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I apologize for last week when I didn’t show up. It was my daughter’s birthday and my entire focus was on making sure she had a good day. Unfortunately for her, her birthday falls a day before 9/11 and so we have a difficult time celebrating. I think it is a difficult time for everyone and when you celebrate a birthday it is a little different this time of year. I actually felt it this year a little more, because it was the 10th Anniversary of the event. Though this has nothing to do with my story or even this blog post I am going to post it here along with a poem about a rainbow I saw earlier in the week after so much rain.
Posted on Poetic Asides - September 9, 2011
(Written on the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Twin Towers)
Collective Horror
I watched in horror as my country
ached when the point of the planes
pierced the soul of every American
Tearing our freedom into pieces
the moment steel touched steel
and destroying the symbols of
our power in minutes
On TV the falling bodies resembled
cinders until you saw their forms
flying downward to escape the flames
No one who saw the soot and dust covered
faces of the aimless bystanders wandering
the site and their occasional turn of the head
to watch objects sail toward the rubble already
collecting beneath them erased those images.
The towers crumbled and we
as a nation went into deep shock
where only the blood of our enemy
might soothe our fevered souls
And patriotism became a cherished
word so dear we once again hung
flags to show our love
Hundreds risked their health digging
frantically hoping to hear the sounds
of a living, breathing human – instead
they faced the constant dust and the
lethal concoction which destroyed
the strong bodies of the brave
first responders
Those images lay in our brains
Like old fashioned negatives
Indelibly pressed like a souvenir
of a nightmare – one we have
pushed so far to the back of our
minds hoping the memories would
disappear, fade into the dust of ten
years. But alas, memories such as
these have burned themselves
into our minds and will never disappear.
Now there is a force unleashed in
America that holds those memories
as a new gospel of fear and terror
A force who will use the event to
continue this oppression
for the sake of our safety
And we are a nation suffering from
PTSD collectively shuddering every
time we hear the hint of a breach of
security.
copyright 2011 by Barbara Ehrentreu
My poem is only one of many expressing thoughts about 9/11. Check out the site to see all of the other amazing poems written by the many talented poets who frequent this website writing to the prompts of Robert Brewer.
The next poem was written after I saw a rainbow after so many days of rain.
September 8, 2011
I Saw a Rainbow
I saw a rainbow this morning
Not the whole kind arcing across the sky
A part, a multi-hued reminder the sun
had popped in to say hello, but
had been pushed away
by the massive dark clouds gathering
around it.
It valiantly tried to move beyond the clouds
It’s radiant face dimmed by the gossamer
threads covering it
I knew it was there behind the rain
Hoping to shine once more and bring
its warmth to my face
Selfishly,
I wanted the sun’s rays to touch my cheeks
To warm my thighs and legs
To force me to wear sunglasses due to its
excessive brightness
Much better than the terminal grays we have
faced for too many days
The rainbow, just a piece of it, bathed me in hope
for that is the job of rainbows
they soothe your soul for they are a covenant
with whatever power watches over us and protects
us from destructive forces.
There was the rainbow, like a handshake
Telling me the rain was temporary and right around
the arc of its colorful trail was a beautiful day.
copyright 2011 by Barbara Ehrentreu
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This Friday my YA novel, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor, was released as an e-book by MuseItUp Publishing. I had a party on my blog and all were invited. Also if you are my Facebook friend you were invited to the Facebook party. I am giving away a free book to whoever leaves my favorite comment on both. But what about the people who are not online and might not know about my book being published? How do I get to them? I’ve been handing out postcards to anyone I meet. I gave one to the bank teller, one to the person who booked my hair appointment, one to people I meet anywhere. Also I am having a book signing in the lobby of my apartment building.
Planning a book signing for an e-book is not the same thing as one for a print book. First of all you have no copies of your book to sell. Instead you are selling the idea of your book. How do you do that?
My idea was to have a big poster of the cover of my book so people could see it. Also I want to have a way for people to read a little bit of the book, so they will be able to browse, like at a real book signing. There is a way to sign an e-book now. You have to go to kindlegraph.com and upload your book. The website requires you have an Amazon ISBN, but you can’t get one until you are published on Amazon and that is only after the publication date. So I figure the best thing is to have all the websites displayed where people can get my book and to have kindlegraph.com there for people to see how it works. I’m going to use my IPad for this so people can see the method. I will show them my book and I can demonstrate for them how it works.
The other thing is getting people’s attention. In my story, Carolyn, my MC's mother makes chocolate, chocolate chip cookies. So I am going to have homemade cookies for everyone. I know this will get people’s attention and bring them over to me. Although with a 2 foot by 3 foot poster I probably don’t need more attention.:) I am also going to have postcards that have my book cover on them and also have the event. I will sign those of course.
Just as everything in my life, I decided to move it to next week. I made flyers to put up and next Saturday I will be in my apartment building's lobby. At any rate, I will let you know the following week how it turned out. Meanwhile, have a great day and wish me luck today. Please leave me a comment or a question and I will gladly answer it.
7 comments:
Beautiful picture. Hope your daughter's birthday next year will be less in the shadow's of 9/11. This was a particularly hard anniversary wasn't it?
Thank you, Sandra. Yes, it was, because any milestone is difficult to get over. That's why I loved seeing the rainbow, because it was so hopeful.
Great post Barbara!!! Thanks for sharing your experiences, and best of luck to you!!
Some good promo ideas here, Barbara. Loved the rainbow, too. I always remember it's God's promise that all is not lost. That realization has carried me through every disaster such as 9/11, and I'm sure it will continue to do so. We're never beaten until we give up. I will not give up!
Cheers,
PD
Jan, thank you for visiting and glad you like the post!!
Pat, thank you. I hope you grabbed some for yourself. I agree that the rainbow is a covenant and it did make me feel all would be okay. Thanks for visiting and I'll come by on Thursday to see your post.
Barbara, thank you for sharing your poems and your tips. You're right promoting an ebook is so different from a print book. We authors need to continue to think of creative ways to attract our readers. You offered so great ideas.
Penny, I decided to add a drawing for a free book to the Book Launch! So I'm making flyers again only this time in color with a place to put your name and email address. Then they can tear off the part with their name and put it in the place for the drawing. At the end I'll draw the winning ticket. I'll let everyone know tomorrow in a comment on my blog post here.
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