Tag: new york city

Who And What Inspires Me

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

The other day I dropped one of those Question boxes onto my Instagram story so that I could do a big Q&A style blog post, but I only got one real honest-to-goodness question, the rest were spammers and bots. I was a bit disappointed until I realized that the human question that was asked was sooooo good! I decided to dedicate a whole blog post just to it. So thank you so much Amira at @GoalSetting101

 

She asked me — Who Or What Inspires You?

 

To be honest, that answer can and has changed throughout my creative life and depends on which story or project I’m working on, but today I wanted to sit down and really think about overall, who and what inspires me on a day-to-day basis.

 

Who Inspires Me?

 

My son inspires me every day to keep trying, to never give up, even when things are hard. He makes me smile and laugh and is just the sweetest 8 year old ever!  My Mom inspires me by how hard she loves, how much she cares, and how much support she gives me. My husband inspires me by his strong work ethic, his wonderful sense of humor, and how much he wants me to succeed.  

 

For my first book, The Art of Lying, a random young woman walking through Central Park inspired the character of Rachel. Other writers, both people I know and people I just read, inspire me to keep moving forward, hands on the typewriter, butt in the chair.

 

What Inspires Me?

 

Coffee – first and forever. Modern Art. Before Corona, I would just go to MoMa or the Guggenheim and walk around soaking in the colors and lines. New York City, in general, inspires me, but Broadway and Time Square specifically. Just sitting with a coffee watching the whole city walk by was always fascinating. The energy and the electricity of the whole scene just filled me up with some kind of frenzy I can’t get anywhere else. TV and movies inspire me to write better characters, to deepen plot lines, to create more. 

 

The young adult experience inspires me in my writing – what they go through, the issues they have to face, and the decisions they have to make. Solving puzzles and figuring out the psychology of the human condition definitely inspires me to write compelling people, creating characters that my readers can fall in love with. And on a more whimsical note, tarot cards and astrology inspire me to keep reaching for the stars while keeping my feet on the ground. 

 

So, now I have to know – who or what inspires you?

 

 

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Working out at home is NOT easy…I miss OrangeTheory

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Day 42 (I think) of quarantine and, luckily, we are doing okay.  It’s just – when you live in Queens, NY (you know, the epicenter of the epicenter) it makes going out to do anything tricky.  I haven’t actually left my apartment building in four weeks.  I’ve done laundry in our basement and grabbed mail & packages from the lobby, but I haven’t stepped outside in weeks.

 

I knew I needed to keep up with my exercise habit, I mean before this I was just a few classes shy of 100 workouts at OrangeTheory Fitness. I was feeling a part of that community, made great friends, and felt so much better. I had more energy, was sleeping better, just overall felt better.  And then the reality of my home life changing, adding in online schooling, and the fact that outside is kinda scary kinda stopped me from working out altogether.

 

For the first month of lockdown, I only did one at home OTF workout. You see one of the reasons I joined OrangeTheory was because I hate working out at home. I’m not self-motivated. I have no inner reserve to call upon to get the workouts done. I need classes and a coach and good music.  

 

After that first month, I wasn’t sleeping well.  My energy was shot and I was cranky. Part of this was missing exercise, but another part was just my overall routine was disrupted so I decided to create a new morning routine that would include some sort of movement.  I have a really old book on my shelf called “8 Minutes in the Morning” where you do two strength type exercises a day with a warm-up and stretching afterward.  I did the whole book about 15+ years ago when I lived in a studio apartment in Manhattan so I knew I could manage them here in Queens.

 

I looked through the book one weekend and then set my new routine up.  I would get up at 6 am – do my morning pages, affirmations, meditation, and then grab the old book and do the warm-up, moves, and stretching.  So far, I’ve only missed one day due to not sleeping well the night before. Otherwise, I’ve been really consistent and I just started week 3 this past Monday.

 

The book is a 4-week program so I’m thinking after it’s over I’ll either do the whole thing again or start doing some of the OrangeTheory YouTube videos. I’m back into the swing of things and feeling strong again. I’m feeling ready to tackle a longer workout.  It was really hard to go from 3 one-hour workouts a week consistently to nothing for a full month.

 

Now, I’m still feeling the effects of quarantine, but I am able to handle things better. I have more patience with myself and my family. I’m able to manage my stress levels, get really good sleep (most nights), and laugh instead of scream when things get tough.

