Hi,
So, I don't use this blog anymore but, Jill insists I post on here today anyway
Jill's been living in LA a little too long and decided to become an actor. Check out info on her play. http://forredheads.webs.com/
Also, if I had any kind of stake in Cobalt, I would watch the Cobalt Lifestream at http://lifestream.aol.com/stream/cobaltpub.
Joel
Mandatory Update
Author: Joel /It's Erik
Author: Joel /Hi everyone,
My name is Erik Vance and with Joel busy working doing Mr.Cobalt things he told me I could do an entry on his blog.
Moving to California was a big shock to me and having Joel around has made it so much easier I first met Joel because we lived in the same neighborhood in Oakdale. Joel lived 3 doors down and we went to the same bus stop. Joels mom watched my 4 little sisters and I however after realizing the kind of work that Joel's mom was into she stopped letting us go there.
As a teenager I started doing a lot of ilegit tattoos in my basement/ garage and Joel was always the dumbass who was high enough to be my first victim. I mean I literally had ink pen and a paperclip and a lighter. I wasn't the artist or anything (that was Stephen) I would just trace it. I also did a lot of piercing that, in retrospect could have killed a lot of those idiots. We traveled in the same group for years getting into a lot of deep shit until Joel got married and started to clean himself up then we all kind of grew apart. In our neighborhood you married someone's sister and only if you knocked her up so, it was weird when he married this "rich smart chick" and we grew apart as he got more responsible.
When I was 24 my ex-girlfriend got pregnant and I got involved in this roberry that went wrong, I plead myself out and told on the other guys and served my 10 months and 2 year probation. While on probabtion I went from family member to family members couch and got really depressed. I became bored with my life and menial job at Wally World and started writing about how I wished my life could be. Full of action, pretty women, fun and adventure. I wrote a bunch of short stories for the next few years to pass time and last year entered a writing contest for extra money. Little did I know the owner of Cobalt read my story and was willing to publish a book.
I worked via e-mail with the wonderful Stella McCartney at Cobalt for a long time on my first book, The Steele Project which became the Taran Steele Series. I was very shocked when she suggested I move to LA to work more closely within the company and I reconnected with Joel and it's been really great. When we get together it's like we are 15 again and just having fun. It is really weird to see him as a husband, business owner and dad. While most of our old friends were roped into fatherhood I never thought of it for Joel because he was always so unfocused and immature.
I am having a great time and meeting some really awesome people at Cobalt who have been so nice and Cobalt has some great writers like Shawna Harrison.
Erik
Happy New Year !
Author: Joel /Hi,
I want to wish you guys all a happy New Year and for all of my fans and people who have ever read or commented on my book I have to thank you for the Gold Leaflet writer of the decade award,it has meant so much to me.
I am trying to get all of my full time Cobaltians (I thought I'd try that word out) to write blogs whether or not they are public so I am setting a good examples. I just think writing is a good thing for everyone to do . . . it makes us re-examine what happens to us or a better way of getting emotions written out.
With the attention from the Writer of the Decade Award, our little company has gotten a lot of attention so I have been working a lot. As a matter of fact I am writing this while eating lunch at my desk because my other co-workers are so busy.
One thing I have not really blogged about is one of my new--old friends, writer Erik Vance. He and I grew up together and I was very surprised to learn he was a writer as well and a pretty good one on top of it. So, yes I have finally pulled more testosterone into Cobalt but, really it's been great having someone to talk about the crazy things we have done. I know that I sometimes feel disconnected from who I was in Pennsylvania because I have nothing to go back there for.
I will probably post more about Erik's work later.
If you guys have any thing you would like me or anyone at Cobalt to blog about you can drop a not to Jill (jlambertonpr@aol) or Greta. Seriously there are no boundaries. I may blog about my new projects next.
And yes, the commenting feature is turned off. Just to keep the peace.
Clearing things up
Author: Joel /Hi, everyone it's Jill. So, Joel is still doing a few extra days on tour in Canada (per request from some of the fans !) so, I have told him I will work on making his blog much better.
