[Witty Title Here]

The “Lucky” Ones – An interview with teen music star & anti-bullying advocate Josey Milner

January 24, 2014 by Cassie

Today, I’m interviewing an 18-year-old rising country music star about her influences, her anti-bullying advocacy and being a young adult woman in a tough biz. Meet Josey Milner!

Josey Milner

In a matter of just a couple of years, Josey Milner has gone from small-town teen to rising country music star. At 17, her debut single “Not Pretty Enough” earned her a nomination from the Independent Country Music Award for Promising Young Artist, and she soon launched her own anti-bullying campaign with Angels and Doves.

Already, Josey has had the opportunity to make music with widely recognized producers, engineers and musicians who have worked with Hall and Oates, Elton John and Dolly Parton, among others. Josey’s latest single, “Cowgirls,” is a dance anthem she hopes will take her already promising career to the next level.

You’ve worked alongside some pretty big names in the studio at such a young age. How does that feel? And what was it like working with them?

It is amazing and intimidating all at once. It was intimidating because of the big name artists that they have worked with. Here I was, an 18-year-old girl who was fairly new to the industry, working with some very skilled people. All in all though, they treated me just like another artist. They gave me advice on anything I needed help on, and the final product(s) sounded amazing!

Who are some of your biggest influences, musically or otherwise?

Miranda Lambert, Patsy Cline, Jo Dee Messina, and George Strait are some of my top influences with music. I grew up listening to Patsy, Jo Dee and George. Miranda is a big influence because she doesn’t care what people thinks about her. She’s her real self in the spotlight and she continuously releases hit after hit. Besides musically, just anyone who has gone out and chased their dreams. It takes a lot to follow through with something like this, so anyone who has tried and is happy with where they got is an inspiration and influence.

When was the first time you performed in front of an audience? And what has been your favorite performance to date?

My first time performing with my band was at a place called Whiskey Tango is Grain Valley, MO. It was very nerve-racking but I loved it. My first time performing in front of a crowd was either on my horse in the rodeo arena (if you count that as a performance) or when I sang at the National Steel Guitar Convention in St. Louis, which is where my career really began. My favorite performance has been opening up for Scotty McCreery. It was amazing—completely sold out, and a memory that I will always remember.

You’re dedicated to a really noble cause. Describe your role as an anti-bullying advocate. Why is that so important to you?

I’m a spokesperson for Angels and Doves, a nationwide nonprofit charity that is focused on “bullying suicides.” With them, I am spreading the word about bullying through music. This organization is important to me because even though I have not been a victim of bullying, I have witnessed it. It breaks my heart when I see someone being picked on because of how they look, what their interests are, or anything on that level. Everyone breathes the same air and everyone should have the same opportunities. So hopefully with being involved with Angels and Doves, we will be able to make a difference.

You probably get a lot of advice as a young adult in the music business. What advice has resonated with you the most, and what advice would you give to young girls who want to do what you’re doing some day?

It’s hard to pick just a couple words of advice that I’ve been given. Throughout my career, I’ve always had someone there to lead me the right way on a decision. If I had to choose though, I would have to go with never giving up. Things can get frustrating, but you have to keep moving forward. You’re going to hit bumps along the way, but you have to get over them and not let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. There’s always going to be negativity from people, but you can’t let that tear you down. It’s a lot of hard work, but it will pay off in the end. Continue pushing forward, and as long as you’re dedicated, passionate and determined, you will make it.

Josey Milner

Your single, “Not Pretty Enough,” touches on a subject a lot of girls can relate to. Do you think it’s tougher being a woman in the music business? Why or why not?

There are some times when I think that, but then other times not so much. I think sometimes people don’t think a girl can entertain as well as a guy can, but I think some of the best performers are girls. The hardest thing for me is my age and getting people to take a chance on me with being so young. The couple of chances I have been given though have always turned out really good.

What’s the best part about being a musician/performer? The most challenging part?

The best part for me is being able to perform on stage and know that I’m providing entertainment for the people in the audience. I also love being able to meet so many cool and unique people. From radio DJs to venue owners and all the people in between, it’s pretty cool getting to know someone that you’ve never met before.

