The Official Blog of Joseph Baker

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

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

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.