I write novels and short stories with classical music playing, listening to the same station my parents listen to when I was growing up. The music flows through my work. My work has been described as having musical qualities that include rhythm and mood. I think about sentences and word options giving my prose a measured and reflective nature.
When working with my wonderful editors, I am constantly reminded that I am writing scripts for myself that I will narrate aloud to an audio recording. I think about that audio performance while crafting each phrase, each paragraph. As a dyslexic writer, most of my “books” are read to me by other narrators. I desire a good performance in others and wish to provide that to my audience. If I get ornate with my language on the page, I stumble on the tape.
When folk state that they occasionally hear ragtime or a concerto or a folk song in my writing I feel warm and pleased.
New England
I am a native New Englander and as proud of that as anyone can be of their home. New England is no better, no worse, than any other dot on a map. This place just happens to be my dot. I was born in Boston (at Boston Lying Inn, a name you can still find in a mosaic tile at a still famous hospital). My brother was born in Vermont. I call both places home. The terrain, flora, fauna are elements of my writing that help me tell an emotional story and emphasize conflicts.
Someone wrote “[Aiken’s] imagery—especially involving nature, weather, or decaying structures—often carries symbolic weight. However, the symbolism is understated rather than overtly allegorical.” I’ll accept that. Cool.
Noting a pattern with the TV game show Jeopardy!, I often heard the phrase “southern writer”. When hearing that on Jeopardy!, think first “Faulkner” then finish the clue refining your answer. America celebrates western writers and southern writers. And yet, New England writers often fall into the landscape of American writers as the “default”. You don’t have to look far for authors in Vermont or Massachusetts. It is possible that Vermont with its half-million residents has more authors per capita than any other state.
Waking up to clear air snow many winter mornings is wonderful (unless: March).
I had an editor point out that I keep saying: “mud season” and that I ought to call it “the rainy season” on “monsoon season” occasionally. Then I understood that folks don’t know that our mud season is not the result of rains, but the physics of dirt roads thawing from the top down. As frost recedes, mud forms on top because the liquid water can’t drain to the aquifer below. There is a massive layer of ice just below the surface trapping water. Thus, we get vernal pools in the forest, and mud on roads that swallows small cars.
Hundreds of miles east of the Great Lakes, we get “Lake Effect Snow” (unless Erie freezes). My town is one of several towns in Vermont and New York that get bonus snow by living on the leeward side of the mountains. A snow alpine valley.
I miss our dying accents (even mine).
Every place is special. Every place has idiosyncrasies. My keyboard and office are in Vermont.
Characters
I read last night that story require “flawed characters.” I don’t refute that, but wish some authors to dial the emphasis down a bit. Write me wonderfully rich, full, complete characters. The flaws shall reveal themselves if your characters ring true. Flaws are strengths. Strengths are flaws.
Having held jobs that require integrity and authority, I love exploring the burdens one gains through a life in public service. I have spent decades walking into horrible disastrous messes. I take command. I bring the calm. I trigger the right resources, and yet, these characteristics fail me in the wrong context. Yay for me.
There exists ambiguity between right and wrong which one of my characters captures by saying: “Follow the law, follow the rules, and if all else fails, do the right thing.” I love that interplay.
And because I have often found myself isolated within community, I place my characters in similar moral places.
Tension
I read one author state that stories must have “tension.” When I compare my writing to the works of others, I recognize the tension I create is understated centering on my characters internal struggles, regrets, memories, and the responsibilities that they carry.
On American television, we must resolve plots and get characters into their reset position in a 42 minute hour. I keep asking: what if this doesn’t happen? What if our heroes don’t rise up each week and return to the same baseline.
I have responded to over 10,000 emergency calls as an EMT, paramedic, and firefighter. I have deployed into hurricanes and spent a year in Iraq (2006) during a burgeoning civil war. I’ve been up to my elbows in death and horror. The impact of these decades is that I get bored with classic (and literal) cliff hangers. Therefore, I ask myself, ‘can I create tension in the space between?’
Can tension be interstitial?
Last year, I made a social media post asking
Is it possible to write a thriller without a McGuffin?
Is it possible to write a mystery without a dead body?
Is it possible to write a romance with only one character?
Is it possible to write fantasy without magic?
Maybe impressionist painters asked a related question: Can I paint an image without a line?
“Other”
Our use of the word “other” in the 2020s fills a gap long recognized in literature. I found myself in Camus’ “The Stranger” and in the settings of so many stories. “Other” is a modern twice on our existential crisis.
My characters are almost always “other” because I am and have been all of my life. I write from this “other” space. But then as I write my characters, I rarely describe their other-ness as a characteristic (benefit, superpower, or flaw). I use prose, setting, and events to allow readers to understand “other-ness” in context.
My sistah-by-another-mistah said of my character Alex Flynn, “Alex’s gender is the least interesting and least important thing about Alex.” I wrote Alex into three novels and never once touched this topic, but let the reader feel the Alex’s isolation, moral conflicts, discrimination based on Alex’s own integrity, skills, ambitions, and decision making.
Values
My team and I often submit short stories and novels to organizations who recognize authors with awards. I am happy to grab them. In submission, I am frequently required to espouse specific values. I have often fallen short. I’ve been denied due to my use of Anglo-Saxon phrasing–I strive to write the way people talk. Sorry/not-sorry. In response to Craft Literary and others, I affirm that: I do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation.
Yet, I get very stuck on the requirement that I do not discriminate “for any other reason.” I am judgy as shit. I offer hate to haters. I call out folks to swear an oath to the U.S. Constitution then foment insurrection, kill humans, and persecute others in violation of that oath, I offer contempt. Please also know that I regard the use of generative artificial intelligence as simple theft of intellectual property. I reserve the right to call you a thief, a disparaging term.
Catalyst Press
I am proud of my affiliation with Catalyst Press, the team there, and the stable of writers connected by the bounds of paper & glue (books?).
Substack
Apparently modern search engines don’t love Substack but I like Substack and tend to be active there.
Trowbridge Dispatch (https://TrowbridgeDispatch.IamAiken.com) is a series of short stories that revolve around the characters of my novels. Thus, I answer the question, what do characters do while waiting on the next novel to appear. I try to write with humor, irony, internal conflict, and expose a bit of myself (and my characters) to you, my readers. These stories tend to revolve around public service, public safety, fire service, emergency medical services, military folks and the land/culture of New England. I narrated these myself. Please don’t hit the AI-driven reader knob (ouch).
Free Thoughts of a Writer Writing (about Writing) Freely (https://www.IamAiken.org/) is a free subscription where I get to explore (and rant) about aspects of publishing, writing, and aspects of my life that impact my writing. I was in hospital for 11 days with bilateral fractured wrists during the publication of novel #2 (Stolen Mountain). Being a dyslexic author who loves to write. And 2026, exploring censorship in our industry.