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I was born in Connecticut, educated as a mechanical engineer in Massachusetts, and moved to Ohio for a job in a Fortune 200 company. I've since left the safety of that career, having been in multiple manufacturing roles, including: engineering manager, plant manager, and an acquisition captain, as well as an internal consultant for numerous manufacturing plants on Lean methodology. I have now set about consulting part time and writing the rest of the time.
I was always a maverick as a child, and an adult, and was never quite able to draw inside the lines or follow certain rules. I did however, figure out how to fit into acceptable society and not be a pink monkey. This, and the engineering training I had, taught me to question everything, and never automatically believe in anything. Consequently, I was always a handful for anyone I reported to. Once they knew me though, they pretty much let me run free with the reservation, "If anyone asks if I knew about this, I didn't." - since the things I did usually didn't fit into the nice neat corporate boxes or standards, but were effective at getting the job done.
This personality trait, possibly due to playing with mercury as a child, influences my writing to be somewhat different than others. My hopes are that it will make reading more entertaining for you, with a fresh approach to viewing the world around us, by removing the usual paradigms and blinders we impose on ourselves through our culture's influences.
I've done some pretty dumb things while learning about writing as a career. The first thing is, how darn hard it can be, and I've taken classes, and read several books on writing. The second is how easy it is to make a mistake, such as over-write a good file with a draft copy and promote it to 35,000 people. Yikes. That was a nightmare. I'm much more careful now.
If you are someone that doesn't always feel you fit in all the time, and sees things somewhat differently than most, or looks at things and says, 'What if?' then you might like my work.
If you like a more lighthearted group of somewhat irreverent characters, you might like my Reluctant Gods Series. If you've been in business and know some cold and cruel characters, you might like Dr. Roland Vandergrift in 'Power, Control, Conformance.'
If you are a person who is set in their ways and beliefs and can only see things a certain way, you might not like any of my work.
I hope you enjoy what I've done. If you don't like it, remember you can always return it, though I've had few returns so far. Remember, I did warn you.
Reviewed by Arya Fomonyuy for Readers' Favorite
Sympathy for the Devil by A.J. Aaron is a powerful, humorous novel that will undoubtedly appeal to fans of fantasy. The author creates a compelling and controversial character in the man known as John. This is a man who easily gets bored, who is lonely, and whose mischief seems to follow him everywhere he goes with exacting consequences. As he heads to Pierce and Calla, John dreams of some great company, but can he be well-received by these angels? The game changes when John loses his every power. Now he is under the dominion of his unforgiving wife. Can he find any sympathy?
A.J. Aaron has succeeded in making me laugh through a book, an achievement that is difficult to come by. I enjoyed the great writing, mingled with plot-driven and tantalizing dialogues. Readers will be pulled in by the vivid, powerful descriptions. The characters are awesome, pulled from a world that contains elements of both the familiar and the strange, which makes readers feel like they have known the characters all along in some strange way. The story line isn't as complex as I'd have wanted, but it is gripping and it moves pretty fast. The humor is biting and it comes across powerfully in the narrator's clear and absorbing voice. Sympathy for the Devil is one of those stories that reflects the comedy of life readers face every day, its contradictions, and the burden of choice. A.J. Aaron has a great imagination and it has created a world for readers to revel in.
