BellaOnline Literary Review

Blog for Mused - the BellaOnline Literary Review

During our founding issues of Mused, our founding editor, Jill Florio, kept a "back page blog" of notes about each issue. She maintained this blog for each of the first four issues we published. Here are Jill's notes!

  • Fall 2008

    Fall Equinox 2008 - Volume 2, Issue 3
    Be careful what you blog about! Last season I mentioned how swell everything went, production-side, for Mused. Faeries did it, etc. This time, not so much. The Art Director's computer went powerless in wake of Hurricane Ike's journey across the Midwest, the Editor's essential laptop (aka, mine) bricked while traveling in humid Florida, and the Publisher's computer mysteriously and simultaneously crashed in New England. All our computers down, all while on deadline...and in three different places around the country. Was it a glitch in the Matrix? Maybe we'd angered the Faeries?

    In spite of this, the Fall issue is here, more spectacular than before (don't just blithely take my word for it - see the PDF version), featuring an insightful interview with Karen Allen (Indiana Jones, Starman) and an all-new print version option.

    PDF and Print Versions of Fall Equinox 2008

  • Summer 2008

    Summer Solstice 2008 - Volume 2, Issue 2
    I think this Summer Solstice issue came together by itself. We saw a tremendous increase in high quality submissions this quarter - both in art and print worlds. We developed an editorial calendar that actually worked.

    Did I say this issue published itself? Actually, I think there were faeries involved.

    PDF and Print Versions of Summer Solstice 2008

  • Spring 2008

    Spring Equinox 2008 - Volume 2, Issue 1
    Forget about thanking everyone: that was sooo last issue.

    The Spring edition is all about the gardening. We redug usability plots and plowed a row for sprightly, colorful "Letters to the Editor." Trowels in hand, we expanded the field, planting Plays among the Departmental Perennials. We think there's a good bed of mulch to keep the literary and artistic blooms thriving in the warming air of springtime.

    Enough with the sophomoric metaphor? Okay, Spring's issue bursts with light, color and pure mental brilliance. Go back and read it.

    PDF and Print Versions of Spring Equinox 2008

  • Winter 2007

    Winter Solstice 2007 - Volume 1, Issue 1
    We're proud to share our premier issue of Mused with the Universe and have some thanks to get out of the way.

    We wish to award Gold Stars of Bravery to our contributors, who boldly submitted entries where no one has gone before. And then there's the Self-Congratulatory Back Pats to pass among the plucky Editorial Board. These virtual volunteers hung in there though nearly a year of virtual planning, some miscues, then revising and the hugging, along with shared visioning and literary dreaming in our Secret Cave of the BellaOnline Muses.

    Anyway, yes. Through the blood, sweat and tears - or rather, ink, pixels and code - of a lot of people, Mused got published. With pens/cameras at bay, we stand ready to change the world...one poem, story or photo at a time.

    PDF and Print Versions of Winter Solstice 2007