We swear we’re not doing it simply for the sake of being trendy.

Each time a new piece is published, there is a new tweet. What’s better than Xenith beamed directly into your cell phone? If you don’t know what a tweet is, well, that rock must be pretty heavy.

http://twitter.com/xenithnet

Yes, I’ve been promising this since February, so it seems a little sketchy, but it’s true: Xenith has published its first round of pieces in its new format. The idea of putting a cohesive issue together was torturing me, so I just figured I would publish as I accept. Send me your submissions, ladies and gentlemen, and I will read them. If I like them, they will be published right away (well, after I contact you, of course). That’s how simple it is.

patrick.nathan@gmail.com

Take a look at our XENITH category to see all the pieces we have so far. I plan to add to this as often as I have to, so the more quality pieces I get, the more will appear on the site.

I recommend that everyone subscribe to our RSS feed as well. If you don’t know what that means, I’m sorry; you’ll just have to check the site every few days.

Soon we’ll have a nice little spot reserved on the main page for the most recent piece. I’m excited to finally bring this to everyone who has been waiting for it for so long.

I should add that for those of you who have sent submissions in, if you want to resend them to get immediate attention, you’re welcome to. I do plan on going back through the mess of e-mails in the two or three accounts we’ve had since May of last year, but it will take me a good long while, especially when the most recent address (submissions@xenith.net) doesn’t seem to want to let me in.

Today, February 8, 2009, a date which will live in obscurity, the writing and editorial forces of Xenith.net met for the worlds first ever internet tea party.With a total of eight people present, it succeeded, and as the participants sipped their respective drink, Scott Bradford began assembly of Xenith Issue 44: arrolladorosis.

While called a Tea Party, the participants of this event enjoyed not only tea but also coffee and other drinks.All the while, of course, they discussed their plans for eventual world domination.

This is just a friendly reminder from your neighborhood nudge monster that the world’s first ever online tea party will be taking place in Xenith’s live chat tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. central time. Don’t have an account with which to chat? How’s about you register? With registration you get lifetime membership and free access to the sauna twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Even if you just register for the tea party and disappear from the face of our world, we’ll be happy to see you there, whoever you might be. Remember, this tea party will be in celebration of the release of Xenith’s issue 44: arrolladorosis. There will be many pieces to talk about, should we run out of catty remarks and people to gossip about.

It may or may not be the first, but that doesn’t matter.

When
February 8th, 2009, 12:00 p.m. Central Time

Where
Xenith Live Chat

Who
All who wish to gossip and make catty remarks whilst sipping their favorite tea and nibbling their favorite carbohydrates.

Celebrating
The release of our February issue.

Hypothesis
The strain on the internet created by bringing a multitude of extraordinarily talented individuals in such close electronic proximity will undoubtedly put a tear in the fabric of cyberspace-time

Horoscope
Await the letter from the pharmacist: the answers are woven betwixt the cellulose. Beware the yellow bird.

Diagnosis
arrolladorosis

| Forum Announcement |

Speaking from personal experience, this website works. My writing has improved greatly in the last three plus years and I feel that a lot of that is owed to my compatriots here at Xenith. Getting feedback on your writing is a very valuable thing, and too often it’s easy to forget how amazing it can be. So, because critiquing is such a wonderful service that we all provide, I’m testing a new idea, site-wide. I would like to introduce the trial run of the Xenith Critic’s Rewards Program: a system in which you will have an incentive to critique the works of others. I know it seems like a sales pitch or some kind of trick, but the genuine aim is to increase the amount of critiquing that goes on here at Xenith. We need to get back to our roots, so to speak.

The program works like this: for every honest, well-thought-out critique you give (ie: avoiding the “I like this piece. It reminds me of capers” or the “This poem smells like cabbage”), you will get a point. Each person who reaches twenty points by February 1st wins a book of their choice (provided it’s available at Barnes ‘n’ Noble), shipping costs covered (if you’re outside the US, it might have to be a smaller book that I can mail because UPS is totally expensive overseas). This isn’t a contest: everyone who reaches twenty points wins.

Please keep in mind that the goal of this is not for me to give out books, but to encourage thoughtful critiques on the works that people post. As Xenith’s temporary slave driver, I reserve the right to refuse the prize if I think someone’s comments have been half-assed and pointless. In the interest of fairness, I’ll discuss it with other members beforehand.

Also, if this program goes well, then it will be repeated each month. I do want to advise, however, that the point requirement for winning may increase over time due to obvious reasons.

Also.2–you win a prize for every twenty points you get. So if you double your critique output, you get two prizes. Triple? You get the idea.

Drop by and discuss it, or just jump in and participate!

I have decided that it is time for me to move on from Xenith, in a lot of ways, by making a change in my relationship to it.

Patrick will be taking on my most visible tasks–including running the forums and assuming the role of Editor of Xenith’s ‘zine issues. All submissions to the magazine will now go to him, at a brand-new e-mail address: submissions@xenith.net. The 200 or so submissions I’ve received since the debut of Issue #43 will be whittled into one final issue that I’ll release in December. Patrick’s first issue – #45 – will be in 2009.

Scott will be transitioning into my behind-the-scenes technical role with the upcoming release of Invision 3.0.

In Xenith’s imaginary masthead, my new title would perhaps be “Publisher.” I’m relinquishing my traditional powers here at Xenith in order to turn my attention to new things–some personal projects, some Xenith related.

Xenith has been a lot of work for a lot of years, and I have come to see that change and expansion is the only way to keep it alive. I hope this move will benefit us all.