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Aaron Burch

@aaronburch.bsky.social

Author: TACOMA; A KIND OF IN-BETWEEN; YEAR OF THE BUFFALO; STEPHEN KING'S THE BODY; BACKSWING Editor: HAD; Short Story, Long (on Substack) https://linktr.ee/aaronburch

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Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · yesterday

Listened to this interview with Matt Johnson like 5 months ago, and loved it, then finally saw Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie a couple weeks ago and so relistened to the interview just now and loved it even more. Would love to listen to some more great interview with Johnson. Any faves?

Paramount Wins Warner Bros. Now What? Plus: ‘Scream 7,’ Heat 2,’ and ‘Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie’ With Matt Johnson!

Podcast Episode · The Big Picture · February 27 · 2h 12m

podcasts.apple.com

Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 2d ago

Finally saw The Odyssey, *mostly* just so I could listen to all these podcasts eps about it that have been stockpiling on my drive to WriterCamp in a couple days...

Dave Housley@housleydave.bsky.social · 3d ago

Editor badges ready for our 20th (!!!) @barrelhouse.bsky.social Writer Camp. See you good weirdos soon, @aaronburch.bsky.social, @livesinpages.bsky.social, @mikeingram.bsky.social, @danbrady82.bsky.social, @embfitz.bsky.social, @beckybarnard.bsky.social, @cdcurtiss.bsky.social.

Barrelhouse Writer Camp editor badges.
Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 3w ago

July 18 story: “The Illusionist” by Danny McBride Can already tell I’m just going to become really annoying about this book. It’s basically the kinds of stories I write and most love and often publish as an editor, with through McBride’s sensibilities and humor. Really great.

GREG WAS TAPPED OUT. He'd tried. He thought he could muster a second wind, some energyany energy—but it was looking like a Nab, kid. He didn't have it in him, nothing left in the tank. He was going to quit, break his word, go back on all his boasts and promises. Oh, God. How fucking embarrassing There were going to be repercussions if he quit. He could picture them so easily: Linda would be upset. She'd scream. "I told you so!" His kids would be disappointed "Whatever." "Lame." His friends would laugh behind his back. "What the hell was that idiot thinking?" Roy, his brother, would be the worst, because Roy would try to make him feel better about it. "Dude, you tried. That's all that matters." But that wasn't all that mattered. All that mattered was that Greg finish what he started. If he couldn't stay inside this glass box suspended by a crane in the middle of the mall for a full month like he d advertised, then the stunt was a fail. Worse, it would mean that Greg wasn't the gifted magician he'd told everyone he was. He was no fucking Harry Houdini or even Lorenzo the Laotian, and he hated Lorenzo the Laotian. He thought Lorenzo the Laotian was a total hack. Lorenzo did basic escape techniques but dressed goth and acted like he was a magic devil or something. Shot lasers from his fingers. Flashy and dumb. That's why Greg chose to do a simple, basic escape trick like surviving through something that seems, to the common man, utterly impossible. He had underestimated the leg cramping, for sure. He didn't love the half-assed patchy beard growing on his face. The food program was also not working; he was shitting and pissing more than he wanted. He had to pull out the black sheet and cover the glass walls of the box so the shoppers in the mall below didn't see him take aHand holding hardcover: THRILLING TALES OF MODERN MEN, short stories by Danny McBride
Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 3w ago

July 16 story: “Gerald’s Wife” by Danny McBride First few stories are 30-60 pages each, so I jumped to this one, the shortest in the book. I was kinda sure it would be, but still almost annoying how good it is. Almost like a Carver story written by DT or Maloney or Birnie or one of us.

Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 3w ago

I'm so sick of, and annoyed and frustrated by, AI that I don't even really have any interest in anti-AI stuff, but I enjoyed and appreciated and cheered on and felt inspired by every sentence in this @jrobertlennon.com piece.

EPOCH@epochliterary.com · 3w ago

73.2 is at the printer, and 74.1 opens for submissions in two weeks! Please note we have a new AI policy that you can read on our submission page (TL;DR: we don't want AI-generated text), and a blog post from our editor on the subject, linked below.

Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 3w ago

me, looking at myself, after I have a "great idea" for a story, but it's just another 'flash forward future tense moment' or 'a character saying he's never told anyone that before' or 'a big, zoomed-out, "jesus' son-y" description' move that I've used a hundred times before

Nurse Dana from The Pitt, glasses dropped down to tip of nose, eyes giving a "c'mon, get real" look over them
Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 3w ago

July 16 story: “Gerald’s Wife” by Danny McBride First few stories are 30-60 pages each, so I jumped to this one, the shortest in the book. I was kinda sure it would be, but still almost annoying how good it is. Almost like a Carver story written by DT or Maloney or Birnie or one of us.

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Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 3w ago

July 15 story: “Downburst” by @jonathanin2k.bsky.social Really dug this one! Have read the first two stories so far, and the book is 2 for 2.

Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 3w ago

Printed out the short story manuscript for yet another pass. I think it’s MOSTLY all bangers. Just gotta try to figure out which are the skips and if I’m wrong about them or if I should makes some cuts and still need to write a few more…

Table of Contents OYSTERS HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS TRUTH & ANSWERS & BEAUTY & MAGIC & AN IDEA SHARKS KEEP MOVING RAMBLING, SIDLING, ABSOLVED, CRADLED FREESTANDING ANY NUMBER OF MOMENTS THE BOWLING STORY AROUND THE WORLD THE WORLD CAN GET AWAY FROM YOU WHEN YOU'RE NOT CAREFUL TWO TACOS JOURNAL OF THE RIDICULOUS INTERROBANG EXECUTIVES ORCAS; OR, LIFE & ART & MAGIC & BEAUTY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 3w ago

If you trade manuscripts with me for feedback, I’m gonna print it out on the printer on campus to read and mark-up… which means you can probably go ahead and add to your CV that it was “published by University of Michigan.”

Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 3w ago

July 13 story: “Careful” by Raymond Carver Been rereading a bunch’a faves (Ford, Houston, Bradford), so figured I could go for some Carver, too. One of my faves. Whoever owned this used copy before me noted this story on the toc as “Ear.”

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Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 3w ago

July 12 story: “Taking Care” by Joy Williams Was pretty sure I’d read this one before but… maybe actually not? Lots of amazing moments and sentences and paragraphs, but overall, not *totally* my storytelling tastes.

Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 3w ago

July 12 story: “Taking Care” by Joy Williams Was pretty sure I’d read this one before but… maybe actually not? Lots of amazing moments and sentences and paragraphs, but overall, not *totally* my storytelling tastes.

First page of story: Jones, the preacher, has been in love all his life. He is baffled by this because as far as he can see, it has never helped anyons, even when they have acknowledged it, which is not citen. Jones's love is much too apparent and arouses neglect. He is like an animal in a traveling show who, through some aberra-tion, wears a vital organ outside the skin, awkward and unfortu-nate, something that shouldn't be seen, certainly something that shouldn't be watched working. Now he sits on a bed beside his wife in the self-care unit of a hospital fifteen miles from their home. She has been committed here for tests. She is so weak, so tired. There is something wrong with her blood. Her arms are covered with bruises where they have gone into the veins. Her hip, too, is blue and swollen where they have drawn out samples of bone marrow. All of this is frightening. The doctors are severe and wise, answering Jones's questions in a way that makes him feel hopelessly deaf. They have told him that there really is no such thing as a disease of the blood, for the blood is not a living tissue but a passive vehicle for the transportation of food, oxygen and waste. They have told him that abnormalities in the blood corpuscles, which his wife seems to have, must be regarded as symptoms of disease elsewhere in the body. They have shown him, upon request, slides and charts of normal and pathological blood cells which look to Jones like canapés. They speak (for he insists) of leukocyto-sis, myelocytes and megaloblasts. None of this takes hand holding paperback: Taking Care by Joy Williams Jr
Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 4w ago

July 11 story: “The Resident Poet” by Katherine Dunn Someone on Substack told me this was “the only good one” in this book, and so, after being underwhelmed with the first few, I skipped to this one, and indeed it’s great. Probs too easily reductive but kinda reminded me of Gaitskill or Mary Miller

Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 4w ago

What it looks & feels like when you’re ~1/2 done with a story and kiiiiinda have an idea for what else should happen but no real idea how to get there or what to actually do next…

photo of an approximately half done puzzle, with buffalo and landscape done but top half empty and it is all just blue and white pieces for sky and puzzle
Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 4w ago

thinking about how one of the cool things about artists who keep making more and more about a handful of the same ideas/themes/fascinations/obsessions/etc. is you gotta get kinda creative to revisit without just repeating and that often leads somewhere interesting

Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 4w ago

July 11 story: “The Resident Poet” by Katherine Dunn Someone on Substack told me this was “the only good one” in this book, and so, after being underwhelmed with the first few, I skipped to this one, and indeed it’s great. Probs too easily reductive but kinda reminded me of Gaitskill or Mary Miller

first page of story: The Resident Poet AT HIS REQUEST, I am hiding in the parking lot. Every time lights show on the road, I jump behind a tree or crouch beside one of the cold parked cars. I don't really care whether I'm seen or not, but I do plan to emerge mysteriously when he drives up. Impress him with my discretion, my knowledge of the surreptitious. But the rain is ruining my effect. I'm beginning to get angry. Who does he think would see us? Or care? I consider going back to my room and making a sign to hold up at passing cars: 1 AM WAITING TO SCREW MR. LUCAS, THE RESIDENT POET! My mascara is running into the pouches beneath my eyes. I can feel the thin mud of powder on my forehead and cheeks beginning to slide. The lights from the dormitories and the dining hall glow on the hill. No shapes around them, only blackness, and theNear Flesh, stories by Katherine Dunn
Aaron Burch@aaronburch.bsky.social · 4w ago

July 9 story: “How to Talk to a Hunter” by Pam Houston I like reading a new-to-me story every day, but I reread some Richard Ford a few days ago and it kinda got me itching to reread some Houston. This book is a real all-timer for me, and this story was such a fun revisit.