Aaron Polson's Blog, page 26

"The Thing About a Haunting"

How appropriate "The Thing About a Haunting" is now playing at Every Day Fiction--while at the same time, I'm up to my elbows in home improvements. Once you read the piece, you'll understand.

And by "home improvements" I mean home destruction. I've spent close to twelve hours a day for the last three days breaking my house. I've shattered tile, torn wall board, smashed plumbing, demolished cabinets...

Ugh.

And we haven't even started putting everything back together again.

But we will.

There will be pictures.

I promise.

For now, take a break, read my strange little story, and enjoy the last day of May.

On this Memorial Day

I want to send a big thank you to all who have served and sacrificed.

The photo above (found here and I believe it is the work of this Daniel Wood) is devoid of any national flags. To me, Memorial Day isn't as much about national pride, but pride in those who have served and sacrificed regardless of their politics or nationality.

Thank you.

Saturday Podcast: "The House Eaters" (short story)

This week for your listening pleasure, "The House Eaters" from my short story collection, The Saints are Dead. Now available in dead tree format (paperback) or e-book (Kindle) from Aqueous Press. This story has absolutely nothing to do with my YA novel of the same name. Lousy marketing on my part? I don't know.

But it is one of my favorite shorts and an homage to both Julio Cortazar and Shirley Jackson.

Five Question Friday: EJ Stevens

E.J. Stevens is the author of the haunting collection of dark poetry From the Shadows, the chilling collection of paranormal poetry Shadows of Myth and Legend, and the young adult paranormal Spirit Guide Series, including She Smells the Dead, Spirit Storm, and Legend of Witchtrot Road.

When E.J. isn't at her writing desk she can be found blogging at From the Shadows, a paranormal book blog, or hanging out on Goodreads or Twitter. E.J. Stevens is the founder of PNR4Wolves, paranormal romance authors joining together to promote the rescue and preservation of wolves with books.

E.J. is a graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and is an active member of the Paranormal Romance Guild. E.J. currently resides in a magical forest on the coast of Maine where she finds daily inspiration for her writing.

Five Questions with EJ:

1. What would be the ideal meal for one of your favorite characters?

Emma, vegan and teen animal rights activist, loves veggie burritos and Simon adores rare steak. It is no surprise that these two do not get along. ;)

2. If I could read a diary of one of your characters, what would I learn about him/her?

Yuki has a secret...she smells the dead. As if high school wasn't difficult enough for Yuki, she is beginning her senior year with the gift of clairescence, the psychic ability to sense spirits of the dead through smell, but this "gift" feels more like a curse.

3. What is on the floor of your bedroom?

Lots and lots of dog toys, LOL! I only have one dog, a corgi named Maya, but she is very spoiled. Her toys are literally taking over the bedroom (and hallway, and living room).

4. Which is scarier, zombies or vampires? Why?

I will probably lose all of my goth street cred by admitting this, but I am absolutely terrified of zombies. Really. I always have a very visceral response to zombies...they make me throw up a little. Okay, now I've over shared. Sorry. I blame the zombies. Their shambling, putrefying, brain eating forms will always instill a sense of terror and revulsion. By comparison all other paranormal baddies (Vamps, Weres, Ghosts, Reapers, Demons) are just fluffy, little bunnies. Though admittedly some of those fluffy bunnies have very sharp teeth. ;)

5. What items do you always have with you?

My laptop Edgar, named after my childhood hero Edgar Allan Poe, and I are inseparable. I bring Edgar with me everywhere and never leave home without an emergency supply of pens, notepads, and extra reading material.

http://www.FromTheShadows.info
http://ejstevensbooks.blogspot.com
http://spiritguideseries.blogspot.com

Editing Ninja: Passive Voice is for Losers

I'm tired of people mucking up passive voice, so here it is, once and for all:

A passive sentence is one in which the subject receives the action instead of doing it.

Example: The boy was bitten by the dog.

Snooze fest, right? And easy to correct:

The dog bit the boy.

If you are writing a slightly different kind of story: The boy bit the dog.

Easy, right? Passive voice adds extraneous words and weakens a narrative. Do a quick search of your manuscript for the use of "by" (for PCs: CTRL+F to open the search dialogue box and then search for by with one space before it). Try to change your passive sentences to the active voice.

Passive voice makes sense in limited situations. Writing a mystery?

The man was murdered. -- technically a passive sentence, but notice the lack of "by". In a mystery, we wouldn't know who murdered the man.

Some folks tend to say any sentence with a linking verb (forms of be: is, was, were, etc.) is a passive sentence. Not so. I'll address the weakness of linking verbs in the future.

WIP Wednesday: Because Writers Write

I've cooled off after yesterday's tirade. I guess I'm just a little tired of all the flag waving. The image above is from a cover of The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. One of the key scenes involves several standard bearers falling in battle until Henry, the protagonist, picks up the flag and leads his unit to victory. So much death just to keep a flag flying.

Sigh.

I'm a writer. Writers write. When stereotypes are tossed around (self-published writers are __________; literary agents are __________), no one wins. Writers write.

I've almost finished the extended "Spider and I". At around 16,000 words, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Maybe I'll make it available in e-format for free. Maybe I'll do my own art and try to sell a limited number of hand-made chapbooks. Maybe I'll send it to a dozen markets and receive a dozen rejection letters. I don't know. Yet. But I wrote it because it was a story I wanted to tell.

