Sometimes women are the ones who don't support each other

I guess I should start by introducing myself, because a lot of people will probably come to my blog for the first time today. My name is Jade and I am a self-published author, I am currently working on my second book, which will be a paranormal romance/urban fantasy. My first book was a horror book, which hasn’t been read by many. It may be because it’s a short novel (only 56 pages), or it may be because I’m female. I just want to start off by saying that I’m not a feminist, although I do sometimes share their point of view on some topics. I think that most people can find topics that they agree with or disagree with, and that’s normal. Today I logged into twitter and saw that some woman’s topic was trending. I clicked on it, only to be reminded of something that happened to me. From 2010 to 2012 I worked in the automotive department of a large retail store. I was the service writer, which meant that I had to sell services to the customers. I had to learn a great deal about tires and oil changes. I even learned how to perform oil changes and change tires and would do that sometimes. Well, I changed the oil mostly, sometimes the tires were too heavy for me. Sometimes when I was writing tickets for service a woman would pull up and demand to speak to a man. Men never did that to me, only women. Not all women were like this, but the ones who were decided it was best to be vocal about it. The woman would also make faces at me or say things about me if I would change their oil. They didn’t want to believe that a woman was capable of changing oil. There was one day in particular where I actually felt like commenting back. Everyone had gone to lunch accept for the new guy and two people needed to be in the shop at all times, which meant I was in there signing off on things. He wasn’t sure what he was doing yet, so I had to help him out. There were three ladies in the waiting room, all of them where pressing their faces against the glass. I had told them beforehand that we were short staffed and they agreed to wait for the work to be done. Finally, one of the people came back from lunch, which meant that I could go on break. When I walked back inside the building the ladies all said very mean things very loudly. Basically, they thought that I was flirting with the guy, and that I was causing the long wait. I was angry. I wanted to tell those ladies that what they said couldn’t be further from the truth. I wanted to make those women feel bad for the way that they had treated me, but I knew that I wouldn’t get through to them. If I would have said anything to them I’m sure they would have gone to management. I tried not to let it bother me, but to this day it still does. Those women thought it was okay to undervalue me. They probably would have thought that it was okay for the male cashier who worked inside and ignored most of the customers to get paid more than I did too. The point of me writing about this is because many of the people complaining about people not treating them fairly in the workplace are the same people who not treating others fairly. If you want to support women and women’s rights, why not start with being more understanding? This type of behavior is the reason that JK Rowling decided to write under a man’s name, the same reason that female books sell primarily to females. Anyway, I’m sorry for posting such a long rant. I just felt like the things I had to say needed to be said. Please go out and support a female author today. 

Why libraries are still important

One of the things that I've always loved doing is visiting the library. I remember my mom bringing me to the library all the time when I was younger. I used to pick out Goosebumps books and other books that I probably wouldn't have if I hadn't browsed. I used to read about five or more books within the week (Goosebumps books are small), and then I would go back the next week. Libraries were always important to me, and I always made sure to get a new library card whenever I moved. One of my favorite feelings is going into a library and grabbing a few books and movies. I'm more likely to read a new author if they are at the library, which sometimes leads to sales for that author. Libraries are actually a really great tool for authors, they sometimes even have events where self published authors can promote their books. In the past I've donated my old books to libraries. I believe it's very important to support libraries, but I didn't really see the impact of people's donations until recently. About a year ago I was working at a place where I needed a card to sell beer (I was working in a retail store). I got kind of excited when my now ex-boyfriend dropped me off and I saw that there was a library on site. I told him that I'd wait for him in the library, but I was disappointed when I actually got to the library. It was the smallest one that I'd ever seen. I don't think it even had a computer area. There was a small table to sit at, a single rolling cart filled with about eight dvds, and about three large shelves filled with books that were meant either meant for children or erotic (there was no in-between). I had planned on looking through the shelves and finding something good to read, but I found myself more disappointed than anything. I ended up sitting at the small table for the rest of my wait. While I was grateful that the library had a lot of books for children, I was also disappointed that it was so small and didn't have a range of different books. It's so easy to overlook the importance of libraries with sites like amazon offering plenty of free books, but being in a place like that really showed me the importance of supporting your local libraries.

My lack of Halloween

I usually post things for Halloween, like my favorite horror books or my favorite horror movies, or I at least try to post something scary. This year I didn't. I didn't post on youtube or stream to twitch. I didn't tell anyone happy halloween on facebook and I didn't take pictures with the cute pictures on snapchat. I barely even watched any horror movies. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I remember when I was a kid how I used to watch Goosebumps during the holiday season and sometimes even watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special. This year, I didn't feel the way I usually do about holidays. I guess it's because I had such a rotten holiday season last year. I let one person completely ruin everything for me because at the time, I loved him. I can't help but wish that I hadn't gone through that, but it has influenced my writing. I am currently editing a character that I would have never been able to before. I wasn't able to understand what she could have been going through, but now I can.