Staying focused

So let me tell you what happened to me this week. As you all know I have been on a total mental and spiritual high in regards to my book and its impending release. I have been consistently happy, content and enthusiastic and i have taken that energy wave and applied it to everything i have been doing the last few months.

Last Saturday I got a letter in the mail from the rental management office that oversees our buildings. Grenadier realty was looking for $994 that they claimed we owed and stated that legal proceedings would begin if we did not pay. (legal proceedings, aka eviction)

Some background. After the economic collapse of October 2008, my boss at the time Jerry Mcaward suggested that one of his employees would have to go on unemployment cuz he could not afford to pay both of us. I decided to go off the payroll because my coworker has 3 kids and a mortgage and I am a single dude in an apartment taking care of his mom.

I filed for unemployment in early 2009. I would say resisted doing it until February of that year. I got the letter from the dept of labor in late Feb/Early March. At the time, our rental management company was Wavecrest. I went to the office with my letter from the Department of Labor and notified Aamanda Sanchez or Rivera or whatever the hell her last name was of my unemployment status.

Now for those of you who don't know, our building complex (Magnolia PLaza apts in Bed Stuy Brooklyn) is a section 8 building for low to middle income families. Your rent is based on your income. So if you lose your job, your rent is adjusted to reflect your new income.

I gave Amanda my letter, she tells me she is going to look out for me, and sends a handwritten note to the house telling us we can pay $696 a month. We were to pay that amount until our new lease agreement which took place in April/May of 2009. I was grateful. My mom was grateful. We had the unemployment checks coming in, we got our rent lowered, we could breathe.

What happened?

This absolute fool of a woman Amanda DID NOT MAKE THE ADJUSTMENT ON WAVECRESTS' RECORDS!! so even though we were faithfully paying $696 as we were instructed, their computers were still saying we owed $900 bucks a month in rent. The money began to pile up. We were going to the rent office every week trying to figure out what the hell was happening and we got absolutely no movement or assistance from the people at Wavecrest.

In December of 2009, we were told that Wavecrest was getting the boot from the firm that had hired them to manage the building. (I heard stories of racism and incompetence from the two muppets that were working there.)

No fucking shit.

Grenadier realty came in about January of 2010. they took our records, gave us new leases and promised to look into any nonsense created or left over by the two spastic colons that fucked up our rent in the first place.

Month after month, Grenadier claimed that they were looking into the matter of this past due money and that we would have nothing to worry about. And so we continued to pay our monthly rent on time and in its entirety and we continued to disregard that $994 amount that they kept saying was past due.

that was until last week when they sent that bullshit card.

I wanted to fight it of course, but mom was against it. She was tired, she was happy and she didn't want to jeopardize her apartment or deal with any possible court proceedings.

We did not have to pay this money. This was a pure fuckup from the original rental agency. If we were such deadbeats, how is it that we have managed to pay our rent on time every damn time it was called for? how is it that no one came to me to ask or investigate or even look into the matter? Their only solution was to pass it on to us? Why should we pay for money we did not owe? We did not instruct ourselves to lower our rent, and we damn sure don't work for Wavecrest to update their computers to reflect the new situation.

And so...that sat in my head all damn week. mom was unhappy. my energy level was sapped. It was if though nothing with the book had happened at all. there was no preview copies of the book shipped to my house, no well wishers from my family and friends, no photo shoot with my adorable niece and her cute, perky friends, no planning for a book signing party, no plans to visit the New York Comic Convention in October.

it was as if though i was nothing and going nowhere all over again...and then an amazing thing happened..wow. an amazing, astonishing revelation and reminder that when a person is at their lowest, God puts inspiration and energy in front of you..and yes GOD DOES WORK IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.

You wanna know where my inspiration came from?
You wanna know what it is I heard and saw that made me realize that I have the true inner strength within me??

get ready..you wont believe this shit..


HBO'S HARD KNOCKS..(TRAINING CAMP WITH THE NY JETS)

woo..I was so stunned that this was where the reminder came from, but let me explain.

the episode that i saw took place right after the week when the Jets played the Giants in the pre season game. the Jets lost that game and the defensive coordinator is in the room with his second string defensive and rookie players. He was giving them a pep talk, and it was that pep talk which really blew my hair back. It was what he said and how he said it.

He told his rookie players a story and that is how i will close out this week's blog.

The Devil was moving to another location. He was packing up all of his tools and objects of misery and evil and a person walked into his shop. the Devil explained to this person that he was moving and could not take all of his items with him and that they were on sale at very cheap prices. The person then asked Satan what was his most effective yet cheapest tool..

this last part i will capitalize cuz i want it to hit you the way it hit me.

Satan looked at the person and said "OH, THAT'S EASY. MY MOST EFFECTIVE TOOL IS DISCOURAGEMENT. BECAUSE WHEN A PERSON IS DISCOURAGED, ALL OF MY OTHER WEAPONS WORK."

read that line over and over again and think about how you have ever felt or sounded in your life when you were discouraged. when you thought you could not achieve something..think about what can possibly happen to a person when they become discouraged..

I will leave it there. love you all.

Step by step

Wow. Havent been on here in about 3 weeks or so. I can't say that I'm much of a blogger. It was suggested by my publisher that I do this and I figured it would be a good way for people to get to know me and to know my product. I also figured i would use it as a diary of sorts to keep you posted as the release date of the book approaches...

But life does get in the way. There are issues and priorities and distractions and before you know it, you have lost the desire to do anything and you say to yourself, "Bah!! (I say bah alot) I'll do it tomorrow. And you know what happens when tomorrow comes, right? "Bah! I'll do it some other time." And so on and so forth.

Luckily, being that a few weeks have passed, I actually have a few things to talk about. Firstly, I have a release date for the book. Amazon.com allready has a pre-order page for A Distant Battlefield It will be available on September 15th.
WooHoo!! (I say Woohoo alot)

I was told by my wonderful indie publisher Wheatmark, that it will also be availalbe on the Books-A-Million page as well as physical copies for Barnes and Noble, Target and Walmart. (that rules) I have a bit of a marketing strategy in place, and there are many spots in the 5 boroughs of NYC that I plan on approaching to promote in person.

The last 3 weeks have seen alot of interesting activity. My sunburned family came back from Puerto Rico all happy and healthy. (did I mentioned sunburned?)

I received my first shipment of sample books. A box with 10 wonderful copies of my novel were awaiting my pleasure when I came home from work. (and of course my family members descended on said box like a plague of unwashed locust and lifted a number of copies.) I still have one copy for myself though.

My wonderful niece Amy Mendez rounded up a handful of her friends and this last Saturday we shot a number of photos with the lovely ladies modeling the Distant Battlefield Tees as well as a number of the books.

The intelligent and quite capable Darius Vick blessed me with his photography skills and the irrascable Phillip Shung provided the remaining resources. It was a fun 2 hour shoot with lots of laughs and good times.

All of it in an effort to get the world ready for A DISTANT BATTLEFIELD!! my first novel and part 1 of an amazing trilogy. It is full of sci-fi action but also has tons of cool characters as well as drama, intrigue, comedy and a dash of romance.

In the Fall there is more to do. I am arranging for a book signing event in Lower Manhattan, I plan on doing some marketing at the New York Comic Con in October and in between there will be some more tidbits and appearances.

A big thank you for all of you who have been reading and following, and an even bigger thank you to those of you who have assisted me either physically, mentally or spiritually.

I love you all.