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call for submissions, Celebrations, garden of neuro, napowrimo, national poetry month, poetry, prompts, short story, workshop, writing

What now?

May 1, 2025 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Photo by ANTONI SHKRABA production on Pexels.com

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS! If you participated in any way for National Poetry Month, BRAVO to you!

Do you have a stack of poetry to read, edit, scratch your head over? Where do you go from here?

There nothing quite like a critique group to help you sort this out. Do you have such a group? They are out there. Check with other poets to find out where they go. In this area of North Carolina there is an excellent group via Living Poetry. Here’s a link to check it out! https://www.meetup.com/living-poetry/events/305658373/?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=share-btn_savedevents_share_modal&utm_source=link

Poets and Writers AKA PW.org has a variety of groups, including online critique groups. You can check them out here: https://groups.pw.org/browse-all-groups

There are others, I have no doubts. Just ask around and I bet you find a group. Anything I have worked on via a critique group has been published and rather quickly.

Poetry Editors can also be helpful. You will have the advantage of 1:1 feedback. It takes a bit of time to find that right match. This is often a paid service unless you work out a mutual feedback relationship.

Meet others in common at Poetry Workshops. Chances are that if you put it out there that you would like a writing partner, you will find someone or a group to work with. I participate in a weekly prompt workshop. In this it’s up to you to be prompt centric or to veer off. I tend to veer off. It’s a PW.org group called The Time is Now. It only last about 30-45 minutes and it helps to interact with others.

You have polished your work and now is the time to publish. There are multiple journals accepting submissions. Where do you find them? I use Duotrope. because I like the feedback feature in which you can determine if the publisher is a good match. There is also a tracking feature for all your submissions. As one who runs a Facebook group, I share when I find what sound like good matches. I especially focus on paying publications, preferably ones who don’t charge.

Submittable is another option for finding a variety of places to submit.

As an editor for FineLines.org I recommend this journal, which has been around for 35 years, for submissions of poetry, art, essays, short stories, and photography.

There are also several calls for submissions from poets and writers of which I regularly have contact. Here they are:

Feed the Holy

Chewers by Masticadores

Masticadores USA

Latinos USA

Have you found that National Poetry Month has helped you with all the prompts? Check out the options for regular prompts.

Living Poetry has regular prompts and you can even share your work on their blog.

Metaphor Dice are fun for creating metaphors. You can make a game of these.

Garden of Neuro Institute has frequent poetry prompts and events in their Poetry Group. There are also regular workshops and open mics.

Wordsmith Weekly is a Saturday group in which attendees work with prompts and share.

If you are interested in a special Call for Submissions with a specific theme, you might want to check out this one: https://www.gardenofneuropublishing.com/

I hope this is helpful. There is a lot more information out there, but I thought I would open up the discussion.

Happy Writing!

If you have a completed manuscript, feel free to submit to ProlificPulse.com We are reviewing submissions for 2026.

Announcements, poetry, TTOT

Ten Things of Thankful-January 13, 2025

January 13, 2025 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Photo by Raul Kou017eenevski on Pexels.com

Happy TTOT Time! So many things to be thankful for…Let’s do this!

Another birthday! This time it was for my sweetheart. We had a home celebration with a favorite meal. He had cheesecake at work, so nothing made at home. But…there’s always ice cream!
Workshop time! We had an interesting Poetry Workshop at the Garden of Neuro. Chyrel Jackson and I taught it. The theme was “Social commentary from the perspective of community, race, rage, social injustice.” We are writing a group poem as a result.
Projects that find a way to getting done. Whew and I sent another book to the press.
Cardinal spotted! I don’t see them often and never have seen one on the porch, but there was a fat one looking for dinner, just hopping around the porch. He didn’t like what I had to offer. I suppose the squirrels will.
Sister memories. Speaking of cardinals. Cardinals are symbolic-in our family-of memories about my nephews Michael and Keith. Both were Saint Louis Cardinals fans, big time. My sister, who passed away a few years ago in January, received a cardinal painting from my great niece, who painted it.

7. As a family, we participated in the Angel Card Project for Christmas. We expanded this, now to other occasions. As many of you know, daughter makes cards. She has been sending more cards for special occasions, such as if someone is sick and needs cheering. And now, she seems to have become the sympathy card sender. She decided to make some sympathy cards awhile back and now she’s being asked. It’s a great feeling to know that someone might smile when they receive a card. I am happy that daughter has found this hobby.

8. Glimpses of heaven. A friend shared their testimony about how they had a near death experience and how they were told, from the other side, that what they would take with them, what the memories would be, would be the love. Love is the one thing that you would remember and take with you. It really got me to thinking about how the soul is simply full of love moments.

