Halloween Treats

Treat #1: Being an obsessive Googler of my own name (as all good authors should be, right?), I'm not sure how I missed this lovely review of "Empty Vessels" from Morpheus Tales VIII:

"... modern-day horror story set in the bayou and the Gulf of Mexico after a disastrous flood has drowned hundreds of local people. Elroy Jantz, a boatman who occasionally contracted for shrimp companies, is drafted along with many other small boatmen to retrieve the water-logged bodies from the waters. This was one of the gems of this issue and made for a strong finish. The imagery is dark, but unique, and the development of the reader’s understanding of Elroy’s past is revealed carefully, without stunting the pace of the story."

Read the rest of reviewer Maggie Jamison's take at Tangent Online.

Heck, read "Empty Vessels" for free via Scribd.

Treat #2: Tangent keeps coughing them up...a bit about "Precious Metal" (Albedo One #38) from reviewer Dave Truesdale:

"...Aaron Polson's "Precious Metal" gives a snapshot of a post-collapse world where professional gangs ravage the countryside for anything of value, in this case scrap metal of any sort. Using mob tactics, they regularly extort from one old man who lives in a junkyard and who, on the sly, makes the most wonderful creations. His pride and joy is a mechanical owl who can think (think steampunk here). When the mobsters visit the kindly old man in what turns out to be their final visit, the tragedy turns poignant as we learn the mechanical owl has been imbued with feelings as well as thought. Though reminiscent of the devotion flesh and blood animals feel for their owners/masters (especially dogs), this—for want of a better decription—"emotional vignette" achieves its purpose. The final image is well drawn."

More here.

Treat #3: The incomparable Gef Fox allowed me to write about two of my favorite movies (with the same name): Thing One and Thing Two for the Monster Movie Marathon. I like to talk about monsters...

And finally, Treat #4: Joe Nazare has some author blurbs about their favorite Halloween costumes. The blurbs won't be posted until Halloween, but I suspect I'll be busy. Check it out at http://www.macabre-republic.com.

Moby Effing Dick

Max and Owen caught a number of smallish fish at a city "lake" this morning. We've been fishing a few times this summer with no luck. When Max (sporting the stylish Scooby-Doo fishing pole) reeled in that blue gill, you would have thought he'd caught the great white whale. We are strictly catch-and-release fishermen (as if anyone could find a half-ounce of meat on that poor little fella, anyway). Good times.

Where'd Max get that goofy smile? Must be from his mother's side.

Speaking of hauling things in, "Precious Metal" received a nice write-up in this review of Albedo One #38. Yeah, I smiled when I read it--but it wasn't like catching my first live fish with a bona fide Scooby-Doo pole...

(Okay, so the review has vanished into the ether...I'll post a link when I can find one which isn't broken, 'kay?)

"Precious Metal" Reviewed at SFCrowsnest

"Precious Metal" (from Albedo One #38) has a brief but favorable mention at Stepehn Hunt's SF Crowsnest.

Reviewer Gareth D. Jones uses the words touching, poignant, and valuable, but not necessarily in that order.

Read the review of the whole issue here.

Precious Metal in Albedo One #38

Albedo One #38, including my short-short "Precious Metal" is available for purchase at their website. Check out that gorgeous (and slightly provocative?) cover art.

And...WTF?

My name's on the cover? I'm honored--in this case, being an Irish mag, honoured.

(did I do that right?)

This is one of my many stories in which a premise from a children's book provided the seed for an imaginative romp. In this case, a romp through a junkyard in a post-apocalyptic world in which no one manufactures anything anymore. Leave it to tinkers like Santiago to make things work...

I'm looking forward to reading the interview with living legend James Gunn. (He teaches sci-fi at the University of Kansas here in Lawrence--funny I had to go across the Atlantic to be in the same mag.)

Reviewy-Tuesday

Catching up on some reviews and other news.

I've posted my recommendation of See No Evil, Say No Evil by Matt Betts at Skull Salad.

Jorge Solis of Fangoria.com had some nice things to say about Dead Bait, including my contribution, "Grim Adaptations":

My favorites in the collection are Tim Curran’s “Piraya” and Aaron A. Polson’s “Grim Adaptations.” In both tales, dead fish are reanimated back to life as zombies to feed off of humans...

Luke Reviews covered Monstrous back in May, but I've only recently stumbled across this lovely send up of "A Plague from the Mud":

In this tale, Polson presents us with a slowly evolving tale of dread, as the clues are all there, and we all know what will happen, but we can't turn and look away. This dark piece works that dread well, playing on suspense and short bits of story with lots of breaks, nailing the suspense of the dying town of Monument, Oregon.


Finally (for the review portion of the post), Tom Powers at Small Press Reviews mentioned "Dancing Lessons" while covering Triangulation: Dark Glass.

...a girl poignantly encounters an animated carnival monster who may be her dead father...

In other news,"Precious Metal", a short-short accepted by the venerable Albedo One last year, is due out in their next issue. I'm giddy about this, as Albedo One has a long and storied track record.

Last but not least I found myself listed in the International Science-Fiction Database. They only have two of my shorts listed: "A Plague from the Mud" and "The Ox-Cart Man". Weird to be listed at all. I must be "real".

Oh, and I've added the "followers" bit to the sidebar. I wrestled with it for a while, not wanting to seem to narcissistic, but I think it can be a good social networking tool for visitors. So, there it is.

A Precious Yes

I received word today that "Precious Metal", a 2k word science fantasy, will appear in Albedo One some time in the future. Very stoked. "Precious Metal" was a bit of a content departure for me, and I'm glad she found a home--and Albedo One is a cool mag, to boot.

I'm still trucking with Rock Gods...crested 7K total today. I'm not sure I can keep up the pace, but I want to write while the fingers are hot. I think the ol' boys have another five hundred words in 'em.

Happy NaNo!