Mona Mehas

In the Creative Academy for Writers, an online group of which I'm a member, there are groups for different genres in fiction, memoir, even short stories. But not poetry. I am trying to get together the poets of the Creative Academy. I've put up 2 poles to vote for dates and times to meet. Unfortunately, Friday is the best day for me and not for a couple of others. Hopefully this will get off the ground. Maybe I can play it by ear and meet another day of the week every other month. 

This group will add to all the other stuff I'm involved in. 

 

There's the Poetry Society of Indiana fall contest

poetry readings both online and in person

the book for the senior place I go to

the poetry critique group that meets once a month online

another poetry critique group that meets monthly in person

I've recently joined a group with the Tanka Association to write better tanka

The Cicada Song Press editing for the 27 Club book and more

Add to all this my personal writing and submitting, both poetry and fiction.

 

I never realized how much it was until I made this list.

No wonder I'm tired!

I don't really think I'm too busy but I should think twice before taking on anything else.

If any of the above sounds good to you, contact me! 

Because I'd published a poem on their site, I was invited to read from my book, "Questions I Didn't Know I'd Asked." It was fun with several other writers in attendance. I invited a bunch of people to listen in and three showed up so that's not bad. You can click on the picture and go to the video. 

A friend started a publishing company and I'm Editor in Chief. Cicada Song Press will publish the smaller writing up to novellas. Our first book is slated to be a collection of poetry about artist members of the 27 Club. The other project I was involved with that was about them fell through so I reached out to the handful of poets I'd invited to participate and a couple of others. I had 6 poems ready and like me, they were disappointed in the failure of the other project. We are looking forward to a fall publication. Our next collection will probably be short stories. 

It's been fun to get in on the ground floor for this publishing company. We have Johanna, the owner and originator, Jenni, the marketing director, and myself. I'm Editor in Chief and Secretary. Other than that we have a stable of volunteers who may be involved for the short or long term. Our website is still under construction so don't bother looking for it. When it's finished Jenni will be opening a Facebook page and we'll be posting there. I'll post on Twitter about our press. Johanna is active on Instagram and a couple of other socials. Currently I'm looking into other places to get the word out. 

Keep an eye out for submission calls from Cicada Song Press in the not-so-distant future.