Release Dates and Cover Art - Reprinted with Permission

I've been out of town, but I am here for my weekly blog!

 

So, work on the second book is going great right now! I am somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of the way finished with the first draft. The guard girls are having a pretty great time with band camp, but of course there are always obstacles for them to overcome. Some of the obstacles come from within, and some come from the outside, but all of them will be worked through. I'm shooting for a release date of July 1st. We will see how this goes...

 

I've been looking for someone to work out the cover art for me on the second book. I have my original cover art, but once I had the first book published and the cover art for it professionally changed, I want to have the second book cover re-worked to offer consistency and continuity. Anybody who is interested and good with photoshop hit me up!

 

In the meantime, I'm going to get back to my writing!

J.M. Hope

Opening Ceremonies - A Rua Para Rio

Rehearsals are improving. There is a lot of "hurry up and wait" going on, except without any of the actual "hurry" part. I'm just amazed at how everything is coming together with so many thousands of people on the field of play. There have been a lot of frustrations out of this DCI alumnus over the rehearsal conditions, but if I've learned nothing else in my time with the Blue Stars it's that we are only as good as our weakest member. When there are thousands of people spanning from the age of 18 to 85, it requires much patience to make sure everyone knows their role and can do it exactly right. I value and idolize Steve and the rest of the creative team for their ability to cope and still try to keep things interesting for all of us.

I still won't give away any of the secrets since the ceremonies don't air for another week, but don't miss it!! It's going to be an amazing spectacle of Brazilian life and culture. It will be in the USA on NBC Friday, August 5th. Go watch it!! Go love it!! I might even be on TV!!

<3 Jackie

Delta Flying - A Rua Para Rio

The most amazing thing happened... I flew. Like a bird. There's video, of course, but wow how do I explain the feeling of it in words??

First of all, let me start by saying that I am not insane and I most definitely don't look forward to death. But they say that if you can run fearlessly straight off of a mountain, then those are your two options. When it came down to it, I just didn't think about it. I just kept my hand on my instructor and followed instructions; look straight at the horizon, walk, don't close your eyes, now run, faster! And suddenly, I was in the air. There was no insane adrenaline rush, no feel of puking or queasiness, it was like I was just resting safely in a little cradle of nylon and cruising leisurely through the air.

So how does this work? Well, first you call up a flight school or flight instructor. In Rio we went to the São Conrado Escola de Voo Livre because my friend gave me the contact info for an instructor named Alex. He is definitely one of the best... I know because I stood on that mountain for a LONG time watching a couple dozen other instructors teaching people and then taking off. If you want his WhatsApp number, just shoot me a message and I'll get it to you. I spoke with him and he gave me all of the details plus a time to meet. If you can get cash, do it because sometimes paying with cards can be a real hassle when you are outside on the beach. We also blocked off an entire afternoon for the event so we would have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves and not try to rush through anything.

I would recommend wearing leggings and you definitely want shoes that won't fall off your feet. I wore jeans, which were fine but bunched up in a couple of places and could have been more comfortable. I also wore sneakers! Being on top of the mountain and that high up in the air is a bit chilly, but I would have traded for my Chaco Zs in a heartbeat if I knew I could manage it. Next time I go, I am doing the leggings and Chacos for sure.

When you get there, they have you register and then pay for insurance. It was R$40, which wasn't included in our initially stated price, and I'm hoping that the insurance is kept up for multiple flights over a period of time, however I don't want to tell you this outright without knowing for sure. Once the paperwork is taken care of, the flight instructor and an assistant drive you up the mountain, strap you in, give you some training, and you take off! It's the most amazing thing in the world, flying so high above everything you are normally stuck below in the world. My instructor had me do silly things like open my arms wide, turn sideways, and swim through the air. At one point he showed me how to steer and then let himself hang down completely with the explanation "Now I'll take a nap."

When we were finished, he used the coolest device to just upload our video and photos from his GoPro camera directly into our phones. The front view camera was included in the price, but there was a side view camera as well. They had a dock of computers set up on the beach for us to watch the footage from our side view cameras and then if we wanted it, we could purchase the footage for another R$50. If it's your first time or you are making a vlog or something like I do, I highly recommend you plan for that extra little expense. However, I think after that first time I'm personally good to not spend any more money than what's necessary.

Am I going to do it again? You bet. I'm not sure when or where but it's definitely happening.

Why saying "no" isn't rude.