What are some of your favorite albums?

Some of my favorite albums are: any George Strait album, any Miranda Lambert album, or any good album period. I’m not very picky when it comes to music and my favorite song tends to change almost every day, if not every day.

Which would you say has played a bigger role in your success so far—luck or persistence?

A little bit of both. I’ve been very fortunate to have had some of the opportunities that I’ve experienced. Sometimes it has been being at the right place at the right time, while other times have been because of dedication and hard work. They both play roles in the career. I’d probably say more persistence than luck though.

Thanks, Josey, for sharing your story! Have any questions or thoughts for Josey? Leave them in the comments.

Filed Under: Interviews, People, The "Lucky" Ones Tagged With: advocacy, antibullying, country music, interview series, Josey Milner, The "Lucky" Ones

Must Reads: For anyone who isn’t afraid of death

January 19, 2014 by Cassie

The Book Thief is one of those novels that sits you down with one irrefutable command: “Read.”

It also happens to be one of those novels that makes you want to write your own.

The narrator is a morbidly fitting one for a book that takes place in Nazi Germany—Death. Death, surprisingly, does have a heart. And he is as complex and tragic—with a dark sense of humor—as any of the characters whose stories he tells.

Author Markus Zusak on Death as a narrator:

“I thought, ‘Here’s a book set during war. Everyone says war and death are best friends.’ Death is ever-present during war, so here was the perfect choice to narrate The Book Thief. At first, though, Death was too mean. He was supercilious, and enjoying his work too much. He’d say extremely creepy things and delight in all the souls he was picking up… and the book wasn’t working.

So I went to a first-person narration, a simple third-person narration… and six months later I came back to death—but this time, Death was to be exhausted from his eternal existence and his job. He was to be afraid of humans—because, after all, he was there to see the obliteration we’ve perpetrated on each other throughout the ages—and he would now be telling this story to prove to himself that humans are actually worth it.”

Death’s muse, the book thief herself, is an 11-year-old German girl named Liesel whose brushes and encounters with Death propel the plot. This isn’t solely a plot-driven novel, though. Liesel’s relationship with words, as she feverishly learns to read and write them, plays a big role in this book.

“She tore a page from the book and ripped it in half. Then a chapter. Soon, there was nothing but scraps of words littered between her legs and all around her. The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn’t be any of this. Without words, the Führer was nothing. There would be no limping prisoners, no need for consolation or worldly tricks to make us feel better. What good were the words?

She said it audibly now, to the orange-lit room. ‘What good are the words?’”

The Book Thief was my first read of 2014, and if you haven’t already, I recommend you read it, too.

Have you read The Book Thief? If so—without giving anything away to others—what were your thoughts on it?

Must Reads is a new column I intend to make a monthly installment here on WTH. What books—fiction or non—would you recommend I read and review for the series?

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: author, bestseller, book, death, fiction, markus zusak, must read, narrator, Nazi Germany, NYT, The Book Thief, World War II

So you want to write an ebook

January 16, 2014 by Cassie

so you want to write an ebook

If you’re a writer, you’ve likely at least daydreamed about writing a book.

If you’re a blogger, maybe you’ve thought about writing an ebook. Ebooks have gone from being labeled a “cop-out” to the traditional publishing model to a respectable and incredibly popular form of publishing in the span a few years. And for any writer who has useful knowledge, a story to share and—most importantly—a unique perspective on something, it’s a great way to promote your work.

Today, I’m psyched to share the unique perspective of Jen Glantz, the author of the ebook All My Friends Are Engaged. (You can read a sample chapter here.)

All My Friends Are Engaged

Jen’s here to talk about the thought process that goes into deciding to write a book—and then actually writing the thing. Jen was also kind enough to answer a few of my questions, which you’ll find below. Enjoy!

Writing a book, kind of like going on a first date, sounds like such a brilliantly exciting idea. And it is, until moments before it happens.

Moments before you have to start and are sitting there overwhelmed with anxiety, nerves, and not a single idea of how to begin.

