Hey Guys and Gals...you can order your copy of the New Face of Jazz on Amazon.com now! 


The New Face of Jazz: Pre-order site

It is available for direct purchase in July, 2010.  For now, only pre-orders are available.  It will also be at your local Barnes and Noble as well as Borders and other great stores.  I encourage you, if you have a favorite local bookstore that is independently owned, to request it be carried there.  

Don't forget to visit our website too!

If you want me to come to your town to do a lecture on the book or a signing let me know at newfaceofjazz@gmail.com

Thanks for your support...

xo

~Cicily

A little about me.
I’m a chick, under the age of 33, sleeveless shirts just aren’t my thing and I write about jazz in a very serious way. My last name does not end in Blumenthal, Yanow, or Ratliff. 


I am a jazz writer, despite the opinion of others who share this title.
I have broken through this "glass ceiling," in a very big way.

My first book, the New Face of Jazz (www.newfaceofjazz.com) is due out through RANDOM HOUSE, summer of 2010.  And I DID NOT get this by blowing an editor or my looks. I got here through doing honest hard work and I've done it in a little over a year. (over 400 interviews with musicians around the country, traveling over 4 of these months, compiling a manuscript of over 120K words and an appendix that makes jazz accessible to the layman in over a dozen cities around the U.S.) I’ve been working on writing for quite a while and this doesn’t mean I've only been a "fan or critic" of jazz for a year either.  Hardly. 

I stepped on the scene as a player in college. I was a jazz studies major at the University of North Florida (think Doug Wamble, Vince Gardner, Oscar Perez, Marcus Printup, Perry Greenfield, Bunky Green...I was with ALL of them, they were my friends and still are.) I played trumpet, lead trumpet to be exact. Don't play much anymore, but that's fine with me.  I love to write.  Google my name and you’ll see. I grew up with jazz all around me.  It's a part of my DNA.  I'm also white.  I am not a ball busting bitch nor do I dress butch.

Now, I'm not accusing you guys of saying this at all.  BUT.  I've been through the ringer with the boys club, and I have the feeling it's only getting started, seeing as my pub. date isn't even until next summer.  (We're working on cover art now and edits)

So where do I begin? 

Let's start with sarcasm, move to biting humor, you know, the kind that leads to bloodletting and end on a note we can probably all agree on.  

The review...you can read my reply to his words, if you even want to call them that, are sitting online beneath him as comments.  Was he drunk?  Maybe he was being a self-righteous bastard who deserves to live in the bowels of writing hell.  I’ve sent out an email to every woman in jazz I know and even those in the pop, hip-hop world and more that will hopefully strike against this asshole.  Including Maria herself.  She is someone I consider a gift to artists everywhere. I’ve spoken with her a few times and not once would I consider her anything less. Diversity? Yeah, whatever.   

For the record, I've written better reviews (and I’m not one to go willy-nilly on bragging, but I think anyone with a writing skill level over the age of six or seven could say this) and articles for certain jazz establishments and been told to rewrite or no thanks.  Again and again and again. Then I’ve been ignored repeatedly when emailing the said person I was supposed to email and finally got a disgruntled, harried response basically saying nothing but we'll deal with you later.  I've asked/queried, even with the recommend of a well known jazz writer for other established publications/circles etc and been blatantly ignored, dismissed, or told to direct my concerns regarding subscriptions elsewhere. 

So where does that leave the “female jazz critic?” Bare armed and alone with her stiff movements. 

My own take on Maria’s music, since a couple of you have addressed this, is this: She lends a deeply personal and spiritual level to even the most simple melodies thus making them relatable to almost anyone. Each musicians she pens reaches with an individual touch, turn or brush of the beat.  She’s the one person that changed my mind about what jazz could be. She is also the person who taught me that I had a long way to go as far as my listening skills. Even if a musician or listener does not agree with her music, they can not deny the skill she demonstrates in her sustained and remarkable craft. 

