Ready, Set… (Pitch Wars) Bio.

August 12, 2015 by Gwynne Jackson 5 Comments

When my son was in third grade, one assignment was tell us about your mother. I didn’t know anything about it until I saw the school hallway decorated with a lot of lovely paeans to motherhood. I found mine — a mohawked stick figure dancing to music — with this caption:

my mom was a punk rocker

I was so proud! I still am.

Just as I claim on twitter, I’ve got an endless soundtrack in my brain. I’ve been around music my whole life, either as a musician or working with musicians or listening to music. I spent years as a crew member with all sorts of bands, doing everything from setup and tear-down to front of house and backstage security to running sound and light boards to managing the stage crew.

That it took me so long to write about a world I know well isn’t surprising. I’m a private person and never like to take credit for things I feel belong to other people. Road crews are invisible by design. They’re not supposed to take the spotlight away from the people on stage and for the most part, they don’t. That doesn’t mean crew members don’t have lives every bit as compelling as the people they support. That’s the side I’ve chosen to explore in my book.

Aside from road crew duties, I’ve worn a lot of hats. I’ve been an office drone, a QA engineer and manager, a technical writer, a technical & copy editor, an artist, a massage therapist, an author, and a pretty good critique partner. All of that pales in comparison to parenting my now 20-year-old, who proudly proclaimed in elementary school that his mom was a punk rocker.

I’m still all about the music. I’m hoping to work with someone who loves it as much as I do! I love concrit, feedback, revising, rewriting, and Oxford commas. I’m under no illusion that my work is the best it can be yet…which is why I’m looking for your help.

A few random notes:

• I am gif-impaired (maybe you can help me with that), but I take pretty nice photographs. Here’s one.

• Commentary and concrit on my work are two things I eat up like ice cream. I’m great at accepting feedback.
• At one of her concerts, I was mistaken for Patti Smith.
• I use astrology & Meyers-Briggs to help craft characters (Scorpio, ENFP, which makes me your most honest, biggest cheerleader).
• Some things I like: urban grit, baseball, the ocean, surfing, traveling, learning new languages, nature, the unexpected, contrasts, challenges, long walks on the beach at sunset (no, really), and books that take me to worlds I’ve never imagined.
• When I was little, my mom used to say as long as you learned from it, then it was a worthwhile experience. I agree. I’m all about the learning and growing, in writing and everywhere else in life.
• I can’t wait to meet you. All of you, whoever’s reading. Please stop by and say hi. It’ll make my day.

 

A huge thank you to Chris Keelty for running the PitchWars Blog Hop (2015) and Lana Pattinson for the 2016 version!