Before your pencil hits the paper, or to be more with the times, before you start chomping down on your keyboard to make paragraphs flow into beautifully synced stories, you need to flesh out your idea. It’s best to start with an outline that includes what each chapter will be about and how long you anticipate each chapter to go on for. That way, when you begin writing you won’t be surprised or lost when it comes to how to keep the chapter flowing and when it’s best to end it.

The next step I’d recommend is to challenge your book idea. Take each chapter and ask as many questions as you can about it.

Does it make sense? Does it add to the overall plot of the book? How can I make it stronger?

When publishing an ebook, you have the opportunity to tap into many different modes of social media for marketing and have the potential for many more readers to check you out. That’s why it’s important to make sure the content you’re writing is crisp, unique as it is thoughtful, and worthy of a one-click download.

Write your heart out. But only after you’ve thought it out.

CASSIE: Congrats on publishing your ebook! I LOVE the concept and think a lot of twenty- and thirty-somethings can relate to the subject matter. Can you tell me a bit about why you decided to write it?

JEN: Thank you so much, Cassie! I was sick of looking at my Facebook newsfeed and seeing that all my friends were engaged and asking myself why not me? What’s wrong with me? So I figured I’d write a book about some of the more memorable dates I’ve been on. It turns out, what kept this book flowing with such passion was the hope that people who read it would understand that while yes, dating can be awkward, it can also be a whole lot of other things.

What was the most difficult part about creating this ebook? How did you work through it?

It’s a bit intimating pressing the send button after the book is written. Just knowing that (hopefully) a lot of strangers are going to be reading the intimate details of your dating life is a bit overwhelming to digest. In the end, I was proud of what I wrote and wrote it with the intention to relate to others and make them feel okay about their potentially awkward dating life. I pressed the send button and ate a giant cup of ice cream. I felt really good!

I know a lot of bloggers (myself included) aspire to write and publish their own ebooks but struggle knowing where to start. What advice would you give them?

Start now—even if you don’t have a publisher or know how or where you are going to sell it, just start writing. Writing down thousands of words and carefully connecting hundreds of sentences together takes a lot of time, persistence, and motivation. But it’s also really exciting. Even if you have “bad” writing days or you feel stuck in an idea, just don’t give up. Close your computer for an hour, play some good music and dance around or go for a long walk. The ideas will start latching on to you like lint if you just stick with it and keep working very hard.

What has been the best part about becoming a self-published author?

I think to be a successful writer in this day and age you need to be more than just a writer. You need to have a keen sense of social media and the chops to be a PR maven. There are so many different websites and outlets for people to read content on and it’s important that what you write, who you are, and how you market yourself makes you stand out. It’s a humongous accomplishment for me to have this book in the hands of strangers and every time someone reaches out to tell me they’ve read it, I’m just overcome with happiness.

Any other ebooks or projects on the horizon?

I plan on writing many, many more books. My blog is my platform to try out new ideas and new stories for potential books. As a writer you face a lot of rejection and a lot of people telling you no. My future holds a lot of that but it’s okay because I plan to never give up and be so persistent that one day a wonderful publisher will call me up and say, “You know what, Jen Glantz, we will give you that book deal you desperately deserve.”

Jen Glantz is the author of All My Friends Are Engaged, a book of dating disaster stories. She’s the heart behind the website The Things I Learned From and the biggest supporter of the NYC pizza industry. She’d love for you to say hello: @tthingsilearned or .

I know there are a lot of you out there who have written your own ebooks.

What was your experience like? I’d love to hear about it. Share your story in the comments. (And leave a link to your ebook, of course!) If you’re like me and haven’t written one (but want to), what would you write about?

Filed Under: Featured Writers, Life, On Writing, People Tagged With: all my friends are engaged, ebook, how to write an ebook, jen glantz, online, publishing, the things i learned from, writing an ebook

It’s been quiet

January 14, 2014 by Cassie

You know that feeling you get when nothing’s wrong per se, but something’s not quite right, either? Like when you try on your old favorite pair of pants and they still fit fine, but they’re just not your style anymore?

