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Longest Night Watch 2Adventures in Career Changing | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Longest Night Watch 2

Longest Night Watch 2

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on December 28, 2021

A Look at Longest Night Watch 2

The Longest Night Watch 2 is the second indie author anthology dedicated to fighting Alzheimer’s. All of the writers are independent authors. And we all hate Alzheimer’s.

In the United States, 5.4 million Americans have the disease. That number will rise in the next few decades as the population continues to age. We are not doctors. But we are writers. And so we are offering this work. All of the proceeds go to research. Because we don’t keep a dime of it.

Who Are We?

The team consists of: Amanda Parker Adams, Andrew Barber, AR Harlow, Becca Bachlott, Brittany Tucker, Carol Gyzander, Cayleigh Stickler, D.R. Perry, Debbie Manber Kupfer, Fiona Teh, Georgette Frey, and Janet Gershen-Siegel (er, that would be me).

Also, Jennifer Stibbards, Joshua L. Cejka, Kate Post, Katelyn Scarlett, L. Anne Wooley, Michael J. Medeiros, Michael Walton, R.R. Virdi, Ryn Richmond, Skye Hegyes, Thomas E. Harper, Trine Jensegg, Virginia Carraway Stark and the team of The Longest Night Watch.

So this was our second time doing this. Last year, we all came together because of Sir Terry Pratchett’s death. That book was a success. Therefore, the second time around was to see if lightning will strike again.

This Year’s (2016) Urgency

Last year, it was Terry Pratchett. But this year it was Gene Wilder. And now we have also learned Terry Jones of Monty Python is afflicted. Because this disease shows no mercy. As much as we love these entertainers (and Jones is a medieval studies scholar), Alzheimer’s just plain does not care.

But we do.

My Contributions to The Longest Night Watch

For this year, I added two stories. Cynthia is about the decline of Alzheimer’s as witnessed by a rather unexpected narrator. Wilder Bloom was written rather quickly and was, of course, about Gene Wilder.

Where You Can Get The Book

Right now, the book is listed on Amazon (currently it is available on Kindle only, but that will change) and it is on GoodReads.

How You Can Help

Please buy the book, and leave a review. Even bad reviews help, as they put our link in more places. So you don’t have to love the book. That’s okay.

And so we thank you.

Oh, and there was going to be a third…

Whither Longest Night Watch 3?

We did have plans for it, back in the day. But those have fallen apart. A pity, as I have truly loved working with these people. Also, this is an important cause to me. But alas, such was not to be.

Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

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WritingNaNoWriMo, writing, chapter length, how do I write a book, Plotting 101, NaNoWriMo Advice, RIP NaNoWriMo

Writing

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on March 4, 2021

Writing?

Boy oh boy, writing rules. I mean it.

The Before Time, Where There was Weeping and Wailing, and Gnashing of Teeth

So, one aspect of my career transition consists of writing a lot more.

And I have found that I had truly missed it.

Sure, I had typed tons and tons of stuff before. But a lot of it covered such thrilling topics as documenting queries, or making lists of terms used by public service officers. It very rarely encompassed topics with wit, or style.

And I certainly did not have permission to make up any of it.

NaNoWriMo, I Loved You

I had known about NaNoWriMo for a while, but had never thought I had anything to offer.

In 2013, I woke up with an idea during the last week of October. I created a wiki and an outline for it, and signed up.

And I wrote. And wrote.

Then about halfway through the month, I had finished. By the end of the month, the story had gone to beta readers and was edited.

But Now it is Over….

But I am still writing. RIP NaNoWriMo, but I can still do this on my own. And so, I will.

Now the Real Writing Fun Begins

Because, yes, it was published.

It was and is the right thing to do, and the right path.

In addition, it feels fun. And it feels exciting. It feels like it is a fit.

Furthermore, it does not feel like something where I am stretching to fit into someone else’s idea, or parallel someone else’s vision. And I certainly do not feel like I was going through the motions. In addition, it does not feel like ho-hum, same old-same old.

Furthermore, it releases a pent-up inner artist who was shouted down by pretty much everyone I knew for way, way too long in my life. And that is exceptionally freeing.

It feels right. And it feels honest. So it feels free. It feels good.

And it feels like it is about damned time already.

Takeaways, the Future, and All That for Writing

The WIPs (works in progress) are piling up. And the publication dates of Untrustworthy and various anthologies are retreating further and further into the past.

So, what does that mean? It means I am probably going to go the self-publishing route, sooner rather than later.

Is it a good idea? I have no idea. But it is better than doing absolutely nothing. And it is also a damned sight better than just letting it all rot on my hard drive.

Pretty soon, it will be time to fling it out to the universes. Damn the torpedoes, and full speed ahead.

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They Used to Call me Robot Girl

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on November 4, 2014

They used to call me Robot Girl?

It’s true. They really did call me Robot Girl, back in the day.

But I haven’t blogged for a while. Yeah, I know.

At the time, I was uninspired and did not want to just subject all two of my readers to my ramblings. Plus, I was looking for an actual day job.

