Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly

The good:

An acceptance from Innsmouth Free Press. "Ngiri's Catch" will be in their forthcoming Historical Lovecraft anthology. The cover art is special. I hereby eat all my rejection-whine from earlier this week. Have patience, Aaron. Have patience.

The bad:

The song, "Crazy Bitch", from Buckcherry. Who can take this filth seriously? Oh yeah, I forgot...horny fifteen-year-olds. Silly me. And people wonder why this country is in trouble. I'm not all that worried about offending Buckcherry fans because, well, they evidently like to wallow in offensive shit. At least try to make it interesting and original offensive shit next time, 'kay?

The ugly:

The state of the publishing industry. No, this isn't sour grapes. I'll never be a publishing industry darling. I don't travel on that vibe. But does anyone wonder why book sales suffer when Snooki's A Shore Thing (Oh...it's a pun. Ha.) sells so well? What about NewSouth revision of Huckleberry Finn? I might just have to take my paintbrush to the Mona Lisa and give that coy sister a real smile.

Sometimes I can't stop the rant. Sure, Snooki and crew are just other kids on the playground. But so am I. So are we all. But every playground has bullies. I'm tired of having all this water poured down the spout and them telling us it's wine when it's not. And I have Ray Bradbury to thank for that beautiful image. You da man, Mr. Bradbury.

Hell, it's not even water most of the time. Haters just gotta hate, I guess.

23 comments:

Unknown said...

Snooki has a book? Oh my god, I hope there's a preview on Amazon, because I would love to read a sampling of that mess.

As for the Historical Lovecraft acceptance. Good one! The initial idea I had for a submission has morphed into one more appropriate for their Future Lovecraft anthology. Go figure. Just have to wait a few months before I can submit that one, though.

Aaron Polson said...

Gef - I'm sure it's "polished" but still inane. I mean, how could it not be? Good luck with Future Lovecraft.

Cate Gardner said...

Congratulations. I hope you performed the happy dance.

I have no idea who Snooki is and have no interest in finding out. :D

Ken Boling said...

Now Aaron, you too used to be a horny 15-year old. Although, I guess Zeppelin is probably better than Buckcherry.

Aaron Polson said...

Cate - Stay blissfully ignorant on the Snooki front. ;)

Ken - From what I remember, you were the horny one. Zeppelin rules! (You should know your baby-blue Cutlass has made it into one of my books)

Barry said...

Agreed on The Bad. Matter of fact, I find most modern "rock music" a travesty. Buckcherry is among the worst, but they share their ranks with the recycled fecal matter that is Nickelback, Three Doors Down, and other Top 40 pop rock.

Sigh...yeah, don't get me started.

Aaron Polson said...

I'm afraid I already have, Barry. ;)

Rebecca Nazar said...

Gotta love Innsmouth--Congrats : )

Fox Lee said...

Snookie wrote a book? I see. Well, if you need me I'll be applying for Japanese citizenship.

Michael Stone said...

Congrats on getting into a lovely looking publication. That's one heckuva cover.

As for Buckcherry and Snooki, they haven't travelled across the pond yet. I remain in blissful ignorance.

Unknown said...

The Snooki shit needs to end. I hope that the initial surge of sales is all it gets.

You guys should check out The Black Keys for some of the only modern music that doesn't suck.

Laura Eno said...

I'm ignorant of both Snooki and Buckcherry - and proud of it. :)

K.C. Shaw said...

Congrats on the sale! That's the important part. Everything else is flotsam and can safely be ignored. (Ah, if only it were so easy.)

Aaron Polson said...

Thanks, Becca.

Not a bad idea, Natalie.

Mike - Thanks. Oh to be an ocean away...

Tony - I dig the Black Keys. Good one.

Laura - If only I didn't spend 40 hours a week with teenagers.

Thanks, KC. And you're very right. If only it were that easy...

Lee Thompson/Thomas Morgan/James Logan/Julian Vaughn said...

Congrats, man! Great cover! I don't know what a Snooki (?) is but it sounds dangerous. :P

Katey said...

God, Buckcherry--no. No I won't get started. I can't. Just--

No.

But the Historical Lovecraft thing looks so badass, that almost makes up for it.

As for the Huck Finn controversy, I saw this tweet that Levar Burton RT'd the other day. It said: I'm going to delete all the occurances of the words "Huckleberry Finn" from my NWA albums. That made me giggle. And when I laugh, I always feel better.

Robert said...

Well, considering that Snooki's book just came out this week, it has yet to be seen how well it's selling, so let's not assume it's going to be a bestseller quite yet. Now having said that, it's books like these that make it possible for publishers to release ACTUAL books, i.e. good material. Sort of a necessary evil if that makes sense.

Martin Rose said...

Congrats! For you, that is, not Snooki.

Ken Boling said...

Got a Kindle for X-Mas Aaron. You'll be happy to know your 2 books of stories were my first download. I'll have to look for the Cutlass in there.

Anonymous said...

Congrats, sir! Your whining is hereby forgiven.

Simon Kewin said...

I have no idea who Buckcherry are! But many congrats on the Lovecraft thing : great stuff.

Damien Walters said...

Congrats on your acceptance! And yes, I agree with you on that song and Snooki? I finally had to look her up and well, I can say that's one book I won't be buying. :)

K. Allen Wood said...

I love Buckcherry, but that song is terrible. The tongue-in-cheek sexuality that was the foundation of many 80s-rock songs seems to be lost on some of the newer rock bands playing that older style.

But aside from that song, and a few crass, pro-drug songs, they're a great band.