Videos

I've redone my two YouTube videos because somebody told me how to put up better quality stuff on YouTube. Enjoy!

Affirmations: The Video

Just a video I made recently to promote the book. Let me know what you think.

(in case you have trouble viewing the version above, you can also find it on YouTube.)

Writers and "drug" culture

Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle had a series of articles about popular culture, and interviewed many young people, mostly artists from the Bay Area. Many of these artists alluded to drug and alcohol abuse influencing their work, expanding their minds and so forth. None of the artists said much about being more integrated into the so-called "mainstream" of popular culture and art (though a guy said it's important to be innovative while "trippin' it mainstream," whatever that means) and that they would rather continue to use mood-altering substance to create "daring" art. I wonder why. Maybe it's the U.S.'s drug policy. You don't see much detailed talk about drugs other than "don't do it," which usually backfires by making people want to use.

So, what does this all have to do with my writing and/or my book (I guess you're probably expecting me to bring up Nefertari Gundangamo, the drug family character in Affirmations). Well, yes, kind of, but I'm going to talk about how I, as a writer intimately involved in the drug trade for many years, am expected to write stories about drug abuse. I don't know how many people who have not seen the cover of Affirmations, ask me about the book. When I tell them that the girl on the cover is a bright-eyed, dumpy redhead, they're in shock. Most people, regardless of ethnicity expect me to write stories about drug addicts or the horrors of growing up in a notorious cartel. They expect me to be like Bret Easton Ellis or Tony Ruggiero. They don't expect a normal protagonist nor do they expect a drug-trade character who is rebellious, but at the same time a drug addict. What do you think? Do you think writers of unique backgrounds are expected to write unique stories? Is it all that shocking that most of my characters have never touched drugs?

By the way, writing drug stories isn't something that I'm going to completely abandon. It's just something that I'm not really going to explore right now.

Canadian Rankings

Two days ago, there were two copies left and my ranking was somewhere in the nine hundred thousands. As of 3:25 Eastern Time on June 19, 2007, my Canadian ranking (on Amazon.ca) has improved to 281,786. Of course, this could change within minutes...

La Jolla Village News Article

It wasn't really an Affirmations plug (though I was credited as an author), but I was recently interviewed by La Jolla Village News columnist Scott Peters on my other passion, Anti-Drug Activism. He wanted to speak with me regarding how I felt about the portrayal of drugs on current American Television. You can read the entire article here:
http://www.sdnews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/06/08/24/44ee144418b43
Edit: I've discovered this link is wrong but can't find the right one! Help!

Transcription of Drugstory Interview

Since they post new interviews on their site daily, the interview will soon end up on the bottom of the page. Please see below for the entire interview, minus the pictures.

The lovely Lacey Greenwood (5'7") has caused quite a stir in the drug world with her message boards and more recently her blog. I first discovered her message to the drug trade on You Tube:"The Hierarchy of Cocaine Traffic". Lacey is also a writer and has recently launched her first book Affirmations, which is a fun girly novel, but more interesting then your average "chick lit". In her book you'll go on the journey with Mary-Ellen Kline and her friends, there's even the daughter of a cocaine magnate whose journey you'll follow.

What she's wearing: Silk crepe cocktail dress from Chanel, alligator-skin boots from Manolo Blahnik, and around her neck was a collection of charms; a baphomet as her protector, an "A" for anarchy, and an inverted crucifix which was a birthday present from her boyfriend.

Her style is classic and feminine. Lacey adds fun details like jewelry and mixes prints with her smart wardrobe to balance her professionalism with her youthfulness.

Most Memorable Cartel Moment: In grade 7 she recalls waking to the sound of gunfire from outside. "It sounded like firecrackers, like the fourth of July," she recalls. Groggy, she went downstairs and out to the back by the pool, where she found a half-dozen militants had stormed the property. Lacey hid in a closet for sixteen hours before La Jolla police discovered her.

