, 2025

The feels

Last night, I had an event at the libros bookstore in Lincoln Heights. It's in a charming neighborhood in LA right off Soto and the ten ...

Saturday, April 19, 2025

The mores...

Tonight, I have an event in Los Angeles. I've tried to cut down on LA events. It's hard on me. The drive. My anxiety. My stress. Plu...

Friday, April 18, 2025

Rock away

Last night, we went to Pappy & Harriets in Joshua Tree to see The Coverups, which is basically Billy Joe and some of his Green Day crew,...

Sunday, April 13, 2025

Writing and more

I write every day. Something. A blog. A story for class. An essay for a newspaper. Those are three of the things I've written in the las...

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

The dropout

After dropping out of high school at seventeen, just five units short, I thought my life was over. I felt like I'd thrown away everythin...

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

The runaway

So I'm working on a YA novel. It might end up a novella. I've been working on it for a while albeit sporadically. I won't go int...

Friday, March 7, 2025

The world is a stage

As Shakespeare has said in his play As You Like It, "All the world is a stage." It is. Truly. Finally, at 53, I've realized I...

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About Me

Juanita E. Mantz (JEM): JEM's life story is the stuff that memoirs are made of. JEM went from punk rock high school dropout to corporate lawyer to rock star deputy public defender and nonfiction writer. JEM's stories, blog and video podcast document her journey so take a look! Her YA memoir, "Tales of an Inland Empire Girl", is available via Los Nietos Press (and through all national retailers). Her book tells the poignant story of her chaotic YA life growing up in the IE. Her chapbook, "Portrait of a Deputy Public Defender, or how I became a punk rock lawyer", was also released in Aug 2021 by Bamboo Darts Press. JEM is married to her wonderful husband Adrian who is a dentist. They have two Shih Tzus, Frodo and Chewbaca (Chewie to his friends). Her work has been published in Aljazeera, The Acentos Review, The Dirty Spoon Radio Hour, Entropy, As/Us, Inlandia, & Mutha magazine, among others. Go to her author website for more info at https://juanitaemantz.com. JEM is in the creative writing MFA low residency program at UNO. She has presented at AWP, Beyond Baroque and the UCR Punk Conference.

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