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.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Voices

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Early this morning, I was scrolling through Facebook, when I landed on a video interview of Sandra Cisneros. She was talking about how she f...

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Friday, July 24, 2015

Pursuit of Happiness

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I'm sitting on a beach chair (we are still furnishing our house) watching Food Network thinking about happiness. When I was in high sch...

Friday, May 22, 2015

Journal at 5 am

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A good friend's mom passed away Wednesday night and yesterday, I visited her. I knocked on her door in Glendora and she opened it lookin...

Thursday, April 30, 2015

The Lost Years

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Life is not fair. That is what I keep thinking to myself as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling. I have not written a blog for a while. We a...

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Saturday, April 11, 2015

High Hopes

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I have learned a lot these past couple weeks. I have learned to let things go and forgive. Resentment and anger is toxic and only impedes. I...

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

ghost of bodies past

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I had an epiphany at a Target while on cold medicine last week. I was stumbling through the aisles, drowsy, and saw myself in the mirror. ...

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Memories

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I have come to realize that I am only truly happy when writing. The act of punching the keys gets me out of my head. At times, I am an anx...

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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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