#newjerseyauthor — Public Fediverse posts

We have a winner! Cheers to fellow NJ lovers!

Yesterday I had a contest where a follower (or anyone who happened to see my blog) could win one of my books.

Murph from Garden State Social won my book, “So, You Think You Know the Jersey Shore.”

Murph, if you are reading, please email me your address so I can get the book to you: [email protected]

And while we are at it, let’s give a great big shout out to Garden State Social!

Here is a link to my page, which will feature all things New Jersey (and more of my articles about New Jersey!)

https://gardenstate.social/@MaryanneChristianoMistretta

It’s fantastic to find something specific to New Jersey that isn’t Facebook, as you avoid all the negativity.

I’ve been a true Jersey girl all my life, born (Paterson, NJ), raised (West Paterson, Cedar Grove. Little Falls), and living (Paterson, Haledon, Little Falls, Montclair, and currently Union County.

I’ve worked as a journalist in New York City for sometime and spent a great chunk of my social life there. I’d stay with friends, and even watch people’s apartments when they traveled. I loved New York City, but it changed in time and I have to say in this day and age, I do prefer New Jersey.

On Facebook you can’t say things like this because you get the ignorant “ha-ha” emojis.

People who don’t embrace or understand New Jersey have never embraced it. Or they say they love it but it’s too expensive. I’ve seen comments about people who moved away, but miss it.

I’ve been all over the United States and overseas a few times, and I absolutely love New Jersey.

Maybe if I grew up somewhere else, I’d like it there, but New Jersey has it all. I live in a small town where people don’t know me and I like that. I’m close to beautiful parks. (When I lived in Montclair, I was able to walk everywhere, but everyone knew me and I felt I had to be “on” all the time.)

I love that I’m just a half hour from the New Jersey shore, but also close to mountainous areas.

Not to mention all the culture we have in New Jersey. It’s a diverse blue state. There are people of all colors and all sexualities.

We don’t have to go far to experience live music, art, indie movies. And we don’t have to pay a “cover charge” to go through a tunnel or over a bridge.

Yes, taxes are high. Yes, people drive like assholes. And yes, it’s congested.

But there’s just something special about New Jersey that you can’t get elsewhere. Our garden tomatoes are second to none.

Many of our churches are open-minded, accepting, and democratic.

I feel extremely blessed that I can afford to live here. I’m going to try to not retire because I love my life and my career.

But if I ever do and have to move somewhere else (I think of Delaware because a friend lives there and loves it — and it’s close to NJ), I will always be a Jersey Girl.

(And no, I’m not a big Bruce fan, though I love what he stands for. When you think of this Jersey girl, think of other cool Jersey girls like Patti Smith and Debbie Harry!)

Cheers to New Jersey!

I’m home recovering after a bug, post-finishing my doctorate, post-finishing-school-vacation-trip, and in that in‑between space where I’m figuring out how to bring my doctoral thesis into the world as a book while preparing to release the third ecofiction novel in my trilogy.

I’ll share the trilogy more on Instagram soon; but of course I’ll talk about it here too.

While I’m resting, I’ve been thinking about two things:

1. How to share what I’ve learned from writing visionary ecofiction; not as formal tutorials, but as small, generous micro‑snippets of thought.
2. How much I enjoy posting Three Good Things here on Mastodon.

This led me to realize that the micro‑tutorials can become Three Good Things. A small, informal, unstructured series about what I’ve learned so far.

Here we go.

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Three Good Things I’ve Learned About Writing Visionary Ecofiction

1. It brings community together; even when people disagree.
Across all three novels, I learned so much from people with different perspectives:
• fracking / hydraulic fracturing (Book 1)
• medical marijuana (Book 2)
• high‑speed rail (Book 3).
Ecofiction is a meeting place; not a consensus.

2. Writing is solitary; but you don’t have to be lonely in it.
Anything that helps you contextualize yourself in your larger community is healthy;
walks, cafés, writing groups, reading groups, sharing drafts.
People’s commentary is subjective but sharing your work is grounding.
Place yourself in your wider spheres; it helps.

3. Take joy in the finishing and sharing stages.
There’s real pleasure in thinking about the special parts of your process and how you want to share them.
I love outlining, first drafting, sculpting, revising, hearing the text read back to me, and working with an editor and designer, but also, imagining the visual vignettes that accompany the trilogy. I’m figuring out a visual narrative to share the trilogy on Instagram.
Finishing is its own creative act.

Working in a genre that’s still emerging (visionary ecology or visionary ecofiction) gives me freedom to genre‑bend fearlessly.
Book 1 is a love story (but not a romance).
Book 2 is a mystery (but not a cozy).
Book 3 is an adventure (but not Indiana Jones).
The elasticity is part of the joy.

These are my three good things today, the first in what I hope will become an informal series of micro‑tutorials on writing visionary ecofiction.

What lights are you up? When you write, how do you define yourself within your genre?

Keep writing and share!

PS, the photo was taken at Giverny, Monet’s Garden in France, on my recent trip.

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