Well, at last we shall see if the stars are now aligned properly so that the blog entry can be saved and posted. I say that because what was supposed to have been the editor's first blog entry was done some time ago and every time I tried to save it, there it went -- into the cyber-void. So I am much practiced at writing the foolish thing but the result is like that of those folks who say "I only write for myself." Well, that's not my feeling: why write if not to communicate? It has been writing that has kept me from feeling that I am not beating my head against the wall -- thinking that maybe someone else out there felt or thought some of the same way I did. That I can get thoughts across to others often makes  my day, or month, or year.

I ran into a friend yesterday who had just been to the Brattleboro, Vermont Literary Festival and she was bemoaning that the Marlboro Review was no longer a print journal but "just on-line". Granted, this woman is a bit of a Luddite. She doesn't even own a computer. She is over a certain age and likes to hold the book in hand. And she sounded SO disappointed. I told her that we just didn't have the money when the economy had just started its nosedive, printing costs doubled overnight and postage did very close to the same. And since no angel has flown  through the window to say that she would happily underwrite the journal for the next five years to the tune of thousands of dollars each time an issue came out, we had to roll with the proverbial punches. That is not to say that on-line publishing is free; it isn't and this 501(c)(3) is going to continue to solicit tax exempt donations. We will also be doing some new and interesting things that will be announced as they come up.

When  our web developer told me I was going to have to blog every three days or so I thought I would never have enough to say. I am a poet and I suspect that a short attention span might figure into that choice of vocation. But I really do have a lot of information to put out there. So, as they used to say on TV, stay tuned.