At the release party in Borders for Blue-Eyed Charmer JSO as you all call her did cop to being Linda Leigh which has a lot of fans asking where does fiction and fantasy end and begin ? From what I know it is a lot but, I thought Joel and Linda could answer that better themselves so, here is the story from their point of view. As you will learn Miss Leigh;s work is alot of fiction:
10 years ago before ipods, online shopping and American Idol I met the man who would become my husband.
I had just graduated high school and two of my friends who did the whole ross and Rachel will they-won’t-they-are the aren’t-they thing got engaged. Even though the engagement barley lasted the idea of having the long lost man in my life started entering my mind. Over and over again.
I was alwauy surrounded by women. My mother, aunts,best friends, doctors and teachers. So much so that I had developed an odd and embarrassing idea of what I wanted in a man; tall, handsome and in the military. I think I even wrote it in one of my fluffy pink journals.
It's interesting I was always surrounded by women too. My mother,my former co-workers, my best friend, my sisters. The idea of wife had never really crossed my mind at that age and if she did I said as long as she didn't have an STD, it was okay.
When I returned to Pennsylvania to start college I still had the pink journal but it was filled with other less interesting fantasties. I had been diagnosed with breast cancer so sever that I had a full masectomy and lost my hair in a matter of weeks. I hated leaving the house and sometimes just being around my roommates made me jealous.
Around this time I was dealing with brain cancer.Mine wasn't as sever but, I was not taking well to the medication
My old teachers gave me a teaching job to help pay for school and cancer treatments. I was good at my job, even though I was a few months older than most students they respected and trusted me and as a result I was majoring in childhood education.
Then he came along. I had spent the morning putting on a little extra make up and the silicone prosthetics the doctor had given me,because the Navy was recruiting at the school.
I know my desperation may have seemed silly, but time wasn’t my friend and every day I went to chemotherapy I was told that I might not make it through the night and to keep a phone by my bed just in case. I didn’t want to die alone in my bed.
He was sittomg on my desk not in it on it. I noticed all the girls in class were watching him. Long blonde hair in his face and brown eye staring at the ground,. I knew exca;tu how this would go. We’d meet share words and then we’d probably never see each other again. Things like that had a happening in town all the time.
I was wearing contacts because someone had told me it would make me look less tired (read: high) at work. I was one of those people who didn't loose my hair to radiation but, my mother was going through her "I want to be a hair dresser" stage.
I remember thinking she had a pretty smile and I was amazed at the respect the teacher and the other students had for her. The teacher in the class spoke so highly of her.
I want to say it was love at first sight but like all things it took time. He wouldn’t talk much because he had a stutter and a slight accent that was annoying as hell, but he would talk to me and he wouldn’t shut up. We argued at work and during after school activites at the end of the day and on the way home because we were neighbohrs/
She threw binders at people's children.
Later on I realized that maybe what attracted us to each other is that we weren’t. We were both young adults with limited supervision yet there was nothing sexual about our relationship. Both of us having abusive past (well mine was in the past).
I was under the impression my father had been convicted in Conneticut (it didn't stick) so, I was starting to let go and be a normal young adult. I was starting to like her but, I didn't see her in a sexual way.
In december almost 4 months to the day we met, we were both visiting people in the hospital. Worried about our loved ones I remember sitting in the empty waiting room talking over the philospjy of hospitals and life and death when we kissed. Somehow(because I knew the hospital very well) we ended up making ou in an empty hospital room. I can now say that he ever so gentelmenly, trying to keep his hands from wondering past my neck.
I'm pretty sure I grabbed her ass but, okay.
Afeter that we were bullied into a date at a restaurant I worked at. We had non-alcholic drinks and akward conversation. On the way home I passed out from lack of eating and I don’t remember much but I remember being carried upstairs and placed into bed with a kiss. I remember waiting for him to leave like he could read my thoughts and thinking
I told her we should get something to eat but, she refused
I’m going to have to marry this man aren’t I
The night after I was folding laundry when there was a tiny knock at the door. One of Joel’s brothers said he was hungry and asked if I could fix him a snack. He looked scared so my roommate and I walked him back to his house and found the kitchen filled with junk food. We fixed them some M&M cookies and Juice when his little sitster asked if Joel wanted some.
