Aaron Burch

first page of story: MARRIED TO THE STREETS ISSUES OF RACE AND GENDER ASIDE, anyone who knows me can vouch for the fact that I am as rude, anti-social, mistrusting and belligerent a London cunt as ever there was. The best way I can describe the relationship between me and the city I was born in is an inverted psychogeography. Rather than a person or people infusing the city's lifeless bricks with meaning, the city possessed me and molded my terrible personality into something that suited it. And not just my personality, the way I walk: swagger. The way I loiter on a street corner: Turpinesque. The way I speak: guttural. The way I think: saturated with a vindictive Victorian moralism that could not have its roots in any other place. I have, on occasion, wondered how I might've turned out if, instead of gravitating toward western Europe in an attempt to escape their uncertain fates, my parents' parents had ended up in America. Would I have grown into a self-as-sured, boundary-respecting 'tragic mulatto' with my eyes on the Presidency? Or the errant Black Lives Matter activist who…

paperback short story collection: MAN HATING PSYCHO, Iphgenia Baal

“Issues of race and gender aside, anyone who knows me can vouch for the fact that I am as rude, anti-social, mistrusting and belligerent a London cunt as ever there was.” is a helluva way to start a short story.

I think LAST DAYS is a great start. Or really almost any story. “Windeye” is a good start:

www.pw.org/content/wind...

One of the many reasons AI can't produce good writing is it can't hate its own writing. It can't think to itself "Maybe I'm illiterate" during the writing process. And that's essential

my gf’s job is “clicking”

Gonna do another wave of querying my novel THE LAST LOCK-IN, pitching it as romantasy (it is about the 15 year old's fantasy of being in a romance).

“Dipshits” by Kirsti MacKenzie “My husband made me a promise, once,” she says. “He said, if I go first I’m gonna haunt the shit out of you.”

Oh man! Okay! So! Buddy comedy? Love story? Prayer? You got it. Don’t let the crude title fool you - this sweet story has the biggest chunk of my heart, and it’s yours now.

I’m so, so proud of this one. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it 😊 open.substack.com/pub/ashortst...

told you! :)

there’s bigger problems than it being a depressing bummer, but that so many of (all??) the richest and most powerful men are such boring dummies is a real depressing bummer about how the world works

It’s maybe a misdirect, and I’m curious if others will see it or if I’m just so Evenson-pilled, but it was the first thing that grabbed me… and then it just shoots off from there!

I say this in my intro, but the opening to this new one feels kinda Evenson-y, in a way that feels real Bell-and-Burch-coded, and that I think you'll appreciate and love!

“Dipshits” by Kirsti MacKenzie “My husband made me a promise, once,” she says. “He said, if I go first I’m gonna haunt the shit out of you.”

Here's my new fave @keersteemack.bsky.social.

You will be visited by three spirits

just a helluva collection of 7 knockout shorts
@keersteemack.bsky.social

www.havehashad.com/hadposts/aut...

haven't watched it yet (am in class, students in small groups, lol) but will!

made me think about how I see Russian Circles every year or three and, after, almost always message Brian and tell him a) how much they rock, but also b) how inspiring it has been to watch him for 30 years now, rocking as much as every and making a life of this

I liked it ~10 seconds before you tagged me!

screenshot of email from Sub Club: 5 Agents Looking for Writers 55+ Never too late to get a book deal! | Literary Agents For You (12.08.25)

maybe i'll just start looking again in a few years, I guess...

Is this evidence in the room with us right now?

Been thinking about moments with my parents where they were like, “why would I learn to do it this new ‘easier’ way when the way I’ve always done it works just fine?!”

Young-me would probably be surprised how much of a radical/punk/luddite some pretty basic choices would make older-me (don’t use Spotify, don’t buy anything from Amazon, don’t even totally know if ChatGPT is a website or app or what, don’t believe in Ring/Alexa/etc.)

"I’d eat your bra—point being—in a heartbeat."

— "Alien Vs. Predator," Michael Robbins
www.newyorker.com/magazine/200...

I saw this and thought, "oh, cool, exciting!" and then remembered where it was forthcoming, lol

…years ago. Mickey had intended to pay for Donna's trip, but at the hotel desk she slapped down her credit card. "I insist on paying my own way," she said. "No. I didn't mean for you to do that." "I insist. Don't forget I owe you for that plane ticket." The desk clerk ran the credit cards through the machine. "This is the eighties," Donna said. "Nobody gives a hoot if we're not married." From the balcony of their third-floor room, they watched the swarm of people on the beach. The sunshine felt like a warm glow of approval.

LOVE LIFE, stories, Bobbie Ann Mason

"This is the eighties," Donna said. "Nobody gives a hoot if we're not married."

from “Private Lies,” Bobbie Ann Mason

👀👀👀

sent me in a panic of how time passes before realizing 2000 was just a typo lol

photo of Kevin Maloney and Aaron Burch standing next to each other along the Tacoma waterfront

KEVIN COMES TO VISIT My buddy Kevin came to visit. Said it’d do him good to get out of Portland for a couple days—new scenery, change of pace, leave the normal life problems and complications and stresses behind. We’d also been wanting to hang out while I was in Tacoma for the summer. The new scenery and change of pace and leaving behind of life’s problems and complications and stresses were all bonuses. The last week had been nothing but rain and gray and cold, but now it was sunny and blue skies and warm. It was beautiful. The kind of day that makes the rainy, gray, cold, hard, ugly, depressing ones worth it. Amber and I made us all pizzas in the pizza oven we’d splurged on and bought for our temporary summer life. We walked downtown and got a couple beers. The next day was even sunnier, bluer skies, warmer. Even impossibly, magically more beautiful. The kind of day that can make you forget life’s problems and complications and stresses even exist. We went out for happy hour at a restaurant on the waterfront, eating oysters and tuna tartar and beef skewers and pineapple shrimp, and drinking beers and cocktails and

Scrolling through photos from my summer in Tacoma, looking for a possible author pic for TACOMA, and found this photo of me & @kevinrmaloney.bsky.social & Mt. Rainier in the background, reminding me of this page from TACOMA more or less about that day...

Sometimes you gotta start your week with a live version of Snapcase’s “Caboose.”

This is one of my favorite stories from this past year, which is no surprise since Amber is one of my favorite contemporary writers.

The Hideaway by Sarp Sozdinler When my parents got divorced, my dad moved into a house three blocks away and left the shed in our backyard to rot. The kind of shed with cheap plywood walls, a warped door, and windows smudged with s...

love this @sarpsozdinler.bsky.social short on @poolpartymag.com!

poolpartymag.com/the-hideaway/