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.

Friday, October 30, 2020

Halloween blues not orange

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Halloween blues is how I'm feeling. I am thinking back to the shows and concerts, such as Nightmare Before Xmas at the Hollywood Bowl an...

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Hairdresser on fire

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I am a girl who has had hair of many colors. From childhood to junior high, it was a deep brown. In 8th grade, I dyed it a purplish maroon r...

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

LIFE

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Do you remember the board game LIFE? My favorite board game was always Monopoly, but LIFE was a close second. It created a life on a board a...

Friday, October 16, 2020

Nervous gratitude

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I've been thinking much about gratitude. These are such strange times that it feels strange to be highlighting thankfulness. But I am g...

Friday, October 9, 2020

Musings

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It's 6 am. I'm on my phone writing this drinking my coffee. We're in a hotel suite for my birthday weekend. It's hard with t...

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Relaxing (in pandemic times)

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When will this pandemic all end? Will it ever end? If you had asked me in March, I would have said by the summer. If you had asked me in sum...

Friday, October 2, 2020

Constellations

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I walked the dogs in the dark this morning. I could see the constellations in the sky. They twinkled like a beacon that was put there just f...

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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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