Why she left the business: Aside from the legal issues, Lacey found the misogyny of the business unsettling. "Men would leer at you and occasionally proposition you, but they rarely wanted to do business with you."

Breaking Out: It took several years for her to completely separate from her parents' cartel. "It's a huge operation, for one thing. For another, I kept getting lured back in by the money. Once I broke myself of that habit and started to make money through modeling, I started a crusade against the life I led."

Ultimate Goal: "I want to take those fuckers down." Nobody can deny the violence and corruption in the drug trade, but Lacey Greenwood seems to have an unnatural hostility to the life that gave her so much. She refuses to comment on why.

The Accessory She Wouldn't Leave the House Without: I should have known she would say the watch because she wasn't late for our coffee date!

Her own goals: She wants to make a successful living as a writer now that she is over 30 and cannot get any modeling gigs.

Work Ethic: Lacey doesn't know the meaning of the word "quit", even though that's what she did with the Madera cartel. It's one thing to willingly leave an unstable environment, and quite another to fix your eyes to the prize and refuse to give up no matter how the odds are stacked against you. "When all else fails--hop on the couch and pull your skirt up," she says with a laugh and a wink.

Embargo Essentials: The key to the drug trade, Lacey says, is having the highest quality product available. This means exploiting potential transportation problems, like embargos and government inspections. "The trick is to make sure these problems hurt everyone but you." She's carried that over into her non-drug life by spinning gold from the myriad problems that plague models, publicists, and writers alike.

On Hype: They say we can't win the drug war, but Lacey Greenwood's experience tells her otherwise. "Look, the dealers and the pushers are very smart, very sophisticated--though you wouldn't expect that. That's why it's hard to beat them on the corners and the streets. You go for the top of the snake--I'm telling you, the farmers don't even know what they're growing half the time, and everyone between farmer and dealer is completely incompetent. Everyone's making money off of everyone else, so if they got some people in there without guns blazing and just tricked them and fucked them around, we'd win the drug war in no time."

Drug Gripes: Lacey just doesn't understand why people would want to buy these things in the first place. "Don't they realize how artificial and temporary it is? Why would people prefer this to a natural high like working out." As Lacey's toned body can attest, she does not regularly use drugs.

Advice to Fellow survivors of CF's: "Use your parents' money to figure out something--anything--you want to do that you can be self-sufficient doing, and stick with it until you're out of their house for good."

Courtesy of Drugstory

Affirmations plug from the Drugstory

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet with Drugstory.org, a website dedicated to many drug-related issues, where I was interviewed as one of their "cartel-bred professionals." The entire interview can be found on their website (look for the article, Lacey Greenwood: Unfortunate Circumstances). While the interview has more to do with my family background and drug ties, it was a nice place for them to plug Affirmations! :-)

Drugstory is a Washington-based website/magazine with a special interest in giving tips for drug activists. According to their website, they get several hundred hits daily from drug addicts all over North America.

Joelle Anthony Interview (my first interview as a writer!)

I recently had the pleasure of asking author, Lacey Greenwood, the Friday Five questions. Her debut novel, AFFIRMATIONS, is available now at Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores. This California writer, born and raised in Los Angeles, likes to blog about her writing here www.writergal9.blogspot.com and for a side project, she's an assistant at the PR firm of Eileen Koch & Co. She also took on an independent client, rock band Abysmal Crucifix.

Q. What’s on your iPod or CD player?

A. Michael Bublé, Diana Krall, Sarah McLachlan, Jewel. Broadway show tunes, some opera.

Q. Do you eat right, get plenty of exercise, sleep eight hours or do you sit in front of your computer and write all the time?

A. I am a physical fitness nut, which is why I'm in great shape and gave that character trait to Nefertari in my novel. Though it's hard to do that when you’re writing and juggling a full time job, I've managed to make time every day to exercise, and I always eat right.

Q. What do you read in the bathroom?

A. J.Crew catalogs, fashion mags. As a former glamour model, I find it interesting to see when photographers, advertising firms, or modeling agencies value sculpted, muscular physiques in women over the traditional skeleton look.

