Aaron Polson's Blog, page 53

Friday Cheats and Free Stories

Well...hopefully those of you who signed up for the newsletter received a free story in your inbox. If not, check the spam filter. I'm just getting the hang of this thing.

I switched mailing list managers after a few people struggled with the old system.

Such is life.

If you want to be on the list and want to skip the form, send me a message at aaron_polson(at)hotmail(dot)com and I'll add you manually.

Oh...and I finished draft one of Borrowed Saints yesterday. (yeah, I cheated and skipped the la...

Giant's Robes on a Dwarfish Thief

Neil Gaiman won the inaugural Author Blog Award for his use of Twitter recently, and to quote him:

"Use your blog to connect. Use it as you. Don't 'network' or 'promote.' Just talk."

Now, like a number of fledglings, I want to be Neil Gaiman. No, not for the obvious reasons (fame, bestseller status, etc.). I want to be him for reasons which lie firmly in my control. I just want to be me. Just talk. Sometimes it seems hard, though.

The infamous InterwebTM overflows with advice for fledglings on w...

WIP Wednesday: Finish Line? What Finish Line?

Borrowed Saints is now longer than my final, soon-to-be-published draft of The House Eaters. That being said, the book is still 4-5K away from completion (and that total doesn't include additional bits I need to add upon rewrite). Right now, it stands at 43K.

Phoebe's uncle, EG, signed her out of the psychiatric hospital, and on the drive home:

He hadn't said a word since signing her out of the hospital.

Something about his face—she couldn't quite place it, but something was wrong with EG's...

Revolution and Migration

First things first: can I have another weekend?

Our forensics (speech and drama) state competition was fun, but exhausting. One of my students "broke" into semifinals, the first time in years, so that was pretty cool. We're all dragging a bit today.

If you notice the page title, you'll realize I've changed the blog name. Well, do to the ease of updatage, I'm migrating my website to blogger. I'll keep the old www.aaronpolson.com domain, but I'm eventually going to have it redirected here. Unt...

Blue Collar Boys

A Ray Bradbury inspired flash, "Blue Collar Boys", is up at Every Day Fiction today. It takes a little Fahrenheit 451 background knowledge to "get", so I'm sure I'll get pounded in the comments. Such is life.

You see, Montag's wife overdoses on sleeping pills early on in the book, and a couple of "blue collar boys" arrive after the emergency call. From Fahrenheit 451:

"Hell!" The operator's cigarette moved on his lip. "We get these cases nine or ten a night...You don't need an M.D., case like...

Old Dogs, Newsletters, and Homecoming Queens

So I'm starting a quarterly newsletter with updates about my schtuff, interviews of other authors, free stories, and other goodies. Sign up in the grey box at the right. You have my no-SpamTM promise. There will be quarterly giveaways just for newsletter subscribers, so what do you have to lose, right? (It only takes half a second to click "delete" an unwanted email.)

Speaking of sign up thingys...

Hey! Where's the "followers" thingy?

I've dropped it to the bottom of the sidebar. (scroll down)

I ...

WIP Wednesday: Slow and Steady

No 3K day on Borrowed Saints this Tuesday, but I did stick with my 1K words a day schedule. 33,063 words and counting...

Remember the ghost train? Well, it seems not everyone can see it:

"How about that, Charlie?"

Charlie shot Tucker a look of puzzlement. "How about what? Where should I point the camera?"

"You didn't…you didn't see?" Tucker felt like a boulder had flattened his chest. He gaped for breath. The few dry leaves remaining on the trees over head shook...

Pictures Tell the Story

(yes I'm reading about buffalo...it's research...wink, wink)

Owen's been having some Cthulhu inspired dreams?

...and, oh goody-goody, I've seen a draft cover for The House Eaters, and it's spooky in a vintage pulp horror/Nancy Drew/paperback book from the '60s sort of way. I'm giddy. Drunk with giddiness.

You Never Know Who's Reading

I stumbled across this mention at BestScienceFictionStories.com last Friday:

"...an enjoyable story, and it really made me wonder if I would have the guts to do what some of the people in this story did."

It seems "The World in Rubber, Soft and Malleable" is the story that just keeps on giving. I wish I could write another dozen like it...of course, then it wouldn't be special. Right?

Anyway, thanks to Rusty, the human behind BestScienceFictionStories.com. I hear you, and thank you for the kind...

#fridayflash Chaos and the Creative Process

Chaos rumbles into the bar with a hammer in one hand. He roars. He kicks over a chair or two. The patrons tremble and cower.

All except one. The Creative Process sits alone in a corner booth, sipping a Madori Sour.

Chaos turns to a window and hurls his hammer. It tumbles end over end toward the glass, strikes it dead center, and sends spiderweb cracks skittering to the corners. He roars again.

"Always breakin' stuff." The Creative Process leaves her booth and ambles over to Chaos. "Alwa...