Mona Mehas

December 2, 2023

NOVEMBER SCENE BREAK

 

POETRY FIRST

Because one of my poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize! The poem, 'In 1920' appeared in Paddler Press, vol.8, History. That journal is the only place I sent the poem and they accepted it as if it were meant to be. I am so honored and flabbergasted. I'm not going to reprint the poem here, but my mother was born in 1920. In this poem, I talk about other historical events and my mother.

I'm wondering about another journal that accepted my poetry several months ago. The last time I heard from them they said they would email me when my poems would appear on the site. They haven't published new poetry since August. I emailed the guy and got a form response about him being ill. I emailed again and got nothing. I sent a message using the contact tool on their page. Nothing. I'll try Twitter and Facebook but this might end up being a loss.

 

NOVEL UPDATE

I'm on my next round of edits. I'm taking my time and going into much detail. My critique reader is still reading and editing 3 chapters a week for me until she finishes the book. That's pretty much it for UNDER THE BUBBLE. Once I start querying this novel I'll get to work editing DREAMS TO VISIONS, the second in the duology.

 

I'M A LITTLE LATE

I try to get this Scene Break out before the end of the month but I'm late this time. Blame Star Trek. More precisely, blame Starbase Indy. That's our local Star Trek convention. I volunteered from Thanksgiving evening to the following Monday morning and I'm still tired. I stayed up late every night and opened the vendor hall every morning at 8 am. Dr. Mohamed Noor, Larry Nemecek, and Bonnie Gordon were there, as well as several authors and scientists. Of course I spent too much money but I had a blast!

 

WHAT I'M READING

Dr. Mohamed Noor is a professor at Duke University in NC and an avid Star Trek fan and expert. I'm reading his book LIVE LONG AND EVOLVE. I'm on chapter 2 because I haven't read much since I've been home. He signed it for me which is fantastic. I know Mohamed and Larry from the YouTube Star Trek chats but it was nice to meet them in person. Mohamed's book offers some (almost but not quite) proof of the DNA work in my novel.

 

PUBLICATION SINCE LAST SCENE BREAK

I have 2 sections in this anthology - Dead Girl Erased - https://gnashingteethpublishing.com/dead-girl-erased/

 

MEANDERINGS

I haven't written anything in the past month for Meanderings. I planned to post an article there about Starbase Indy but I've been so tired I haven't gotten to it yet. I will.

 

WHAT I'VE LEARNED SO FAR

Rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections, rejections.

Did I mention I've been getting a lot of rejections lately/

Almost every day, sometimes more than one. I think the most I got in one day was 5 rejections.

Sometimes they come in the middle of the night. I got 2 rejections on Thanksgiving. I'm tired of rejections. What have I learned from all these rejections? I'm really not sure but I've developed a tough skin. I haven't given up. I sent my full poetry manuscript to 2 different publishers on this side of the earth and a small chapbook to a different publisher. I keep submitting, keep writing, keep editing. What else am I going to do? I'm not going to stop or let the rejections get me down. Recently, I've been editing some older poems as I come to them when submitting. I need to edit a story before I resubmit it anywhere. Every time I read or edit someone else's work, I learn.

 

STAR TREK

Besides Starbase Indy, I'm always watching Star Trek. I'm still on Voyager, now season 6. I recently purchased the Star Trek TOS Tarot Deck made by Telekiad. The deck is remarkable. Unlike the Star Trek TNG deck, this is a real, functional Tarot deck. The one for TNG is more for collectors, at least that's what I've read. The TOS deck has 78 cards, corresponding to the 78 episodes of The Original Series (TOS). There are also 2 extra cards for the 2 premier episodes. I'm excited to use this deck for writing or reading practice.

 

TODAY'S CARD

Of course, I drew a card from my new deck, Star Trek The Original Series Tarot by Telekiad. This is The Empress. This deck has features other decks do not. In the upper corner are symbols, explained in the accompanying book. The Empress represents earth, is feminine, with a direction of east. She is ruled by Venus, her musical note is F# and her color is green. The episode The Empress corresponds to is "Friday's Child." The symbols in the lower right corner tell us it was episode 32, filmed on star date 3497.2 and aired on star date 6712.01.

There is a numeric way to convert star dates to our calendar but I don't have that memorized.

 

Thank you for reading.

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