Belated Happy New Year!!

Yes, I am very late in posting this, but in my defense I have been very busy since the New Year began. Each day brings its own emergency and somehow the holidays moved along and we got through them. Our New Year's Eve was fun. We spent it at Mohegan Sun and saw Amy Schumer, who was really funny. The photo here is me waiting for the show to begin. It's a selfie, so I look a little weird. The casino gave out those cheesy tiaras. But when can you be crazy if it isn't on New Year's Eve? Then we went to dinner and that is when the night got a little scary. We came out of the Arena where the show was held and there were a lot of people getting out of there with us. So we came into the main part of the casino and in the middle of the place a band was set up and there were rappers and break dancers on a stage. A crowd had formed in front of them about three rows deep and then there were people moving past us in two directions. We were trying to get to the restaurant on the second floor, but the people kept us from moving at all. So we watched the show and my other younger daughter who I was sure was on my left suddenly disappeared and we spent about a half hour searching for her. We, my older daughter and I, went up to the second floor to see if we could find her in the crowd. We couldn't see her at all. We went to the restaurant and she wasn't there. Then my daughter went to look for her. Without telling us, and because there was no way to communicate there,  our cell phones didn't work, my daughter had walked the opposite way. That is why we didn't find her. Finally after getting a little frantic she found us and we went to have a fantastic dinner. We even were able to see the ball drop at midnight. I actually wrote a poem about the New Year and my thoughts about this one and I am posting it here:

Hail to the New Year

Hail to the New Year with its

innocence bathed in the golden

haze of promise

All sparkle and glitz it arrives

with expectation

and at the stroke of twelve

we forget the year that has passed

and erase the unfulfilled promises

the sad moments not pressed into

our minds as tragedy

We celebrate with 

champagne and laughter and

every year we, you and I, 

were next to each other

our lips met at midnight

and we clinked glasses filled

with the bubbly

remembering why we met

and how New Years was our

invitation to love

Hail the New Year with its

glow of possibilities

an open blank space for

our dreams to flourish

and we think back to 

last year’s dreams

those that flew

and those that never

left the ground

and you were always there

next to me to put your arm

around me and I held tight

to you forgetting the bad

and hoping for the good

and now I wonder when 

the clock strikes midnight

and the ball drops 

will your spirit be there or

only an empty space where you 

used to be?

copyright 2014 by Barbara Ehrentreu

I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve and I want you all to know how much I appreciate your continuing to follow me. I will be posting more with guest authors and blog swaps coming up in January, Sara Jayne Townsend on January 23  and Susan Royal on January 30. If anyone has heard my show with Sara Jayne you will want to know more about her and her books.

My Blog Talk Radio Show, Red River Radio Tales from the Pages, is going to feature Julie Maloney and one of her writers from Women Reading Aloud, Jane Ebihara. Jane has a poetry book called: A Little Piece of Mourning.

Also, I wanted to give a shout out to my new poet friends from World Poetry Open Mic, jt Gunter, J Todd Underhill and Michael Amidei. Their program is on Friday nights at 8PM MST or 10PM EST. You can call in a read your poetry on the air. I love their program and it is definitely a great place to spend your night. I hope to have one of them on my program if our schedules can mesh. 

Until the next time, my resolution for 2015 is to get more time out in bookstores for me and my books. My book, After, has gotten some great reviews and If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor just got its 24th fantastic review that is 5 stars. After is on the Preditors & Editors Poll and is rising. Presently it is 6th on the Young Adult. Thank you to all who voted for it.