My News

Good Evening

Thank you for visiting My News 📰

Sorry to be away for so long. I won’t make an excuse because we all know what people say about excuses. I will tell you that my husband Barry and I donned masks and ate dinner in a Mexican restaurant tonight. We are without a kitchen sink during our renovation. It was great to end dinner with a shared virgin piña colada.

I’m trying to complete my novella by the end-of-the-month deadline to the tune of drills in the background. Normally, I work well under pressure, but COVID has changed normal.

How has COVID changed your writing habits? What are you doing to refresh? I challenge you to write a poem about your new normal ✍️

Thank you for visiting My News 😷 Don’t forget the Royal Palm Literary Competition deadline is April 30.

Good Morning,

Thank you for visiting my page. Like many of you, the pandemic has made it difficult for me to think, write, and come to terms with the new world.

Before the outbreak of COVID, I had been doing research for a book about suicide. I’d sought a tattoo dealing with suicide. I’d selected the one in the illustration, and hoped I’d find a publisher that would allow me to use a version of it.

To my horror, mental illness and suicides increased during the last year when most of us were quarantined and then forced to work from home. I found it difficult to write at the time my book was most needed. 

During my last book launch tour, two friends said, “You should write a book about suicide.” The requests prompted me to write a few poems about suicide, but I couldn’t write the novel when I was in what we called a funk when I was a young adult. I’m out of the funk thanks to my husband, Barry Dimick, our backyard birds, our second COVID shot, and President Biden’s promise to end the war in Afghanistan by September 11. 

I’m happy to say I’m two-thirds of the way through the first draft of the manuscript. At this point, I must tie all of the plot strands together and make sure my characters change–show growth. 

When I finish the first draft, I shall put the manuscript through editor “Lorin Oberweger’s “Slap System for Breakout Success “ and then send it to my copy editor Beth Mansbridge. 

Now here’s what Shakespeare called the rub. If my agent, Joyce Sweeney, finds a publisher, I don’t get to choose the cover, but I’ll push for this illustration created by tattoo artist, Sharon Omarro. When the book is published, you’ll learn why.

Thank you for visiting My News.

Notice the theme? My former student, Debi Seney Pike, made these face masks for me 😷 Fellow writers and readers, please be sure to cover your nose when you wear your mask. Stay safe 💜

Help

Good Morning,

Thank you for following. That’s how I usually begin My News, but I need a little help. I don’t have enough followers. I’d love ideas for getting people to My News and my whole website. Please share your recommendations.

In the meantime, stay safe. I’ve had the vaccine and wear a mask. Sometimes I wear two masks. What are you doing to protect yourself?

If you wear a mask, please cover your nose. Covering your nose is important. You are important to me. I love my followers.

Good Morning,

Thank you for visiting My News on this Good Friday and second day of National Poetry Month. 

When I taught, I often tried to reach out to reluctant poets by reminding them they loved music and song lyrics are poems. Taylor Swift demonstrated this in an exhibit at the Nashville Hall of Fame. (If you want to be a songwriter, you may wish to visit Nashville.)

A lyricist may choose to write the music of rebellion. In a recent interview, Gwen Stefani said she wrote her new hit “Slow Clap” to lift people’s mood.    

What is your mood right now? Could you capture it in a song or poem? Like music, poetry has beat or pulse–the main accent of a poem. Read a poem aloud to hear its beat.

A poem’s sound and structure can hint at its meaning.

Meter is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in many poems. Meter creates a poem’s rhythm. While some poems have regular patterns of rhythm and rhyme, others don’t.

I often employ free verse to deliver my message. Free verse is poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme, meter, or form. Because I dislike forced rhyme, I rarely use rhyming, except in a couplet or quatrain, but occasionally, I challenge myself to write a form poem. I toy with pantoums and sestinas. Right now I’m working on a pantoum. 

Today’s challenge is to write a song or poem with a definite beat or rhyming pattern. I’m planning to let my mood show. Try it. Write a song or poem. Let your mood show–upbeat, blues, jazz.  Could you write a song to change people’s moods as Gwen Stefani did with “Slow Clap”?

I wrote a blues song called “Ain’t It a Shame?” that became the title of my play. When the pandemic is over, I hope it will be produced on stage. Until then, I’m going to keep on writing my mood.

Waiting

Good Morning. Thank you for visiting My News on this first day of National Poetry Month. 

In The Shape of Poetry, Peter Meinke, Florida’s Poet Laureate says, “Delayed gratification is more complicated than you thought.” He was referring to the response to a submission of a poem. In 2020 and and so far in 2021,  like most people around the world my life feels as if it’s been delayed.

