#air0n

I am a narcissist; I can admit it. I’m an only child with very loving/giving parents, which I must assume increased my self-worth. It defined me as the center of the world. All the while, I pride myself on logic and reason thus I understand I’m not the center of this ball of craziness.

 Being a husband and a father requires that I put aside my self-absorption, at least if I want to create positive relationships with my family. Though a narcissistic perspective is frowned upon by the majority, it is still part of who I am and means I’m always a little out of balance, a constant fight between what I want and what I know is right.

 I have a good life and I have made many positive decisions. I have a flexible job that supports my family. I have many nice things. Still, I want more. I want more and more. Sometimes it is stuff, sometimes it is experiences. Even when it is stuff I want, I really only care about experiencing the stuff… if that makes any sense. For example, some people want a nice car to show off to other people and I guess there is some pleasure in that, but for me, it is the act of driving a nice car that is the reward. Meaning, I don’t always go for the trendy thing, at least not because it is trendy. I digress back to my point, I want to experience all this world has to give. I only get one shot at this and I don’t want to waste it.

Software Developer to Rapper to Children’s Book Author

A Quick Guide to Aaron Prohaska

 Where did I start?

 Life is a crazy path that can take you down many roads if you allow it. Today I turn 39 and when I look back I would have never expected most of the events of my life.

 In high school, I was so nerdy and shy. By the end of my senior year I had only been on one date and never been kissed. I figured I would become The 40-Year-Old Virgin (thought that movie hadn’t even been thought of). The only thing I got right was that I would go into the computer trade.

 The Software Developer

 I became a software developer and worked for all kinds of industries: defense contractors, local government, insurance, printing, and a couple huge financial organizations. Even the most interesting of these, a satellite communication project, left me feeling like I’m just a cog in a wheel with little impact on the direction of the applications I create. More importantly, I had no control as to the type of impact I had on the world. I had to build what I was told to build.

 Somewhere along the way I grew an appreciation for ghetto rap music. Though I didn’t fit the typical target demographic, I would sing along with my 12-inch sub woofers pounding away in my car. I liked the music because of a few reasons, the beats were strong, the vocal gymnastics were impressive, and it told a story about a side of life that I never experienced… a side of life that I didn’t know existed.

I have described my life as “Leave it to Beaver” on many occasions but even The Beav had challenges though his life would be considered easy by ghetto standards. Still, I wanted to take the genre of rap and apply it to my life. I had a plan, a two-album story with album one describing the challenges of my life with a follow up album to share my ideas on how to correct them. That is where I always felt rap fell apart. They did a great job of describing the issues but never shared a solution, at least not in the mainstream music on the radio. Middle Class Monotony was born.

 The Rapper

 I had a simple definition of success. Most importantly, I wanted my music to be available to the public from mainstream online music stores. Beyond that, all I wanted was to be interviewed.

 It took from 2006 to 2010 to make Middle Class Monotony.  Between 3 moves, 2 kids, and learning every inch of music production from scratch, it was a long and trying project. In the end, I was proud of what I created. The project concluded with 14 tracks, professional looking CD case, available on iTunes and Amazon, and 2 web sites. I had achieved the critical marker for success. It was time to sell the album. Though the marketing strategy didn’t work, it was at least an interesting story.

 I had 1000 CDs printed. I would take 50 CDs at a time into stores like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target. I carried them in a reusable grocery bag. You may be wondering what the heck I was thinking, sneaking CDs into a store. I would put them in laptop bags, storage containers, and suitcases. Any place that a person would end up at home with a copy of the CD. I would move popular artists’ music CDs off main displays and put Middle Class Monotony in their place. I would even put them in the bread slots of toasters on display. Any place that would result in someone having the CD or creating a laughable scenario was fair game.

I never thought giving away CDs was the receipt of success but I thought creating a buzz was. I hoped that the stores would start finding the CDs and comparing how many they found between locations. I was hoping the story of finding the CDs would spread and news outlets would want to interview me, thus completing my second goal. Unfortunately, I didn’t think my actions through. I didn’t see the possible negative outcomes. I got a call from Walmart stating that a child found the CD and their parents were upset because the CD had a parental advisory sticker on it. I cannot confirm that the story was true but it was not my intention to upset people. Having said that, even bad publicity is still publicity. I embraced the mistake and created a “public service announcement” of sorts. I blasted all the local news outlets apologizing on behalf of Double A Records (my record label) to any families affected by the negligence of the record label. Channel 6 left me a message wanting to talk … I had my interview, I just had to make contact. The story goes south from there. We played phone tag and I never got that interview. I was so close.

