One thing I am happy about is that I have gotten through another summer without my late husband and I am still pretty okay. Am I sad sometimes? Yes, but really there is so much in my life now that I try not to think too much.
A few weeks ago I had the honor of having my story "Losing the Love of Your Life" published in The Huffington Post. I will probably be posting there soon and maybe will be putting this post on there as my first post. It was written because they asked for people to write stories about survival. The article was part of Voices of Survival and idea by Rita Wilson to find stories of people who had survived an insurmountable obstacle either emotional or physical. I wrote the story never dreaming it would be picked, but it was!! And the thrill of being published in The Huffington Post mirrors that of being published as an author.
So what have I been doing this summer besides the story, which I wrote in May and then had to flesh out a little in June. They only wanted 500 words at first and then told me to add more to make it less than 800 words. So that was fast and easy. What I am doing is writing my sequel to If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor. I am almost finished and thinking about my ending. When you are a pantser like me you might not know your ending yet. Even though I am so close to it I can practically envision how it will end, I am not sure. Not sure about how the characters will decide to end this. Because you have to know that the characters who were in my first novel are directing this one! Does this mean I am crazy because my characters speak to me? I hope not, and I am grateful for their help. But I do have some say here and even though my characters are moving the story in one direction I may have to step in and change it. However, many times I do listen to my characters as I did in my first novel. Though telling this to people who might not have read it will definitely be a spoiler. So if you haven't read that book you will want to read it before "Jennifer's Story", which isn't even finished, is published.
If anyone reading this blog today is interested in being a beta reader I am looking for a few of you to read and comment upon this when I am finished. Just leave it in the comments if you are.
Also what I have been doing is getting ready to be at Imaginarium 2015, which is going to be on September 11 - September 13 in Louisville, KY. I am excited, because I will be a guest and a panelist and I have never been to Louisville. I am looking forward to meeting two of my friends there and many authors I only know through email and Facebook. My publisher, MuseItUp Publishing is one of the sponsors, so we will have a table for us. I am actually advertising it on my Author Page and on my Blog Talk Radio show tomorrow at 4PM EST.
My friend Amy Leigh McCorkle is going to be screening her documentary done with Missy Goodman, "Letters to Daniel" and I am hoping she will win as she has done in so many conventions this summer. Her story about overcoming and surviving with bipolar disease is very inspiring and she is an awesome author as well. Looking forward to seeing all the films there and meeting everyone too.
I am also writing poetry and though some of it is sad it is helping me to get out that sadness into words. But if you read the article you will see I wrote that I am collecting my poems about my husband into a book. Here is my latest poem:
Uncoupled
Alone I watch the lone swan
as she swims in the clear teal water
she lost her swanlings to the senseless
violence of random vandals
who swooped upon the secreted nest
and destroyed the tiny creatures
as all innocence is tainted and lost
and she swims without her mate
who disappeared mysteriously
and we bond
this graceful feathery female
and I
both uncoupled
adrift in the open world
she is me and I am her
memories flood my mind like
the tides ebbing and flowing
I remember our times together
along the path near the water
when you were no longer
the one to beat
parts of you never mending
though we didn’t know it then
we sat on the bench
facing the inlet
I hoping to see the snowy egret
whose infinite patience I admired
and you concealing from me
how spent you really were
and those afternoons driving home
by myself from the hospital
and spying her from the bridge
majestic in her beauty
gliding alone and never thinking
like the lonely swan
commanding the smooth water
that it would be me
alone in the flow of life.
copyright 2015 by Barbara Ehrentreu
If you want to hear another poem of mine, "My Sorrow" read by Michael Amidei on World Poetry Open Mic you can go to my page on SoundCloud.
So what have you been doing this summer? Let me know in the comments and also if you are interested in reading my book as a beta reader let me know too. Leave your contact info.
Until the next time. I hope you will all listen tomorrow to my radio show and forgive me for not writing on this blog for so long. You can see I have been very busy this summer.
