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.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Stress Decompress

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I am learning that I don't always handle stress well. I thought I was okay. Then work turned into a chaotic mess. And when it got even m...

Saturday, November 16, 2024

The Key

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Yesterday, I did a keynote at CSUSB. I'd done speeches, closing arguments, performances, and workshops, but I had never done a keynote. ...

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Mad world

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It has been a mad world recently. First, the election and then my work life was very chaotic. It's always chaotic but this was more than...

Monday, November 4, 2024

Journey to Houston inspired by Alice Walker's Journey to Nine Miles

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Since my teens, I have always loved punk and post punk music. As a teenager, I wanted to be Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie & the Banshees. ...

Sunday, October 27, 2024

Hazy days

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It's a hazy day. The sky is grey with smog and it was in the nineties yesterday. It's fall but it doesn't feel like it. I get u...

Thursday, October 24, 2024

5 am musings

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It's 5 am. This is my magic time. I love to write at this time. I wake up, make an espresso and get to work. My brain sometimes works f...

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Don't Worry Baby

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I feel like I'm in crisis mode constantly. I'm always worrying about something. I have a lot of angst, and I know a lot of it is job...

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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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