The
Burning PenThe
Burning Pen
A LETTER OF THANKS & A BIT MORE...
Hi all,
I'd just like to thank you for your well wishes. It was just a short hop in the hospital, and believe me I cajoled, begged, pleaded and made all kinds of promises to get out today. But I am going to listen to my doctors and try and not be so stressed out. I got a lot of scolding from the review board :::looking very repentant::: Also it seems my daughter now knows exactly what "kind" of fan fiction I write (thank God she's 21). According to her, I'm "too old" to be interested in this kind of thing. I guess 44 is not just over the hill, it's under it. lol. But ya'll know...just because there's a little frost on the roof doesn't mean the whole house isn't on fire! haha.
Anyway, I've been thinking what I'm going to do for money, because that seems to be the root of all manner of evils in my case. I don't know if I let anyone know this but I am a commercially published poet, which...if anybody writes poetry they know is next to impossible to be. Poets don't make much money. I just lucked up I believe. But anyway I and two other poets, David Taub from the UK, and KT Frankovich from Florida did an anthology called "The Language of Souls" published by a publisher of the same name. The publisher has since gone defunct, and there are a few books available on Amazon still I believe. The remaining books themselves have been destroyed because when the publisher closed, the books were left in a warehouse, and when there is no one to pay the cost, they tear the covers off and destroy them. They use the covers in some way to recoup their costs...whatever. The book won a couple of awards. KT and David have links on their sites. I'll put the links at the end of this letter. I'm not particularly status minded so that's why I don't really have anything up about the book. It's early work. That's all I can say about that.
The reason I am telling you all about this is that before the publisher went defunct, I received an advance to write a more meaty book of poetry called "A Universe Inversed." I completed the manuscript, about 70 poems and notes. But because the publisher folded, it was never published.
I have to let you all know right now, I've lived a very dark life, and have lived through alcohol and cocaine addiction, incarceration, sexual abuse and all manner of negative things...but for some reason, God saw fit to keep me here and with a lot of work and a lot of love and a lot of what had to be help from above I've made it through. Maybe I'm just meant to show others you can bounce back from anything. Maybe I'm just lucky...I don't know but I am exceedingly grateful. And survival has had its benefits. I am probably one of the most tolerant, non-judgmental people you'd ever meet, being that I know I've made mistakes in my life, and everyone has a right to make theirs and be given another chance. Maybe that's why I love Snape so much.
The manuscript itself is quite eclectic. It has dark poetry and a couple of essays about my life as a child, the hard streets, infidelity, sexual abuse, addiction, jail, my relationship with the "Big Man" yes, but there are other poems about love, change, growth etc. Not every poem is autobiographical, some seem to come out of nowhere. lol. Actually it seems like the book grows the same way I did, ending with me being here in Alabama, surrounded by my children and relatively happy. I'll let you know right now, I HATE sappy poetry, in my estimation there aren't really any in there, though some border on pseudo-sappy lol.
I have put the manuscript in electronic book form readable with ACROBAT READER. You can click on the titles and go directly to the pages within the book, so I put some effort in converting it. It's not just a straight read-through looking for pages. That annoys me so much with some electronic publications. So I've spared others that problem.
I am thinking about offering "A Universe Inversed" on this site for $10 since it is longer than a chapbook. I'm trying to pretty it up right now since it is basically text. If I can sell it, then that will help my money situation somewhat and my stress level <g>. I have a paypal account set up that accepts cash, credit cards and other forms of payment (I guess). What I like about Paypal is they are very secure. Of course they tap me a little with a charge, but that's fine, less than a dollar for $10. It's worth the convenience. So I hope a couple of you would be interested in purchasing the book. It would be a big help. The way it would work is that you would send your payment via paypal, which notifies me a payment has been received and the email address of the person who sent it. I will then email the book as an attached file OR I will put it in the directory and send you the web address to download it from. Since I have dialup...probably the latter. It will be faster.
As I went through my emails today, I noticed a few readers sent me gifts via paypal. God bless each and every one of you. I don't care if it was one dollar, your kindness in helping someone you don't really know is beautiful, and I hope that the good karma you threw out here just rains back down on all of you a hundred-fold. Every bit helps and I am not ashamed to be thankful to you. It really touched my heart. Like most writers, I'm a bit of a hermit. I have a couple of friends but am pretty much in my own world most of the time. Writing for all of you lets me share part of myself and keeps me connected to others through responding to your emails and on the board. I am grateful to you all for that too.
I am still probably going to write voraciously, because that's what I do to stay sane, but I promise I will take my meds, sleep more than 5 hours a day, try not to worry and be a good (if naughty) little author. I feel a bit out of the loop with "Becoming Familiar" so will be spending today rereading it so I can get back into my or their "groove".
Again, thank you all for your support, well-wishes and readership. Links about "The Language of Souls" are below.
Ruth aka Ms_Figg
Google Search on KT Frankovich
Google
Search on Yours Truly :)
(Note: There is another Ruth Solomon that writes Inspirational
Poetry and e-books...she's not me. Very Annoying to have another poet
with the same name. lol. Anything to do with Austin, publicity, tours, webzines, radio,
theater, or poetry readings or interviews is probably me. You'll have to sift
through the google pages. Seems references to me are scattered, just like I am.)
The Language of Souls at Amazon.com
LEAVE A RESPONSE >>> YOUR RESPONSES TO THIS LETTER WILL APPEAR ON THE REVIEW PAGE FOR "BECOMING FAMILIAR" THANKS. :)
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