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.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

The hardest button

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"I had opinions that didn't matter/I had a brain that felt like pancake batter/I got a backyard with nothing in it/Except a stick, ...

Thursday, July 25, 2013

The Seekers, the Fixers and the Thinkers

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Whenever I think I have it all figured out, life kicks me in the ass to say, no you don't. I am confident and sometimes, just sometime...

Sunday, July 21, 2013

A mess of things

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I am a mess. I am anxious and irritable most of the time. I have been sober for a year come next weekend and what I have realized down my ...

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Big John: A Father's Day Blog

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My dad had a belt buckle that said Big John. For most of his life, Dad was a big man. He used to drive trucks but got a job at Mayflower w...

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Blinded By Lightness In Palm Springs

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A mere hour's drive from where I live in Southern California is a city where the sun rarely sets. Palm Springs and its adjoining cities...

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Writing Workshop to Come-VONA 2013

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In a mere two weeks, I will be on a plane to Oakland for VONA at UC Berkeley. VONA is a week long writing workshop for writers of color. T...

Monday, May 20, 2013

Airport musings: from the HD to Ontario to the Bay

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I am sitting at the airport in Ontario, California waiting for my flight. I am reading at Stanford today for a literary journal that publis...

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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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