The voices in my head don't think they're imaginary - Writing update ... now with more Black Static!

I haven't done a writing update in a little while, and now that I think about it there's actually quite a bit to report. So here goes.

• Rejection from Granta on 2 stories I sent in May. Heh. Hope springs eternal, eh what? I send stories to the New Yorker, too. And I believe in the Tooth Fairy. On the plus side, though, Tin House has not yet rejected the "Fantastic Women" story I sent them. Did I mention I believe in the Tooth Fairy?

• Progress on two new stories. Story A (as yet untitled) is almost complete, and is going to Clarkesworld as soon as I'm finished with it. It has a style and a tone that I think nihilistic_kid might dig, except for the fact that it has a lot of scene breaks ... GONG! I've been using Scrivener to write it, a program catsparx turned me on to. It really is a powerful tool for organizing concepts, even in the short story format.

• Payment from Realms of Fantasy for my upcoming short story "The People's Republic of the Edelweiss Putt-Putt Golf Course." I believe that story will be appearing in the December issue, which means it should be out and about in time for World Fantasy (fingers crossed). It is a weird little tale, my attempt at being Thurberesque. It has just a bit of the Walter Mitty about it.

• Upcoming publication in the new Black Static magazine! Formerly The Third Alternative, Black Static has been simmering for quite some time now. But judging from the spreads Andy Cox has posted, it was time well spent. Issue #1 should be mailing out sometime in the first week of September, so if you haven't yet done your American Duty to Support Speculative Fiction by subscribing to a fine outlet for short fiction, go subscribe now. I guarantee my story "Votary" will make you LITERALLY VOMIT IN TERROR!

• Forward motion on Diet Soap. douglain and I met about a week ago and walked away with two long to-do lists ... and I've even made a tiny bit of progress on mine. We should have a first draft layout of Issue #1 by the first week of September. We have acquired some AMAZING kick-ass fiction (thanks to Doug, who is bearing the brunt of the editorial load admirably) and I can't wait to get it out there for people to read. I'll post about updates as they happen.

• Discussions about an exciting new addition to the Portland writing community. I met with my friend Jeff this week to discuss a really cool project he's putting together. He basically wants to set up a writers house in Portland, modeled on other successful writing houses in cities like Chicago, New York, and Boston. He's looking for input, opinions, friends and community support, and is blogging his progress at http://writersroompdx.blogspot.com/. For the benefit of Portland LJers, I've set up a syndicated feed (pdxwritershouse so you can play along at home!

And that's about it, except for all the stuff simmering on back burners: a couple of novel outlines, an anthology story I'm scheduled write next month, another anthology story I'd *like* to write, a couple of stories on hold here and there, a couple of agents I'm waiting to hear from ... you know, the usual.

Until next time ...