Just a quick note about a new blog of mine.  It's called WordFixx, and the topic is "word lore" -- stories behind the words we use.  I've put together a lot of interesting stuff over the past year or so.  I think you'll find it fun.

Link: WordFixx

It's finally here, my new book "Improbable Jane."

Jane is a 3-in-1 chapbook of sci-fi longpoems.

Includes "The Improbable Notebook of Jason V---" about an inventor afraid to share his breakthroughs with the world;

plus "Jane Doe Discovered", a cloak and dagger cybertale set in a political prison,

and "Coyote Village", a classic fable about stealing the Moon.

For full details and some samples (and to order a copy) here's the page:
Improbable Jane


Thanks!

3/4/08

I was an author guest at our local sci-fi convention (ConDor - http://condorcon.org ).  A good weekend, including a great 2-hour poetry workshop with Debbie Kolodji, Denise Dumars, Kendall Evans, Samantha Henderson and others.

New blog launched in Feb 2008:
    "The Unlikely Times" - news of the improbable but true
    URL: http://unlikelytimes.blogspot.com

"Remember the Ancient Mariner" (article) accepted by Illumen (Autumn 08)

"Cougar Village" (longpoem) to appear in Aoife's Kiss (Jun 08)

"fire snakes" (haiku) posted at Mindflights
http://www.mindflights.com/item.php?sub_id=3717

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3/1/08

My story "Lugosi Rock" was just posted at Postcards from Uranus:
http://postcardtales.blogspot.com/2008/03/lugosi-rock.html

I sold two haiku to Scifaikuest

New book cover designs for SamsDot:

- Family Tradition, by Dev Jarrett
- Jane Doe Discovered, by s.c.virtes (Art & Design)
- Tarantula Stampede, by Tom Galusha
- The Poetry Workshop & Beyond, by Terrie Relf
- Little Creatures, by Michael McCarty

Otherwise a quiet two weeks with a few rejections.

"Blank Spaces & other dangers".  Now available again!  The original publisher dropped all projects, and I have posted a second edition myself over at Lulu.com.  A collection of 27 of my stories - all kinds of fantastic flights and weirdness.  For more info and excerpts:
http://scott.virtes.com/bk_blank.php

Also (I forgot to mention this earlier) ... I have a stack of the July/Aug 2007 Analog with my story, "Jimmy the Box", in it.  If you'd like a signed copy, email me at writer@scvs.com - $8 includes postage in the USA.  Thanks.

2/10/08

New acceptances & publications:

"tangled up in true" (poem) accepted by Space & Time

Stories (reprints) now available on AnthologyBuilder.com:
"Bricks"
"Last of the Soft Things"
"Tuesday Came Apart"
URL: http://www.anthologybuilder.com/authordetails.php?byline=Scott%20Virtes

Poetry (reprints with art) posted on writersCafe.org:
"the shape of things to come"
"all those toys"
"in the blackout"
URL: http://www.writerscafe.org/writers/scottVee/

New book cover design:

- Christina's World, by Marge Simon (SamsDot)
- Tarantula Stampede (SamsDot)

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2/4/08

I wrote about 30 new poems this week, mostly haiku and cinquains.  Only about 3 of those were obvious duds.  A few longer ones were unexpected surprises.

No new acceptances this week.

Here are the writing updates I forgot to post ... (so many blogs, so few brain cells!)

9/4/07
My funny flash tale "Quake Man" is available as a 30-cent download
here:
http://www.swimmingkangaroo.com/wading.html
I hope you get a kick out of it.  ;-)

12/31/07
I have some new audio poems over at the Sundown Lounge:
http://www.larrywinfield.com/sundownlounge.htm
CPU (Episode 112)
Live reading 7/1/07 (113)
Smiling sands (115)
The hole (116)
Myths wearing thin (in 117)

"At Ripley's" (poem) (an ode to the Ripley's Museum, of all things) is now online at Helix SF:
http://helixsf.com/poetry/Q2_virtes_atripleys.htm

I have a haiku in the Dec 2007 issue of The Shantytown Anomaly.

1/24/08
I just sold a pair of odd flash fiction pieces to "Postcards From ..."
http://postcardtales.blogspot.com/

Meanwhile, my weird newsletter is up to issue 10...
http://archives.zinester.com/38141

More in the works, of course ...

Is it even possible to have a few different blogs and keep the different topics separate and keep everything up to date?  Theoretically, one would like to have a presence on all the major websites, but to update 10 per week could take 4-5 hours, on top of work and the actual writing of new material.  On many levels, the internet is the biggest distraction ever conceived, no more, maybe less.  All that potential, and we're all just buried in the swarm.

For people who had problems subscribing to my Dark Windows newsletter, you can just send a blank email here:
38141-subscribe@zinester.com
You will get a confirmation newsletter with a verification link -- click on that and you're all set.  Issue 2 is already posted, scheduled for 9/1.  Issue 3 (9/15) is almost ready for upload.  Each issue has 2,000 words of weirdness!

I sold poems to Helix SF, Not one of Us, tales of the Talisman, Sword Review & a few other pieces this month.  Still waiting on 56 submissions, though.

As an odd sort of experiment, I've decided to meld a few projects together and take my upcoming "big collection of dark poems" (plus some surprises) and serialize it as an email newsletter.

You can find it HERE.
(first issue is scheduled for 8/23 at 6pm)

It's a "stream of creativity" which shows how blurry the line between fiction and reality can be.

I know I'm having fun compiling the installments.  Readers are always welcome.  It's free, of course.

I have a story in the July/Aug 2007 issue of Analog, which is out in bookstores right now.  Nice double issue, will be on shelves for two months.

Just a short entry this time.  I've written a few new stories in the past month, all of them just odd enough that it's hard to guess which magazines are the best targets.  But that's just an ongoing party quirk of mine.  I don't care about what's "normal," I don't like to follow the popular formula for fiction ... I just want to get the stories told.  Hopefully, people enjoy them in the end.

Poetry is not about sentences.  Sentences are how we communicate once all the layers of logic and grammar and social rules are enforced.  But poetry is only chance we have to capture actual thoughts.

Just now, what's in my head.  Let's see ...

driving the west coast madness / missed my cue / phone fell to static / and I'm caught in the cloverleaf / of a thousand years.

(Sorry - my fingers automatically put in line breaks when I do a brain dump.)

Can this be written as a sentence without sucking the life out of it?  If you're chasing thoughts, rules and restrictions are just bug spray.  Sure -- we can use them if we think it will help.  But never kill a dream to build a factory.

;-)

Note: This was a forum post off the top of my head, over on roomtowrite.com -- I thought it would make a good counterpoint to my other mySpace blog post on the same topic.