Thank You! Thank You!! The Dream Still Lives!!

Thank you to the supporters of this Kickstarter project who latched on and rode with me simply on their faith in me by sending in donations through Amazon. You have no idea what your trust means to me!

Thank you to those who wrote me, called me, or approached me with your fear of giving your debit or credit card information to Amazon. Your hearts were very willing. It is the thought that counts!

Thank you to those who sent or wanted to send personal checks to me directly because of the debit/credit card fear (reason above). Although I explained how the whole thing was set up through Amazon and Amazon alone, you still gave or wanted to give. Unfortunately, I have to return the checks to you until I can launch the fundraisers some of you suggested.

Thank you to those who suggested and volunteered to do pre-publication fundraising for me and with me. Since I could not collect and load the money myself into Amazon (a reason for automatic disqualification), I did not see any point in hosting the fundraiser at that time. There was no other way around what you suggested short of asking all of you to send your donations to Amazon through debit/credit cards. You were very wiling to give cash directly to me. I thank you!

Our journey is not over yet! The goal still lives! Although this project did not make it through Kickstarter and Amazon due to system set up, but based on the feedback I received from so many of you, I know the project will succeed through another channel, pre-publication fundraising.

Hang on to that money! I still need your financial support. I will let you know when and where the fundraising will take place for the novel. Thank you so much!!!
-------"Paper Is Not Silent!" My dream has loved paper so much for so long because it gave influence to the parched voice of a fashionista poet. Finding this outlet, that voice is now replete with expressive sound.

One Tree Falling in the Forest!

If one tree falls in the forest and no one is around, did the tree make a sound? Who heard it? Could we presuppose that it must have made a sound since (by either innate ability or from scientific deductions) we know that trees make sounds when they fall?

I am that tree, and in about fourteen days, I will fall, and I want to believe that on that day, my spiraling will boom, the energy that has been building up will crash like a crescendo and resonate in terms of more donations to help me fund this project successfully.

I want to fall with the mouthing "I-love-you"-open-arms, wide-smile classic slow motion and all the musical accompaniment of some of the most successful slow motion scenes in etched-in-the-mind movies of all time that my touching the ground will summon.

"Paper Is Not Silent!" My dream has loved paper so much for so long because it gave influence to the parched voice of a fashionista poet. Finding this outlet, that voice is now replete with expressive sound.

Your Pledge Is Needed

"Dear Supporter:



Sometimes we do not know the reason we are confronted with adversity. Due to the Reduction In Force action by the Cobb County Board of Education, I lost my teaching job after an 18-year investment of time and talent.



The bad news is that I am unemployed. However, the good news is that this unemployment period has given me the impetus to embark on a road I had been previously hesitant and unprepared to travel on. Since there always seems to be a silver lining behind every dark cloud in my life, the dark cloud of unemployment has produced the perfect opportunity for me to engage in other career paths: trying to get my novels (eight of them) published and starting an education consulting firm.



The first part (getting my novels published) is the challenge. I found a philanthropic organization, Kickstarter, that (as the name implies) helps artists/writers to realize/kickstart their dreams. I am in need of backers who will help me to publish my first novel by pledging any amount from $1.00 (one dollar) and above.



Your debit or credit card will not be charged until December 13, 2010, which is the deadline of the pledging period. (I have 60 days to reach my goal.) Right now, the amount you give is simply a pledge. If enough people back the project to help me to achieve this dream, then their accounts will be debited by Amazon on December 13, 2010. Otherwise, if I do not have enough backers, they do not owe anything, and the novel will not be published. It is an all-or-nothing agreement among the three of us (me, Amazon, and Kickstarter).



Please visit the website below. There you will discover more information about me and my novel: a short information about the novel, the reward(s) you will receive for being my backer, how much is needed to publish it/place it in the hands of readers, and the fun of being able to monitor the progress of the donation. Please help me to spread the word by forwarding this message and/or the link below to your friends and family.



http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/598669607/a-very-smooth-mortar-a-novel-with-a-mind-of-its-ow-0



Thank you for the opportunity to know you, to have worked with you, or to have taught your child. I look forward to sharing the wonderful news about the novel’s publication, and I look forward to autographing a copy of it for you. What a day that will be!!



