Exciting News!

Tonight’s ramblings is not really even ramblings. It’s an announcement surrounded by story!

Since I was 14 years old, I have kept a secret. What started out as a joke between my best friend and I, grew into something more. She and I made a pact to each write a novel and the first person who finished her novel would win. Well, I started writing my novel and the old Macintosh computer that I was using (back in 1994) stopped working. I had also printed my the pages on dot matrix printer paper, so I could finish it up. I know what you are thinking, “Why didn’t you save it?” Well, I did. It was on a 400k, single sided floppy drive. Unfortunately, that would not do me any good because not a single computer that I got after that could read the floppy drive. Who knew that you couldn’t use a Macintosh floppy drive on a Windows computer? Not me, at the time.

Well, what started with romance novels morphed into poetry. I started writing poetry when I got my first boyfriend at the age of 17. Oh, how I thought I was in loooovvveeee! Well, that relationship only lasted about 6 months. So, then my poems became about heartbreak. See, then, I thought I was being smart. None of my poetry went onto the computer. They were all handwritten on notebook paper. Then, over the next couple of years, I continued writing, but not only about the love and heartbreak of my next boyfriends, but I also wrote for my friends and my family. I also wrote about my life situations – moving, starting over, etc. I probably had four or five notebooks full of poetry.

Then, I stopped writing. I think life got in the way. I had a lot of things going on in my life, and I just couldn’t think of the words to write. Until my little brother passed away in a motorcycle accident in 2002. He was 20. Now, my little brother was one of my best friends. He was my protector and I was his. Even though he was 2 years younger than me, everyone knew that if they messed with me, Little Garry would deal with them – and believe me… He did. But, when he passed away, I picked up my pen and I wrote a couple of poems for him. I also added them to my computer so I would have them in case I needed them again. We buried him with two of the poems that I wrote.

I didn’t write anything else again for a couple of years. The next time I picked up my pen to write a poem, I was married. I wanted the “perfect” way to announce to my parents and my husband’s parents that we were expecting our first child. So, I sat down and wrote a poem to “The Grandparents”. They all loved it. I may post that poem one day, but we will have to see. No one has seen that poem in over 21 years that I know of. I didn’t keep a special copy for myself. However, I know where I can find it. 🙂

After that, I started jotting down new book ideas. I would write a little here and there, then I would stop. Life again, you know. It’s not easy being a working woman, wife and mom. Especially when you are at work more than you are at home.

Now, this brings me to October of 2024. I get a call from my nephew telling me that his dad, another of my brothers, was in the hospital on life support. I needed to get to New Orleans ASAP. Of course, I did. I sat by Chuckie’s side for three days. As I sat next to his hospital bed, playing songs and “Crying Like a Bi***”, I made a promise to him. I promised him that I would get back to writing my poetry and I would write a poem just for him. Chuckie passed away on his 47th birthday. It took me less than an hour to write the poem. All except the last two lines. I just couldn’t bring myself to write an ending for Chuckie. I blanked out. For two days, I tried and the ending wouldn’t come to me. Then, I heard his voice in my head… It said, “use the computer for inspiration”. So, I went onto the computer and typed into ChatGPT my poem. I asked AI to come up with the final two lines. The first thing that ChatGPT told me was, “I am sorry for your loss. It looks like your brother meant the world to you. Here are the last two lines for the poem.” And it gave me the following, “In the quiet moments, I’ll hold you near. For in my heart, you will always be here.” I read these words and just cried. Because it was the perfect ending to the poem. And what was better is that I had those same words added into one of the poems that I wrote for Little Garry 22 years before. I read Chuckie’s poem at his Funeral two days later. That in itself was a feat for me, because I am not good with public speaking. But, that’s a story for another time…

Now, no one knows this, but Chuckie was one of my biggest supporters for my writing. He would pick on me about my romance novels and say things like, “What do you know about romance, you haven’t experienced it.” But, he still supported me and after reading my novel and my poems, he told me once that I needed to publish them. I didn’t think they were good enough, so I didn’t. Well, he took it upon himself to send in some of my poems for a poetry contest without telling me. I knew nothing of it until I got a letter in the mail congratulating me on my poetry. There were contracts and agreements, etc. with this letter. They wanted to publish some of my poems in a coffee table book. I thought it was a joke or something, so I didn’t contact them back. It wasn’t until a few years later that I found out that Chuckie was the one who sent in my poems.

That brings me to now and why I am going through all of this. I recently published my books! Not only did I publish my romance novel that is now 31 years in the making, but also some of my poetry. I have also found some of the other books that I had written years ago and am publishing those, also. Two novels were complete works and all I had to do is proofread them and make sure there were no errors. Unfortunately, I was only able to find one of my poetry notebooks, so I am not able to publish all of the poems from my teenage years (which is probably a good thing). But, I have been working on some others.

All of my poetry and novels will be completed through Amazon. They are available in Kindle, paperback and hardcover formats. Right now, Between Echoes and Ashes, my poetry, and McCarthy’s Love, my first novel, are available. If you are going to Amazon, you can either search by the book name or my name and they will come up. You can also go to my website at www.brandijenkins.com to find them along with some others that are coming soon. There is also my next novel, Vestiges of Truth, available for pre-order. It will be out in October 2025.

I have always been told, “Good things come to those who wait.” I am hoping this is true. I have waited so long to get these published. I actually never thought that I would. So, maybe now is my time to shine! Oh, by the way… I WIN!! (Sorry, J. )