These Americans: Short Stories is a compilation of stories that take place in the same vein as the Title Book, These Americans. Not only will it reveal storylines from familiar characters and places but it will also introduce new characters that might exist within our These Americans setting. We’ll be compiling stories until we feel we have enough to assemble and release a paperback.
Available via Kindle Vella, the series will feature three free episodes followed by purchased episodes. You can subscribe to the stories and read them as they are published. This is similar to old-time serial stories from magazines and newspapers.
Lily’s story takes place in various Waffle Houses and small hotels across Michigan, Oklahoma, and Texas. Lily encounters a cast of diverse characters, including a group of inappropriate cat-callers, a revolver-wielding hotel owner on Route 66, and a sexy server at Lily’s first Waffle House.
Back home, Lily is connected to a cast of intriguing characters, including Gus, her chain-smoking, coffee drinking and perpetually stressed-out boyfriend; Stacia, her workaholic and commitment-phobic best friend; Chick, Stacia’s love interest who prefers they/them pronouns while loving a good mystery; Jake, a guy who struggles with every aspect of life; Jesse, the alcoholic veteran living next door; Lainey the cop; and a dog named Tank or Roger, depending on who you ask. Additionally, Morgan Freeman makes an appearance in certain characters’ dreams, serving as their subconscious.
This novella offers an exploration of the interplay between relationships, actions, and human nature through its complex characters. Instead of presenting them as either heroes or villains, the book depicts them as unique individuals with their own struggles and personalities. The story had been recently described as “full of trippy confluence,” which I find an accurate description of the way events converge in the narrative.
These Americans – Book Two continues to follow Lily and Gus as they make both good and bad choices, navigate friendships, and journey through life toward that tiny door on the horizon. There is plenty more drama, plenty more antics, plenty more coffee, and of course, the occasional vagrant talking to trees. These Americans stands as a requiem for a generation lost in both the comforts and discomforts of modern times.
Some of us, heck, by my account, maybe half of us, feel both internally and externally trapped in a very large void that has a little tiny door on the horizon. We always keep that door in sight, feeling that if we should ever reach it, we would be free. Free of what, you might ask? Free of the constant nagging our souls endure as we stumble, clumsily, through the survival of these modern times. Whatever instinct makes us uncomfortable in a world that, for all intents and purposes, is built for comfort is about as ironic a pain as some of our personal energies can sustain.
For less of us, maybe one-third of the former half, there is a certain guilt that is instilled in us at some point during our lives. It’s a guilt that makes the task of reaching that door on the horizon seem less desirable or obtainable, as reaching it would create some sort of rift in the lives of everyone around us, including our own. Reaching that door would leave us with such a tremendous burden of guilt that it would steal away any freedom we’d gain upon reaching that subconscious destination.
Gus and Lily are both trying to reach a similar door at the end of the expanse. Both of them face unique challenges as they attempt to travel through the wilderness, but their actions and emotions are controlled by different instincts, probably rooted in some other trial they experienced on life’s journey.
The following events take place at the tail end of one of these unique challenges as we inch closer, or perhaps further away, from the tiny, rectangular door.
I am an Escanaba, Michigan native, who currently resides in Grand Rapids. I am a web developer, graphic designer, and struggling musician called Dynaflo – dynaflomusic.com.
While home, I am surrounded by the many animals of Michele’s Rescue – michelesrescue.com.
I’m a big fan of film and television as well as reading. I love watching old Jim Jarmuche films, am a Trek, Star Wars and Stargate nut, and love the hell out of Quentin Tarantino films. I also love comic books. Give me anything by Warren Ellis or Garth Ennis and leave me be for a while. Authors like Kerouac, Burroughs, Ray Bradbury and Edgar Rice Burroughs have always been my faves.
I’m also a photography nut. I can stare at the works of Robert Frank, Anton Corbijn and Jason Lee all day.
I like to think of my writing as “beat” but will let you be the judge.
If you ever want to shoot the breeze, shoot me a message!
One part beat novel, written with the optimism of Arthur Miller. The other part reads like the Steinbeck classic Canary Row. This debut novel from musician Aaron Schaut is a collection of small vignettes that make up a greater narrative. It’s a true representation of American slackerdom chased down with some tequila. Characters are real and situations gritty. These are people you know, maybe some are your friends. This book is only the beginning of what feels will be an epic arc. Keep an eye out for the follow up.
Rocker-turned-writer Aaron Paul Schaut presents his debut novel- a restless and compelling road trip through certain restless and compelling American hearts. Generation X is not OK, despite the many convenient trappings of middle class modern life. How much coffee, how many cigarettes, how many shots of Jameson would it take to save Lily and Gus from themselves? Though hastily written, there is a tenderness at the heart of this novel that is not nostalgia, but Growing Pain. We long for a guide on this sick and kitschy ride, and it may as well be fucking Morgan Freeman.
Once I started I didn’t want to stop reading. Great characters! Even the bad guys were good characters. I was getting serious imagery of each character in my mind as the book went on. I feel like I could read the book again and get even more out of it the second time. Highly recommend!
I set up a camp chair on the bank of the Grand River and burned through These Americans in one sitting. That is how engaging this book is. I hope you give it a read and enjoy it as I did.
This is where I will share random things about stuff I like or am doing.
I once drove to Columbus, Ohio to catch Tom Waits for the Glitter and Doom tour. After the show, both alone and with a very long drive ahead of me, I thought I would meander around the back and join the small crowd gathered near the tour bus. Several times, a security person let us […]
So, yesterday, I did something that I would consider real fun. I wrapped up two copies of my book and sent them off to City Lights Bookstore. I don’t know if I will ever have an opportunity to visit the store, and I have no idea where these books will end up. I do know […]
These Americans: Short Stories is a compilation of stories that take place in the same vein as the Title Book, These Americans. Not only will it reveal storylines from familiar characters and places but it will also introduce new characters that might exist within our These Americans setting. We’ll be compiling stories until we feel we have enough to assemble…
Non-binary is a cold and scientific term, a suiting term for they/them who are clearly not human. Un-American is another good term for they/them. God forbid the freedom from need to reign champion of black/white. The freedom from having to explain it. The freedom to express oneself, however and whenever, and without boundaries. The freedom […]
There was this one day in July when the season shifted for one day and revealed the suffering during that day that usually only reveals itself during the days or weeks or months following a normal and expected seasonal shift A person doesn’t need this shit in the middle of July.
From my Instagram account to you.
Stuff I mention in blogs or videos or casual conversation.
Sign up to to stay up to date on promotions, sales and whatever else I am slinging.
© 2023 Aaron Schaut – Cover Photo by Chris Harrison
