APRIL - MAY 2 SCENE BREAK
May 2, 2024
APRIL – MAY 2 SCENE BREAK
WHAT'S NEW IN POETRY
A flurry.
A flurry in writing, in getting published. But that was all after a long period of 'hurry up and wait.' I even got an essay accepted. That's not poetry but it's also not my novels so I'm mentioning it here.
Things I need to do – make sure everything is organized the way I want for Hand-Me-Downs before I send it off to Lachlan, my Australian publisher.
Next – I have a third book of poetry almost ready, but I want to reorganize it. The title is Calling to Shore. The theme is basically finding your way through and coming home to nature. I think I need to arrange the poems different from the way they are now but not sure how to go about it.
WHAT'S UP WITH MY NOVELS
Yes, novels, plural. I have UNDER THE BUBBLE back from my number one reader. I'm going through and making a couple of minor edits, adding a little something to the ending, then I will begin the querying journey. I'm tossing around the idea of a different title but now sure yet. This title seems fitting, but some guy named Stephen King wrote a book called UNDER THE DOME that was made into a short-lived series. I watched it. It was pretty good; the concept was not the same as my book. Then again, it probably won't matter. Agents often change titles anyway.
UNDER THE BUBBLE is stand-alone but I'm writing a second book that can be considered a sequel. The title is DREAMS TO VISIONS, and I really can't imagine changing that one. It's dual POV, a male and female. I don't have much written (rewritten?) on it because I was feeling in limbo until UNDER THE BUBBLE was ready. I may have mentioned before – I actually wrote this book first.
AND THEN TECH
I've been experiencing infuriating tech issues for a few weeks. Internet phasing in and out, unstable connection while on Zoom, Google changing how it appears to me. The death of my finger pad on my laptop meant I had to buy a mouse which I hate using. Now my printer is on strike again. After multiple texts and conversations with helpers, the decision is that I need to go pick up a new modem. They said it won't cost me anything. They'd better be right because I'm almost broke and it's only May 2.
Yeah, there's that too.
WHAT I'M READING
Who has time to read? With all the books stacked beside my bed and everything I add to my TBR shelf, I find myself reading academic papers related to the study of Margaret Atwood's SURFACING. You have to be some kind of nutty fan to read that stuff and, well, I am. I first read SURFACING when I was 19 and again several times by the time I was 21. I've since consumed the little book twice more. Feminism, finding yourself, what you never knew was lost, coming into your own, back to nature, taking charge. That doesn't begin to cover it.
IMPORTANT TIP
Google yourself. A couple of years ago I googled my name and discovered I had a children's story published. It was a charity gig. I went through my emails and discovered that I'd overlooked the one they'd sent saying my story was 'highly commended.' They no longer publish but the anthology is still available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RVHLFS6.
A few nights ago, I searched google for my name and found poetry published in a journal in March of this this year. I had an email from them saying they'd accepted my work, but they never told me when the journal was out. Before my 2 poems were 3 by a friend. I reasoned that if I didn't know they had published, did she?
I emailed her and she had not even been notified of her acceptance! This journal is another non-paying one. Regardless, read the poems here https://wordcitylit.ca/2024/03/07/2-poems-by-mona-mehas/.
PUBLICATIONS SINCE LAST SPRING BREAK
http://kristinaseyes.com/exploring-poetry-poetic-forms/
(guest blog post)
https://gnashingteethpublishing.com/blog/potd0425/
(along with my photo of lovely ornaments on wall)
https://www.thehooghlyreview.com/issues/issue-3-april-2024
(3 poems page 12-13)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D32HG99V
(5 poems in this anthology)
STAR TREK
Goodbye after season 5 to Lower Decks. I don't know Paramount won't simply say up front that from now on, their Trek shows will have only 5 seasons instead of cancelling them. At least they aren't ripping all the episodes from Paramount history the way they did Prodigy. (YET)
I love all Trek, but I must admit Lower Decks is not my favorite. It's absolutely filled with 'Easter eggs' with is fun but it's also kinda slapstick and abrasive. But for a lot of people, Lower Decks was their way into the Star Trek universe. I hope they don't leave. I also hope another network picks it up, like Netflix did for Prodigy. Hmm… where is the next season of Prodigy?
TODAY'S CARD
From the Savran Forest Tarot, the Ace of Coins
This deck is all photography of a forest in Ukraine and poetry from Walt Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass.'
'As if some miracle, some hand divine unsealed my eyes,
Shadowy vast shapes smile through the air and sky,
And on the distant waves sail countless ships,
And anthems in new tongues I hear saluting me.'
From the photo, it looks like the ace is in the center, surrounded by the shapes and ships. From this writing, it feels like a happy card, maybe even being proud of myself. If the ones on the ships are saluting me in different languages, I'm known, I've accomplished something.
I'll take this at face value and believe I will do what I set out to do – which is what? My books?
I need to think about this.
linktr.ee/monaiv