We have an important announcement!

Over the last sixteen years, Christin and I have shared many of things.
Everything from roommates, bills, makeup, and clothes. We shared fights, we shared reconciliations. At one point we even shared the same guy, although this particular guy neglected to tell us he was being shared. We even share a birthday.

Most importantly, Christin and I share the same views. The core of who we are, what keeps us going with our writing, the reason why it is we write, “Everyone has a story to tell, and your story is worth hearing.”

This is why, today, on our birthday, it gives us both a sense of excitement and pride to announce to you, our loyal readers that our long-awaited memoir…

“Vodka Calling
Apt. B-303″

Will be available late September of this year. If you follow the blog, you will have a few chances to win a free copy as well.

What does this mean you may ask? Well, it means that our book is ready to go. Seriously, it is ready. All that is left is for us to turn in our final edits. In no time at all, our book, what kept us going for the last year, will be available on both paper back and Amazon Kindle.

……

Backstory.

I started this little piece of sanity back in 2010. After numerous attempts of trying my hand at different blogs (“Blogging it Out” “Write here” “Again With Jen” and “Dear Blog”) I just was not cutting it. Something was not right. I was not “feeling it.”

Little did I know it was just the name. Somehow blogging on a blog titled “Dear Blog” was not cutting it for me. I felt like Sandra Dee writing to Danny Zuko, about the trials of being stranded at the drive-in. (Grease reference for the younger crowd.)

The name “Vodka Calling” came to me so easily. It was a winner, and together we would set out on this new journey.

I blogged about everything. Marriage, kids, challenges, autism diagnosis, school, you name it I blogged about it in an honest authentic way. Some would say a little too honest.

April 2016 

Christin enters the picture. Christin and I share a 16 year friendship. A friendship that began when we were least expecting it. A friendship that neither one of us were interested in. Until, we became invested.

Together, we knew we had so many stories to share. Some of our stories are cringe worthy, some are feel good ones. Of course you have a handful that is neither here nor there. Christin and I put our heads together and decided to bring our “roaring twenties” to the blog. We believed we had a story to tell. We believe everyone has a story to tell. Christin and I are just crazy enough to blog about ours.

……

The past year and a half found both Christin and I being tested in ways we never thought we would be tested. Many times, our book was placed on the back burner. Between our children, Christin’s college courses, Gracie’s epilepsy diagnosis, hospital visits and finals, we were not sure if “Vodka Calling, Apt. B-303” would ever happen. We had many late nights, writing, editing, and re writing. We spent our days just surviving off of coffee while trying to get through our day-to-day commitments.

Personally, I have dealt with the old-time favorite “Oh, you are a stay at home Mom, you have all the time in the world.” Yeah…..no.

Going back into the time machine, writing about the days of our yester-year was not always an easy process. I remember a time when I finished a specific chapter, and immediately called Christin. That is a habit of ours, we finish a chapter, send it to the other to proof read, then call. “My God I had no idea this would be so emotional.” Christin got it. She had many chapters that left her the same.

The writing process is both draining and uplifting. Both tedious and eventful. Writing put a big fancy mirror in front of us, forcing us to go back and face our past, our demons. That same mirror would also show us the light. The light that we needed to continue on this journey, the light that would give us closure, the light that was there all along, we just did not see it back then.

Today, the light is on.

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From Christin…

If you had told me 16 years ago that Jen and I would be writing a book about our 20’s, I would have laughed in your face while taking a drink of my Long Island Iced Tea.

Here we are 16 years later, I have traded my Long Island’s in for Ice water with lemon, and still I can’t believe we actually did it.

About a year and a half ago, Jen and I started this journey together.

I will always be grateful to her for inviting me to write on the Vodka Calling blog with her. It was through this, that we came up with an idea to write a book about our experiences as roommates and friends. I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy opening up about some of our real-life accounts of some very intense moments.

In the beginning of our journey, I expressed my hesitation in telling everyone our very personal, sometimes emotional times of our lives.

And then Jen told me something very profound, “Don’t worry about what other people think. These are our stories and we need to tell them.”

Still I had my reservations, primarily because I had moved on. At least I thought I had.

I had successfully burned all the bridges that led to that part of my life. Gasoline, a match and that was it. Up in smoke were the bad decisions, bad people, bad everything. Gone. Nothing left but a little bit of the rubble, which I could sweep away and move on. Never did I look back.

Little by little, Jen and I went back to the rubble. Unearthing the things, we hadn’t seen in almost 20 years. The people, the times where we thought we just might not make it out alive, and of course, the moments that made us feel like we were in a bad 90’s comedy show. Everything. Uncensored and raw.

That’s when everything changed for me. Maybe we could help someone who has been through it, just as we had.

So, we wrote and wrote. I didn’t think we would ever stop writing. We wrote until the middle of the night, sometimes all day. We never stopped writing. Phone calls every day, all day. In between my college classes and Jen’s PTA meetings and activities, we wrote. After we made dinner for our families, we wrote. Before the kids’ activities, we wrote. After the kids were in bed, we wrote.

We made it happen. And then we got rejection after rejection letters. “This is not what we are looking to publish at this time…blah blah blah.

We could have given up but this meant too much to both of us. We got up, dusted ourselves off and continued fighting. I never doubted for a minute that we would finish what we started, I just never knew how long it would take. So, we kept writing and editing. Some days I was tempted to throw my laptop out the window because I was so DONE.

Eventually, we found our way, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. And guess what? At the end of the tunnel, we looked out and no longer saw the rubble we had left behind so many years ago. The junk that was left behind has been restored to an heirloom, that both Jen and I  will carry with us to remind us of what we were, and now, after some work and a lot of repair, of who we are.

So, with that, it’s our birthday and we have completed our book “Vodka Calling: Apt. B-303”. I could not be prouder of this book that we poured our blood, sweat and tears into. Literally. I hope we can inspire just one person that has been kicked while their down, to get back up just one more time. Thank-you to those that have supported us and Vodka Calling. Final edits and a few last changes are being made as I write this and so I would encourage you to purchase “Vodka Calling: Apt. B-303” when it becomes available. We will be posting the information very soon.

Happy Birthday to US!!

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Vodka Calling: Apt. B-303 

Vodka Calling: Apt. B-303 begins in a little apartment, overlooking the Puget Sound in the suburbs of Seattle, WA in 2001. Meeting in circumstances beyond their control, Christin and Jennifer are drawn to one another because of their shared shortcomings. With both young women bearing emotional baggage from their past, Jennifer and Christin find a friendship and comradery with one another that is both unlikely and unexpected.

Vodka Calling: Apt. B-303 appeals to all women.  From women that have experienced obstacles in their life to young women just starting out. Young, old and everyone in between can take away something from the book. Compassion, hope, maybe even a few good laughs will bring readers to embrace the misadventures of Jennifer and Christin.

Vodka Calling: B-303 stands alone amongst the countless memoirs in many ways. First, it presents two viewpoints in two very different voices. Allowing the reader to enjoy both authors’ renditions, Vodka Calling: B-303 demonstrates how there are two sides to every situation. Another aspect that makes the book unique is the intricate story-telling between two friends over almost 2 decades. The way it is written allows the readers to feel like they are actually inside the stories, rather than just an outsider looking in. Vodka Calling: B-303 can be read as a stand-alone memoir or read with its companion pieces in a three-part series.