I know the album wasn’t the best musical compilation. I never expected it to win awards and be embraced by the masses but I had hoped some people walking in shoes like mine would appreciate it. I don’t know if it is more important to sound good than be deep or if it is just impossible to create a viral movement; either way I didn’t have the following to warrant creating a second album. You never know, maybe I’ll come back to it.

 The Writer

 After Middle Class Monotony, I wasn’t sure how I wanted to share my inner thoughts in a marketable way. I still felt I had ideas to share. My first writing experience, from start to finish, was a screenplay called Seeking Singularity and entered it into the Academy Nicholl Fellowship contest. The contest didn’t produce much feedback and I didn’t have anyone in my life that could really help with producing a movie.

 For many years my kids would ask me to tell stories while I was chauffeuring them from place to place. Their favorite stories were about our dog, Bosley. Well, the stories were about Bosley’s alter ego, Mountain-Time Country Dog. After some time, we even came up with a theme song. The family found a routine where the kids would request a new story then I would say, “no, no, I’m out of stories”. After a few minutes pause I would break out the theme song, “Mountain-Time, Little Mountain-Time, Mountain-Time Country Dog… In this adventure Mountain-Time…” and they would cheer and hoot and holler.

 One day the kids asked me to write the stories down. What a great idea, so simple. Leading to this moment where I get to announce the first book in The Adventures of Mountain-Time Country Dog series, Mountain-Time Learns to Surf.

 Where I had concern with my music, that it wasn’t good enough and that it was amateur, I don’t feel that way with this book. There was plenty to learn for sure. I had never illustrated before and I wanted to use my logical developer mind to create illustrations quickly. I researched different styles and landed on a combination of Elephant and Piggie, by Mo Willems, and South Park, by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. I would keep the backgrounds to a minimum with just a couple of characters in each frame. The main characters would be built modular so that I can move pieces around to and put them in different positions quickly and easily. Because of this technique I could finish the first draft of the book within a couple months, which included learning the software I developed the book in. I’m excited to see the production time of the next book.

 How do I know it’s a good book? How can I be objective with my own work? It’s tough, that is for sure so I had to hit the streets. I would take my Surface Book with me and when there were people sitting around with kids, not doing much, I would ask them to preview it. I even asked adults without kids to tell me what they think. The book targets 2nd and 3rd graders but I have found that kids as young as 4 enjoy looking at the pictures, pointing out different things they see. Older kids, my daughters age (11), find it deep enough to talk about the situations and still laugh at the silly images. Even the adults would laugh out-loud at times because I have thought of some oddball scenario. They usually follow up with, “how do you think of this stuff?”

 There is a message in the book but as most children’s content goes, the parents and guardians should put context around it. There are not 3 easy steps to every solution for every situation, though that is all we have time to put into our stories of this age group. I have placed a section of author’s notes at the end of the book that are meant to strike up conversation. This means the book is meant to be read adult and child together.

Mountain-Time Country Dog exists outside of time. He can be anywhere and everywhere he is needed. The stories will have extremely silly situations but with a little context and a little discussion, they will dive into deep concepts… as deep as you want to dive anyway.  

 The Marketing Firm

 My current role is that of the marketing firm. It isn’t my favorite role. I must be confident all the time. I must be available whenever someone is willing to talk. I get to be creative but in a way that can easily lead to a slimy feeling, like I’m trying to trick you into reading the book. I don’t want to do that.

 There is a joke about a husband and wife where the husband leaves the hand towel on the counter and the wife wants it hung up. She finally gets fed up and comments. The husband says, “if you want the towel hung up just tell me to hang it up.” The wife replies, “I don’t want to force you to hang it up, I want you to want to hang it up.” I feel the same applies here, I want you to want to read the book.

 The Human

 So, I’m going to be honest and tell you everything. The good and the bad. I’ll share my ups and downs. I will tell you who I am as an adult, as a husband, as a father, as a man, and any other aspect living inside this brain of mine. I’m not going to be perfect but I’ll be real and I will share every bit of knowledge I have. I’m not in competition with other children’s books, I’m part of a community of writers. I look forward to promoting their books and their stories. Strength is displayed when we all work together and success is achieved when we all succeed.

 As I achieve my goals with this book and can dedicate more of my time and money to it, you’ll see many more forums for which we can share our knowledge with each other. We will be an interactive society helping each other grow. So, check out Mountain-Time Learns to Surf and tell me what you like, what you don’t like. Let’s open a dialog. Go on Spotify or Soundcloud and check out Middle Class Monotony for free. You’ll see where I came from, though some of my mindset has changed since then. I’m not scared for you to see who I really am. I refuse to be the typical face of a product where I hide my faults to gain your trust.

I know the price is a bit much for a 60 page kid's picture book, but if you can afford it, please purchase the book from the following link. It is my direct purchase site from the publishing house. I get a bigger cut than when purchased from Amazon or Barnes and Nobel.