Living in another country and immersing yourself in another culture is an incredible experience. However, it's not always all friendship and hugs and kisses - even in Brazil. Sometimes, you just have to do things that are socially unacceptable to stay true to yourself and what you want. This might end up leading to some hurt feelings, but in the end you have to think about what is more important; your ideas and values for yourself and your trip or whether the people around you like or dislike you.

In Brazil, it's rude to say no. The general way to go about turning someone down is by offering an excuse or different solution without using the word "no" at all. For instance, someone may ask "Do you want to go out for lunch?" and if you don't want to or your have other plans you should say something along the lines of "I have a meeting during lunch tomorrow, maybe some other time." Notice the complete absence of the word "no" from the response whatsoever. If the person persisted in asking the same question over and over then eventually you would be required to say "no" just to get them off of your case.

I love dancing, of course, but one of the big problems I have with dance clubs here is that it is socially unacceptable for a female to turn down any guy who musters up the courage to ask her for a dance. I have a boyfriend back home, so I am not going to clubs looking for guys, often I am there with girlfriends or just for the dancing. Therefore, I end up turning a lot of guys down (especially being a blonde in a country like Brazil, be prepared for a LOT of wandering eyes!!) and I generally try to be Brazilian about it by saying something along the lines of "I'm dancing with my girlfriends." However, the interaction that follows is often very uncomfortable, with the man insisting that I MUST dance with him, taking my hand, and/or assuming he is the supreme ruler of all things female. Eventually, I have to come out with a nice, stern "no" to get him to stop and go away. Does the guy think I'm rude? Probably. Have I injured his ego? Yep. But the thing is, do I really want to be dragged away from my friends by a guy I either don't know or I barely know just so he doesn't think I'm rude? Absolutely not. It doesn't take long to see what the best option is here; if I'm going to have to get around to saying it eventually anyway, I might as well just lead with "no" and move on with my night. Which is what I've started doing.

I shouldn't have had to take such a long trial-and-error period in order to figure this out, but who else would have taught me such things?

If we can teach girls to say "no" at a younger age, it could help a lot in the fight against things like rape culture. I am not saying that it's a cause, but it would make a lot of mixed messages that young women send out more clear. Girls who feel like they just want to be nice would realize that in "being nice" they can also be leading a man on even if that's the opposite of what they want.

Agendas - Reprinted with Permission

Keeping an agenda has become increasingly important to me these days. Especially in finding time to do marketing and writing on the next book while I am still holding down the fort with my full-time job!

 

That being said, I hope that all of you keep your agendas too. I like to check and double-check mine, to make sure that I will be in the right place at the right time and all of the right people will be doing the right things. It can be tough sometimes, but especially in the business world everything really needs to go off without a hitch! Success is measured by it, money is earned by it... agendas are super important.

 

I have some goals for the month... and one of those goals includes a video advertisement for the first book. Anybody want to be the voice of Lilly? I found my actress who is pretty much her look-alike... and hopefully over time I can find some others to be Pam, Gracie, Joanie and the whole guard!

J.M. Hope

Skin Deep - A Rua Para Rio

Living in another country will really give some serious perspective on life and what people are like. I think it's the only way we are going to ever have compassion for all people if we want to create worldwide understanding and peace.

Brazilians are so very affectionate. They are all about the hugs and kisses, and it can be either scary or wonderful for an American such as myself who is used to having to ignore people on the streets in the city. A handshake is never enough for these people and they are more than happy to share their lives with you with open arms. However, if you are looking for a deep and meaningful connection with someone, that's going to be a bit harder to find. On the outside, they may LOOK like they are all about the love, but it really seems to be the affection that's so wonderful and then it just stops. Do they even understand how to really connect with someone on that next deeper level? It's so difficult!

I've met a lot of men and women between about the ages of 25-40 (or thereabouts, I have a really difficult time telling the age of any Brazilian if they don't tell me outright!) and this seems to be the overwhelming consensus: they get married young, have a couple of children, get divorced, and then wallow in their broken hearts for the rest of their lives. They never really move on but they never really find a way to fill that gap in their lives. It's a nation of hopeless romantics.

To compare, in the US we are encouraged to get over our ex's and treat them as past mistakes, then to learn from those and move on. I shouldn't speak for the entire population of either country but this is what I've observed over and over again.

