Ina Wenzler, Author

Oh Well, Maybe Next Time

Ina Wenzler is a retired teacher, writer, story teller and the Co-Chair of her local Relay for Life, having had cancer 33 years ago.  She returned to college after her third child entered kindergarten. She lives with her husband, Rick, in picturesque Port Washington, Wisconsin where their grandchildren love to visit and explore special places along Lake Michigan.

In Port Washington there are two main beaches, the North and South Beach.  The lake has risen over the past few years resulting in shorter beaches. It is a city of seven hills and has been compared to the seven hills of Greece.  St. Mary’s Catholic Church, built high on one of those hills above down town Port Washington, was built before it was a city.  It was thought that Port Washington would be a very big port on the shores of Lake Michigan.  But, as it turned out, the city planners of Port Washington and Milwaukee made the decisions that they did.  As a result, Milwaukee became the big port and not Port Washington. Milwaukee grew very fast. There were three major rivers, the Kinnickinnic, the Menomonee and the Milwaukee Rivers that all flowed into Lake Michigan.  The only thing Port Washington had was the lake shore of Port.    Many people say the town of Port Washington looks like it plucked right out of New England.

This is Ina’s first book.  “Oh Well, Maybe Next Time” is a gentle way to say no. It teaches children to understand disappointment with hope that it will work out the next time. She has used this phrase with her own three children, her students and her grandchildren. This way there are less tears and disappointments on the part of the children.

Sandy Duehring, Ina’s illustrator, is a self-taught artist who recently found watercolor to be the medium she enjoys the most. Sandy lives with her husband, Bob, in the country near West Bend, Wisconsin.  They used to raise ostriches. She carves on ostrich, emu and goose eggs, another art form.  Sandy belongs to Cedarburg Art Guild, in Cedarburg, Wisconsin where she displays her art at their many art shows.

It was at one of these art fairs that Ina found Sandy who had never painted people, much less children.  Ina had pictures of each of the episodes of the book; she gave them to Sandy.  They helped her to paint more realistic illustration for the book.

Ina has also written a book about her mother, who suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis. It is a series of poems about her mom’s difficult journey through the disease.  At first, she didn’t know what the pain was from. She couldn’t tend her precious flower beds.  As the pain increased, Ina’s father would pull the weeds, but he knew nothing about plants.  He learned by listening to what his wife when she told him, “no, go one leaf to the left.” Ina’s poems go on to tell about the pain of losing her mother and the grief that followed.

In addition to the books, Ina has written several short stories and plays.  When she taught drama in summer school, she had her students rewrite fairy tales. The students loved it.

Ina is very disappointed in the publisher, iuniverse, which had published her book. The publisher would not correct the typos that she found after she got the first copy. After her book was published, they would not answer any of her questions or respond to her emails.  It is a “print on demand” book.  If no one knows about the book, why would they ask for it to be printed?

Ina has had many calls from other publishers to go to book fairs around the world to promote her book.  She would need to give them money to promote my book.  Since she paid over $1,000 to iuniverse, she will not pay any more to anyone else.

Ina says, “my goal is to have my book in every home, every classroom and every library around the world.  Because, “Oh Well, Maybe Next Time” is such a unique phrase that works with children, she knows grandparents, parents and teachers would appreciate knowing they can use it with their families and students.”