Mona Mehas

December 31, 2023

WHAT'S NEW IN POETRY

Acceptances are increasing! Spell Jar Press, Ice Floe Press, Dark Winter Lit are recent ones and will be published in 2024. Another great piece of news concerns my full-length poetry book. I'd sent a query and 10 poems to a publishing company in November. I received an email from them last night requesting the full manuscript! I'm crossing my fingers and toes that this will work out.

 

PROGRESS ON THE NOVEL

Editing UNDER THE BUBBLE is moving along, and I'm on chapter 43. I've redistributed some of the writing, and now have 74 chapters, so I'm over half done! I believe I'll have one more round of edits before beta readers get the book. I hope the last round goes quickly because I hear the sequel DREAMS TO VISIONS calling my name.

 

WHAT I'M READING

Ursula K. Le Guin: Collected Poems, Library of America. I love these LOA collections because there is always more in the collections than in the original books published by the authors. This has an introduction by an editor (also passed) and poems never published before.

 

PUBLICATION SINCE LAST SCENE BREAK

Yule: a poem in an anthology published in Ireland. https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Winter-Anthology-Matthew-Smith/dp/B0CND7C1QC/ref=sr_1_1

I will be reading my poem live with Black Bough on January 2, 2024.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/black-bough-christmas-winter-anthology-launch-no-2-tickets-779240107137?aff=ebdsoporgprofile&keep_tld=1

 

MEANDERINGS

I have four new posts in Meanderings since my last Scene Break and I STILL haven't written about StarBase Indy which took place the end of November! Next month…

 

FYI—JOSE, MY DOG

I have a dog! I hope the Humane Society gets him neutered soon so he will officially be mine! Read my Meandering post about him!

 

WHAT I'VE LEARNED SO FAR

There for a while I was determined to submit poetry only to places that paid me something, at least a copy of the journal. But as the rejections mounted (see last month's Scene Break) I changed my mind. In the beginning of my writing and submitting frenzy, I was not worrying about that part. Now I am still looking for those but not disqualifying the others. Like Dark Winter Lit. They accepted a poem recently to appear in March online. I had an earlier poem published with Dark Winter Lit that will be in my first chapbook in March. The poem is called 'I Drew the Death Card' and you can find it on my link tree. The chapbook, 'Questions I Didn't Know I'd Asked' was free to download for several months but will be for sale in March on Amazon and my publisher's website https://lachlanjmcdougall.wordpress.com/.

 

STAR TREK

Prodigy is on Netflix! I watched all of season 1 over December 26-28. It was great to see it again! Looking forward to season 2 and beyond! In my quest to view the shows in chronological order, I finished Voyager, then watched the movie First Contact. Then I got Jose' and I'm worn out. I was watching Insurrection and couldn't keep my eyes open. I missed the ending and woke up during the first part of Nemesis. I have some catching up to do because my memory is shot. I read an article about the absolute best episode of all Star Trek. I'll share the link here. Read each little section as they are a part of the whole. https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/deep-space-nine-s-far-beyond-the-stars-is-about-star-trek-itself/ar-AA1mbGz1

 

TODAY'S CARD

In honor of Jose' I drew a card from The Wise Dog Tarot by MJ Cullinane. The Queen of Wands shows fiery feminine nature yet is warm and inviting at the same time. It also shows creativity. The crow represents intuition and connection to the other side and the sunflowers are adoration and loyalty, like the gorgeous dog.

 

Thank you for reading!

Check out my link tree!