You can call me Jezzy. Or Ms. Wolfe. Or Crazy Ferret Lady. Hell, I’ll even respond to ‘Hey You’…I’m easy like that. In the past five years, many changes in my life and goals have led me here. But rather than start on a high horse and bombard you with opinions, maybe I should introduce myself. Because while many of you might know who I am, you may know very little about me as an individual.
I am a self-proclaimed freak.
Growing up, I was a good kid and a better teenager. I made good grades, I practiced a crazy amount of self-restraint and discipline, and for several teenage years I was the pianist and vocalist for a Christian band with several of my church-based friends. And while I missed out on some of the wild times many of my friends enjoyed, I can’t say I’m sorry for my lack of experience. Besides, I eventually compensated for that self imposed repression.
As a child, ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up and my answer never wavered. I was going to be a singer. I never considered teaching. Nothing in medicine. Certainly not a mother or wife. I was a performer. But with the onset of adulthood came the realization that being able to carry a tune did NOT make me a singer. So I focused my attention on art. I was accepted into the Governor’s Magnet School for Visual Arts as a senior in high school, but they wouldn’t offer me photography, which I’d become addicted to. So I quit, went back to regular school, and filled my empty schedule with photography classes and Advanced Art History. By the time I graduated, I’d won a few awards for my photos, so I never regretted the choice to pass on the special school.
My future plans were to move to Maryland and attend an art college with my best friend. I had a strong portfolio, the odds were with me. But I never even made it to the interview.
Out of high school I grabbed a job and settled. The GPA, the college ambitions, the joy of spending hours on end in a stinking darkroom… I traded them for a pay check. Not even a great pay check, but it was money I earned on my own, and that was enough. I married young, and with that, any chance for college floated right out the window. Two years later saw me as a newly single mother. Photography is not the cheapest of hobbies, to say the least. So I chucked that with the singing and relegated all delusions of grandeur to the fairytales in my head.
Another marriage in, and I still had no idea who I was. I had a job …but not a career. And a growing restlessness. Every dream I entertained had been folded into their coffins. What was left once all that disappeared? I wasn’t in pain, I wasn’t happy. I was just numb.
Five years ago a close friend of mine crashed at my house for a month and suggested I open a blog on a network that she used. Prior to her stay, I was basically non-existent on the internet. But I was sad that she was moving across the country and looking for a good way to keep in touch with her, so I humored her and opened my first account.
I found my crack.
Blogging is ultimately what brought me here. The fun posts turned into poems and prose, then into short stories. My steady readers were very enthusiastic, and so I joined EditRed in 2007.
Almost immediately I made great friends with a couple of talented writers, Jim Kelley and Gregory Hall. From then on it was like flying on auto-pilot. When I was offered the opportunity to work on Choate Road, I jumped. At the time, I really had no idea what Choate was supposed to be, but I knew I wanted to be a part of it. In July 2008, I began designing the actual website. With Greg’s flair for entertainment and my practically anal approach to design, we worked hard to create something that was both fun and horrific. In the first several months, we all learned very valuable lessons about building and running an interactive website. Stressful? Absolutely! But worth every second. At the end of every update, we continue to feel a real satisfaction with what we’ve accomplished.
It’s a little more than a year later, and with the ongoing success of Choate Road, and the growing popularity of The Funky Werepig blogtalk radio show (of which I am the co-host), I feel I am right where I am meant to be. Recently I began co-hosting another blogtalk radio show, Pairanormal, with EW Bradfute. For someone with big ambitions of being a childhood performer, I’ve had a harder time finding my voice as an adult, but I truly believe I’m finally getting somewhere. This fall will see the publication of several more of my stories, and I am working hard at improving my skills as a dark writer. I’m becoming more comfortable with the idea of being a radio personality. I’ve met some fantastic authors and mentors. And I have gained some wonderful friends in the process.
There’s still a long road ahead of me, and I’m looking forward to whatever lies around the bend.
Until next time~
Jezzy Wolfe
*Visit Choate Road, the Chuck E. Cheese of Horror, at http://www.choateroad.com
*The Funky Werepig airs on Sunday nights at 9pm est. Listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-funky-werepig
*Pairanormal airs on Friday nights at 11pm est. Listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pairanormal
Memoirs of a Midnight Masochist 