Issue at hand: A lot of the musicians I spoke with throughout my journey writing this book, and these were not fluff interviews, spoke of racism, financial issues, and the lack of respect among our culture at large.  Not a single male spoke about the lack of females in the art.   Not a single male musician I met in my early days as a musician, unless my gig bag was slung across my back, thought I was a horn player.  I was obviously the singer.  Right? 

It hasn’t changed much.  When I first started out as a jazz writer it seemed like it was going to be the same. I had a few believers.  Marcus Printup, Doug Wamble, and Vince Gardner, whom I know very well, believed in me.  They said sure, come on out to NY, we’ll talk.  I relied on known contacts to get to those I didn’t know...I slowly was able to infiltrate inner circles.  But what I got was not exactly friendly fire. 

I heard everything from comments such as, hmm, imagine that, a white girl writing about jazz all the way to, what do you want, a picture with me?  or had I known you smelled or looked like that we could have spoken a lot longer etc...So you ask, where are all the female jazz critics?

I’m still standing.
I’m sure there are others. 
There’s got to be. 

It took me MONTHS to get over this.  Not personally, but professionally.  When a certain jaded and tainted and manufactured presence is placed upon your shoulders, that weight begins to cause indentations that cut all the way down to your fucking bones.  But my bones didn’t break.  I had a support system of men and women, sitting on top of the world, waiting, marching in place, thank god. 

The women I interviewed weren’t catty, snarky, or any of the other attributes many paint us as having.  Many of them are mothers, some grandmothers, sisters, at the very least to eachother, and in ways beyond words, already connected to one another.  They have the same common and dire need as the men I interviewed.  One of connection, human connection, the need for respect and to get rid of that sense of futility the material world tends to shelter and harbor artists through and out of.  It’s difficult enough to succeed in this world without other issues slapping you in the face.  Being a woman shouldn’t be one of them.  Sure, if you can’t play, regardless of your sex, hit the shed and work on your craft.  Don’t sleep with the manager/director/CEO whatnot.  Only thing that buys you is an STD and a plate of fertilized and over-easy eggs before the door hits your ass, if you’re lucky.  It most certainly does not earn you a career and/or the respect of your peers.

But every woman also spoke of being assumed the less talented one in the group, the least likely one to get called for gigs, unless it involved little to no clothing, last to get called to solo, the inherit lack of mentorship and encouragement past a certain age of those that are considered masters and the disconnect that is going on with the community of artists at large. 

Why are women not nurtured and taken under the wings of some of the greats as the younger men are in jazz or in writing or even in the business world?  Would everyone really assume we’re sleeping with them or out to bust balls or whatever term?  Would it be taboo or would the men’s wives be so insecure they couldn’t handle that closeness as artists?  Who knows what the answer really is, but the way I see it, its the mindset that’s been beaten into us through the media, the mass-marketed self-help books, diet worlds and more as children, teenagers and adults that’s hurting us. 

Women’s lib did a world of good for a little while, Martin Luther King did a world of good for a little while, Rosa Parks did a world of good for a small amount of time too.  But as we’ve seen, these issues will ALWAYS creep up if we let them.  Unless there are innovators that come along and say fuck you, I’m sick of waiting on you/the system/others to change like those mentioned above did, we’ll always be stuck in this position.     

So you ask, and I’m not apologizing for my tirade, as it needed to be said, what is it that dissuades the females from entering the music field as a critic?  Hmmm, nothing.  Not a single thing.  We’re out there, we’re writing our asses off and I’m just one hard working gal that happened to attract the attention of the kind editors at Random House with a high concept pitch that also happens to give a hell of a lot of myself in order to see the jazz world thrive. It’s up to the writer’s, artists etc, regardless of sex, race and age to become the most vibrant, tenacious and visible counterparts to those already succeeding in any field in order to obtain the most visible work.  I don’t even think we have to work harder, we just have to figure how much shit, just like every other adult I know, we can live being full of, and then purge the rest.

