Aaron Polson's Blog, page 81

Back Catalog Shuffle

Over the past few weeks I've been locked in YA novel mode (either revising Rock Gods and Scary Monsters or cramming revisions down the gullet of The House Eaters). Short story mode has sort of slipped away. So this afternoon, a rather rainy and grey day anyway, I've decided to till the soil in some of my "back catalog"--stories that haven't sold or need revisions.

The following tales have been marked as dead:

"Hollis Jones Transformed" (250 words)
"Field Trip" (900 words)
"Dumpster Diving" (950 w

Well Told Pulp

You can listen to "The Eyes Have It" at Well Told Tales, a short story about a newspaper man and a certain obsession with a dead woman's eyes. I'll let you listen for the rest. It's as pulpy as anything I've written.

I was having one of those "why do I write?" sort of days, and the Well Told Tales podcast helped boost the spirits.

This video boosted my spirits even more: 47 year old Susan Boyle sings on Britain's Got Talent. (it is on YouTube, but embedding is disabled)

If that doesn't inspire you,

The Adventures of Chief [Cock] and Deputy Johnson

True story: the school resource officer (a police officer assigned to public school service) gave a little talk to my English classes yesterday. Now, "Deputy Johnson" isn't a funny name by itself...but pair it with the local police chief, last name Koch (he pronounces it Cock). I couldn't help but laugh. Usually, folks pronounce Koch as Coke or Cook around here...

One student suggested, out of earshot of the uniformed men of course, that their names sounded like those of Chippendales dancers.

Thanks

To all the brave souls who have volunteered their rear-kicking services.


I'd love to share some...

...but I'm broke and the exchange rate sucks right now. So have a...

...or some...

...and pretend it's from me. I'm so generous with pixels.

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The House Eaters 2.0

So...I received some feedback from an agent on my full.

Said agent liked the narrative and protagonist's voice, but felt the secondary characters were a bit flat. The subplots needed some steroids. Said agent suggested she would take another look if I wanted to revise. As I mentioned on Monday, I spent the weekend (what free time I could find), cobbling together some extra bits and pieces.

I present, The House Eaters (2.0)...now with more words!

I could really use some beta readers. If intere

True Confessions of a Word Hater

I mentioned how much I hate the word stuff.

Yesterday, I spent the day scoring state writing assessments (each paper receives two local ratings before being sent to the state office), and the process reminded me of my all-time least favorite word:

Get.

Possibly the weakest verb on the planet, but one to which my students have a rather unhealthy addiction. To make my point, I have been known to write "get" on a piece of paper, tear it into several pieces, and stomp on the remains. One student sta

My Thoughts on Stuff (AKA, an interview)

I've been interviewed as a promotion for Return of the Raven . Read the interview at Horrorbound.com here. Laugh at my picture. (I need a real mug shot some day, one of those sweet "I'm a cool author" kind of pics).

I received some stellar feedback about The House Eaters on Friday, and as a result, spent as much time as I could carve out this weekend adding about 4,000 words to the novel. The characters all have their own little baby plot lines now, and I've cleaned up a few holes. More upda

Return of the Raven

Return of the Raven, featuring my short story "In Hollow Fields", should be available for pre-order from Horrorbound.com soon.

As a collection of short fiction and poetry inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Return of the Raven should be a fun read.

As an adjunct to my day job, I've started a writing blog with prompts, quotations, grammar tidbits, etc. five days a week. I don't know if any of the content will mean much to my dear readers as it targets a high school audience, but feel free to spread the

Scrap-tacular

The very generous Brenton Tomlinson has bestowed the Honest S(crap) award upon me, and I am honored.

The Award and Rules:

This award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant.

The rules are as follows:

1. When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.

2. Choose a minim

Fahrenheit 451

I'm so glad that it's time to teach one of my favorite books.

When a student said, "that's the most horrible thing I've ever seen." My response was: "Not as bad as your classmates who won't even read a word of the book."

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