That’s how I’ve been feeling lately. About my blogging mentality, in particular. Witty Title Here is my home on the Internet. It’s a respite, a labor of love, a curated version of my identity (as blogs tend to be) and so much more. There’s a lot here of which I’m incredibly proud. But to be honest, I’ve struggled with something I can’t quite put my finger on.

Which is why in 2014, I plan on changing things up—just a little bit—to rejuvenate my enthusiasm and hopefully get you excited, too. I haven’t quite yet figured out the details, but the big picture is becoming clearer. And I think it’s gonna be a good change.

Here’s what I do know.

I want WTH to be more helpful. I want it to be a place where you can find interesting people doing awesome things on the Internet. I want it to be less about me and more about you. Because you, dear reader/listener/lurker/friend, are why I’m here, writing and sharing, week after week.

Am I taking myself out of it—becoming less personal? Definitely not. It’s my voice, my story, my perspective I’ve shared all along, and that will never go away. In a sea of millions of blogs, personality, I’ve learned, is very important. But as a writer, I’d like to grow beyond talking about me, me, me. This is not an autobiography. Because really, aside from moving across the country, my life isn’t nearly interesting enough for all that. But the people I meet and the place I live? They’re fascinating.

Here’s what I’d like to know.

I’d like to know more about you. What you’re working on. Who or what you’d like to share with the world. The things that piss you off and the things that get you excited. (So we can commiserate about and celebrate them respectively.) I think we could get some fantastic discussions going on in this space.

What does all of this mean?

It means that I’m feeling pumped about my blog again. That I’ll be trying out some new things—and will be eager to hear your feedback. That I’ll hopefully stick to a more regular posting schedule. (I have every intention to do so but reserve the right to cut back when I’m feeling the heat at school. My education does, after all, take priority.) And when I find out you’re doing something awesome that should be shared with the world, I’ll shine the spotlight on you.

My sincere hope is that WTH becomes a more valuable place for you.

Sound good? I can’t wait. Stay tuned, friends.

Filed Under: Thoughts on Life Tagged With: blogging, change, goals, new year, witty title here, writing

Interweb Finds: Idea overwhelm, the world’s scariest trail & more

January 12, 2014 by Cassie

Hey y’all. I’ve been away from this space for a while, so I’m popping in briefly today to get back on track with my usual regular features. On Tuesday, I’ll explain why I’ve been gone so long and what’s in store for this here blog. (Only good things, I promise.) I’ve also got a fantastic guest post on ebook writing, plus an interview with a rising music star in the coming week or so. Lots to look forward to, so keep an eye out!

I’ve saved up a bunch of interweb finds for you this week. Here’s some of the best of the web:

Gawker published a fantastic profile of a tragic, troubled teen who didn’t shoot up his school. But—possibly—only because someone took his “joke” seriously.

I love how Nicole, who has lived all over the place, defines “home” in a recent blog post. As someone who stayed in the same state for the first 23 years of her life (but had two separate homes growing up), I found it fascinating.

Let’s all collectively fear for our society, hmm? One writer created the worst dating profile ever—and got a flood of messages:

“After reading 500 messages from men who apparently had just slapped their semi-erect penis on their keyboard a few times and pressed ‘send,’ my already flimsy grasp on reality was loosening. Preparing response strategies and putting words into a coherent order wasn’t an option for me anymore, so I decided to turn that into its own strategy. I’d tried mean-crazy, I’d tried life-destroying-crazy; I might as well try crazy-crazy.”

Oh, how all too well I can relate to Erika’s post on idea overwhelm.

The world’s scariest trail leads somewhere a bit… unexpected. If you have a serious fear of heights, you might not even be able to look at these photos without hyperventilating.

For anyone (especially someone living in SoCal) who craves a little rain every now and then.

A lesser-known dementia steals people’s personalities in the prime of their lives. Both fascinating and sad.

You mean BuzzFeed also publishes respectable journalism?! A great read about a city in decay: “Why I bought a house in Detroit for $500.”