We’ve waited for the quarantine to end, the vaccine to be distributed, the opportunity to visit relatives, and life to return to normal. I’m still waiting to visit my 92-year-old mother.  And yes, I’ve waited for a publisher to buy my novel in verse. Luckily, Joyce Sweeney, my agent believes in my book because the submission process has been difficult during this lonely time.

Today, I’m challenging you to write a poem with the title “Waiting” or “Delayed” and send it to me or publish it on Facebook or wherever you like to share. To send it to me, go to dimickmelodydean.com and click Contact Melody. Let’s get our creative juices flowing.

Thank you for visiting My News.

Good Morning.

Ironically, my last published book, Ain’t It a Shame, was published just before the entire country was quarantined. It never had a launch party 🎈

As I work on my next book, I’m considering genres. I asked yesterday what you thought about a blovel, but didn’t get many responses.

Does anyone know a secret to getting more traffic to a blog? If one writes a blovel, it would be good to have readers.

Thank you for dropping by My News. Stay safe 😷

Genre of Choice

Good Morning,

Thank you for visiting my blog. I’m back after my second vaccine, feeling less stressed. I’m ready to write. What are you ready to read?

During the pandemic many people have had trouble concentrating. Some of my friends have found it easier to read short stories and poetry than novels. I’m writing a novella, instead of a novel. 

This morning I listened to a Florida Writer Podcast posted on the Florida Writers Association Facebook page. The podcast was hosted by Alison Nissen. Her guest, Mike Lutz, discussed a blovel, a new-to-me genre. I wondered if it might be the perfect genre for our times.

How many of you follow bloggers? If you do, the blovel might be perfect for you. 

The concept isn’t new, but the venue is. During the Victorian Age, Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers was published in serial format. 

The blovel is a novel posted in 250-500 word segments in a blog, rather than a newspaper. Would you like to read a novel in that form, or do you like to have the whole novel in your hands when you begin reading the first page?

Thank you for reading my blog. Hope you’ll click on My News and provide feedback. 

I’m a Lucky Poet and Wife

Good Morning. Thank you for visiting My News.

Love flowers? Poet Emily Dickinson was known more for her gardening than her poetry during her lifetime. At a time in history when it was frowned upon for women to work outside the home, it was deemed acceptable for ladies to collect and study nature. Emily’s strict father even had a glass conservatory built for the poetess and her younger sister, Lavinia. 

I, too, am a poet, but I lack Emily’s knowledge of flowers. I just like them. As I posted on Facebook recently, I’m not fond of what she called “A narrow fellow in the grass” either. 

Other than poetry, we have little in common. I’m known more for teaching than for writing right now, and I’m not a spinster. I’m married to a gentle man who loves flowers, nature, photography, and sports. Stories of what happened to her relationship with the man she loved are sketchy.

Unfortunately, I don’t know the names of many of the flowers in my new backyard, and my photography lacks skill. This morning I told my husband, memoirist, Barry Dimick, I was heading to the backyard to snap a photo of the flower the previous owner had planted. My plan was to post the photo on Facebook to see if anyone could identify it.  

Barry accompanied me and held the flower up to make it easier for me to capture the bloom. It’s wonderful to have a husband with many of my interests and the ability to proofread. 

Enjoy day 13 of Women’s History Month. I plan to shop for a few more flowers and a birdbath.

Woman with a Cause

Thank you for visiting My News. On this seventh day of National History Month, I pay tribute to Rachel Carson. In 1962, her book Silent Spring alerted readers to the dangers of air and water pollution. I’d like to suggest you read the first chapter, “A Fable for Tomorrow.” If you like it, you may want to read the whole book.

In this fable designed to teach a lesson Ms. Carson uses comparison and contrast. She shows how things were at one time, and then how they were later. Instead of telling, she shows with brilliant description how everything began to change. Readers can visualize a natural spot without ever visiting it.

Fellow writers, do you think Rachel Carson’s style of writing would work today? If so, what cause would you champion? Since I write to right, I plan to spend more time reading Silent Spring with an eye to her power of description. I want to make a difference. If you could make a difference, what would you change?

 Or if you wish, write about a change in your life. Compare and contrast.

When I first read “A Fable for Tomorrow,” it reminded me of James Thurber’s “The Last Flower.” Consider reading it. Google it and read a free copy. Do you like Thurber’s or Carson’s fable better?

I’d love to hear from you. Please go to www.melodydeandimick.com and click on Contact Melody. Have a safe day.