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, July 26, 2014

Finding My Musical Religion

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If I could write perfect memoir it would have music embedded into it. One would read a bit of my childhood and young adult memories with a ...

Friday, July 4, 2014

Fourth of July

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"On the stairs, I smoke a cigarette alone/Mexican kids are shooting fireworks below/Hey baby, it's the Fourth of July/Hey baby/Baby...

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Wonder Woman

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Today is a good day. I feel that I have come through the wringer and am dry. There are no more tears to be shed. Or lost dreams to mourn....

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Not for the Faint of Heart

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Music always inspires me and on Thursday night at the Fox Theater in downtown Pomona, I had an epiphany at the Jack White concert. This ha...

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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

My Writing Process (as a work in progress)

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My fellow VONA alum and all around writer extraordinaire Joshunda Sanders asked me to participate in this blog tour (see her process at htt...

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Steak Sauce

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I grab the Worcestershire sauce and think of you. How you would always barbecue those huge rib eye steaks. How I would always pull away wh...

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Six weeks and counting and hoping and praying

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I am sitting on the beach in Newport writing this. My hubby took my mother-in-law and I here to enjoy the sun and sand. I needed to clear ...

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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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