Robot Girl Gets A Day Job

Well, I found one (several, eventually). The first one was a temping gig for a large financial services company which shall remain nameless. I was working as a Financial Analyst, preparing and running database reports.

The job was rather similar to several other gigs I had held. And then after that I returned to Social Media full time, and so on. If you want the details, here is my resume.

In the meantime, the Bot Boys are not forgotten, and I still have connections to them on Facebook and LinkedIn. But our lives have all taken rather different turns. Such is to be expected.

But I wanted to reach out, on this blog, for the first time in quite a while, to offer up some of the things I have learned along the way. So gather ’round, and hopefully I can help someone else to navigate the wild world of startups.

Some Wisdom from the Trenches

1. The best gift that anyone can offer startups is money. Advice and expertise are great, and they are helpful, but it all pales in the face of do-re-mi.

And while startup competitions may not want (or, truly, be able) to part with too much of it, it is money that is most needed because, to truly succeed, someone has to quit their day job. You know, the thing I just got a few weeks ago? Yeah.

Someone has to take a flying leap into outer space – but that person still needs to be able to afford ramen and a futon.

2. Speaking of ramen and futons, the startup game is often played by the young. This is not to say that those of us who were born during the Kennedy Administration have naught to offer.

Rather, it is that we have mortgages. We may have children. We have lives that often require more than minimal Connector-style health insurance. Or we may have aging parents, credit card debt or any number of things that make living off ramen, on a futon, nigh impossible.

Besides, I treat my back a lot better these days.

And More

3. However, the not-so-young have a different place in the land of startups. The enthusiastic feel of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney (now I’m really dating myself) yelling, “Hey, kids! Let’s put on a show! We can get the barn!” is replaced with “Let’s see if we can get this thing to work before defaulting on the mortgage/Junior needs braces/gall bladder surgery is required/etc.”

Our needs are different, and we may be more patient with setbacks. This does not necessarily spell being less hungry but, perhaps, less able to truly go for broke.

The not-so-young person’s role in a startup is often more advisory. We are the ones who cannot quit our day jobs until the salaries are decent and reliable. And that day may never come.

4. Startup events are best when they have a focus. Mass Innovation Nights, I feel, is something of a Gold Standard. There is a coherent beginning, middle and end to each event.

It is not just a lot of business card trading. The participants and the audience get good conversational hooks.

Making contacts is vital – I hooked up with the Bot Boys at an event like that – but it cannot just be “Hey, let’s get a bunch of startups together, eat pizza and trade business cards!” The startups that are succeeding are too busy for such activities. And those that are not ….

And Even More…

5. Cloud computing, apps and software companies are everywhere in the startup space. With the Bot Boys, we could stand out a bit as we were a hardware company. Having a product that people can see and feel is valuable amidst a sea of virtual stuff.

6. The downside to that is that hardware companies have spin up problems that cloud computing companies just plain do not have. App companies do not have to worry about shipping and packaging. They do not have to perform quality control checks on shipments. They do not have to work on product safety. Or storage. Or….

7. No one wants to talk to the job seeker, but everyone wants to talk to the entrepreneur – and those are often the same person! Human nature is a bit odd in this area.

But I have seen people who are barely past the “I’ve got this great idea I just sketched on the back of a napkin” stage where there is a flock of interested people swarming around, whereas a person honest about looking for work is often overlooked.

Kinda Sad But True

8. Charisma counts. While one founder is going to be the inventor or the developer (the idea person), the other pretty much must be the socializer. Otherwise, even the best ideas are all too often buried.

Someone must be willing and able to do public speaking, elevator pitching and sales. This need not be an experienced sales person, but that person has got to be a lot friendlier and a lot more fearless than most.

9. Most startups and most entrepreneur groupings will fail, morph, coalesce or break apart before succeeding. And perhaps that is as it should be, for being nimble is one of the characteristics of a successful startup.

If the product sells when it is colored blue, but not when its color is green, dip it in dye, fer chrissakes!

10. We all work for startups, or former startups. Even the large financial services firm was, once, a gleam in someone’s eye. Every invention started off as an idea.

Even day jobs were, at one time, in places where the founders were living off that generation’s equivalent of ramen and sleeping in that era’s analogue to a futon. Yet somehow, against the odds, they made it.

And a lot of today’s startups can, too.

See you ’round the scene. Robot Girl may have left the building. But me? I have not.

I am just a bit different now.

Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

Want More About What I Have Been Doing Since I was Robot Girl?

If my experiences with the startup life resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about how my own reinvention might help you to navigate yours.

Well, first there was school, and there was community management. Well, more community management than before. And then some inspiration.

Which of course has led to writing and even more writing! What’s next? Me, you’re asking?

• Quinnipiac Assignment 11 – ICM501 – Mobile & Locative Media
† Quinnipiac Assignment 04 – ICM 526 – The Importance of Content Marketing for Community Managers
• A Day in the Life of a Community Manager
† Getting Inspiration from Exercise
• Getting Inspiration From Sexism
† Self-Review – Failure
• Short Story, Skating, a Self-Review

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Just Trying to Make Some Sense of it All

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on April 21, 2013

Be aware, there are adult words in here, for very adult events. Turn back if four-letter words bother you more than terrorism. That makes no sense to me. But maybe it does to you.

