Tag: career

“I Quit!”

Meghan Cipolla

The end of the month is crunch time for an accountant. Making sure all activity has been posted to the books; making sure all cash transactions have been entered. All month-long an accountant’s goal is a smooth month end. We strive for it. I’ve been working as an accountant for Read more

Meghan Cipolla

Meghan Cipolla lives in Los Angeles, CA - specifically the San Fernando Valley where she’s resided for the past 5 years. She’s had many careers in her life but is currently an accountant in the real estate industry. Meghan has always dreamed of being a writer and works towards that goal and expressing herself creatively on a daily basis. She aspires to help other women navigate the challenges and difficulties of a life authentically lived.

In My Other Life

Renee DeMont

Have your ever asked yourself: who would I be, if I were a different kind of me? In my other life … I was not born to a sociopath. I did not look to his eyes for a twinkle of benevolent fatherly pride and discover instead a tragic glint of Read more

Renee DeMont

Renee DeMont is a SURVIVOR. She was born into poverty; spent much of her childhood homeless, living on the streets of Los Angeles, and in foster care. Renee learned early on: life is about adapting to adversity. The greatest gift she ever received? No one expected anything from her. By 18, she was ready to experience life on her own terms. First one in her family to attend college. After college, her focus and determination earned her a spot working at Paramount Studios, on the #1 show in television, "Cheers". At 29, Renee gave entrepreneurship a go and began a Biomedical engineering business out of her garage. Twenty years later, that risky venture grew into 8,000 square feet of success. She broke the cycle of poverty that plagued her family for generations. Recently, Renee turned fifty, filed for divorce (he declared WAR), and trudged through a debilitating nervous breakdown. Through therapy and writing, she reclaimed her sanity. Sold her half of the business to the ex, and now she has clarity and choices. Renee is personally and financially independent. With her new found freedom, she chooses to write in a sincere effort to reconcile her past with her present. Hopefully, through this cathartic process, the second half of her life will be led by her soul's desire, rather than by the fears and doubts of her first half. Currently, she lives in South Orange County with her teenage son and daughter, and her high maintenance yet lovable dog, Joe. Soon to be an empty nester, she plans to downsize the big house in the OC bubble, for a bigger life in the real world. Her days are spent gently launching her almost grown children into adulthood, and passionately penning her memoir. In the mean time, you can find her essays on pain, positivity, and empowerment at: onedropofgrace.blogspot.com

Not Pompeii

Ann Klotz

On our way to school last week, Atticus, 12, and I discuss our black cat’s willingness to lie in the driveway, unafraid or oblivious to traffic. “Like a cat in Pompeii, Mom,” Atticus observes, “Just caught.” “In lava,” I add, “and left there for thousands of years.” “Have you been Read more

Ann Klotz

I am a writer and mother, living in Shaker Heights, OH, where I am the Head of Laurel School, a girls' school. Our house is full of books and tiny rescue dogs. My work has appeared in Literary Mama, Mothers Always Write, the Brevity Blog, Mutha, Mamlode, The Grief Diaries, Manifest Station and elsewhere. My essay about becoming a teacher was recently published in Creative Nonfiction's anthology What I Didn't Know. I blog semi-regularly for the Huffington Post.

Prison Blues

Julie Anderson

Mother Servant Concubine Lonely Dreamer Alive only by a whisper Useless, never enough. Stoic Listless Paranoid Bored Always a smile. Traumatized and the perpetrator. Victim or Victor? In my starring role, I used to be, moving ethereal cinematic relishing the play. Re-runs on constant loop. Looking, looking Curtain falling, happiness Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

An Actor’s Journey: “This is THE job. This is the hard part.”

Elizabeth Regen

I am an actress. My parents saved their money in 1984 so that they could pay for my SAG card. I think at the time it cost $250. I had shot a “Cheerios” commercial, which never aired. I was 9 years old. We’re from New York City. THE city. Manhattan. Read more

Telling the Maverick Good-bye

Sharon Svendsen

I rattled in dull blue uncertainty until low-tread Maverick tires threatened to blow and the rims were almost ready to fall off. I fed water to the radiator on every trip. Finally got the thing re-cored. The timing belt broke on the way to Salem, Oregon. Aligning the wheels would Read more

Sharon Svendsen

Sharon E. Svendsen's work has been published in Bellowing Ark, Innisfree, The Long Story, Atrocity, Byline, and many other periodicals and anthologies. In the past, she ran the First Friday Reading Series in Bremerton, Washington, and the Writers’ Haven Reading Series at the Jewel Box Theater in Poulsbo. Sharon was publisher and poetry editor of HA! a humor magazine, and head of Writers’ Haven Press which published two poetry collections and several booklets of winners from Writers’ Haven contests.

Obsessed

Jayme Beddingfield

I’m obsessed. My mind won’t quiet. Thoughts of more pull me out of the present. Dreams that reach magnitude distract me. Questions circle non-stop. How can I make it better? What does this need? Am I really making the best use of my time? Doubt is never far. Anxiety is Read more

Jayme Beddingfield

Jayme Beddingfield is the host and producer of 'Too Many Words' a comedy interview podcast. She is also the creator of 'Elliot Granger and The Clueless Brigade', which is a weekly serial that follows Elliot Granger as she stumbles through grief and growing up. The series is featured as both a fictional podcast and written story that appears on The Scribbler. Jayme has been crafting stories since her third-grade assignment to write her own fairy tale. She prefers to work from the sofa with her dogs by her feet. Originally from Northern New Jersey, she now lives in Seattle, the city of her dreams. She lives with her husband, two children, and a slew of adopted pets. She is completely post-apocalyptic obsessed and also admits to being an audio enthusiast and recovering supervillain.