 

How are you handling things? Are you getting in some movement? Are you able to get out and about where you live?  Just know that it’s still all okay.  I needed some movement, but it doesn’t look like it did before and that’s fine, so if you’re not able to do the things you did before, know that eventually, we will get back. I hope.

 

 

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Why I Write Coming Of Age Stories for Young Adults

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

I write contemporary coming of age young adult novels.  

 

It’s a mouthful and it might not even be the correct terminology – I have no idea – but it’s what I write. I write books set in the now, in a real city in the real world with fictional characters going through things that real people would and do go through.  

 

They are not set in space (although I have a crazy idea for a police series about a human cop on an alien space station…but that’s for another time and place). There’s no dragons or witches…not the kind that fly on brooms anyways. My characters don’t travel through time, battle demons with swords, or play sports in mid-air. They go to school, deal with first loves, and have really big decisions to make.  I write about the small everyday things that are huge for that person and character.

 

And I love it!

 

I recently filled out an Author Business Assessment sheet for a class I’m taking and one of the things we worked through was our mission statement.  Who are we writing for and why? 

 

I answered that I write realistic, relatable characters for young adults who feel misunderstood, lonely, are bored sometimes, love their families and friends, and wish they had all the answers. 

 

My mission is to let them know they are not alone, that everyone goes through heartbreak, laugh so hard they cry, fear people laughing at them, and that horrible sick feeling in their stomach when they lose.  My books are pure escapism and entertainment, but that doesn’t mean they can’t make my readers feel something – they should…if I’ve done my job right.

 

Writing YA takes me back to when I was young and had decisions to make that would change the course of my life. To when I was first living on my own in Manhattan and I felt alone and scared, but also feeling hopeful and alive and loving the pulse of the city. Creating these characters keeps me young, keeps me up on what’s cool and what’s in – I mean, I can’t really figure out TikTok, but I know it’s a THING! 

 

Why do you like reading Young Adult novels? Do you stick to one niche or are you a voracious reader across multiple genres? I pretty much stick to YA at this point, but I was also in love with Stephen King for a while and James Patterson’s Alex Cross series.  I would love to know your answer so let me know in the comments below.

  

 

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Like, What? Ugh…As If!

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

We’ve all heard of the inner child, right?  When someone is being cranky or needs a nap, or when we go to therapy and we talk about healing the inner child or giving them what they need or something…well, I think I have an inner teenager.

For real, I’ve been trying to be more adult about things – like decluttering my apartment, meal plan and prep – which involves cooking, and making sure things are done in an orderly fashion.  Which, okay, even my teenage self enjoyed….but lately I can feel her rolling her eyes.  She’s being annoying in my head.

“Oh man, when are we going to do something fun?” she’ll say to me when I get out the cutting board.  “Why do we have to do this on a Sunday?  Sundays are for playing games and watching movies?” Roll eyes, hair flip, huff in annoyance.  Inner teenager.

I can’t really ground her, because who wants that, so I decided to start listening to her.  Fun, she’s screaming for fun.  Yes, I have to meal prep and plan – it’s been helping me so much – but it’s not much fun.  So I’ve been listening to music or watching YouTube while I do some things.  I’ve been asking my husband to help me so we can get it done more quickly and we can talk while we do it.  Decluttering is the same thing.  It has to get done – trust me, it looks like a toy store threw up in our apartment and we have stuff everywhere it seems. So, music and timers and rewards have been helping.

But, she’s clamoring for fun.  Not making the boring stuff more fun.  Actual FUN!  So I got some magazine subscriptions and when they come, I make time with tea or coffee to sit down and read them.  I’ve started dressing in a more fun manner, adding more color to my life again.  I bought new exercise clothes that are cute and functional!  I started watching TV shows during lunch again.  Comedies – things that make me laugh out loud.

I need the fun in my life, my son needs the fun in his life too so the other thing I’ve been doing is planning Family Fun Adventures around the city.  Last week we took the Tram across the East River from Roosevelt Island into Manhattan and had yummy pizza at my favorite brick oven place, Patsy’s,  and then got bags of chocolate at Dylan’s Candy Bar.  We had a great time and it was just pure fun.  No real agenda except the ride over, the food and the exploring.

