Barbara Ehrentreu's Blog: Rising from the Ashes - Posts Tagged "barbara-ehrentreu"

Many of you have been published by a traditional t a year publisher and may or may not have been in my position. My book, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor, was published in 2011 by MuseItUp Publishing as an ebook and later as a paperback. Three years ago my publisher sent me back the manuscripts on Word docs and told me she was going out of business. I had the rights to the text but not to the cover. So I went looking for a publisher for my book.

If you look on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/If-Could-Like-... to see the rating and the reviews you will see they are very favorable. I have twenty-seven good reviews through the years. However, no publisher would do it. So I had to go with KDP Amazon, which gave me a good deal and threw in a free cover. I couldn't resist that and paid a little bit to get it republished.

We spent almost a year getting it done due to the fact that we couldn't decide on a cover. The one I had was not mine and I didn't like the morose girl on it. So we went back and forth and finally found the one I liked. Happy to say the editing of this book by Nancy Bell and Penny Ehrenkranz was so good there didn't need to be any changes at all to the original story. We did make it international print so now it has a Table of Contents and things have been moved a little bit.

Now I am happy to say the book has been launched in person and online and it is available on not only Amazon but Barnes and Noble and other outlets including maybe your local bookstore. I am extremely happy that the book has risen from the ashes.

As the years went by I have written two sequels to it and it is now the first book of The Mill Valley High series. If you notice in the 2nd edition there is the first chapter of the second book in the series: Who Is Jennifer Taylor? which is not published yet but will be soon. In the meantime, I included that in the book and it is also available on Kindle Vella for free. I may be putting more chapters on Kindle Vella so check it out.

I have synced my old blog to this one, so if you were a fan of my blog: Barbara's Meanderings, this is the same person who did that blog. I have my last posting here when I updated it in 2021. Lots of time has passed since then and I thought I would let other people know about the book being available again.

Until the next time hope you are reading and writing and publishing if that's what you want to do. All publishing is cool now.

Every April is Poetry Month when you try to write at least one poem a day. For me it sometimes turns into three poems a day and I post in various places. This year I will be posting my poems here, on Facebook on my page and maybe in Poeming Friends. Here is my first poem. Very excited and if you want to join me in this you can go here:

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-b...

April Poem A Day
Day 1
Prompt: Write a poem about optimism and beginnings

Beginnings
Before anything begins there is energy
Floating around in the atmosphere of my life
A palpable feeling of excitement fills my mind
As if bubbles had formed and like champagne
They collect and when the time
For beginnings arrives they explode
From my body as tiny shivers of expectation

Collect in my stomach as butterflies
And surround me with the most gossamer threads
Of hope and wonderment
Everything is new and fresh
The moment is a blank slate
Upon which you can write events
Yet to come and I take a deep breath

Pick up the pen of my life
And start to scribble as fast as I can
So it all gets on there
But in these moments
I am not thinking only acting

Funny how the bubbles are only there
For an instant but they carry me through
As I continue to write my story
And I know that afterward
I will look back on this time
And wonder if the excitement of this beginning
Exceeded the actual experience of
Being part of it and will ponder this
Thought as my fingers tap letters
To record those feelings.
Copyright 2024 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Until the next time. Please comment with your own poems if you want to share. Also, I am going to start interviewing authors here. So, please let me know if you want to be part of this. Contact me on here or on Facebook messenger. I am:
BarbaraJEhr on Facebook.

April is moving along and it already Day 7. So I am posting the poems I wrote for these. You can also read these on Facebook.
Intro