Women need to appreciate themselves for their own traits and attributes and then, and only then, will others, including other women be able to move on. Will this keep me from dressing nice and smelling nice, taking pride in who I am and my womanly side and making sure nice images are up at all times in my place in the public eye, certainly not.  I have a level of dignity that needs to be kept.  If those that have and expect that same level of dignity to be held in honor of their own names would just follow the simple rule, even those that review others and critique others, we wouldn’t have a need for this discussion today.

Writing Away Retreats: Official House and Details

**FINE PRINT: THIS IS THE GREAT ROOM OF THE HOUSE YOU'LL BE SPENDING A WEEK OR SO IN OCTOBER. WORKING ON YOU, YOUR MS, AND THE REFRESHMENT OF YOUR SANITY.**

Quote of the Day:
There is no harm in repeating a good thing.
~Plato

Current Local Weather:
Swells of rainy weather, bringing in
views of paradise all at once, causing massive
confusion among the natives.

Currently on my iPod:
'Cemetery Walk II'
Mantis
Umphrey's McGee
(yeah, if you haven't heard this band, you're missing out)



Dear friends, family and family of friends,

This is a repeat brought to you by our sponsor, Writing Away Retreats.

In desperate search for cheap/free advertising earlier this week I googled writing groups, writing critique groups, groups for writers, and almost every permutation of these words I could think of. What I found was an endless supply of websites for writer's groups across the country. AKA: Free advertising for my retreats. I have been emailing the webmasters, presidents, head cheese, head boobah's of such groups etc and asking if I could help their groups out by offering them a glance at my retreats, a scholarship opportunity and more on their list-servers. Oh my. The response has been overwhelming! Here are some of the ones that have responded in the last twenty-four hours:

MWA Writer's Resources Page
Southbay Writers
Colorado Author's League
Pikes Peak Writers
The Writer's Center
For Writer's .com
Prescott Writers
Cheryl's Musings (Blog)
Write Bastard (Blog)
Gently Read Literature (Blog)
Mark Weichman's blog on Myspace (Blog)
Jamie Cat Callan (author and Writer's ToolBox Creator)
Living a Life of Writing: Rebecca's Book Blog
Things about Transylvania
Nebraska Center for Writers
Southeastern Writers


These are GREAT resources in your community and on-line. I suggest you check all of them out. Join them if they're relevant for where you're at in your process or where you're at geographically. I'll be adding a list to the side of my blog of these names as well for writing resource sites. And now...for the part you've all been waiting for! The slide show of the house I've settled upon for the retreats for the rest of time.

*Isn't this where you need to be about now? How about October??*

Picture this:

10K sq. ft. 13 bedrooms, two of which you wouldn't be able to find without a guided tour of the house. The linens...oh the linens. I asked the woman what a particular door led to, as I genuinly felt lost throughout the guided tour, the house was so huge and she said, oh, just a linen closet. Uh, yeah. I could have lived in that closet! Rows, upon rows of down blankets, plush towels etc. We're not talking your average run of the mill thin coverlets from the Super 8. Down blankets for as far as the eye can see, thick downy textures everywhere! Where there's carpet..your feet sink down into it! No wonder they are a NO SHOE policy place!

This house was once named one of the very best Bed and Breakfast in the nation, drop off to the door from the airport, PLENTY of nooks and crannies throughout the house for great conversation with literary agents, editors and authors!

Don't forget! We have two scholarship contests currently running! Entries for the partial scholarship for either the five day or eleven day retreat are due in on June 15th to the creativelivesworkshop@hotmail.com addy and the full scholarship stories/essays/poetry are due in on July 1, 2009. DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY! Full details for this are online at the website.

Yeah, it's all here. I have a saying, there are two sides to every success. Let me be the one that makes it possible for you to write your success story out the way you've always pictured it.

Wrap your senses around this:
In our society, we tend to nourish the very young and very old...where is the room for this with our generation?

Right Here:

Soak in the comfort of knowing you're going to be welcomed with open arms; regardless of genre, region and/or publication past. I foster a strict policy of nurturing and loving the arts and artists in this world.