I do know (from "Spider and I"):

Night was coming, and Jack was afraid.

I'm off the soapbox and in the trenches. Writers write. Period.

It's Always Been About the Readers

All right. I don't know where my "hackles" are, but they're raised.

I'm pissed. Vexed. Hot. Fuming.

A certain literary agent has suggested those "self-publishing" are doing it for selfish reasons and don't care about readers at all. You can read the whole ugly post here.

Sh*t.

You couldn't be more wrong, Ms. High and Mighty, AKA protector of the weak, innocent reader. My God, what would readers do without big, tough literary agents guarding their reading time (and dollars)?

Here's the best part:

"My conclusion: This trend toward self-publishing serves primarily the writer.

(Not readers and not the publishing industry as a whole.)"

Oh--that's right, because it's my f*cking job to serve the publishing industry. I forgot. *smacks head* I'm supposed to work for free for years to try and squeak through the needle's eye until the great gate-keeping elite think they can properly profit from my free labor.

Yes, do you see that little word: profit. Because publishers are in this business to make money. Not "protect" readers.

I'm sick of the hypocrisy of a system which would publish Snooki's trash and then pretend to be a protector of readers. Sick of it. Stop lying to me. Stop lying to the public. Stop lying to readers.

You know who cares more about readers than you, giant publishing machine? Writers do--all of them, whether "traditionally" published or indie or whatever. I like how we've decided the indentured servant model of publishing is "traditional". Back in Ben Franklin's day, anyone who owned a printing press was published. Don't play word games until you know a little history.

But wait--I'm not the one who has to prove I care about readers. I'm not the one readers are questioning, am I?

Every story I write is a love-letter to storytelling.

Go climb back in your stupid castle and shut the gate. We heathens will sit around our campfires and tell stories well into the night--as it should be.

Write hard!

Hello, Goodbye

Max finished preschool last Friday. I admit there were tears in my eyes. I tried to be tough, but what the hell. We have taken our children Raintree Montessori since 2006 when Owen started as a three-year-old. Max ended our tenure there in the same classroom.

Five years. Goodbyes are hard.

Today is the last Monday of school. Seniors are gone already. My juniors will be saying goodbye for the summer (those who don't have to take final exams, at least--we have an exemption policy).

I've gotten used to the hello-goodbye process at school; this is my 12th year.

But when it is my own kids... Sometimes life seems too short.

I find myself thinking of the last story in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, "Lives of the Dead". While I'm not writing about anyone's death, I am reminded of why I like stories. Like any piece of art, they can imbue life into something gone. I can write a story about a preschool boy and paint him with my Max brush. I like that about stories. They can live forever, just as they are, while the real "us" have to move on.

Have a great day.

Saturday Podcast: "In the Primal Library"

This week for your listening pleasure, "In the Primal Library" from my short story collection, The Saints are Dead. Now available in dead tree format (paperback) or e-book (Kindle) from Aqueous Press. If the Rapture does indeed happen today, at least I will have gone down swinging.

Five Question Friday: Rachel Howzell

Five questions with Rachel Howzell...

Which is scarier, zombies or vampires? Why?

Zombies, definitely. Sure, they're slow (well, Romero's zombies are slow) but there are a LOT of them. And they're hard to kill and they can cross oceans and not die and they just keep coming and when they catch you, you become one of them and they're ugly and that's just wack. Vampires are scary but books and movies tell me I'll be more desirable and talk in whispers and get to fly and sparkle. And today's vampire gets to stay in the light unlike Bram Stoker's stuffy-old vamps.

What three things are always in your refrigerator?

Turkey bacon, always turkey bacon and not just any turkey bacon but Oscar Meyer. Butter, never margarine. Bread--sourdough, wheat or those addictive Hawaiian bread rolls. Stick some turkey bacon between those Hawaiian rolls and you have a perfect snack.

Cats or dogs? Why?

I have both but I must say 'cats.' My personality is similar to a cat's. I'll come around when I need something but leave me alone otherwise. Cats don't need constant attention, 'please love me, please pet me, let me love you' thing that dogs possess. And dogs smell. Well, cats smell -- litter boxes are just, wow, but since cats never get wet, you don't have that 'wet cat' stink wafting in your living room.

What subject was the hardest for you in school?

Math. Ask me to tell you the capital of North Dakota, or when the Battle of Tonkin began, or even why manholes are round, and I'm cool like dat. Ask me what the square root of 9 is and I'll shriek and run into a corner and tuck myself into a tight armadillo ball, whispering 'make it go away,' over and over... I can do math but I hate it. It was the only subject that I got less than a B in and I'm shaking just remembering that report card.

True story: in college, I had to take a required math class. So, I enrolled in "Earthquakes and You." (Really. That was the class.) My boyfriend at the time was an Econ major and I was an English Lit major. He did the math stuff and I did the writing. It was a good deal -- at least that part was. He was a jerk in other ways but that's a different question on a different survey. Oh, and don't cheat like that, kids. It's, um... bad.

What items do you always have with you?

I ALWAYS have a pen, lip balm and my driver's license. So when I am turned into a zombie, I can write about it, my lips will be supple and won't crack as I eat BRAINS, and I can drive an abandoned Corolla without fear of being pulled over and ticketed for driving without a license.

Check out The View from Here at Amazon.