Day 7
Prompt: Write a poem about luck or not having it

Am I Lucky?
Growing up I heard all these songs
Saying you didn’t need much to be happy
Luck was getting what you needed
Finding a good home and a good partner
Bringing children into the world who will enrich it
Making enough money to live comfortably
I didn’t expect to win anything
Or find the gold at the end of the rainbow
Though many times I was tempted to try my luck
I didn’t win the jackpot
And at the gambling tables I lost all my money
Yet there were times when I did win
Maybe a few scratch off lottery tickets
And maybe a couple of contests
Where my poems won a prize
Or maybe the time when my screenplay won first prize
But I didn’t consider these luck
Just recently I won a prize in an international contest
Was that luck or skill?
I consider myself lucky to have found a wonderful man
Whose love sustained me for almost forty-nine years
And who gave me two beautiful and loving children
But his luck gave out too soon
And he didn’t survive the last onslaught to his body
And maybe being able to put my thoughts into words
Is lucky so everyone can see how I feel
And sometimes people can imagine feeling the same way
I am lucky to know so many people who appreciate this.
Copyright 2024 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Day 6
Prompt: Write a minimum poem
Description of a SAINO
I am not a minimimalist poet
My thoughts usually come out in droves
And I have to tame them to fit on the page
So I was intrigued by this form
Having written haiku I have squeezed my thoughts
Into 5-7-5
But here I could use more syllables
I tried it and fell in love with this form
Where you can write three lines or
Stanzas of three lines to create a poem cluster
How much emotion I could fit into these three lines
Of 7-8-9
And I thanked the inventor for creating this ingenious form
Where you can write about anything or anyone
In such a short way
SAINO changed my life
And my writing
For now it is somehow more succinct
After being condensed into such a small space
Copyright 2024 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Day 6
SAINO # 83, 84, 85,86
7-8-9
Free verse
The SAINO is a new form
It comes from Nepal from a man
Named Khemlal Pokhrel the inventor.
He wanted to give poets
A way to express their feelings
In a short and expressive manner.
Using any rhyme they could
Or free verse if one wanted to
Write it without any rhyme at all.
Try it if you want to see
How easy it is to write it
Use seven – eight-nine syllables now.
Copyright 2024 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Until the next time. Keep writing and please show me some of your poems. Comment on here or put them on Facebook.

Today we had an eclipse of the sun. So not your ordinary day and this won't be repeated until 2044. So, being able to see it was a big deal for me. As luck would have it, the prompt for today was write about a life event.

The Eclipse

In 2044 I may not be here
At my age life is measured in months and not years.
That was the date it would happen again.

The eclipse advertised for months happened today, April 8, 2024 at 3pm EDT

We gathered at the front of our building to see this spectacular event
Our eyes protected by special glasses
Shared to give all a chance to see
Hoping to catch a glimpse of nature’s show

And through the glasses reminding me of 3D movie glasses from my childhood made of cardboard with plastic lenses I saw it

The sudden black circle encroached the sun. Only a sliver remained.
The breeze kicked up at my feet cooling it a little bit!
But even that little sliver kept the light and warmth alive.

Soon the sun would come out
Will I be here to see the next one?
Copyright 2024 by Barbara Ehrentreu

And now Day 9. The prompt is: Two for Tuesday. Write a love poem and an anti-love poem

Love Lasts A Lifetime

The delicate seed of your love
Grew to be a blooming rose
And though it had its thorns
The flower of it remained glorious
So spectacular it continues on today
Though the flower is deceased
And the petals are disintegrated
The essence of its beauty remains in my heart
A painting of its blooming presence
When the delicate buds of its fragrant beauty
Existed between us and painted by my brain
Will always be there no matter what
Your love permeates my every waking hour
Remembering it brings joy and sadness
For no longer can I feel your body or
Hear your voice telling me it’s okay
But I have the memories
Time has painted into my soul
Of joy and even anger from you and with you
Love is a permanent fixture
It continues without substance
Floats in the air as amorphous presence
Always there as life support when needed
Your love anchors me and keeps me sane
It is my bulwark against the raging world.
Copyright 2024 by Barbara Ehrentreu


Anti-love

Why did I need this aggravation?
Fighting and bickering and tears
Were they worth it all those years
When I could have been enjoying myself?
The nights when I turned from you
Or you turned from me
Magnets not attracting with the wrong sides
Pushed each other away for one reason or another
Anger overcoming the love we poured into ourselves
An endless supply of vehement phrases
Spewed out from both of us
Anger blanketed our love
Pushed it away and replaced it
Until only pain happened.
Copyright 2024 by Barbara Ehrentreu