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Thursday, January 3, 2013

Ring in the New - Ring Out the Old!!

                         Me and Donna Marie Merritt at my Meet and Greet at
                                     Fairfield University Bookstore - December 8, 2012

I guess I stopped blogging during the holiday season. Even though I had very few gifts to buy and no real parties to attend, somehow this holiday season was a lot busier than usual. The reason was twofold. First of all, I had my Meet and Greet on December 8, which went off very well. Then of course, at the end of November, for everyone who follows my Facebook pages and/or Twitter feed, this will be repetitious, my husband developed pneumonia and this caused him to have heart failure. The night after Thanksgiving we rushed him to the ER and then he was admitted to the hospital. He wound up in the ICU with a respirator and a tube into his neck to control his heart beat!! I was in the hospital for 22 hours and if not for the wonderful chaplains and the constant struggle of the nurses and doctors in the ICU to monitor him and take care of his condition, I don't know what I would have done!! There is nothing like seeing your husband with a respirator and knowing that this is the only way he can breathe!! The next 3 days were very scary, but eventually after the 3rd day they removed his respirator and moved him to a regular room. He was there for 7 more days. He got out the day before my Meet and Greet, so he couldn't be there with me. It took another couple of weeks in the house for him to recuperate and since he was weak and on a very strict diet I had a lot of work to do. So I didn't write very much anywhere except to keep up with my friends' emails and Facebook. He is now much better and getting out more and more. We are hoping he will be able to go back to his normal activities, which include hyperbaric for his wounds and maybe getting out for more than doctor's visits.:)
We had a very nice, but quiet New Year's Eve this year and hoping this year will see his health get better!!! 

As a result, you can see I haven't posted here since December 3rd. Yikes!!!

Good things have been happening in my writing life, though. If you remember on October 20, 2012 I told you about my poems being accepted into Backlit Barbell. I also promised I would post them as soon as they were published. I am pleased to say the anthology is now available in print. Here are the two poems as promised from that anthology:

from
 Backlit Barbell: An Anthology of Health and Fitness Poetry:


Tunnel of Exercise
                           by Barbara Ehrentreu


We used to go, you and I
a mother daughter thing
side by side on the EFX
paddling as fast as our 
bodies could take us
traveling long distances
without moving in the midst 
of a noisy, smelly,
crowded space 
not concentrating
on the effort as our muscles 
strained to push us 
further
listening to rock bands as 
we pressed toward 
our next best goal and 
moved into a 
cavern where only 
the dials moving upward 
had our attention
and in this tunnel of exercise
we shut out the world and became
stronger and supercharged
women emerging only after muscles
cooled and acknowledging 
as we relaxed on the
stretching mat, only then, 
the other people 
in their own 
tunnels.
copyright 2012 by Barbara Ehrentreu



Mornings with Maddy
                                by Barbara Ehrentreu


She jogged while I walked
and we meandered through
forest paths with the morning
dew still fresh on the new leaves
and we talked
of our plights
she so much burdened by
her sorrows and I with family
baggage carrying it with me
in those days like a backpack of
worries
And we sprinkled our troubles on
the soil of the path as we moved
around the circle each keeping
pace with the other and words
tumbling so fast they barely
had time to breathe before being
stomped upon by their comrades

Deep and painful thoughts
ballooned into the air as we
jog-walked around the overgrown
pathways and soon the pain grew 
scabs and fell off and
at the end we were lighter 
drained of all the sadness and ready
to return to our everyday lives
as we finished each time over 
bagel and coffee 
able to smile again across the table
as the sweat 
reminded us of our 
physical triumph.
copyright 2012 by Barbara Ehrentreu




So also I am happy to report that I am published in The Best of 2012 anthology: Storm Cycle, which is not available yet. I am thrilled to have my poem, "Rebirth" chosen for this volume. Here is that poem, which I may have posted here when it was published originally on Jellyfish Whispers:


Rebirth
        by Barbara Ehrentreu


The earth lays brown 
covered with ice and snow
until the sun’s rays melts it
awakens the sleeping seeds 
dormant within the rich
humus to begin the process
a milligram at a time until
the delicate embryo 
sprouts a tender green 
stem and pushes hard
imagine how strong the 
effort to spring forward
free in the sunshine!

The new green shoot
cracks through struggling
toward the light. Rushing 
from the womb of Mother 
Earth to feel the touch 
of first sunlight 
upon the newborn leaves.
copyright 2012 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Now for my writing resolutions for 2013, the Ring in the New part!!!

I'm thinking these are very similar to last years, but here goes:

  1. I am going to send out my second novel, When My Life Changed, to my publisher and hopefully I will have a second book coming out next year!!
  2. I am going to work on my WIP Footsteps on the Sand and work in a supernatural element. The ms is finished, but adding the ghost is the part I need to do.:) 
  3. I will continue working on the last novel I wrote and finished. for NaNo years ago, Tall Poison.
  4. I am hoping to get more readings of my work and of course, write more!! Since my life has gotten incredibly strange and busy, I don't have the amount of time I used to have to write poetry.
  5. I am going to try to get more either Meet and Greets for my novel, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor, or book signings at local bookstores and libraries. This just needs me to concentrate on contacting more places. I have that wonderful Meet and Greet at Fairfield University Bookstore to use. 
Until the next time, I hope you will all post your writing resolutions to share with us all. I have really no idea what this month will bring, but I hope to post one more time at least.:) Also I am posting regularly on DowntownYA again, so look for me there. I may or may not be doing my Blog Talk Radio show this month and so far this month is free of all guest author spots. I will be interviewing anyone who is interested during the year. Please contact me if you are interested in being on this blog as a guest author.

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