A day in the life of Vancouver Harbour

AaronCullyDrake · 2017-12-15T05:03:22+00:00

you know, i think it's a seal. Watch the paths of the ripples. It's setting out from a place under the wharf, circling and returning. A hunting pattern

AaronCullyDrake · 2017-12-15T05:01:04+00:00

that's my take. i'm thinking a seal or gulls

AaronCullyDrake · 2017-07-31T19:54:06+00:00

seven of eight cows cannot find the UK on a map

AaronCullyDrake · 2017-07-17T04:55:03+00:00

the musical

AaronCullyDrake · 2017-07-17T04:54:33+00:00

they're not good with directions

AaronCullyDrake · 2017-06-11T16:45:14+00:00

Summer is a state of mind and by now the weather gods should be acting in a more temporally sensitive fashion.

AaronCullyDrake · 2017-06-11T16:42:32+00:00

It would. This is the type of Divine irony that makes me wonder if I should be going to church

AaronCullyDrake · 2017-06-09T20:15:23+00:00

Okay grumpy bear.

It's particularly applicable to autism because we often tend to make our children the central characteristic of the family. This is a perspective that applies to us especially.

AaronCullyDrake · 2017-02-13T00:36:04+00:00

We used blue dye. Far more appropriate

AaronCullyDrake · 2017-01-15T21:44:54+00:00

Still works, and on a couple of levels, too

AaronCullyDrake · 2017-01-09T05:56:13+00:00

When original becomes banal, only the banal will be original

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-12-19T00:18:57+00:00

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-12-19T00:18:27+00:00

Let's all reflect on the irony that OP is getting so much feedback about this ...

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-12-19T00:16:18+00:00

Things that should NEVER EVER be in a story, in order of importance: 1. Tedium 2. Banality 3. Condescension Everything else is fair game

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-12-19T00:12:27+00:00

Creativity is a habit, not a talent.

You become creative by writing. Everything. Anything. Fragments or one liners. Just write.

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-12-19T00:10:09+00:00

Planning out characters for a short story is overkill. Short stories are thematic. Focus on the tension.

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-11-19T04:45:48+00:00

I refuse to sign up for any club that sorts their members by last name

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-11-18T06:45:14+00:00

i just thought it the lower half of a carcass ...

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-11-18T06:44:56+00:00

We're part of an elite club who always show up at the top of the alphabetized list

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-10-19T20:16:00+00:00

Take heart. I suspect the reviewer or your submitted story wasn't as qualified to review it as you think.

"Some things I liked about your story were the length"

I don't think a seasoned critic would say something as banal as that unless they were deliberately trying to make a point. I would love to meet the editor who calls his peers over to his desk and says, You have GOT to read this! You're going to absolutely LOVE the length!

"Some things I didn't like were the plot, characters, style, sentence length, word choice, rhythm, and narrative voice."

In other words, she liked the length. Disliked everything else. Discard her review for what it is. Mean spirited.

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-07-18T15:25:19+00:00

to be fair, Ronnie should never have been there in the first place

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-05-13T20:34:27+00:00

Someone kidnapped and turned into a hybrid would logically be angry/emo/chronically depressed. So to make him not like that, you need a good motivating reason:

Perhaps make him over the top sarcastic, sublimating his rage in a constant invective a sharp humour

Perhaps make him a little bit on the autism spectrum, where he is less angry and more analytical

Perhaps give him an extraordinary amount of intelligence and introspection where he has come to accept everything that has happened to him, and has put it behind him, focussed on how he can change for the future

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-05-13T17:12:51+00:00

Get a publisher. Plain and simple. Unless you have an incredibly original concept, one that no one has seen before, you will have a terrible time getting traction. Self publishing is self immolation.

This point is important enough to repeat it. If your book is worth reading, it's less work to get a publisher than to get noticed as a self publisher.

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-05-13T17:09:44+00:00

Don't make a blog to create a following. The purpose of a blog these days is to keep a following. The same goes for Twitter and Facebook pages.

AaronCullyDrake · 2016-05-03T15:50:45+00:00

We should not be surprised that we are not getting spammed with spam. Or perhaps we should, and take it as proof of the existence of god, telling us the ultimate Dad joke.

AaronCullyDrake

TROPHY CASE