I’ve reconsidered having “First Chapters” as a separate navigation category. I’m still keeping the tag, but I’m moving First Chapter posts into Stories, and then displaying tags for first-chapters in the list. Technically, a “First Chapter” is a type of story, so this makes sense in my head. I also don’t want the navigation to be too large since I’m adding another category.

Oh, and I’m adding a new category: Sketches.

Sometimes I get an idea stuck in my head for a book. When this happens, I’ve found the best thing I can do is write the first chapter of the book. I suppose I could just write the idea down, but that always ends up being dry; it fails to capture the essence of the idea.

Writing the first chapter forces me to get out much more than the idea. It helps me establish the protagonist, the prose, the environment, and much more. It takes longer, but by the time I’m writing a first chapter, chances are likely I’ve had this idea in my head for a while.

I need to get it out. Otherwise, it’s a distraction from my primary writing.

I’ve added a reviews section to my website today. These are not intended to be unbiased reviews. Indeed, I aim for the opposite. My reviews will be exactly what I personally like/dislike about a book. If I pick something apart, it’s because I want to and not necessarily that I think it’s important to others. If you read my reviews, take them with a large, Aaron-sized grain of salt. Just because I like something doesn’t mean you will. Just because I hate something doesn’t mean you’ll hate it as well.

So I read a lot of books. I also forget a lot of books. It’s gotten bad enough that I’ve actually read several chapters of a book only to realize I’ve already read it. I get that far because sometimes I can’t tell if the story is actually that generic. So I hope that reviewing books will help me to better remember what I’ve read. It’ll also help me keep a list of the books I’ve read to refer back to if I need to.

Those are all good reason, but not the true reason I want to write reviews. As I’ve mentioned, I read a lot of books and I tend to quickly forget what I’ve read about three chapters into my next book. Reviewing the book forces me to sit back and really think about the book. There’s always things I like or dislike, prose I believe should be done differently, plot holes or clever things I might want to remember. I tend to forget all that as soon as I flip to the next page.

Reviewing the book is way for me to really think about it. In doing so, I hope to make my own writing better. To that effect, you may find me working through the ‘why’ of a failing or success of a mechanic, prose, style, etc. I may pick apart something in the book simply so I can learn more about it. If that’s not the kind of review you want to read, then by no means don’t.

I’ll try to review every book a finish from now on (and probably start reviewing some specific ones I’ve already read). Some reviews will be long, others probably not so much. I hope to have at least one insight into every book I review, but I am not trying to be comprehensive.

If you can remember that these are just my thoughts on a book and nothing more, then I think you may enjoy them. :)

Welcome to my new blog! Mostly, this is a place for me to share my short stories and post any news related to me and writing. I may also end up turning this into my central hub for other writing projects, but that’s for the future.

I’m posting short stories, generally under 10k words, although I’ll rarely post anything so long as that. Most of the time, I’m finding my short stories are between 1k and 3k words, although occasionally I’ll post stuff that’s barely a story at all.

It’s all going to be fiction and probably mostly fiction. I make no guarantees, though. If I get an idea and write a short story from it, even if it’s only a few hundred words, I’ll post it.

Warning: Some of my stuff may be dark or disturbing. I’m not one to shy away from violence or disturbing scenes. I’m also not one to relish in them either. They exist for the story and nothing more.

I’m going to try to post most everything, as long as its finished. It may be good, or it may not be. I rather hope that as I continue to grow as a writer, more and more of the stuff I post will be good.

And that’s it for now. I hope anyone who finds this enjoys my short stories. :-)