Writing Away Retreats is that ideal environment. Appealing to all senses, I take great pride in being able to bring forth my contacts throughout the literary world, a strength and desire to nourish my peers with loving hands and heart, so that I may be one that allows you to succeed.

I have hand-picked an unprecedented team of faculty that are kindred spirits. I've spoken at length with them, either via phone or email and know that they're on the same wavelength as I am. Please let go...It's time to say goodbye to stress, pitch sesssions, crappy hotels and fast food that are all things synonymous with anonymous writing conferences of the past. Let me show you what it means to be truly taken care of. You won't be sorry.

Take this fall and learn what it means to set-aside the time to
invest in your success story:

So, where will you be in October? Will you be seated at my table:

with Scott of Folio Lit, or Robert of Sterling? Maybe sharing a hot tottie with Kate or Michael? Wrapping up a long hike in the woods with Signe or Sorche? Throwing another log on the fire before hopping into the hot-tub outside to enjoy conversation with the finest people you'll ever meet?


Hmmm...Hopefully wherever your thoughts are now, you'll find them resting at my piece of Literary Heaven once the fall crisp leaves are hitting your door step.

Yours in Writing Thoughts, Waiting for Your Registration Forms, and Wanting More For You,

Cicily

Thought maybe I had said something, but looking through the blogs of the past, I guess I didn't.  Maybe it was a dream...who knows.  Life is but a dream lately for this gal....are you sitting?  If you're a facebooker friend of mine you know what I'm about to say...otherwise...guess what?!?!?!?!?!

I'm about to be a published author. 

Repeat.  Rinse.  repeat. rinse...until it feels real.

The New Face of Jazz

My book on Jazz.  See above link...has defied the odds.  First time author, book house, and non fiction book on jazz was just picked up by Watson-Guptill Publishers.  Who the hell is Watson-Guptill?  That's what I said to my agent when he said this one editor expressed lot's of interest.  He said ever hear of that little house, you know the RANDOM one?  Yeah. 

Hell yeah. 

Random House. 

Last week I had the pleasure of going to their headquarters to meet my editor.  She's awesome.  I have a lot of great people backing me on this project and they're projected publication date is Fall of 2010.  Just in time for all you cats to buy a copy for Christmas gifts for EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST.  Save your pennies now. 

I'm still in shock. 

Random House.  RANDOM HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, it rocks but more importantly, it rocks for the whole jazz community around this country.  This kind of exposure should help them out in a very big way.  We're talking e-book, audio book, translated world rights way. 

Alrighty, done with the shameless self-promo.  If you're into jazz, you have no excuse.  Go to the site, peruse and use and then sign up for our mailing list by emailing us at newfaceofjazzmailinglist@gmail.com And if you're not into jazz, well, read the book and maybe it'll inspire you to open your ears to a whole new world of culture and wisdom.

Yours in randomness, righting the wrongs and running with scissors through the halls in celebration of hard work finally paying off. 

Cicily

Come join Tim Oconnell from Vintage/Random House, Gary Heidt from
Signature Lit. Agency and Doug Crandell, Author of Flawless Skin of
Ugly People and Hairdo's for the Mildly Depressed at the May retreat in
Taos, NM.  May 1-5, 2009.  Only a few more weeks to sign up.  Facebook
and Myspace friends receive a 15% discount.  Payment plans and paypal
accepted. 

Hope to see you there.

Visit our site Writing Away Retreats for more information or email me here or at creativelivesworkshop (@) hotmail.com

Thanks for your interest!  This one is shaping up to be the best one yet!!

Yours,

Cicily Janus

Hey guys,

I've had to switch out editors for the May retreat in Taos, NM.  Tim Oconnell, Associate Editor at Vintage/Anchor Books with Random House will be there to Critique your MS, along with Gary Heidt of Signature Literary Agency and Doug Crandell, Author of Hairdo's for the Mildly Depressed and Flawless Skin of Ugly People.

Sign up time is drawing to a close.  Remember that Myspace friends get a 20% discount!  Must have your deposit in by April 1, 2009 to reserve your place at the house. 