Yolanda Dominguez’s “Poses” pokes fun at the absurdity of high fashion.

And that is all from me today. A special shout-out to my mom back home on the other side of the country—she’s turning 50 today! See you guys on Tuesday. Can’t wait to catch up.

Filed Under: Interweb Finds Tagged With: all things e, buzzfeed, gawker, idea overwhelm, Interweb Finds, lesser-known dementia, poses, rainy mood, sweeney says, why I bought a house in detroit for $500, world's scariest trail, worst dating profile ever, yolanda dominguez

The best year of my life

December 31, 2013 by Cassie

2013 was my most life-changing year to date.

It was exciting and uncertain and adventurous and anxiety-ridden. And it was hard. While 2013 has truly been the best year of my life so far, it has also been the most challenging. Logistically, emotionally and physically challenging. Looking back? I wouldn’t have it any other way. Because if it had been a piece of cake, nothing would have changed. Nothing would have been accomplished. I wouldn’t have moved across the country to pursue my life’s biggest goals and dreams.

And so, I’d like to give this year a proper goodbye with a review of its biggest highlights, featuring the best of WTH:

In January, I experimented with my new camera, launched a guest post series, applied to a handful of graduate programs, and wrote about momentum.

February, like the months to follow, was full of anxiety over my uncertain future. Writing about the worst that could happen was a much-needed dose of acceptance, perspective and catharsis.

March was exhilarating. I revealed a brand new design here at WTH, which was the result of weeks of planning, coding and perfecting. I couldn’t share the news then, but March was also when I was accepted into USC for grad school. That month, I wrote about the kind of friend I want and how I planned to change my story.

In April, I thought a lot about sisterhood, shared words of wisdom from a rock goddess girl crush, and wrote a list of things I’d like to learn how to do.

By May, I was FINALLY able to share the news that I was moving to California with John. That’s when things kicked into high gear and the reality of it all hit me. I bought a brand new car and put in my notice at work. Shit, you might say, was getting real.

June was a whirlwind. John released his fourth album, which I sang on. I made a few confessions, realized there’s no such thing as certainty, and talked to a handful of Los Angeles transplants. The last day of the month was my last day as a full-time employee.

In July, I celebrated my newfound independence and packed up my things. John and I said our goodbyes to family and hit the road for the biggest adventure of my life to date. We stopped in Asheville, Nashville, Memphis, Amarillo, Santa Fe, Sedona, Mt. Zion National Park and Las Vegas en route to Los Angeles.

August was the mad scramble to find an apartment before I started school. We ended up finding the perfect spot in Silver Lake, and soon after, I began working toward my graduate degree in Journalism.

In September, I developed the film from my cross-country road trip, shared the soundtrack to my summer, and reflected on how all the big changes I was going through made me stronger. I also interviewed Slash. So that was awesome.

October marked my 24th year on this planet—and my first birthday spent in California. I began sharing adventures in my new city, like the secret stairs and a Brewery Art Walk. I also wrote about how to be a good person, because self-improvement, y’all.

Last month, in November, I stepped out of my comfort zone, talked about money, shared a few personal details, and celebrated Thanksgiving with you kind folks.

And now, here we are in December. This month, I wrapped up my first semester as a grad student with a final project I was really proud of. I wrote about what I learned in school and how much I was anticipating visiting home for the first time.

I got to hug my family and friends again, celebrated four Christmases and the one-year anniversary of my 5 Year Diary, and chopped off a good 10 inches of hair. There’s something about new hair in transitional times that seems to have a magical effect.

And next year? It’s only gonna get better.

2014 will be crazy and exhilarating and challenging in its own ways, and I can’t wait to see what it has in store for me. And I would love to know: What do you hope 2014 has planned for you? What do you have planned for 2014? Whatever it may be for all of us, I hope it brings progress, peace and personal fulfillment.

Cheers to a New Year, y’all. It’s gonna be a good one.

Filed Under: Life in Los Angeles, Photography, Thoughts on Life Tagged With: 2013, change, life in Los Angeles, New Year's Eve, photography, transition, year in review