Stay Strong and Keep Every Sense About You

For all who have been living under rocks, things here in Boston have been astounding over the course of the past week. If it were a film script, it would never be made. Because no one would believe it.

On Monday, April 15th, 2013, the unthinkable happened, when two bombs went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people died, and nearly 180 were wounded, many gravely.

Adventures in Career Changing | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Trying to Make Sense
Close call in Brighton – the blue star is more or less where I live

And then, going from Thursday, April 18th at night, into about 24 hours later, Friday, April 19th, at about 8:40 PM, there was a lockdown and a manhunt here.

To give you an idea of how close it all was, check out this map – I can scarcely fathom it.

And I have friends, former colleagues, who were even closer, people who heard shots and explosions.

This is reality.

But I want to put in what, to me, is a bit of perspective, I hope.

A Sense of Destruction and Despair

There are plenty of horrible images and I will, mainly, not focus on them.

But this image should tell the tale of Friday. We, like most people, did as requested and stayed in our home.

I took maybe 20 minutes at about lunchtime and sat on my front porch. I saw a guy walking his dog and another getting a smoke. Plus maybe three cars went by.

And that was it.

I firmly believe that staying out of law enforcement’s collective way was vital in not just keeping bystanders from being harmed but also in the swift conclusion to the manhunt. Also, I will not publicize the alleged (yes, alleged; I believe in the right to a fair trial) perp’s name.

A Sense of Hope and Glory

There are a lot of images and words and I cannot possibly cover them all so I will cherry pick a few.

Neil Diamond and Sweet Caroline

So Neil Diamond hopped on a plane yesterday morning at 4:30 AM.

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He just showed up, 40 minutes before the Red Sox game was to start, and asked if he could sing “Sweet Caroline“.

Sure thing, Neil.

David Ortiz (who never made more sense than at this very moment)

David Ortiz got on a microphone and dropped the f-bomb on live TV. The FCC shrugged and said the equivalent of, hey, no sweat.

Ortiz, I am sure, did not plan what he would say. He just spoke from his heart.

And I am sure most of us agree with him and aren’t about to hold the f-bomb against him. I know I don’t.

People care. And they have also expressed their caring in some amazing and offbeat, quirky ways. These are the ways that make the most sense to them.

Always & Forever

The Always & Forever Tattoo Salon in Watertown has a sidewalk memorial going. Add to it, if you like.

Fundraising

There are multiple fundraisers going on. The big one is the OneFundBoston. This charity was started by Mayor Menino and Governor Patrick and is of course legitimate.

The local running club, the Brighton Bangers, also held a fundraiser.

Sense, Memory, and Healing

I refuse to provide the names of the alleged perps. But I will gladly share the names of the lost and the injured.

Krystle Campbell

This young woman was 29. She was a restaurant manager at Jasper White’s Summer Shack and mainly worked in Hingham and Cambridge, putting in 70- and 80-hour weeks.

I celebrated my 50th birthday at the Cambridge location last September, and may very well have seen her.

Sean Collier

This MIT police officer lost his life in the Thursday night shootout. Boston Police stood at attention with respect as his hearse passed, remembering this young man who gave his all.

Lingzi Lu

This young woman was a graduate statistics student at Boston University, my alma mater.

The wildly generous trustees of Boston University have already raised over half a million dollars for a Lingzi Lu scholarship in her name.

Martin Richard

This eight-year-old child was wiser than most of us, eh? His father, mother and sister were also hurt. So please remember them, also.

Jeff Bauman

This young man‘s image was all over the news, as Carlos Arredondo helped get him to safety and care. Some images were cropped. Others showed the full extent of the awful damage to his legs. This site is a legitimate fundraising site to help pay for his care.

Also, if you want to send him a card, send it to:

In care of Jen Joyce
for Jeff Bauman
117 Tynsboro Rd.
Westford, MA 01886

Celeste and Sydney Corcoran

Sydney and Celeste Corcoran at Boston Medical Center
Sydney and Celeste Corcoran at Boston Medical Center

These women are mother and daughter, and they were both also hurt (Celeste has more extensive injuries). Also, there is a legitimate fund to help with their care.

 

 

Dic Donohue

This police officer and Navy veteran was also wounded in the Thursday night gunfight. And so here is a legitimate fundraising site for him.

Patrick and Jessica Downes

These newlyweds also each lost a leg. This is a legitimate fundraising site to help pay for their care.

Marc Fucarile

So he is neighbor to a friend who lives in Stoneham. And this young roofer has already lost one leg, and there is shrapnel in his heart. There is a legitimate fund to help him, too.

In Every Sense, It’s Personal

I have loved Boston ever since I attended BU (I am from the Class of ’83) and am also a runner (but only 5K races – marathons are too long for me).  Many of these directly affected people are second and third degree of separation from me.

I cannot begin to describe just how personal it all feels, and I know that my feelings are rather small within the scope of this immense tragedy.

So I leave you with this image –

The Strip and sense
The Strip made a ton of sense!

and with this song.

Peace. Please, now, more than ever.

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