Do you have an inner teenager? What have they been saying to you lately? Have you stopped to listen?  Do you need more sleep? More fruit? More fun?  Do you need to be super lazy one day and not get up off the couch?  What did you like to do as a teenager?  Let me know in the comments below!

 

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New Year…Who Dis?

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Hello to 2019 and to my lovely readers.  How were the holidays for everyone?  How has January been so far?   Christmas was really nice and a little crazy (seven year olds are good for that) and January has been a bit of a whirlwind as I onboard two new Virtual Assistant clients, gear up for another 6 months of helping my son’s Parents’ Association, and finishing up the first draft of my next novel!

While reading through the old blog archives, I  realized that I’ve never really introduced myself (and if I have…it was years ago) so no time like the present to give you a few facts about ME!

1. I was born and raised in St. Louis, MO and went to college in Springfield, MO so I spent the first 24 years of my life in Missouri.  I loved growing up in St. Louis (and I lived in the city – if you’re familiar with the city, I grew up just a few blocks from The Hill across Hampton Avenue) we had an amazing Art Museum, Science Center, The Arch, good food, and Botanical Gardens.

2. I was homeschooled from sixth grade through High School.  The one thing St. Louis didn’t really have was good public schools.  I hated school, like so much I did not want to go back and would get sick (either real or fake) to stay home.  We tried a few other options (that didn’t really work – including a private religious school – which was worse that the public school in terms of how kids treated one another and the teacher’s being weird bullies themselves) but eventually we landed on homeschooling and I thrived.  I was able to do my regular school work along with all the passions that I had – photography, theatre, writing, and music.  It was a multi passionate kid’s dream!

3.  To go along with Number 1 – I moved to New York City right before my 25th birthday having never visited (I also didn’t have a ton of people that I knew there – there was a few friends of friends, or people I went to college with but weren’t exactly close to) but I flew up there with my parents, dropped my stuff at the 92nd Street Y (where I was staying) and immediately fell in love with the city.  By the first night, standing on the Staten Island ferry, watching the lights of the city start to come on I turned to my Mom and said, “I’m home!” and it’s true then and it’s true now.

4. I moved to New York City to pursue my first love of musical theatre.  I took classes, singing lessons, went on auditions, and did a few off-off-off-off broadway shows.  I had fun when I was doing something, but the constant rejection finally took it’s toll and I decided to hang up the towel.  I still love musical theatre and Broadway, but it’s not a huge part of my life anymore and actually I’m okay with that.  For years, after I “quit” auditioning, I couldn’t watch The Tony awards – it was just too hard – now it’s just not that entertaining because I don’t know as many of the shows.  Although – if someone has some Hamilton tickets lying about – I’ll take them off your hands.  HA

5. I love coffee!  While in college I got really into teas and so some of my “old” friends think it’s funny how much I love coffee, but coffee was my first love.  I’m the youngest and my much older brothers both drank coffee as did my parents (my sister did not drink coffee though) so I wanted to be like everyone else, so they would let me have some with milk and sugar and it was heavenly.  I’m not a coffee snub, I know what I like and I enjoy every last drop every day!

6. I’m multi passionate – I mentioned this up in number 2, but although I love writing novels I also love learning about witchcraft and shellwork, pulling tarot cards and researching meanings and history, I love music and still want to learn how to play that guitar properly, I love singing and entertaining still even if I’m not auditioning, and I love planners and planning, I love helping my clients with their VA stuff, and I love so many other things – I never realized there was a term for it – I just assumed I was flighty, but nope – I’m just multi passionate and it’s been a glorious discovery!

7. Random facts: I type 100 words per minute with about a 98% accuracy rate.  I worked at The Disney Store for about 6-8 months after college (if you know St. Louis, it was the Crestwood Mall location – which sadly isn’t there anymore).  I haven’t drive a car since August 2001 (since moving to New York City).  I know about 95% of Friends episodes – meaning I can recite the whole show while it’s going on, and I’ve even been known to know an episode just from a screenshot or line from the show.  (I can also do this with certain movies – Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, and Ferris Bueller)  

Okay, so here’s seven things about me — what else would you like to know?  Ask below – I might do a part 2 if I get enough questions, or I might just answer them in the comments.  Also — I have a few ideas for the next few blogs, but then I’m tapped out, so if you have any ideas of what you’d like to see from me and this blog, let me know!  

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