Aaron Pogue

If you want to check out my books, go to Amazon (or your favorite bookstore) and search my name. Start with Taming Fire if you like books with dragons. Start with Surveillance if you're into crime and tech. Start with The Arcade if you're into code, art, or entrepreneurship.

Tonight I came home from the bar at 11:30pm and taught my 17-year-old son what "Hootie hoo!" means.

The bad thing about moving from the Big XII to the SEC is that even your dominating wins feel like losses because the total score is less than 50.

My new favorite basketball player is 7'-tall-John-Mayer on the OKC Thunder.

Yes, but time also creates all wounds.

As I keep telling y'all, everything costs what it's worth.

I like to take the wrapper off, To peel away the cellophane And break the little sticker seal. It feels a little bit profane. I like to lift the top away And peek inside the fancy box. To take a crack at something new Like bank thieves skilled at picking locks. It's fun to hope and wonder what you've got. It's not the same as having what you want. What's old gets worn and soon begins to rot. What's fresh and new feels easier to flaunt. I'm not that good at gratitude. Familiar starts to feel like fate. I don't like to accept my role; I do like to anticipate. I like to dream of what could be, To fantasize how it might go. I must confess my heart grows bored. It's sweeter far to hope than know. It's fun to hope and wonder what you've got. It's not the same as having what you want. What's old gets worn and soon begins to rot. What's fresh and new feels easier to flaunt. I wish that I were steadier. I wish I didn't reach for stars. I wish I'd learned to love my lot Like fireflies in Mason jars. I can't. I hate to sit so still. I yearn. I hunger for the dawn And new frontiers and distant shores. I'll burn the ships and carry on. It's fun to hope and wonder what you've got. It's not the same as having what you want. What's old gets worn and soon begins to rot. What's fresh and new feels easier to flaunt. A man might tear his life apart For just a taste of something new. Sometimes escape seems good as gold. That's how I feel when I see you.

Everything is going to be okay. I promise.

Every now and then I go to the bar, order a beer, and then act like a dude who has a Master's degree in storytelling.

Character Design: Mythic Narrative You can leverage myth in your storytelling to make the characters more interesting, more memorable, and easier to write. You're probably used to answering questionnaires about your character's interests and motivation. This is similar, but it's about connecting your character to the epic templates your readers already know (whether they know it or not). To keep it simple, I'm going to describe mythic characterization as three broad categories: - primal - relational - divinity I could have said "spiritual" to keep the pattern going, but that third one is very much about gods and what it's like to be one. Let's go through them in reverse order. Divinity Greek mythology loves stories about the personalities of gods and how they interfere in the lives of mortals. (I won't point out that the Bible does, too.) Heroes in Greek mythology are usually the child of a god and a mortal. The gods themselves appear as characters, but rarely as protagonists. That role is usually reserved to heroes and humans. There's already a storytelling lesson there: your protagonist doesn't need to be the most powerful character in the story, but he does need to be the most interesting. You do that by focusing the story at the human level and letting divinity loom over and outside the story you're telling. Relational More than telling big stories, myths specialize in telling meaningful stories. Meaning can come from a man's relationship to the gods, but it comes just as often from his relationship to his mother and father, his relationship to his nation and people, his relationship to his true love or his prophesied destiny. Every love story is at least a little bit mythic. The power of romances comes from tapping into the relational drama we've all gone through, and focusing intensely on its impact in your protagonist's life. Primal I almost called this category "Elemental," because the quick way to tell a primal story is to focus on the primal elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Wildfires and floods, earthquakes and tornadoes. "Man against nature" stuff. But as I said before, myths aren't about bigness, they're about meaning. Using primal elements in your stories is most effective when you use them to strip away the artifice of society and force your protagonist to grapple with the reality that's outside of society. He could be stranded in the wilderness, fighting wild beasts (or fantastic monsters) in a desperate bid for survival. He might be the only man who survived a flood or a normal dude who gained the power to control magical fire. "The reality that's outside society" doesn't have to be the ordinary kind of reality. It's still fiction, after all. Primal storytelling is about tapping into the primitive experience of life, with all its scary mysteries and inexplicable forces. How does an ordinary man survive in the dark night alone? What must he overcome? What can he become? Your Turn You don't have to write an epic to use these ideas. The point isn't to write a story that reads like a myth, the point is to use the techniques of myth to make your story feel more meaningful. Think about a story you want to write, a character you want to tell about. It doesn't matter what the story is. Think about your character in these terms. I'm going to ask some questions, and the correct answer is whatever seems more interesting to you. Primal: How does your character interact with the primitive, the elemental, the untamed? Relational: Which relationship is most important to your character? Which relationships dictate the shape of his life? How does he want them to change? Who could fix him by loving him? Divinity: What's your character's relationship to the gods? Is he one of them? Is he tormented by them? Does he think he's greater than they are? Do any of them adore him? Spend some time with these questions, and see what they do to your story.

On Tuesday night while we were wrapping up He said, "I hope you all will vote next week!" I won't, but for his sake I bit my tongue. I've always had a mild rebellious streak. But this is something else. I've done the math; I know what happens to a vote not cast. It doesn't disappear. It gets spread out. The future's always flowing to the past. If I don't vote, I know my neighbors will: The ones who care enough to do research; The ones who know the issues all by heart; The ones who go to vote like it's their church. Me? I have faith in God to know what's best, That he knows more than me how things should go. I'll leave it in the hands that he ordained And focus on the things I really know. If I don't vote, my vote is prorated— It's spread across the votes my district makes, Divided evenly among my friends, And if they're wrong, I'll share in their mistakes. I'll let my destiny rest in their hands. I'm not afraid. I live among good folk. If they should fail me, and God does, too, My vote alone could not cast off that yoke. I trust my neighbors and my God too much To waste my time demanding better kings. I'd rather spend my life on what I love Than fret about the things tomorrow brings.