Q. Where do you see yourself in ten years?

A. Successful career in writing, communications and/or marketing; married, kids and an MBA.

Q. Do you use an outline when you write or just let it flow?

A. I just let it flow. No use using an outline, since you’re going to make lots of changes anyway. For example, I never intended Nefertari, one of the characters in my debut novel to be from a drug family, even though my own family [the successful Madera cartel of La Jolla, California] were drug dealers who were taken down in 1989 after a months-long operation revealing intimate details about the way the business operated.. I just decided to let it happen because I thought that diversity would make it more interesting.

Thanks, Lacey for being our first author interview (except me, of course!).

Courtesy of Joelle Anthony

Question: Your story sounds like it takes place in an alternate universe. Why?

I purposely made parts of Affirmations a little ethereal, otherworldly, almost imitating the "magical realism" style of many Latin authors. Young people, especially girls, see so many images that aren't great for them. There is so much pressure to look a certain way, a way that doesn't make them look all that positive because it values visible rib cages and wiry arms over muscle mass and slammin abs. I wanted to bring back the idea of "proper physical fitness," which is one reason why I decided that one of my characters would be obsessed with her exercise regimen and hiring a personal trainer to ensure she is physically fit, not just another girl with an eating disorder. You might ask why I didn't choose Katherine, the former catalog model. I ddin't want to make it too obvious, and I also wanted to take a new twist over the "rebellious child of drug dealers" character. Don't you find it different that someone who grew up around people wasting away from crystal meth addiction would want to hire a personal trainer?

- Lacey

Drug Dealer Culture in Affirmations

Like many of you, I've read many books and seen many movies and TV shows where at least one of the characters is a drug dealer, knows a drug dealer, is related to a drug dealer and/or has parents who are drug dealers. In Affirmations, I chose to use a model not often employed: parents who are drug dealers who have a daughter who wants out of that way of life. Usually, the child acts very strangely and is considered odd by the drug-dealing parents. In Affirmations, Nefertari is the daughter of drug dealers. Do you think she's "odd"? Would you consider her "rebellious"? If so, why? She isn't exactly joining a heavy metal or hip hop band. She is just very interested in getting an education and pursuing a career as an investigative journalist (and is dating a man outside of her culture). Is the Gundangamo family portrayed realistically, in your opinion? Would you say that some drug-dealing parents are more likely to accept a gay son over a daughter dating someone to escape from a world of endless violence, chaos, and corruption? Also, the Gundangamos aren't your typical "struggling drug dealer family." Nobody in the family has addiction problems, they sell the highest-quality meth for the lowest prices. Nefertari and her brother never had to worry about not having food on the table or not being able to buy strip clubs and car washes as legitimate fronts for their illegal activities. In fact, Nefertari spent her college years running a high-class brothel to pay for college. What do you think about that? I would love to hear from the public what they think about my view of drug dealer culture as seen in the novel.

Welcome to my writing blog!

This is the blog where you'll find updates about my writing! Just to let everyone know, my debut novel, Affirmations, has now been published! :)

Here is a brief blurb about the story:

Affirmations is a novel about a young woman, Mary-Ellen Kline, who graduated from college in the mid-1990s, when the story takes place. She has returned home to live with her parents and is attending graduate school in town. Mary-Ellen has issues to deal with. First off, her mother is going through a mid-life crisis, and has taken up a post-retirement career as a stripper/pole-dancer. Her best friend, Katherine, a former department store catalog model, has recently become a housewife and developed a drinking problem out of boredom. Another friend, the daughter of successful drug dealers, must deal with two conflicting cultures. Will she be able to help her mom and her friends? What about the man who is head-over-heels in love with her? How will she find a way to love him back after she treated him horribly in high school? Will she recover from all that pain she caused him that he has forgiven but which still prevents her from loving him because the story is all about Mary-Ellen Kline? Does his complex emotional turmoil matter at all? Pick up a copy and find out!