
Dear Reader,
I’m on the 101, speeding by the sparkling Pacific. Xena the Warrior Princess is at the wheel, flying over potholes with abandon, and the Eminence Grise is riding shotgun, fervently opining amateur abuse of POV in fiction. We’re on our way to a writers group, where there will be tea, a few hours of sharp-eyed critique, and then breakfast for lunch at the Bees Knees. Writers who I respect, the kind who are equally likely to delight me with humor as hit me in the ankles with drama; I have equal odds of leaving bruised or entranced.
To create such work is not without cost, of course. Many writers can relate to Don Quixote battling windmills or Grady Tripp in his pink bathrobe, chasing his fly-away manuscript into the Monongahela River. It is a strange camaraderie, we of the pink bathrobes and fevered quests and occasional delusion, but always we hope that the story will come out right in the end. Certainly I am not immune to this, and the writers I meet are my conspirators, mentors, and brothers-in-arms on this unpredictable, pot-holed road.
So, from Andromeda to Cor Serpentis, for Volume 3 we land on Bellatrix, a star in the belt of Orion. Why? Honestly, I like the name. It means “woman warrior,” although I prefer to think of this as the literary warrior issue, regardless of gender. It takes determination to forge a creative path, especially when the windmills fight back and your manuscript plummets into the river. Keep going, I say, and keep good company as you do.
Volume 3 features the art of Max Talley, a surrealist who has mastered the art of unsettling paintings, at times luminous, lovely, mysterious, at other times alarming, funny, baffling. His portrait “Lady Autumn Takes the Air” graces the cover. The Mistress of Song has curated a poetic collection of songs about California. And the Poetry Baron has a lyric collection of poems centering around the theme of “Bella Vida.” Rachael Quisel, our guest editor of Flash Fiction, brings imaginative, compelling flash stories to this volume. She met the task with enthusiasm and founded the Flash Cat Award.
Lastly, I would like to remember Bill Lanphar here. He was a Lit Jo contributor, and a madly talented, if not shy and retiring, singer-songwriter, who had a beautiful song in Volume 1. He played with deft fingers and sang with a softly worn voice. He left this realm for the Tower of Song in March 2019, and his songs are still hummed here at the Lit Jo.
I hope you will enjoy these stories, songs, poems, and paintings as much as I do. You may purchase Volume 3 in our bookstore.
Best,
Silver Webb
Editrix
Volume 3
Bellatrix
June 2019
Le Menu
Fiction
Wisdom by Nate Streeper
Her Chemical Highness Sets Out by S.M.C. Wamsteker
Shutter by M. M. De Voe
A Piece of Work by Diane C McPhail
Medicine Walk by Jack Eidt
The Scream by Cheri Kramer
Clap Hands by Max Talley
Nano-Dog by Jeremy Gold
The Post by Jesse Krenzel
Blessed are the Flesh Eaters by Zane Andrea
Lipstick by Margaux Dunbar Hession
Express Lane by Chris Casey Logsdon
Swimmers by Melanie Doctors
In Hand by D. Avery
Poems
St. Gregory’s Abbey by Isabelle Walker
Cling * Believer on a Bullet Bike
by Perie Longo
Asphalt * Starters Block
by Ronald Aden Alexander
Caterpillar to Sparrow by Isabelle Walker
El Norte by Paul Lobo Portugés
AfterWords by Cie Gumucio
Lyrics
Golden by Dennis Russell
The Santa Ynez Valley Songn by Randall Lamb
Mellow by Burton Jespersen and Patrick Rydman
Fires by Mark A. Alciati
Tectonic Trance by Sonya Heller
California by Dan Bern
I Won’t Come to Californiaby Russell Brutsché
Please, Don’t Come to California by Natalie D-Napoleon
Surfliner by Bryan Titus
My State of California by Laura Hemenway