Also, wanted to let you know that my book, The New Face of Jazz was just picked up by Watson-Guptill of Crown Books/Random House.  Exciting news indeed.


Hope to see you there!  Writing Away Retreats

Yours,

Cicily Janus

Dishing up fear!

Let's combine my love for cooking and short stories!

I've heard editors say that horror/thriller writer's are hard to find. And good ones, even more difficult to find. So let's prove them wrong.

CONTEST:

Submit a short story or portion of novel UP TO 5K words to using this as your topic: "Dishing up fear."

Can be anything as long as it fits within this topic. Of course I'm looking for the very best writing, not just gore for gore sake. Not into that. I'm much more easily scared with suspenseful words...

Entry Fee: $10.00 USD via paypal.

Once entry file is sent to creativelivesworkshop (@) hotmail.com a paypal invoice will be generated. Please make sure your email address is somewhere on your entry or your email with the attached entry. If no email addy is attached to the piece I will discard entry and no paypal invoice will be sent. All non-paid entries will be discarded. For your money, you get a crit. of your short or novel excerpt and if it's good enough, a suggestion of where you can submit the piece within the short story markets.

Deadline: January 1, 2009: Midnight. Must be submitted and paid for by that date.

Submit it to: creativelivesworkshop(@)hotmail.com with Writing Away Retreats Contest as the subject line.

Stories must be attached as a PDF/RTF/DOC file otherwise will not be opened.

Any entry over 5K words will be disqualified.

WINNER ANNOUNCED ON JANUARY 15th, 2009.

Winner receives a full ride to Writing Away Retreats worth 1000.00 USD. If winner wishes to bring spouse or friend to the retreat, he/she will have to pay the remainder of 750.00 of the couple charge. Don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity to study your craft with the best in the field, bask in the creative light at a wonderful destination and taste some of the best food you've ever experienced all in one place.

Good Luck!

Yours in Words,

Cicily

OH AND PLEASE REPOST THIS ON ANY SITE YOU MIGHT DEEM APPROPRIATE!

Website for Writing Away Retreats to be updated with contest details and registration details for May Retreat within the next week.

www.writingawayretreats.com

www.cicilyjanus.net

It's been said that life is but a series of choices one makes to get to the next choice that awaits us on the next day. We're all looking for the next spot or the next opportunity to make that choice and there are times when we find it and times when its damn near impossible to find that answer or the one choice we think is the right one.

I'm sitting in a beautiful library at the Cascade Vail Resort in...you guessed it...Vail, Colorado. Why am I here. A multitude of reasons. I'm here because I chose to be here, I'm here because of a series of choices I've made throughout my life and will continue to make for the good or the bad. And more importantly, I realize that whatever choice I make, unless its intentional in its nature to harm someone, will lead me to somewhere unexpected more times than not.

A few months ago I made the choice to listen to an editor at Harper Collins when he said, go for it. No one's done this before.

I went for it.

And he was right.

No one has done this before.

I'm writing a book no one has done before. No, its not a full length graphic novel on the Care Bears and their fight against terrorism nor is it a vampire novel with a twist.

I'm merely supporting the jazz community. How I'm doing this is not going to be revealed so much here on this blog or any blog at the moment, but all I can say is that it's going well. As for those that don't know me in the real sense of the word, I was a jazz major and musician in my previous life. I played trumpet, lead trumpet to be specific and even got to the point to where I was quite successful at gigs etc. Burn outs, children and other choices years later and I stopped playing.

So, I am channeling my abilities from my musical education at the post secondary level into writing. My new found love of whom even after almost four years, I still haven't moved past the honeymoon period.

This brings me to tonight. I'm sitting in a ballroom at this resort, and with some of the best musicians and most appreciative audiences this side of the Mississippi and I begin to think. Last night, history was played out in my town. Obama was a thunderous wave of energy to reckon with and I'll be damned if this wave of energy doesn't cause a shock that turns into a political Tsunami throughout the rest of this war between the "parties."