We didn’t even know he was home and I was very uncertain about being alone in his bedroom but I didn’t want to worry the kids. His room was a mess and it was dark, he was lying in bed trying to fight a fever. His hair was darker and for the second his eyes opened a paler color than I remebered
I had skipped out on some sessions and on some medication. I think I was having control issues.
He turned his head when I walked in and I almost blurted “I carried a watermelon” but I pulled up a desk chair and couldn’t speak. Words were cheap, kissing was to intimate so I settled for holding his hand. I waited till his breathing was slowed and he fell asleep. I kissed him and walked out the room thinking about how the doctors said my last days would be but somewhere else I was thinkging;
I’m need marry this man.
For two weeks I looked at every commercial, tv show and even people on the street differently trying to comprehend the idea of marriage and what it would be like to have a husband. When schools started again I avoided Joel for as long as I could. He was talking about some apartment or something and it didn’t make sense but I asked him to marry me.
Okay, here is the whole story. My mother and I had had this huge fight,she hated the fact that I told her I thought I loved Fiona, she was pissed at me over my medical bills so, I moved out of her house and into this crappy one room apartment with Michael Orange before he was rich. It had an oven/sink that tripled as a roach motel, we shared a bathroom with the whole floor but the absolute worse part was he slept with his microwave . . .and named it Steve.
I don’t remember if he said I do yes or I love you but two days later we started a relationship for the books.
I said yes. It was in December at one of Oaklande's notorious festivals. I had gone to it just to see her. There were feelings between us for me that I can't even write about it was like this magnetic pull telling me this girl was different , she wasn't going anywhere and she was going to change my life and she did. And when I married her for the first time I wasn't facing life alone. I have no idea how all those innocent,sweet and impulsive feelings we had turned into anger, bitterness and jealousy but I don't think what happens today or in the next 10 years is the end of our story.
We were married on Janurary 4th
Thanks Again !
Author: Joel /As many of you know I was so thankful to finally have the law suits put behind me and be able to have my autobiography released. We had a great event at Borders (even though I was hijacked but, it's okay) and even though I may seem sullen at times,I really do appreciate all of this I had a great time getting to know some some of you.
Somebody told me that by releasing this I was giving a piece of myself to people, I realized this was a bigger deal than I wanted or ever dreamed it could be. After some thought and talking it over with some co-workers I am considering going on a very short tour. The goal of the tour would be to go to places where there is a large concentration of readers but, is a place we don't go to usually. Jill and Taylor have worked with their contacts to put together a tenative list of places.
October 24 - Sacramento, CA (morning) San Francisco (evening)
October 25- Hope Springs, Colorado
October 26 - Flint, Michigan
October 27-- Ontario and Montreal,Canada
October 28 - Tampa, Florida
October 29-- Corpus Christi, Texas & San Antonio, Texas
I will blog more later (I hear crying)
I have made a commitment to blogging more so, I hope you guys keep me to it.
Cancelled
Author: Joel /As many of you know my biography was supposed to come out tonight, however until further notice the book has been canceled.
I am very sorry.
Joel
Spending Time at Home
Author: Joel /I know I haven't updated in a while but, I have been doing a lot of non-fascinating things lately. Mostly, being at home with my family and lots of stuff dealing with new changes at Cobalt as well as working on physical therapy which has actually been getting easier to deal with.
My autobiography should still be coming out on the 19th but, we have been having a bunch of issues with it but, we are sorting them out. Mostly people who think I am going to make them look bad when that is not and will never be my intention.
I have been talking to Jill and I we are talking about another tour but, just talking. I do want to be able to personally thank everybody who reads my book but, I have become addicted to being at home and having some stability. Not that I didn't have fun last time because I did and I know that going only helped the company.
I am having surgery on my arm (the one that I broke) so, I have no idea when the next time I will write is but, I will be leaving this blog open for Jill to post any interviews or anything else that may be of interest.
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