Phoenix from the Ashes: 10th Anniversary Edition
Bringing the story full circle
A brief history of the story
Phoenix from the Ashes was the culmination of many years of vascillation between wanting to write about my violent first marriage and avoiding the emotions that inevitably bubbled up as I wrote about the memories. I had started writing the book in 1989. I remember crouching next to a small table, pounding the words into a small manual typewriter.
So much anger would rise within that it came out in my fingertips. Plastic keys would fly off the keyboard and land on the wooden floor of the small rented cottage with a powerful ker-plunk.
When I finally completed the book, it was almost a full twenty years later. In 2008 I placed the manuscript in the hands of a friend who agreed to beta read for me and another who accepted the challenge of proofreading for grammar and spelling.
Both women came back to me with a suggestion: rewrite it without the rancour and sarcasm that oozed like blood from between the lines.
With their help, and cover art created by another friend, I was able to complete the chapbook version of the book in 2008 and make it available upon request to anyone who was interested in reading it.
The chapbook would undergo a revision in 2009, when I was invited to speak at a conference on domestic violence for pastors and church leaders, where I told some of my story and performed my spoken-word piece, a poem called “Regret.”
It becomes a real book!
It was 2013 before the manuscript was once again revised and turned into a real book. That first official edition was released on March 15, 2013.
Then, in 2017, I was asked to update some of the information in the back of the book. I combed the original for any errors I had missed and corrected what I found, tweaking some of the sentences and adding illustrations using artwork I had created during the years covered by the story.
At the time, it felt like the story was over. I was wrong.
Changes
Two years later, events occurred in my life that changed the ending of the story. I learned something new about myself that illuminated my earlier decision-making. It was life-changing. More than that, a hole which had been torn out of me many years before was filled. The story had come full circle.
This year, the tenth year after the first real edition was released, I was able to bring the story up to date. With the release of the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Phoenix from the Ashes, I close that circle. If you’ve read the original manuscript or any of the versions thereafter, I invite you to read this version and discover the wonderful ending to what started as a cautionary tale.
If you haven’t read it yet, well, this is the only edition you need to read!
From the back of the book:
Phoenix from the Ashes is a unique memoir of the author’s life from a precognitive dream as a child to her years in domestic violence, the loss of a child to CPS because of that violence, her time in the rock-n-roll world, and her ongoing search for spiritual meaning. Written from a fictionalized third-person perspective, this book is a combination of story, art, and poetry which juxtaposes the stark realities of domestic violence with the hope inherent in a strong, creative spirit. This 10th Anniversary edition of Phoenix from the Ashes includes new perspectives and updated information, bringing the story full circle. Trigger Warning: this book contains some descriptions of domestic violence and references to rape.
Where you can purchase a copy:
You can go directly to Amazon for the paperback or hardcover:
or
You can go to the Tiny Bowl of Cherries Press website, which will also link you to Amazon. If you go to this site, you can take a look at the other books published by TBCP!