He spoke of changes in all aspects of this country and essentially what is so wonderfully brilliant about Obama is the fact that he wants to bring the essence of American culture back to America. And while being a part of this jazz party here, I see that its needed more than ever.

Musicians celebrated posthumously, hardly able to share their art with others for the lack of intelligent expression in this country...CD sales down, jazz literally dying. For the love of...ok, I'll end the drama.

But what Jazz really is, is a simple conversation. Benny Green played tonight. He's one of the greatest piano players of our time and if I ever win the literary lottery he may have to reside to the fact that he WILL be my nightly entertainment. But I think if every household replaced even an hour of their TV time with real, intelligent entertainment like this, we would all be in a better place for this simple choice. Maybe because of this one choice, we could all understand eachother better and get along in a way that is uncommon now and not just because of the romanticsm of a song but because this music is conversation.

It's the kind of conversation that provokes thought and evokes emotional outpouring of your inner self. The kind that after a nice glass of wine you want to unwind, reach out and connect with your spouse, friend, partner etc... Sharing the moment, relaxing and connecting, an art of itself that is seemingly lost in the technology of today. For jazz is but a conversation between the musicians. They play off of eachother, talking to one another through thoughts that need no words and let the beauty and sensuality of sound without words take over as an intelligent form of communication that moves you beyond the normal accepted modes of love and friendship. The technology of our lives is nothing compared to what could be if we just made the choice these guys make.


I call for a slow movement of our own. A cessation of the advancement and progress of technology in this sense and let the in-the-moment flavoring of jazz to take over our palettes. This is what our country was founded upon...the ability to think and to find a medium of intelligent discussion without the prejudicial thoughts of the world. What has happened? We have left it behind. And who knew it better than anyone? The slaves, the ones who brought this music to life. They were the ones considered absent of freedom and we all, knowing now what history has brought us in life lessons feel a certain intangible guilt and innate sadness knowing the past, at least I do, but we must realize that the retraction of intelligence and the opportunistic infection of stupidity has brought the slavery of stupidity back into our lives. We are slaves in our own right and in our own world. It's not about race, nationality or modality, its about the lives we think we must live and do live. But what makes jazz so beautiful and the music of America is that it transcends race, age and nationality. It is what we stand for, or at least what we should.

Jazz is a choice, intelligence is a choice, its what we do with these choices, as Rene Marie says, that define us.

Stay tuned, three more days of essays to follow based on and written and inspired by live jazz.

Yours,

Warmly yours,

Cicily

Hello friends, family and family of friends...

Here's an update to my works online if any of you are interested...

Review of Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra:  http://www.rockymountainjazz.com/photos.html

Interview with NYT Bestselling Author Jennifer McMahon: http://www.eclectica.org/v12n3/janus.html

Interview with Film Maker/Producer/Writer Michael Gibson :
http://www.artnouveaumagazine.com/july-august/film-michaelferrisgibson.html

I have a short story coming out in the innaugural issue of A Cappella Zoo this fall!  Check it out, I think it's one of my best. Short, sweet and to the point. LOL... Kind of like me.

If you live in or near the Chicago Area, I'll be reading poetry at the Green Mill (Al Capone's old hang...) on the 24th of August.
Come and meet  me, I'll buy you a drink. http://www.greenmill.com

And if you're interested, my writing retreats still have room and if you're on myspace, you get a discount, just fill out a contact form and I'll tell you the details! http://www.writingawayretreats.com

Support my project: http://www.newfaceofjazz.spreadshirt.com

Visit my website: http://www.cicilyjanus.net

This fall, my interview line up so far includes Jasmine Guy from The Cosby Show, Josh Kilmer Purcell, Author of I Am Not Myself These Days, Patricia Wood, Author of Lottery, and a review of Nathanial Bellow's new poetry collection, Why Speak and many more!  My travels will be far and wide, so keep reading, I'll post where I'm going and if I stop by your neck of the woods, I'll let you know!

Hope you all are having a great summer!

Yours,

Cicily