Catching up

In the spirit of not falling off the face of the earth, here is the State of the Aaron address.

 In have a cold. Other than Maryland trying to kill me through various medical means back in August, I got through 2012 pretty much cootie-free. As such, a balance needed to be maintained so I got hit with your standard Pacific Northwest Death Cold three days before I had to head down to California to see family. This is as fun as you can imagine.

 Netbook asploded. Well, it didn't so much asplode as much as give me the compact computer equivalent of the finger and saying "You're not the boss of me." Got an Asus Vivobook today. Fantastically sexy piece of work. I can turn it on at 10:30, and at 10:32 I'm writing. After having a Dell for the past 2+ years, you might understand why this makes me giddy.

 From the Better Late Than Never Dept: Got another story published! Unfortunately, it was back in December and I suck at self promotion. It was through UK publishers Spinetinglers. It's a story for Christmas time, you can read it here.

From the Learning From My Mistakes Dept.: Got another story published! My tale, The King In Yellow's New Clothes, will be part of the future Dread Time Tales anthology through Alter Press. Watch this space.

In closing, here's a picture of Charro

Bottled Abyss- Benjamin Kane Ethridge

Bottled Abyss by Benjamin Kane Ethridge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was introduced to Ethridge's work last year with Black & Orange which easily became one of my favorite books of the year. Ethridge's talent for turning folklore and myth into his own device stays strong in his new book, Bottled Abyss. The story initially starts off about Herman and Janet, a married couple who lost their young daughter recently to a hit and run driver, and all the trauma which that entails. While looking for their lost dog, Herman meets Charon the Boatman, and learns first hand the power of the Boatman's bottle. This spirals Herman and Janet's life down a dark spiral of horror, insanely dark realms of Greek mythology, and a glimpse of how genuinely damaged people can be.

Honestly it was that last facet of the book that made reading it such a visceral experience. As mentioned before, Ethridge is a master of creating a new world out of old myth. His legendary figures take on a new life that is vastly entertaining to read. I, however, was just amazed at how well he fleshed out the four main characters of the book, and how each of them were experiencing lives that were broken to a point where the dark myths that permeated the story almost took a back seat. It made the book incredibly hard to put down.

The resolution of the story is as terrifying in implication as it is in what is made known. If he ever did a sequel to it, I'd honestly be intimidated to read it. All in all, a fantastic, dark read from a consistently talented writer. Five stars definitely.

View all my reviews

Review: The Neon Court- Kate Griffin

The Neon Court by Kate Griffin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been a huge fan of the series since I first discovered A Madness of Angels. Griffin's world of Urban Fantasy makes me think of what Jim Butcher would do if he was stuck on an island with a copy of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, a complete collection of the Hellblazer comics, and no coffee. The world that main character Matthew Swift lives in is one of an amazing mythos, but it's a very modern one. There are beings within it that are from folklore (Such as the Neon Court in this book.) but they're existing and identified in a contemporary setting. This creates a fantastic atmosphere that gives one the feeling that Magic exists if you just look down an alley the wrong (or right) way.

The Neon Court differs slightly in tone from the first two books in the series in that the storyline pretty much takes place in the world that Swift has created/been thrown into as it stand right now. The first two books dealt with his resurrection and his advancement into the role he plays in London's magical underworld right now. The Neon Court has no real advancements of the character plot-wise that I could see, but I haven't read the fourth one yet, which could make me look like a complete idiot for saying this.

One stand alone comment: Griffin likes to break her toys. I did not see some things that happened to what I thought were major characters coming.

Definitely a good read and time well spent. Four stars.

View all my reviews

Just a thought.

75 years ago today, Howard Phillips Lovecraft died. What did you do today?

Rest in Peace, you magnificent bastard.

Fun with moving

I've been trying to get into using Twitter more simply because it's proven to be an absolute treasure trove of great ideas coming together in real time. As I'm going to start the horrendous process of moving (Moving is intrinsically horrendous, even when it's simple. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.), I decided that I will tweet about it in the style of H.P. Lovecraft. Also, I just want to use the #uhaulofcthulhu hashtag.

Also, if you're in tweet space, add me. I add you back like an unquestioning whore. @ajbesson

Good day is good

Just received the e-mail this morning; New Apartment Achievement is unlocked. Hopefully will be able to move  in by mid-March. This will undoubtedly be one of the easiest moving experiences in the history of the sordid act. The new domicile, which will either be christened the Citadel of Nastiness or Mad McCready's International House of WTF, is a block away from where I currently live. This means that I can simply walk the majority of my possessions over to the new place, making the moving of the remainder of the big stuff a short process. My personal stuffs are few, as I'm not a fan of lots of stuff. At any rate, go me.

Just finished reading this

Lovely piece of work, edited by a gentleman who went to my alma mater, Sonoma State University. Overall, an excellent read. Not all the stories revolve around Ol' Squidface. In fact, many of the stories in the anthology go quite far in the expanding upon the bizarre nature of the Cthulhu mythos. A couple of the stories were so abstract that I unfortunately had to give up on them. (No, I'm not going to tell you which ones they are, as YMMV.) At any rate, with writers such as Brian Lumley, Cherie Priest, Charles Stross, and Ramsey Campbell in the mix, you can't go wrong. Four out of five stars.

Also, got a Pinterest account today. Don't know yet if it's social media craze that's going to sweep the nation, but damn it if some people don't take awesome pictures. If you want to add me on it, you can do so here.

Also, I forgot how incredible this band was. Miranda Sex Garden. Madrigal singers with a love for Nick Cave.

You're welcome.

Google+ Tango

My G+ account was linked to a gmail account that I hardly ever use anymore. Got tired of having to log out, then in again to see what was going on in G+ (FIRST!WORLD!PROBLEMS!). Since Google doesn't allow you to migrate your G+ account, I just started a new one. Add me here.