Category: Related Things

A Pre-Announcement of Sorts (Journal Giveaway)

Published on by Christine Gabriélle2 Comments

You know how I like telling you exciting things? Well, I’ve got some news!

Side note: does anyone else feel the need to tell people when they’ve injured themselves because they think they need the “awws” and “I hope you feel betters” or is it just me? Like, I injured my finger last night (ripped my nail off almost halfway down the nail bed while changing bedsheets) and I feel like it won’t heal properly unless I tell people about it and they give me their sincerest faux pity. I even sent my brother a video and told him I had a “boo boo.” I’m laughing at myself, here. I have very low tolerance for pain and injury and this whole thing is mildly ridiculous.

ANYWAY!

That’s not even what I came here to tell you (see previous comment about injuries only healing when people know about them).

I wanted you to be the first to know that I have unofficially published my journal set! They are technically purchasable on Amazon right now, but I’m waiting on the bannerless author copies to arrive so I can take pretty pictures to post with the official announcement (and on the new NINE & TWO Press website).

Wait! Did I even tell you NINE & TWO Press has a new website? Oh Gosh, I’m slacking here! I’m sorry, my people, so sorry.

I have such big dreams for NINE & TWO Press, you know. And while right now it’s still just my self-publishing “publisher” name, I want it to grow into something much bigger—something that can’t be contained within my personal website. So, I created a new landing page at www.ninentwopress.com where I will have links to everything I self-publish.

In the future, I hope to be able to publish other people’s essays and short stories on the website as well as have a fully functioning online store where you can purchase books, journals, and all sorts of other stationery related things directly from me.

These are big dreams for the future, not anything I’m seeking to create this year. However, I wanted to establish my intention by putting this small piece into place. I hope you like it!

Now, back to what I was saying…

Along with the official journal announcement—which will come later this month—I will be doing a giveaway to celebrate. The winner of the giveaway will receive:

*1 journal of your choice (Daily Reflection Journal or Long-form Journal)
*An exclusive Book 2 Preview booklet with two short stories from my next book (unedited first drafts)
*A couple of extra goodies to make it even more special

The official announcement and giveaway rules will be posted on Instagram in the coming weeks, however, because you are subscribed to my blog and I love you for being here, you can enter early without Instagram.

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is comment on this post (you can do that by replying to this email, if you are reading from the post notification email) and tell me how journaling has been beneficial in your life.

That’s it.

Blog subscribers will automatically be granted two entries—that’s how much I appreciate you being here. The early entry period for blog subscribers ends Friday, March 17th, 2023 at 5:00pm EST.

I guess I had more things to tell you than I initially thought. Thanks for hanging out with me, and I look forward to reading your entries!

♥

Thick, Sexy Journals!

Published on by Christine GabriélleLeave a comment

I’ve been sitting on this for almost a week. Not hiding it, just a little unsure what to do with it. If you follow my IG account, you’ve already seen them.

I got my journal proofs and I love them!

I want to make these available soon, but I’m weighing the options on how to go about it. Also, if I’m really going to do “the journal thing,” I want to see if there’s a better manufacturing option. If not, I’ll stick with KDP to print them for as long as they allow “low content books.”

Thanks to get rich quick low content book “hacks” on these social sites, there are some angry people with very strong opinions about using KDP to print journals. A lot of platforms don’t allow it at all anymore.

My previous experience peeking into the journal manufacturing world led me to cheaply made 80-page journals or highly custom journals that cost $30 each to produce and required minimum orders of no less than 250. The barrier to entry seemed so far out of my grasp.

With KDP, I’ve been able to create nice thick hardcover journals in a much more accessible way. These are not your average low content books.

There’s still some planning to do on my end before I can feel confident putting these out. In the meantime, here are some pictures:

I’d love to know what you think about using KDP to print journals, alternative manufacturing options, and overcoming barriers to entry to create good products.

Until next time…

🖤

On Names

Published on by Christine Gabriélle1 Comment

I’ve been struggling with names for the past couple of days.

How it started: Christmas Eve I was on Google doing Googley things and somehow found myself in the middle of an article about the transliteration of “Yeshua” and how it changed from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to Swedish (I think) to English and became “Jesus” when a more literal Hebrew-to-English translation of “Yeshua” should be “Joshua.”

So, here I am—on Christmas Day—watching movies with my brother and falling down a spiral of “Dear Josh” jokes and telling him I hope his future wife has a sense of humor because my future niece(s) and/or nephew(s) will be taught by their auntie that the Son of God’s name is Joshua and not Jesus and we start our prayers with “Dear Josh” because He’s kind of like our heavenly brother and we don’t need to call Him by His full name.

Today, I’m sitting in the bathroom—where I tend to dig out my most intelligent (or rebellious) thoughts—and I say out loud to myself, “we shouldn’t even be translating names!” I understand translating the Bible into languages more people can understand, but names are names and don’t need translation.

Like, my name is “Christine” no matter what language you speak.

And then this thought spun me around to a memory of middle school when we would have Asian foreign exchange students come hang out with us for part of the school year, and instead of us being taught their actual names, they were given ridiculous English names like “Cutie” and “Sweety” (though some had less ridiculous English names like “Mary”).

Imagine being eleven, going to a new country, and instead of people calling you by your name, you get stuck with “Strawberry” or “Purple” for your entire stay because it’s easier for the locals to pronounce. Now, we’re not talking about nicknames or shortening a name (Christine > Chris, Michael > Mike, etc.), we’re talking about completely different names here.

It’s stupid. And I’m angry about it.

A person’s name should not be translated into something that isn’t their name just to make it easier for someone else to say.

Calling me “Christina” because it’s easier for you or because you like the way it sounds better (yes, I have actually been told that as an adult by an adult) is a sure-fire way to make me hate you just a little.

So, I swing back to the Yeshua/Jesus/Joshua thing and I’m sitting there like, “Yeshua” doesn’t need to be “Joshua” either. Yeshua is Yeshua. Period.

Now, full disclosure, I was one of those people who thought Christians who called Jesus “Yeshua” were being pretentious and annoying, but I get it now and I’m a little piffed it took me this long.

So, no, we will not be calling the Son of God “Josh”, nor will we be calling Him “Jesus”. His name is Yeshua. My name is Christine.

The point is, call people by their actual name (the one they give you) and not some version of their name that makes more sense to you.

♥