9. Flowers and a sweet exchange. My sweetheart loves flowers. It’s understandable, since his father established a tulip bulb business in Mount Airy, NC after years of traveling from their home in the Netherlands. Sweetie doesn’t really feel comfortable picking out flowers for me, but since he would like me to enjoy them, he makes sure I can get some when I get a notion. My go to place is usually Trader Joe’s. I was there last week, picking out a bouquet, and a lady probably my age struck up a conversation with me. She was selecting a bouquet for herself. She was so sweet and telling me about her relationship with her ex and how she preferred the flowers over him. ha-ha All through the store, I kept running into her and she always smiled. I just found this to be a joyful moment.

10. You! What’s your thankful this week? Please share. Oh, and this is coming up! I will be one of the presenters. 🙂

Announcements, art, poetry, prose, writing

ANNOUNCEMENT! Dear Heart has been published!

September 27, 2023 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Before computers, we wrote letters. My mother’s letters were like little novellas, several pages long. Her family members and friends loved to get her “books.” Letters from mom were heartfelt and brought tears of love. As her pen moved passionately across the pages, sometimes her clear, blue eyes would well up. Letters were her release. They were her way of expressing herself in ways she could not voice. Occasionally, she would write letters to people out of anger and then tear them up. These could have been to politicians, relatives, and those are the ones I knew about. She would express her heart’s desire, open up her soul, and pour out her thoughts.

While I did not have the beautiful penmanship of my mother, I learned that the pen was my power. Some of my letters were releases which I destroyed. At age 15, I even wrote one about the need for a doctor in our little town. The letter and story was published in the newspaper.

As a writer and a poet, I write as if my words are letters to the world, perhaps to express the desires of my heart. Other times I write to simply write.

When we do express our desires within our heart this has a way of stirring up thoughts and even action plans to make things happen. They could be acceptances of things that can’t be changed, but often are steps toward courage to make something happen.

I posed this question and requested to others: What is the desire in your heart? This is my challenge to you. I would like to read about the desires in your heart in the “Dear Heart” anthology of letters, poetry, art, photography, and whatever ways helps you express your passion.

There was a caveat to this. In honor of my mother, the expressions were to be sent to me via good old fashioned snail mail.

Now, it is my pleasure to bring to you these beautiful heartfelt responses via Dear Heart.

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Contributirs: Alice Taylor, Chyrel J. Jackson, Danielle Martin, Jia-Li Yang, Jill Sharon Kimmelman, Jodi Lynn Nehring, Karen Monteith, Max H. Tomey, Nanci Arvizu, Pratibha Savani, Rebecca Herz, Richa Dinesh Sharma, Robin Klammer, Sarah Ryan, Shiela Denise Scott, Steve Anc, Terri Michels, and Zaneta Varnado Johns.

Special Shout out to Kay Doiron for the cover art and to Zan Johns for her wonderful editing skills.

Get your copy today on Amazon

Announcements, art, call for submissions, Personal Essay, poetry, writing

Dear Heart – Call for Submissions

July 11, 2022 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

Years ago, before computers, we wrote letters. My mother’s letters were like little novellas. They sometimes were several pages long. She wrote her family members and friends and they loved to get her “books.” How I wish I had saved my letters from mom. As a witness to her letter writing, I would watch as her pen moved passionately across the pages, sometimes witnessing her eyes well up. Letters were her release. They were her way of expressing herself in ways she could not voice. Sometimes she would write letters to people out of anger and then tear them up. To my knowledge, she never sent one of those angry letters. It could have been politicians, relatives, and those are the ones I knew about. She would express her heart’s desire, open up her soul, and pour out her thoughts.

As a letter writer, I did not have the beautiful penmanship of my mother, but I learned that the pen was my power. I also wrote letters and tore them up. I even wrote one about the need for a doctor in our little town and it was published in the newspaper. I wrote letters to family, friends, old friends found from a long time lost, family who I wanted to see but knew my letters would reach them long before I ever would.

Now, I am a writer and a poet. I write as if my words are letters to the world, at times. Other times, I write to express my desires of the heart. And other times I write to write.

I firmly believe that when we do express our desires within our heart that this has a way of stirring up thoughts and even action plans to make things happen. Sometimes those things that happen are acceptances of things that can’t be changed, but sometimes they are steps to taking up the courage to make something happen in our lives.

What is the desire in your heart? This is my challenge to you. I would like to read about the desires in your heart in the “Dear Heart” anthology of letters, poetry, art, photography, and whatever ways helps you express your passion.

There’s a caveat to this. These are all to be sent to me via good old fashioned snail mail. I will sort through these and select which submissions to publish.

Please drop me an email to prolificpulse@gmail.com for the specific call for submissions.

poetry, Poets & Events

“You Are the Poem” by Jill Sharon Kimmelman – Coming Soon

November 6, 2021November 4, 2021 Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

It is with my great pleasure, on behalf of Prolific Pulse Press LLC, to announce the debut poetry book “You Are the Poem” with be available November 13. I interviewed Jill recently for my podcast & YouTube channel: