Being Connected

I don't have much substance in this post. It's one of those "Have a look at what this person's up to" linking sort of posts. There are some people I follow that post nearly daily and, once in a while, convey great pieces of information that gets you thinking (more so than usual).

Aaron Polson's post from yesterday, Giant's Robes on a Dwarfish Thief, is about using your blog as a connection tool rather than a networking or promoting tool. "Just talk" is a strong theme in his heartfelt post. That's something I've come to admire about Aaron this past year. Aside from the fact he's a man of many talents: school teacher, writer, ezine publisher...he is also a man of strong character who works hard at his craft and is always quick to visit your blog with a kind or helpful word. One of the good guys out in cyberspace. If his blog is for talking, I think people are definitely listening. I'll share a true story of networking taking care of itself...

The other day I received a copy of The Devil's Food anthology from Aaron in the mail. I won it in a contest he held recently at his blog (which was really cool, because I've never won literature before). Anyhow, the book was unwrapped and lay upon the dining room table. My son came home for lunch with one of his school friends in tow. Sean spotted the book on the table and began leafing through the ToC. I was downstairs at work in my office and heard him exclaim, "Cool! Aaron Polson's in this book!" The power of networking really boggles the mind. Aaron has one story (Spider and I) in the book and Sean quickly found it (note: the book also contains stories by Natalie Sin and Jameson Caine, both readers of this blog). Sean happened to remember Aaron's name from reading his story 'The Distillery' in the last issue of Necrotic Tissue I had received in the mail. Who would have thought that a writer of horror from Kansas would be getting talked about by 14 year old boys on an island reaching into the Atlantic (umm...I'm not sure if that came out right. I mean talked about in a good way).

"Just talk" seems to be sound advice, because the networking is taking care of itself. I've talked enough...take a few minutes, though, to check out that posting from yesterday. If for no other reason, he provides a link to the ''Wussy Boy Manifesto," a hilarious rant by Big Poppa E on YouTube.