Category: Writing

Random Rejection: The Eclipse Comics Saga Part I

~ James Viscosi ~ 14 Comments

So this week I pulled something really juicy out of my pile of rejections. I may have mentioned before that a number of my books, including Night Watchman and Dragon Stones, started out as comic book series proposals. I was working with an editor at the now-defunct Eclipse Comics on developing several of these. Unfortunately I’m not a particularly good artist, so I was submitting them as scripts that would be illustrated by others. How did it all work out in the end? Well, let’s just say I’ve lived in the San Diego area for eight years now and have yet to attend a Comic-Con.

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Scene-Of-The-Month: Dragon Stones

~ James Viscosi ~ 4 Comments

The votes are in and the readers’ choice for the next scene of the month is Dragon Stones. Flipping randomly through the pages, I stopped at this scene, in which the kidnapped oracle Tolaria makes good her escape.

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Random Rejection: Zoetrope

~ James Viscosi ~ 4 Comments

This week, I reached into the very back of my alphabetically-organized rejection list folder and pulled out this slip, from Francis Ford Coppola’s “Zoetrope” magazine:

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“Long Before Dawn” Now Available For Kindle

~ James Viscosi ~ 5 Comments

Not long ago, I announced that Dragon Stones had been ported to the Kindle e-book format. It has now been joined by Long Before Dawn, my vampire novel. Also, both Long Before Dawn and Dragon Stones are now available for Kindle for only 99 cents. Save a tree and a lot of money* and read electronically!

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December Scene Of The Month: Do You Really Need To Ask?

~ James Viscosi ~ Leave a comment

The votes are in and for a while it looked like we would have a three-way tie for the next scene of the month, but at the last moment The Wolf pulled out ahead. So here, by popular demand, is the next scene from The Wolf!

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Random Rejection: Doyen Literary Services

~ James Viscosi ~ 4 Comments

Here’s what I consider an example of a form rejection letter done right: It doesn’t offer uselessly general advice, generic statements about what the agent is or is not looking for, lengthy attempts to justify the rejection, or nonspecific critiques. It’s just a simple “no thank you, try again”, which in my opinion is all a form rejection needs.

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Blast from the Past: Response Times

~ James Viscosi ~ 4 Comments

The other day, I was poking around my old web site in The Internet Archive looking for some information, and I happened to notice my “Response Times” link. This was a report that could be spit out by my old Manuscript Tracking database and which I used to upload from time to time just as a point of interest to show how long it was taking to get responses to submissions. Obviously this information is now completely out of date and utterly useless, but I thought it would be interesting to post its state as of the last time I updated it, over ten years ago. And so, here it is, in all its retro Web 1.0 glory:
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November Scene-Of-The-Month: The Wolf

~ James Viscosi ~ 3 Comments

The votes are in and once again the winner for “Scene of the Month” is The Wolf. We’re up to about page 24 of about 100, so there’s plenty of werewolf fun still available, but it’s starting to become clear that this will be the first book to be removed from the “Scene of the Month” list due to running out of material. And now, here it is, the next scene!

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Random Rejection: Marietta Publishing

~ James Viscosi ~ 3 Comments

This week, I reached into my vast collection of rejection letters and pulled out this double-sider from Marietta Publishing:

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New Version of “Flock of Crows” Available!

~ James Viscosi ~ 11 Comments

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been working on a new edition of A Flock of Crows is Called a Murder that, among other things, restores the infamous missing epilogue, plus fixes various issues with the layout from the most recent edition, which was a scan produced by BookSurge of the original DarkTales edition of Crows.  This edition is now available at my Lulu storefront and should become available at Amazon.com and other outlets over the next few months.  I also plan to do a Kindle edition once the ISBN and distribution is finalized.  In the meantime, please visit my Lulu store and check it out there!

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