I was recently told by a Brazilian that I am the best friend he's ever had. I've not even known him for two months! So, what on earth did I do that made him feel this way? I listened to him. I let him share his life's story with me and I actually asked him questions to demonstrate how interested I was in knowing him better. Brazilians don't seem to do that with one another. It's just all beijos and samba, then you either hook up or go home. The lucky ones have a family to rely on, and many of my friends here who have successful families have a family member who is not Brazilian...

Just some observations... am I wrong?

Putting it all out there - Reprinted with Permission

The free book promotion went great! We gave away 98 copies in just one day... I'm pretty excited about the fact that there will be more people reading it now. Maybe they will write some reviews? That's the biggest thing I am looking for right now is reviews and they aren't exactly pouring in.

 

I had a chance to work a little more yesterday. I think I understand why so many authors quit their jobs and just let themselves sink into a whole bunch of debt in order to write their books. Writing for a few hours each weekend isn't the way to get the best quality of work or to get it out the fastest. Every time I pick back up I have to go back, read what I wrote last weekend to remember where I was at, then read over my outline to see where I am going next. It is difficult, but I also refuse to go into debt like so many Americans. I know it is unavoidable, but I have been able to avoid it thus far so I would like to keep my record clean! :-)

J.M. Hope

Free Book Promotion - Reprinted with Permission

Here I am with a new blog I just started and I have already almost missed the second week!

 

I have been keeping up with my friends over at Spintronix Color Guard about the success of their EIGHTH annual weekend camp, so props to them! I heard there are still some signed copies of my first book available through them so if you are interested in one of those, contact Spintronix.

 

The free book promotion that is going on for Spinsation One: Learning to Breathe is fantastic! Today only, you can download a copy of my first book for FREE! That's right, no cost at all. If you don't have a Kindle then you can download the free Kindle app for PC, iPhone, Android, or whatever other contraptions you might have and THEN go download my free book. But hurry, the offer ends at midnight tonight!

 

One thing I would really like to see is some reviews on Amazon. Go ahead, give that little book five stars! It is already #1 most downloaded in the genres of Dance, Arts & Music, and it is #7 in the Relationships genre! It has also risen to the rank of #1,595 on the Free Kindle Books list; the highest it has ever been since its release last year!

 

Thank you to my fans, and can you help the rest of my fans find me on Facebook too, please? haha!

J.M. Hope

Sunday Splurge - Reprinted with Permission

Welcome to my notes! I've never been very good at keeping up a diary or a journal before, but I am going to try to post something new every Sunday for readers to keep informed since there is so much time between my book releases.

          It is difficult to be a self-publishing author. There are a lot of things that need to be covered by a team of people yet, here I am, doing it all by myself! Writing the books and getting them out there to you could be just as interesting of a story as the books themselves are in some cases. Toss that all in with the fact that I also have a full-time job and you've really got a NYT Best-Seller on your hands!

          Take this week for example. I was doing research online after work to figure out how to get sales up. On Kindle I have been lucky if I can get 10 books sold in a month! So, I posted around to some forums, got a few ads out on Facebook, and did some reading of what other self-published authors have been doing to get their books noticed. Sales went up a little, and yeah I do believe that every little bit counts but "making it" as a writer is going to take a lot more than just a little. In doing research, though, I found that there are lots of other platforms I didn't know about where I could publish the eBook version. I mean, of course there is the Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook, but there are even more that have larger audiences because they encompass a wide range of file types for people to use. Therefore, once my Kindle "KDP Select" contract is up in June I am going to make my way over there and get some books out on various platforms.

          My biggest problem is reviews. I have none! Lots of people have read my first book, mostly teenagers which is great because that's my targeted audience so it shows I did a good job writing to them, but nobody will leave any reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or even just on Facebook. So, if you've read my book and liked it, didn't like it, whatever the case may be, could you review it for me? It doesn't need to be long, just a line or two would suffice.

          The best form of advertising, of course, is word of mouth. SO... pass it on please!

          I want to give a big thanks to my friends over at Spintronix Color Guard. They purchased a bunch of copies to sell and give away at their upcoming Weekend Color Guard and Leadership Camp, so I signed them. I haven't gotten any book signings set up yet, so if you were hoping for a signed copy, that's where you can get one. The camp is in April for any students who do color guard or want to do color guard. I recommend it, and not just because they are helping me promote my book! There are some super great instructors there and they make camp really fun for the kids.

          Link to my book: Amazon has the best price on both the paperback and the Kindle version is really cheap so I highly recommend you purchase it from them.

http://www.amazon.com/Spinsation-Learning-Breathe-J-M-Hope/dp/1469146541/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334496709&sr=8-1

          Link to the Spintronix Weekend Camp: http://www.facebook.com/SpintronixGuard

Have a great week!

