Free Download of The Ellery Sister Series

Today - Saturday July 30th and Sunday July 31st the first two books of the Ellery Sisters are free to download on Kindle.   John Ellery's Daughters and Secrets of the Isle.

The third book was just published, When The War Is Over, on Kindle and Amazon.

John Ellery's Daughters is about five sisters orphaned on their farm in Virginia at the beginning of the civil war and their decisions to find a new life when the war ended.

Secrets of the Isle takes the Ellery Sisters into their own adventures as the youngest deals with the killing of her husband and the mysterious inheritance he leaves her in the Isles of southern Virginia.

When The War Is Over is an indepth story of Rowland Sawyer during the last two years of the war as he deals with the wife of a friend listed as missing or captured.  His love for one of the Ellery Sisters has held him steadfast until meeting Josie Younger.

Serious Discussion on Names

My decision to start publishing my writing on Amazon/Kindle

was something that in hindsight

I should have thought about a little longer

It's not that I have hopes of becoming an overnight success

because I haven't risen to the level

of the writers I cherish and love with all my heart.

My issue at the moment is my name.

It is pronounced Sweat...lick

If you are Slovak or Eastern European you would pronounce

the "V" hard and I do both depending on my mood

but I also sign my name different ways

for no reason that makes any sense even to me

but I do.

My name...it is borrowed and not that to which I was born

I married at the young age of nineteen

so mature I was

but back in the old days a woman proudly

with glee took her husband's name

and passed that name down to her children

obviating her individual existence.

I was married from 1970 until 2009

the name was second nature to my lips and fingertips

I was used to answering "how do you say your name"

or "can I call you Barbara"

when I came to the crossroads of change

I didn't think about taking my maiden name back

because the amount of paperwork and forms to change takes

a lot of time and really what does it matter.

When I remarried in 2011

I did not take my husband's name because of the reason

I didn't go back to my maiden name

too much paperwork.

My art is under my Svetlick name

My books started out under my Svetlick name

my Website is barbarasvetlick.com

I did finally change my Facebook name

I included my new married name on my website

but can't change the address

my issue at the moment as I wait for the kiln to ramp up

is do I take the steps

the mounds of paperwork and standing in line

to change all of the titles, licenses, websites and my overall persona

to my current husband's name?
I can't go back to my maiden name because that would

include filing court papers for permission.

Does it make any difference?

Does my "Ex" care one way or the other

Does my husband now?

Maybe it is just me and maybe I should have just

created a Pen Name for my public image.

Maybe that is what I need.

Maybe I just need to feel comfortable in my own skin.

A pen name (or "nom de plume") is a pseudonym (sometimes a particular form of the real name) adopted by an author (or on the author's behalf by their publishers). Many pen names are used to conceal the author's identity.

barb

Why Do We Read

A reader in our youth

those days of simplicity of yon' years

our world at one time had no books, no written words

that fell into the hands of the people

who told tales

tall tales, colorful tales and tales

of our very history.

Why do we not champion

the inventors and thinkers who believed

that stories should be written and shared forever

encouraging those ancestors

who wanted to tell

their life for those in some future day

dusty breaking mystery.

Why do we read

some just have a yearning to explore

to travel in the minds of those who open their hearts

revealing the secrets

that lurk sweetly

waiting to whisper in your ear

so very whispery.

For every story

that finds its way onto a virgin white page

there is a reader who spends the time enjoying the day

of a story untold

characters that come alive

battling their personal weakness or championed

rich and solid as you and me.

We read

because we love the bond between you and me

the tales of things unsought

the scary, the unrequited love or pain

we read

because it makes us happy.

barb

When The War Is Over

The third book in the Ellery Sisters Series is now available on Kindle and Amazon.

When The War Is Over

Book 3 of Ellery's Sisters series

Captain Rowland Sawyer of the U.S. Army began his career after graduating from Virginia Military Institute. When war broke out across the country, his job was to find and arrest spies, traitors and the growing criminal element in both the government and the Army. During an assignment in the Gap, he crosses paths with Josie Younger the wife of his good friend Thomas Younger who has been reported as missing in action near Chancellorsville, Virginia. Her reckless decision to search for her husband brings together the many friends from the Institute as they stand on opposite sides of the conflict. Rowland finds remaining impartial difficult since Josie reminds him so much of Alison Ellery the young Virginia girl who stole his heart at the beginning of the war. His loyalty to his country is shaken as his heart is torn over the people he cares about.

This novel is about the men who graduated from VMI six years before the Civil War. Captain Rowland Sawyer is a character in the series The Ellery Sisters. It takes place in Virginia during the last two years of the war before Alison Ellery marries Rowland Sawyer.

Opinions, opinions and opinions

Oh dear lord how do I survive...

The opinions I own have been carefully formed

Crafted from my lofty little brain

Usually after a non-nice debate of the third kind

If I stick out my pink tongue...

I can see them fighting for position

wanting permission to break out

into the world of I got this one opinions

I got this they scream out...

as I close my lips smiling so sweetly

you are going to just let some idiot

some biased big mouth win?

They ganged up on me...

stripping away my ability to not respond

as I knew from past experiences

that they didn't care if they were unkind

An idiot they repeatedly chant

it doesn't matter that he's related

regurgitating all those big busted blonde's say

as though their mouths contained the gospel truth

WTF I bite my tongue

behave yourself or I'll cut you out

throw you into the trash bin

where you'll wilt like last night's oil soaked lettuce

An idiot...an idiot of the nth degree

let us loose, let us save your placid face

what good is life without opinions

we're anxious to set the record straight

You know not having a tongue

took a lot of getting used to

but when I had to cut off my fingers

I may have cut off my nose despite my opinions.

barb

Floating In the Middle

It has been a year of news overload

so many issues bubbling up through the lily pads

poking constantly at my opinions

a gnat in my vision...

A woman with strong feelings on life

the words seem to flow from my fingers unbound

from the singular obvious fact

it reinforces the division...

Purpose of the life I have lived happily

power to the beliefs I place my heart upon

I rock the calm waters of today

winding the clock...

It matters not what I actually feel

changes don't hinge on my blue hued soapbox

the world doesn't end

when I reach the end of the dock...

Floating beyond the setting day

I gather up my beliefs and confessions

I put them safely away

shhh, only I know...

With each word and lofty opinion

hypocrisy awaits in the shadows of reality

taking away my voice

with it I shall go.

barb