Letters to the Moon....

I have been going through all of my writings, on both of my blogs, and writings that have been private. I have been compiling all of the poems and essays I have written and entering them into files on the computer, which I will eventually convert into books. I have been writing poetry for five years now. It is astonishing to me to see the body of my work, to see how much I have written and shared. I had no idea I had written so much. In my first book, “I am Hope”, I published over seventy poems. To date, I believe I have written enough poetry to fill five more books. That seems quite prolific to me; yet, I am not a writer who writes poetry every day. When I want to write something new, I now check my work. I go back into the archives of my writing, to see if I have already talked about the subject matter or not. I am thankful to have all of my work archived. It will be that much easier for me to consult my writing once it is book form. It has been wonderful for me to perus...

Hello everyone, I wanted to write and let you know my first collection of poetry, “I am Hope”, is now available in the Kindle store!   The book is available in paperback and Kindle versions through Amazon. It is also available in PDF version, readable on all devices, through the Silence Community store. If you would like to purchase a copy of the book, please click the links below. It has been a long time coming, and the trifecta of publishing for this book is complete. The book is available in three formats. The title is complete. I feel a profound sense of accomplishment. Now I can sit back, relax, and start working on publishing my second book. :) Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.             -E Amazon Silence Community

Today is the 100 Thousand Poets for Change event. This is a global event, which also includes musicians, performance artists, mimes, poets, and artists of every description. Over 100 countries are participating, through poetry readings, demonstrations, festivals, and countless other celebrations. The goal of this event is to bring about tangible, positive change, to benefit our communities and our world. This is my third year participating in the event. Today I have chosen many topics. The title of today’s piece is “Coexist.” I have been wracking my brain to find the right words to say, the right topic to choose for today’s piece, how to say what  I feel and what I believe is right. The first year I participated in this event, I wrote about gun control. Last year I wrote about the wage gap between the sexes. This year, my third year, I did not know what to talk about. There are so many topics that I feel passionate about that I do not know where to start. There are so many...

Hello everyone, last time I was here, I asked for questions from you, readers of this blog.  As a result, I received a lot of bogus messages, which sent my junk mail filter into upheaval.  I was able to receive some messages with questions, about writing, and my new book. As promised, here are the questions received, and answers. If your question is not here, I did not receive it. I apologize for the scrutiny of my junk mail filter. I am an aspiring writer. How do I get started? Well the obvious answer is to write. Write every day. Anything will do. Write a grocery list. Write a note of things to do in the coming week. Write a list of holiday activities. Write a bucket list, a list of things you want to do before you die. Write the lyrics of your favorite song. Write a list of things to do around the house. Write the yearnings of your heart. Write what you are thinking and feeling. Even if it is something for your eyes only, write it. Write something  every day...

Hello everyone, I hope you are well. I thought I would share something completely different today, something I never thought of doing before now. One of the marvelous things about being a writer is that you are able to receive comments and questions from your readers. I have assembled some reviews and comments from some of my readers on my website for my publishing business, La Luna Press. You can read the reviews and comments here: La Luna Press-Reviews I love receiving and hearing comments from my readers. It touches me in a way I did not think was possible.  I love hearing about what specific poem touched them and why, how they could relate to it, what they learned after reading it. Yesterday evening, while speaking with a friend, I shared a comment I had received from a reader. My friend then wondered if my readers had any questions for me. I had not thought of that, that someone might have a question for me about something I wrote. I love the idea! I cannot b...

Hello everyone, I have a new writing to share with you today. The topic of this blog entry is gun control. Last week a news reporter and cameraman were murdered on live television by an insane gunman. The murder has again brought the issue of gun control to the forefront. The following is a letter that I will be sending to all members of the U.S. Congress. It is called, "To Serve and Protect." Dear Sir or Madam,                I am writing in regards to the countless string of gun violence that prevails in this country. Thankfully, I am an observer to this phenomenon. I am lucky in that I have not lost a friend or family member to gun violence. However, sometimes I feel as if I am in the minority on this issue.               Let me state now that I believe in the second amendment. I believe it should be legal for someone to own a gun if...

There are many wonderful things that come with being a published author, one of which is having your book added to a library collection. It was a pleasant surprise to learn my book had been added to the collection in my local library. It was an honor to later learn that my book had been added into an archive of books written by Indiana authors, located in the Nina Mason Pulliam Indianapolis Special Collections room, in the Indianapolis Central Library.  http://tomtorluemke.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Torluemke02.jpg The selector ordered two copies of my book, one for the library collection, which library patrons can borrow from the library, and one to go into the archive. The selector then remarked that the copy to go into the Indiana Special Collections archive should be autographed, since it will be in the permanent collection. I was all too happy to oblige. When I saw that my book had been added to the special collection, I made my way to the Central Library to a...