J.M. Hope

It's crazy how much Americans get ripped off all over the place, even in our own country! Living in Brazil, seeing the prices of things and realizing that even though the prices are probably about a quarter of what we would pay for things in our own country has been a bit of a shock to begin with. On top of all that, the quality of things like the clothes and such seems to actually be BETTER here than home. It makes me think we really at a nation of consumers.

I saw a video that was being passed around Facebook starring a well-traveled former CIA agent the other day that kind of goes along with this. There are many similarities between our world and the fictional worlds of Star Wars, the Hunger Games, and so on. We create these incredible stories and send them out into the world, and we make the bands of rebels into the heroes of the stories. However, in reality, the U.S.A. is the Empire or the Capital City and other people of smaller countries see themselves as the small bands of rebels that will eventually win the war if they just keep fighting and stay together. So then, what's the reality of the situation? Because I've always grown up with the belief that we as Americans were out to help people, although we often over stay our welcome and don't always pause to understand other cultures' needs or attitudes. But at least our intentions were good, right? Is that really the best thing? Maybe Canada has it right and we should just be keeping to ourselves and allowing other countries to mind their own business...

This all sort of comes around when you look at the whole "Americans get ripped off" thing. The people in other countries don't look at us as helpful, they look at us as a big, bad empire that's trying to take advantage of them. We go along, wiping out every trace of native culture and business while setting up our own cultural influences to take hold. Just the last couple of days my British friend Kirsty and I were shopping to get some things to prepare for the summer and I can't tell you how disappointed we have both been with the clothing. We were hoping for some sort of Brazilian style with maybe Brazilian sayings on them in Portuguese... but there is absolutely nothing!! After a week of being here all we have found is one shirt with a saying on it in Portuguese, and none of the bright colors and craziness one would expect of Brazil.

It's been an incredible experience thus far, but I'm hoping to get more culture and more language practice as time wears on...

<3 Jackie

Hey Spinthusiasts!

I love getting to connect with you on this level and really get down to the nitty-gritty of color guard life, so I am definitely planning on keeping up with you all via the blog for as long as I can. This way, too, you can keep up with me even if I can't make a video!! That being said, I have been talking to my friend the author J.M. Hope about contributing more on our blog. When we first started blogging she wanted to write for us all the time, but life took us in different directions so her contributions went with her. Now, however, she has given us permission to reprint some of her old blogs from her Facebook page, and has even agreed to write in as a guest blogger from time to time!

You are going to love this lady, as a lot of people say that we are a lot alike. She is also a science teacher, just like me, however she is much older (and wiser, but definitely not prettier) than I am... She has published two books about teenagers in color guard and is looking to start promoting her third book before its release quite soon, so be sure to keep up with her! I also heard she is going to bring back a free book promotion for all of her fans who are also Spinthusiasts (AKA Spintronix fans).

Her first blog will be up tomorrow. Keep spinning!

<3 Jackie

A Rua Para Rio

It's already my third day in Rio and I just need to get some of these crazy thoughts down before I lose them all!!

First of all, I am thoroughly enjoying seeing the world from a different perspective. Not just being in another country, but my roommate Kirsty is British and we have had some of the most marvelous discussions over the past three days. Seeing what is the same and what is different is really like a breath of fresh air quite honestly. There are a lot of things that Americans do or think that not everyone in the world agrees with, and it's nice to hear that our way of life isn't the only way. On the other hand, there are a lot of experiences that I am incredibly glad I don't have to deal with at home... such as having to throw toilet paper in a trash can next to the toilet instead of actually in the toilet!! It's ludicrous!!

The sightseeing here is incredible. And the people are all so beautiful that it almost makes me feel like we are a bunch of slackers in America. I know I am sort of comparing city life to country life as well - country life is far more relaxed and I love it that way. Dancing really makes me feel incredible, and it's a nice way to get to interact with people even though I'm still not great at Portuguese.

There are so many other thoughts I have had that I want to share and I just don't remember them all well enough to put them down the keyboard!! Capturing everything in a vlog is really fantastic, though the vlog is more about what's on the outside and when I write it's more about what's inside of my head. We are planning more sightseeing tomorrow before our first rehearsal so it's going to be a thrilling time. Every day has so many new adventures... even just grocery shopping is an adventure and a chance to practice my Portuguese!

<3 Jackie