Aaron Polson's Blog, page 14

Living in a Castle

Max is sick.

I sent a brief tweet last night, but he's at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. I'm his roommate for the stay, and we are lucky enough to be in the "castle tower". Funny, from the outside of the building it just looked like a hospital.

The accomidations are... passable.

He appreciates all the positive vibes.

His Name is (Elliot) Robert Polson

And no, I'm not making (too much of) an allusion to Fight Club.


Elliot Robert Polson with big brother Max. 
Elliot was born at 9:03 PM on 12/15/2011 after a crazy day of induced labor, nerve pinching, and cheerleading. The big fella weighed in at 9 lbs, 2 oz and was a neat 21 1/2 inches long.

He's getting reading to join his brothers' club some day.


(Yes, I know Polson and Paulson are spelled differently... Thank you very much.)

Welcome to this wacky family, Elliot!

The Editing Ninja: An Abusive A

Does any word misuse cause more consternation than thesimple flipping of articles a and an? The rule is simple: a comes before words beginning with aconsonant or consonant sound; ancomes before words beginning with a vowel or vowel sound.

Incorrect: Dakota ate aorange. 
Correct: Dakota ate anorange.
Incorrect: Gregory became an zombie.
Correct: Gregory became azombie.
Poor Gregory. 
Some notes:
The vowel u often makes a consonant sound (yew) at thebeginning of words such as university and unified. Therefore, a must proceed these words even thoughthey start with a vowel.
Be aware of words which begin with silent letters, such asthe h in herb or heir. Since the initial sound is a vowel, you must use an.
The sound wins every time. Yet another reason you shouldread your work aloud in the revision phase. 

WIP Wednesday: The Waiting Game

Aimee's due date was last Sunday (12/11/11).  So we are waiting.

And waiting.

And the longer we wait, the closer baby's birthday will be to Christmas, for which he/she will never forgive his/her parents (at least during the teen years).

In the mean time, I'm writing about zombies, but doing so on my terms:


Had I known I'd be shot in the back, I might have stayed inmy bunk.

(Here's a dirty little secret: editors of small press mags might shy away from zombies, but the e-reading public sure doesn't.)

Booooks, booooks, booooks...

Bigotry in America

On the way to school this morning, I heard a story about Lowes (the home improvement store) and the television series, All-American Muslim . You can listen to the story (about three minutes) here.

I've never watched All-American Muslim . I hadn't even heard of the show. I've shopped at Lowes before, but doubt I will again.

Evidently, "the conservative group that got Lowe's to pull its ads from a reality TV show about American Muslims has been fighting for more than two decades against gay rights, strip clubs and most anything else that offends evangelical Christians."

Well, Mr. David Caton of the "Florida Family Association," you offend me. You offend me with your hatred, bigotry and misinformation.

Several politicians called the Florida Family Association a fringe hate group, a title Caton shrugged off, saying the group aims to "defend traditional American biblical values."

Traditional American biblical values? What, like burning witches and lynchings?

Caton suggests "99.9 percent of Muslims agree with the principles of Sharia law" and by nature, Islam requires a follower to be an extremist.

You wouldn't know anything about extremism, would you Mr. Caton?

Take a gander at the truth about Muslims in America. Of course, it's all to easy for haters to ignore the truth, isn't it? Haters have been ignoring the truth for a long, long time. 

I love the country in which I was raised, a place in which different people have the right to be different--even if it requires struggle to gain and maintain that right.

The struggle is our greatest strength; the struggle keeps us honest.

I'm not sure where Mr. Caton lives, but it's not my America. If I had any advertising dollars, I'd call TLC right now and ask for an ad spot.

Joe R. Lansdale, Master Storyteller

I haven't stayed up late to finish a book in a few years. Having children cuts down one's desire to be groggy the next day. They're always on, and a parent isn't really allowed a day off.

Joe R. Lansdale weaves stories I would cringe to write (and give my left pinkie, to boot).  The cringe comes from his subject matter--he doesn't shy away from awful race relations, lynchings, and rape.  But damn, can this man write. My Saturday night became Sunday morning, but I had to finish The Bottoms.

The Bottoms (2000) is beautiful and thrilling, and a fine companion for an older audience looking for a read in the vein of To Kill a Mockingbird.The subject matter is challenging, but realistic, and man... Mr. Lansdale keeps the pages turning.

Dreadfully Yours

Introducing the Abominable Gentlemen:






And by "Abominable" I mean "Awesome".



Penny Dreadnought, an ongoing digital pulp, ispublished by and features stories from the Abominable Gentlemen: James EveringtonAlan Ryker Iain Rowanand me
 In this first issue, Introducing Penny Dreadnought, Insidious Indoctrination Engine of theAbominable Gentlemen, we put forth some of our best stories. Later issues will have various, dark themes and feature new material.
Exciting?  
Dreadfully so. 
And a steal at $0.99:
Amazon (US)Amazon (UK)Smashwords

Fleecing the Flock

There has been much ado about nothing regarding Amazon's new KDP select program. Some authors/publishers/etc. have cried foul, saying Amazon's practices are tantamount to a monopoly.

Pu-lease. They're asking for a minimum of 90 days exclusivity for a few promotional benefits. Don't like it? Don't sign up. I don't know that I've ever signed a short story contract for less than 90 days exclusivity, and several of those were for token-paying markets.

But--and here's the fleecing--Kindle Nation Daily is offering a "Free Book Highlighing" Service to "Help Indie Authors Get the Word Out About New Free Book Listings!"

You see, KDP will now allow an author to list his/her book for free for up to five days within the 90 day period. For the low (cough, cough) cost of $25.99 a day, Kindle Nation Daily will highlight the book for you.  Go on. Read the fine print. 

I know how I feel about this. Your thoughts?

The Editing Ninja: Whose versus Who's

The apostrophe causes problems with these two homophones.  Whose is apossessive pronoun.
Incorrect: Who'scar is this?
Correct: Whosecar is this?
Who's is thecontraction of who and is. Again, the apostrophe (like withit's) indicates the omission of a letter.
Incorrect: Whoseon first using who's glove?
Correct: Who's onfirst using whose glove?
Simple, right?  And now you can steal from the Editing Ninja's arsenal in one handy digital package:

(Isn't he cute?)

Temper Tantrums

Temper tantrums... Who said they were limited to children. Read the comments on any contraversial blog, and you'll quickly see my point.

With the impending birth of our third child, this NPR story about tantrums really caught my attention.

The most important lesson: when a child is angry, do nothing.

This works for internet trolls, too. Don't respond to the negative comments, and magic happens.

Food for thought.