Category: Writing

Oops

~ James Viscosi ~ 4 Comments

A while back I mentioned that Dragon Stones was now available on Amazon.com and BN.com, but Long Before Dawn hadn’t arrived there yet.  I recently took another look and LBD still wasn’t out in the big stores.  So I went back to Lulu and took a closer look at the project and noticed that, way down under the “price” section, it said something to the effect of “To be set when your book is approved”.  So evidently I forgot to click the “Approve” button after getting my last proof of LBD way back in, oh, April was it?  Just think of all the millions of dollars in sales I’ve lost because of that!  😐

Anyway, I have now clicked the “Approve” button, so Long Before Dawn should be showing up on Amazon.com and the other outlets soon.

The Early Years: “Time Warp Part Two”

~ James Viscosi ~ 7 Comments

Back in the day I used to watch a lot (a LOT) of “Dr. Who” on PBS. There wasn’t much in the way of SF on television when I was a kid, so the strange import from the BBC was always a treat. I would suspect that “Dr. Who” was a heavy influence on the short little excerpt that follows.

Continue reading “The Early Years: “Time Warp Part Two”” →

Where’s Jim?

~ James Viscosi ~ 12 Comments

I’m still here!

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed two things in the last few months:

  1. My posts have slowed down
  2. The promised edition of Father’s Books is nowhere to be found

These two items are of course closely related.  The main reason for both of them is that I’ve been having so much fun writing Dennis’s Diary of Destruction that I haven’t made much headway at all editing Father’s Books for the last couple of months.  I’m sure that I’ll finish it eventually, but for now, the adventures of my gullible, narcissistic, grammatically-challenged, slightly paranoid vizsla seem to be taking precedence.  Why?  Let’s trot out another list:

  1. Immediate feedback in the form of comments is pretty gratifying
  2. I’m enjoying the change of writing absurd comedy and slapstick instead of horror (I would say that much of Dennis’s diary still qualifies as fantasy, my other major genre)
  3. I never made any money off my books anyway

So if you were breathlessly waiting for Father’s Books (that’s okay, I know you weren’t), I apologize for the delay.  But in the meantime, can I interest you in some GIMPed pictures and nonsensical conspiracy theories?

Random Rejection: E-scape, “Comfort”

~ James Viscosi ~ 13 Comments

I got started submitting to online magazines way before they became mainstream, and had a number of short stories published by e-zines. E-scape, however, was not one of them, as they declined to accept my short story “Comfort”.

Continue reading “Random Rejection: E-scape, “Comfort”” →

The Early Years: “Win! Win! Win! Win!!!!!!!”

~ James Viscosi ~ 6 Comments

When I was little, I watched a lot of cartoons. (I’m sure you’re all astonished.) One of my favorites from when I was around seven years old was “Wacky Races” (in reruns — I’m not THAT old). “Wacky Races” was of course inspired by the film “The Great Race”, which is similar to the other film “It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World”, which is very much like “The Gumball Rally”, which directly leads to “The Cannonball Run”, which is largely responsible both for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the decline and fall of Western civilization. But I digress.

Anyway, I had clearly just finished up a “Wacky Races” marathon when I banged out this little gem:

Continue reading “The Early Years: “Win! Win! Win! Win!!!!!!!”” →

Random Rejection: “On The Eighth Day”

~ James Viscosi ~ 12 Comments

Back in the 90s, there was a lot of concern about the “Year 2000”, and this translated into a large number of film and fiction projects that dealt with the upcoming inevitable apocalypse.  One of these was an anthology called On The Eighth Day, which almost included my short story, “Love and the Tides of Darkness.”  Almost.

Continue reading “Random Rejection: “On The Eighth Day”” →

The Early Years: Rabbit, Goldie, and Twister

~ James Viscosi ~ 10 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I posted something I wrote as a kid, Rabbit’s Journal, something that I later learned is called a “typecast” (probably from a combination of “typewriter” and “podcast”). That seemed to be pretty popular, and so, I now present the continuing adventures of Rabbit Rawlings (yes, he had a last name … all my stuffed animals did).  For this one, I evidently had an assist from my brother John, although I couldn’t tell you who wrote what.

Continue reading “The Early Years: Rabbit, Goldie, and Twister” →

Random Rejection: The Missouri Review

~ James Viscosi ~ 21 Comments

In keeping with the I can’t believe I ever submitted to them theme of my last random rejection, this morning I reached into my vast file of “go away scum” letters and pulled out a rejection from The Missouri Review:

Continue reading “Random Rejection: The Missouri Review” →

The Early Years: Rabbit’s Journal

~ James Viscosi ~ 20 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I posted a scan of an old story I wrote for school when I was a kid of somewhere between six and ten (depending on who you believe).  That turned out to be pretty popular, so I requested more scans from my suppliers of embarrassing material from my younger days (i.e., my parents).  Behold:  Rabbit’s Journal.

Continue reading “The Early Years: Rabbit’s Journal” →

Random Rejection: The New Yorker

~ James Viscosi ~ 13 Comments

Before I came to realize that my style and subject matter were both completely unsuited for The New Yorker, I actually tried getting published there once or twice.  No surprise:  Rejected.

Continue reading “Random Rejection: The New Yorker” →