Why Virgil and Beatrice

 The Vision

This Patreon is the start of launching a larger vision--but grand visions take time, and pub dates come whether I am ready to review a book or not, and so I decided to start a Patreon when my already pitched and prepared features were relevant. That's why I launched with a Round Up and a Review before an article that explains what we're doing over on Patreon.







When I set up this Patreon, I almost named it "Alana's News and Reviews," because I wasn't yet sure how all the pieces of my larger vision will come together. The reasoning behind launching a Patreon at all is that books coverage is getting eliminated at a lot of the usual online sites where reviews and round ups used to be part of their regular content. Places like Reactor and Book Riot are still doing the good work (and you should read them, too!), but it's getting harder and harder out here to place articles.

So, I thought I'd do it myself.

I reached out to editor friend Julia Rios, in part because their website has a lot of the features I want to end up with. (My website is woefully out of date and hasn't kept up with accessibility standards.) I'm due a refresh, and based on my conversation with Julia, I have some plans to get that done. But in the meantime, they suggested, why not set up a Patreon, make use of the newsletter feature, and start building an audience? Genius. That's why I go to Julia for advice.

The History

Yes, you say, but why Virgil and Beatrice? Settle in, friends. It's story time.

Back in ye olden days of the 1900s, when I attended college, I was among a group of students who helped run the Tutoring and Writing Center (TaWC). The professor in charge of it (Mark Vecchio, an amazing teacher who later became a psychoanalyst) gave a course about tutoring called "Guiding Dante," because writing papers can be hell, and the tutor was supposed to act as Virgil, helping to guide students through that process. Those of us who helped to run the TaWC became known as the Beatrice (Beatrix? Beatrices? I don't remember the plural!), I suppose because running the office was a bit more heavenly as a profession. Arielle Kesweder, my roommate and bestie, was one of the Beatrice with me.

In 2000, after graduating, I went to the Denver Publishing Institute at University of Denver. I came away with a certificate in publishing, got a job as an assistant editor, and had enough energy to continue to dream big dreams. The next year, Arielle also completed the Denver Publishing Institute, and we dreamed together. We wanted to create a magazine that published the types of things that we wanted to read. In honor of the TaWC, we named the dream Virgil and Beatrice.

But the thing is, we really didn't know how to run a business or get funding. (We didn't know anything about building or managing websites, either, but Scotty Allen, now the brain behind Strange Parts, which you should also check out, helped us with the basics of getting started.) We puttered around with the idea for awhile, but we ended up letting the dream go as our careers and lives took more of our time, and I turned the website into my personal home page.

Next Steps

And now? With the website redesign already on my radar, I've had a little bit of a fire lit under me to not only make the changes, but to create a place where I can continue to write the features I love. (I've also learned a little bit more about running a business after freelancing for 20 years—and, more recently, getting a job at an educational nonprofit where teaching the business of entrepreneurship is part of what we do.)

The ultimate goal is to make a website that feels like a magazine, where book coverage is front and center. It's going to take awhile to get to that end state, but the first step is creating content here.

 

Thanks to all of you who are over on Patreon, starting this journey with me!