Sincerely,

Frances Ohanenye

Pen Name: Frances Dionye (the shortened form of my father’s middle name)

-------Paper Is Not Silent!" My dream has loved paper so much for so long because it gave influence to the parched voice of a fashionista poet. Finding this outlet, that voice is now replete with expressive sound.

Launching the Funding!

Hello,

How are you? I hope your day is going well. I am launching the funding for my project in order to gather financial support to publish my novel, "A Very Smooth Mortar."

The publisher is waiting. The novel is ready. Your support will mean the successful achievement of this goal that has been on the back burner for an extremely long time! Please click on the last link below (under my signature) or go to this web site to help me realize this goal:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/598669607/a-very-smooth-mortar-a-novel-with-a-mind-of-its-ow-0. (Please copy and paste in the address bar if the link is not live.)

The irony is that now that unemployment has hit, I have time to pursue dreams that I have postponed for years, which in a way is cataclysmic but uplifting/invigorating at the same time.

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Ms. F. Ohanenye

Writing is my therapy in a chaotic world."

Always strive to be your best. Only then can you dare to give others advice." FO fohanenye@yahoo.com

starseller11@gmail.comyoukay

consulting@ymail.com

http://youkayincorporated.typepad.com/ohanenye

http://literarynomad11.wordpress.com

http://paperisnotsilent.blogspot.com/

www.facebook.com/1836592428

http://twitter.com/Youkay1

www.linkedin.com/in/francesohanenye

http://www.kickstarter.com/profile/598669607 (Please support my dream.)

"Paper Is Not Silent!" My dream has loved paper so much for so long because it gave influence to the parched voice of a fashionista poet. Finding this outlet, that voice is now replete with expressive sound.

The Songs Have Reached Me

Ah, the bliss of seeing my name in print! The journey has begun. Yes, I have been published in newspapers and magazines before, but being published in a book form is a different matter. Indeed, "Paper Is Not Silent!" I read my poem to the audience with such joy that I became very nervous. I do not remember reading it the way I had planned and rehearsed. Anticipation has a way of undermining many a wonderful event.

Anyway, the euphoria still enlivens me. The networking was a different matter. I had the chance to meet many who are whos. The room was energized by English language think tanks: Dr. Tonette Long, Dr. Ira E. Harrison, Attorney/Poet Barry Marks, editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Writer's Market.com Robert Lee Brewer, poet laureates, university/college professors/lecturers, innumerable published poets, publishers, editors, and winners of numerous poetry contests. I felt intelligence floating in the room all day yesterday like genuine blessings and halos resting over the heads of all who were in the room. It was more fulfilling than anything I have done in recent memory.

I know poetry will not make me rich, but the joy of it, the bliss of it is what makes it worth the lack of finances. Actually, if I had been obsessed with becoming rich, I would have chosen a different profession than teaching, but there are more rewarding things in life than money. Yes, there are. You could never place a monetary value on children: educating them, raising them well, watching them excell, and watching them become law-abiding citizens of our society.

The songs reached me a long time ago. The songs of financial sacrifice, of loving someone unconditionally, of pushing yourself and someone else to stretch beyond self-imposed limits, of achievement-oriented teaching, of poetry that palpitates in one's palms, of life lived well, of happiness that infuses the entire body despite hardships that want to stiffle, of tireless hope, and many other songs that have reached me all these years.

I am truly happy to have allowed myself to hear all these songs, to sing them, and to allow them to enrich my life. Life has been good. I will keep letting the songs reach me as long as I draw breath. My God is amazing!

If you would like to order a copy of the poetry anthology, Reach of Song 2010, please go to this website, order it, and let the songs in there reach you: www.georgiapoetrysociety.org.

