Ernestine Rose, author of Seasons: My Journey Through Grief
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Ernestine grew up an avid reader and loved to explore the world through books. This love caused her to become an English teacher until retiring in 2011. This is when Ernestine began writing. With books such as 7 Tips for a Successful Marriage and Tales from the Family Tree, Ernestine loves writing about her life, family, and the things she learns along the way. Her newest book, Seasons: My Journey Through Grief, is about her experience losing her husband and helping others who have dealt with loss. With this recent book, Ernestine began using the ALC to help her stay up-to-date with marketing trends and make a full-time career out of her writing.
Read Ernestines’s story below!
Ernestine: Books change the world. I left the teaching profession after 36 years and decided taht if I couldn't teach books, then I would write them because I've always loved words. I look at the writers I admire—Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and of course, Zora Neale Hurston—and I wonder what inspired them to write what they did. I'm sure it was their lives and the people who came in and out, talking, impacting, loving, and leaving. So I looked at my own life for stories to tell and I saw that there were many; enough to keep me busy another 36 years. So out of the classroom, words are still my tools of the trade. I believe in the power of language, love, and family. I hope this comes through in my work.
E: I lost my husband after 41 years to sarcoidosis, a disease that few people know much about. After he passed, a cousin sent me a basket of chocolates and a book of daily passages and quotes relating to healing after a loss. That inspired me to pick up a 365-day journal and start writing about the layers of grief, from anger and depression to acceptance, and the realization that our good times far out-weighed the bad. When I filled that journal up, I went onto another journal, and then another, and when I finished the third journal, I started numbering the pages. I realized that between all of the journals I had 800 pages. I relocated to be near my children and once I got settled, I turned my journals into my fifth book, Seasons. I selected my best passages and organized them into four sections: summer, autumn, winter, and spring that recounted his death and the year that followed. It's the true story of my journey through my own seasons of grief.
E: I needed help with formatting and organizing. The route I'd gone with my first few books didn't assist me with that. My new publisher, iUniverse, helped me with both. For instance, I was using too many quotes and they helped me understand when and how to use them. I also wanted to do a better job at marketing and selling more books, so I joined the Author Learning Center at my consultant's suggestion.
E: I use it to make sure I stay abreast of the trends, especially when it comes to marketing and promotion. It's a constant learning process! I want to supplement my income with my writing, so I have to become even better at promoting myself and my books. I now have an online blog tour coming up and I do quite a bit of self-promotion on Facebook and a little bit on Twitter.
E: I do, mainly because I struggle with self-discipline. The best cure that I've found for feeling stuck with writing, though, is to read. Read the kinds of things you want to write. Now, I'm ready to move into fiction. I love a good novel.
E: Be creative in your marketing efforts and know where your investments are going. It's a constant learning process and you have to be committed to it. Use the resources available to you.
To learn more about Ernestine, visit her blog here.
Like life, grief has its own set of seasons. No matter what our loss, we must learn to endure and survive our seasons in order to live fully again. In a memoir that follows the metaphor of the seasons, Ernestine Rose provides an enlightening glimpse into her walk through grief after her beloved husband of forty-one years passed away in 2016. Ernestine details how she found renewal, hope, and faith in a new beginning. Seasons is the true story of a widow's journey through the seasons of grief that shares words of wisdom to help those mourning to learn to live, love, and dance again.
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