Thursday, January 12, 2012

Gaia's Gift by Fran Orenstein



I cannot recall a time I didn't create stories. My mother was a storyteller and I made up stories too. At eight, I read Bambi by Felix Salton, and the book so moved and inspired me that I wrote my first poem. At twelve I submitted a short story to a magazine and received the first of hundreds of rejection slips over a lifetime. Dreaming of becoming a journalist, I wrote for school newspapers. I taught kindergarten and preschool, raised a family, worked as an editor/writer for national magazines, counseled people with disabilities, managed women's programs, and served as an officer with AmeriCorps.

With the many years of single-parenting down to the last children in college, I now had time to reassess my life. Then Fate intervened. It is true that faced with your own mortality, you make decisions you otherwise would have put off indefinitely. It took cancer to help me realize that dreams don't get fulfilled in with inertia. Six months after completing treatment I entered a doctoral program and began to write in earnest, still working full-time. I wrote papers on gender equity and violence prevention and presented at national and international conferences. Still writing poetry, I began writing novels and they seemed to pour onto the paper and eventually the computer screen with little effort. The muses were simply waiting for me to decide it was time to move forward as a writer.

Still filled with dreams of publishing, in my spare time, I wrote poetry and short stories. It would take many more years to see my name on the cover of a book. Now I have seven books to my credit for 'tweens and teens, award winning poetry and short stories published in anthologies, and my first adult book, a contemporary novel for women, Gaia's Gift, just released by World Castle Publishing.



A thread of the supernatural and the powerful force of nature runs through Gaia's Gift, the story of Rachel Wells who loses everything precious in a sudden storm off the southwest coast of Florida. Survivor's guilt and grief nearly drives her to insanity, until she receives a gift from the sea that plunges Rachel headlong into a web of lies and deceit. An unexpected turn of events may unearth her secrets and destroy her, or give her the redemption and love she seeks, and the answers to a lifetime of questions.

Speaking from experience, never let the dreams die, but keep them in that little storage compartment in your brain and take them out every now and then for an airing. You never know when life will present an opportunity for you to fulfill your dreams.

Please come and visit me at Fran's World, www.franorenstein.weebly.com. Also, please check out all my books listed below on Amazon Kindle and in paper back at on-line bookstores, Southwest Florida libraries and by ordering from bookstores everywhere.

THE CALLING OF THE FLUTE
YA Novel from Sleepytown Press
Historical romance novel set in Lithuania in 1898.
THE SPICE MERCHANT'S DAUGHTER
YA Novel from Whiskey Creek Press
Historical romance novel set in France
and Prussia between 1685 and 1703.
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'Tween Novels From Sleepytown Press
FAT GIRLS FROM OUTER SPACE - 2nd edition.
Coming of age 'tween fiction novel of childhood obesity,
bullying, and mastering 7th grade.
Mystery Series
THE MYSTERY UNDER THIRD BASE - 2nd edition
THE MYSTERY OF THE GREEN GOBLIN
Fantasy Series
THE WIZARD OF BALALAC - 2nd edition
THE GARGOYLES OF BLACKTHORNE
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Life is an adventure!
Live it!

2 comments:

  1. Dear Fran,

    I enjoyed the above and also Fran Lewis' interview, published today on our Online Writing Magazine, Angie's DIARY: http://angiesdiary.com/writing-creativity/fran-orenstein-author-of-gaias-gift/

    Cheers,
    Angie

    ReplyDelete