Georgia's own internationally acclaimed poet, Byron Herbert Reece (1917-1958), put it best:

"From chips and shards in idle times
I made these stories, shaped these rhymes;
May they engage some friendly tongue
When I am past the reach of song"

I look forward to many, many more publications with my name boldly blazoned on the front cover!
----------
 "Paper Is Not Silent!" My dream has loved paper so much for so long because it gave influence to the parched voice of a fashionista poet. Finding this outlet, that voice is now replete with expressive sound.

Poetry Accepted For Inclusion in an Anthology!

One of my poems (see below) has been chosen for inclusion in The Reach of Song 2010, a fine collection of poems by the Georgia Poetry Society.  I have been honored with an invitation to be recognized and to read the poem at Kennesaw State University!  I wrote the poem when my daughter left home for college, as I warred with the mixed feelings of sadness and joyfulness: sadness because I was going to miss her something awful; joyfulness because of her arrival at this gargantuan accomplishment. 

(Copies of The Reach of Song will be available for order in August of 2010.)

My Mind Must Remember

I don't even want
To wrestle with invisible time
To pause at your childhood junctions

 I don't even want
To stretch my mind to remember
The last time your skin drank the sun
I don't even want
To wring my mind for the drops
The tiny joyful moments
Your Tinkle-bell baby coos

My mind should remember
Every protective maternal clasp
Your growing arms embraced
Riddled with teenage melodrama
In your own leading-lady roles

We must make each parting
A full-course gourmet meal
Kicked up a notch with
Emeril's fanfare
Suffused with
Wolfgang's passion for freshness
Celebrated with
Jacques' many delicious delights
Dished out with
Marvin's southern down-homeness

My mind must remember
With clarity's exposed precision
Each regretfully joyous parting
My mind must remember

I cannot bear to forget

--Frances Ohanenye, Marietta, Georgia

"Paper Is Not Silent!" My dream has loved paper so much for so long because it gave influence to the parched voice of a fashionista poet. Finding this outlet, that voice is now replete with expressive sound.

Pay Phones

I saw a pay phone and my heart rejoiced speedily
this forgotten landscape
Its ease and convenience unknown by the cell-phone generation
Given different names by the country wherein it resided

I saw a pay phone and my heart leaped joyfully
this faithful servant offering speech in heat or cold
Neither shielded nor sheltered in extreme temperatures
Not all the time, not everywhere but to everyone
Making music by familiar Top-Forty's Number One hit song
The coin's long journey into its unretractable home

I saw a pay phone and my heart jumped excitedly
not that I used it much then
Taking time to wipe down humanity's gifts
Like one prepped efficiently for surgical procedures
I did not use it much even before these cell phone days
A sight still for the sore eyes of America's lost culture
Obliterated and forgotten landscape for romantic escapades
Veins of bloodlines snipped from underground source
Hauled with Incredible Hulk's bulging biceps into landfills
Now populated by dead pay phones rejected by technology's betrayal



----"Paper Is Not Silent!" My dream has loved paper so much for so long because it gave influence to the parched voice of a fashionista poet. Finding this outlet, that voice is now replete with expressive sound.

"Sitting on Emotions" by Frances Ohanenye

Golden silence smiled at us lucky to let attraction simmer

Like the witches’ effective brews

Feeding hearts and emotions

Safeguarded from each other’s unintentional cruelty

Silence spoke powerfully to reluctant hearts

Asking to let emotions rest from weary, unsuccessful visits

So hearts can build castles once again

Found in Cinderella’s dreams and fantasies

Silence spoke authoritatively and smiled wisely

We listened and let raging emotions quench

Seemingly insatiable thirst

Using orchestrated neglect and planned ignoring

We wait for golden silence to speak again

We sit on raging emotions still

---"Paper Is Not Silent!" My dream has loved paper so much for so long because it gave influence to the parched voice of a fashionista poet. Finding this outlet, that voice is now replete with expressive sound.