"PCSing...it's a Spouse thing!" now 25% off with publisher's discount!

Purchase PCSing...It's a Spouse Thing! at 15% off with coupon code RESOLUTION305. The book is currently reduced by 10% so that's a 25% savings off the full price!

Disclaimer: Use coupon code RESOLUTION305 at checkout and receive 15% off PCSing...It's a Spouse Thing!. Maximum savings with this promotion is $10. You can only use the code once per account, and you can't use this coupon in combination with other coupon codes. This great offer ends on January 15, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST so try not to procrastinate!

While very unlikely we do reserve the right to change or revoke this offer at anytime, and of course we cannot offer this coupon where it is against the law to do so. Finally, Lulu incurs the cost of this discount, so it does not impact the Author's proceeds of the book. 

~ j

The First "Jenny" Book is HERE!!!

"Jenny" is on hiatus while we suffer through yet another PCS. Please feel free to browse the archives located on the main page of http://jennyspouse.com to get your weekly milspouse chuckle.

OR...You can order the very first "Jenny" book ever and get your milspouse chuckle whenever you want! Just in time for Christmas, the book is located at: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/pcsingits-a-spouse-thing/13835448

Selling for $19.95, it's the greatest gift you can get for any military spouse you know. She/He will see themselves among these 120 pages more than once.

Help yourself to a handful of books this holiday season. Don't leave anyone out! ~ j

This week's "Jenny" comic is UP!

This week's "Jenny" comic is UP!

"The Newness" from Chandra's Handbook. Enjoy!

Don't forget to go to the archives at jennyspouse.com and vote for your favorite Jenny Comics from 2009...

"Jenny" picks up two more papers!

Beginning November 13th, "Jenny" will appear in two more newspapers: the Eglin Flyer and the Hurlburt Patriot. The following write-up appeared in both editions on launch day:

By Kenneth Books, Managing Editor

Beginning in this issue, the Patriot will feature the comic strip,“Jenny, the Military Spouse.” Written and drawn by Air Force wife Julie Negron, the strip follows the day-to-day life of a young woman thrust into unfamiliar surroundings as the new wife of a young Air Force lieutenant fresh out of flight school. She finds herself having to adjust to new surroundings, new terminology, new ways of doing things and a new breed of people—airmen and their spouses.

The strip is often found in so me unsuspected places. Look closely at the refrigerators in the Lifetime TV show “Army Wives” and you’ll see “Jenny” hanging there.Negron started her comic while her husband was stationed on Okinawa. According to an interview published Oct. 7, 2007, in Stars & Stripes, “Negron, a self-taught illustrator, started her drawing career creating editorial cartoons for an Oregon newspaper when an opening suddenly came up. The previous cartoonist had just died.

“I read about it in the paper,” she said sheepishly. “And I went down the very next day.” She was hired the same day after a brief interview. She worked at the paper for a couple of years, drawing cartoons on assignment. When Negron moved, she drew cartoons for the base newspapers wherever her husband was stationed.

Inspiration for the strip comes from things that have actually happened to her as a military wife and from suggestions from readers. In addition to Jenny, the strip is populated by Cassie, a blonde, beautiful and somewhat bubbleheaded wife of a fighter pilot, Patty Lynn, the spouse club president with a near-psychic ability to obtain information before anyone else, Jenny’s husband, “DH,” a slightly nerdy and sometimes clueless foil.

According to Negron, Jenny will always and forever remain a new military spouse, childless, naive and often lonely for a husband whose service obligations frequently outweigh his marital ones. She’ll always be surprised by what she sees and what people say to her.

And she’ll be in the Patriot every week from now on.

Sounds good to me! ~ j

All About That Military Brat Comic Strip called Fort Knox

I've got an Army Brat friend who created a comic strip based on his childhood and - guess what? - it got picked up by a major syndicate! So now he finds himself scrambling to drum up readership to prove to his new bosses that they weren't wrong in taking him on.

Which they weren't.

After all, how many people out there are Military Brats? I'm gonna say KA-Zillions, including me. (In fact, I've never really known any other lifestyle other than military...born into it, married into it)

I'm pretty sure we Brats can relate to my friend's comic strip in more ways than we can relate to a lot of the strips out there that are currently in full-tilt boogey.

My friend is Paul Boscacci and his new toon is "Fort Knox". You can see a complete run-down of it here: http://www.postwritersgroup.com/comics/fortknox.htm

The Facebook page is here: http://www.facebook.com/pboscacci#/fortknoxcomic?ref=share

Right now, Paul's working on placing his strip in the Garden City, Kansas, area. Please participate in the poll being conducted by the GC Telegram: http://swktalk.com/comics/ Kick back for a while and read through all of the strips. Each one of them is in danger of elimination so make sure you vote to keep the ones you like. Personally, I'm going to vote to keep all of them. After all, what makes me laugh might not make someone else laugh and vice-versa. :-)

"Fort Knox" officially premiers on October 5th. Give it a shot and give it a chance. And, remember, enjoy comic strips every day or they'll go away!

~ j

Rejection Notice, etc.

Today, "Jenny" was rejected by the largest group of military newspapers available stateside.

Rather, today is when I received the actual notice of rejection, so I'm not really sure when the physical act of rejecting "Jenny" took place. I'm going to stick with today because it feels like it. In fact, it feels like just a few minutes ago after I checked the mail.

While the Rejection Notice is certainly par for the course in the life of a cartoonist, this one wasn't met with a sense of "Another one bites the dust" and blithely tossed into the file drawer.

This one is hanging right on the front of the refrigerator.

Let me explain. The source of the rejection was ATPCo, which is comprised of the Air Force Times, Army Times, Navy Times, and MarineCorps Times. They're a subsidiary of Gannett News (publishers of USA Today).

I've been trying to get "Jenny" into the "Times" group for nearly four years - whether online, in print, or both - and I've never once heard anything from them. In June of this summer, I decided to hit them hard: I got another cartoonist to go to bat for me.

Twice.

It still didn't work but they did finally tell me for sure that the answer is "NO". No explanation, just "NO". Therefore, at this point in time, "Jenny" will not be getting into the Air Force/Army/etc. Times group.

I hope my cartoonist friend doesn't suffer any repercussions from standing up for me because he really went out of his way when he barely knew me. He simply believed in the "Jenny" comic strip enough to go the extra mile for it. He is now a wonderful friend whom I respect and admire.

Thanks to him and thanks to all of the spouses and other readers who've asked over and over why they can't read "Jenny" in the "Times" newspapers. I'm sorry; I tried.

Don't worry, though, I'm going to keep working on it. I have more angles to work and lots of paper on which to type submission letters. And, of course, you can still read "Jenny" every Sunday overseas and downrange in the Sunday Stars & Stripes newspaper and, of course, every week at jennyspouse.com.

Have a great week and don't forget to go to jennyspouse.com (and stripes.com) for your weekly mil-spouse chuckle!

~ j