Aaron Burch

1 month ago | awkwardsd.substack.com | Ryan Bradford |Little Engines |Adam Voith |Aaron Burch

I have a personal rule of thumb when it comes to location-based entertainment:Books set in LA are better than books set in NYC. Movies set in NYC are better than movies set in LA. There are a few reasons for my rationale. First is LA is (generally) the land of filmmaking, and NYC is (generally) the land of publishing, so when you’re making art that doesn’t coincide with the prevailing regional medium, the results are going to be more compelling. Cinematically, New York just looks better on film.

Feb 4, 2025 | ashortstorylong.substack.com | Aaron Burch

Every time I’ve reread this story over the last couple of weeks, I have been struck by how every element feels like it hits its note just right. And then! There are these wonderful moments of character — the way she imagines answering questions and narrating her life, as if it a “phantom reporter breathlessly covering the Ava beat”; the way she’d grown up always dreaming and wanting for some kind of fantasy world like from fairy tales and children’s stories — that feel even more just right.

May 29, 2024 | autofocuslit.com | Aaron Burch

My buddy, Kevin, texts me and our other buddy, DT, that he’s feeling a surge of hope and healing coming his way. DT texts us that he’s thinking of applying to a job, that he’s hitting the point where he hates what he does. I text them that I don’t know how long I can keep this up, but I’m feeling especially inspired and productive and like a new me.

Mar 12, 2024 | ashortstorylong.substack.com | Aaron Burch

As an incredible sucker for well-told stories of growing up and coming of age, the beginning of this story got its hooks in me pretty immediately. An awkward sixteen-year-old youth group kid in the 90s becomes friends with a more assertive, defiant, swearing, Nine Inch Nails t-shirt-wearing kid, and they go together to their local county fair, the “highlight of the social calendar in our small town”?

Feb 27, 2024 | ashortstorylong.substack.com | Aaron Burch

There’s something about the confidence of the declaration this story opens with — “It is one of the great secrets of the universe that the best interpretation of ‘My Heart Cries the Melody’…” — that immediately grabbed me, pulled me in, made me curious. Curious why THIS was the best interpretation, why the story started here, where the story was gonna take me next.