{"id":16503,"date":"2024-04-30T13:55:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T18:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/?p=16503"},"modified":"2024-04-30T16:00:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T21:00:10","slug":"letter-from-the-editor-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2024\/04\/30\/letter-from-the-editor-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from the Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Letter from the Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vallie Lynn Watson<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This two-part issue was a bear (animal pun intended), and wouldn’t be possible without contest judge Ken Foster and Boudin<\/em>‘s managing editor, Abbie Skinner. Abbie read all contest entries, blind, selected both the top ten, and then the top five, which we sent onto Ken. Many congratulations to winner Mark Williams, runner-up Lucinda Kempe, and the other eight finalists. So much thanks to the many people who submitted to our contest; all proceeds will go to Lake Charles\u2019 animal rescues, Do Good Dogs and Hobo Hotel for Cats. Animal rescue is near and dear to my and Abbie\u2019s hearts, and we’re honored to pass along your kind donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our fundraising issue was something that Abbie first suggested last summer, and is one we decided to marry with another issue we were working on, which resulted in April\u2019s two-part pet-extravaganza. After our prize entry section, you can also find new pet-related work by Randall Brown, Alexa Doran, Grant Faulkner, Robert Hamblin, Tiff Holland, Len Kuntz, Nicole Monaghan, Meg Pokrass, and Dawn Sperber. Many thanks to Digby Beaumont for the marvelous cover art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lynn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excerpts from Lucky Dog<\/em>, manuscript-in-progress:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copper (1996 – 2006)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My brother got Copper for his six-year-old son the day before my mother died from cancer. He told her, in the hospital, that he had done so, and she laughed and said, \u201cDon\u2019t be ridiculous.\u201d Over the next few months, Copper became mine, at first just a road trip companion as I moved back to college, then my best buddy for a few years. We\u2019d had a couple dogs in my childhood, but Copper was my first dog as the grownup I\u2019d become overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mae Belle (1996\/97 – 2013)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My greatest accomplishment in life is earning the trust of Miss Mae Belle, who came into our lives in the spring of 1998, from the rottenest of situations. She was so malnourished that the vet could only approximate her age to be a year or so. We didn\u2019t intend to keep her, but after a night at the emergency vet then a week of administering IV fluid, she was, without discussion, ours. It was almost a year later when she felt comfortable enough to jump into my lap for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Squash (1999 – 2013)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently asked my friend Daniel, who gave me orders to adopt a new dog in 2014, to tell me about Squash. Back in the day, everyone knew that Squash was my <\/em>dog in a way Copper and Mae Belle weren\u2019t. The favorite, the one who aligned her spine with mine while we slept. Her death wasn\u2019t exactly sudden, but it wasn\u2019t exactly expected, either, and afterwards, I forgot almost everything about her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raven (2014 -)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I planned to name him Dylan McKay (in honor of Luke Perry\u2019s 90210<\/em> character), and call him the full name, like Lorelai Gilmore\u2019s dog Paul Anka. But the little black puppy I fell in love with simply wasn\u2019t Dylan McKay. Upon the suggestion of Tori, he became Raven, to honor a different trashy teen TV show (though I don\u2019t mind if people think that it\u2019s to honor Poe\u2019s Raven!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKay (2020 -)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d had my eye on adoption and rescue opportunities for months, waiting for the right brother for Raven. I wasn\u2019t ready for girls again, and besides, I\u2019d had a name in my back pocket for years. I first met him at his foster home on March 3rd, and arranged to pick him up on the 5th, so I could get the house ready. But as I drove away, I got scared that the darling black and white eight-week-old puppy would become a foster fail, so I went back to get him the next day: March 4th, the one year anniversary of the death of actor Luke Perry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Next<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about submitting your work to Boudin<\/a><\/em> or applying to McNeese State University’s Creative Writing MFA program<\/a>, please visit Submissions for details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letter from the Editor Vallie Lynn Watson __________ This two-part issue was a bear (animal pun intended), and wouldn’t be possible without contest judge Ken Foster and Boudin‘s managing editor, Abbie Skinner. Abbie read all contest entries, blind, selected both the top ten, and then the top five, which we sent onto Ken. Many congratulations to winner Mark…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[75],"class_list":["post-16503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boudin-april-24-pet","tag-boudin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16503"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16821,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16503\/revisions\/16821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}