The Dark of the Year

It seems like it’s been a year since we’ve done this. It was, in point of fact, almost a year, since I sat here and looked back at the year that was and the year to come. The dark of the year provides a good opportunity for perspective, like standing on a high peak, the […]

Drawlloween Challenge 6-10

A continuation of the Drawlloween experiment. A short piece from what was originally an art prompt, each individual piece no more than 500 words. Fun-size, if you will. This was where things began to take a strange turn for me, where the daily exercises became something different. Parts 6-10 follow. Enjoy. 6 – Pumpkin The […]

Drawlloween Challenge – Parts 1-5

A challenge appeared on Tumblr a few weeks ago. Drawlloween. Intended as an artist prompt, to draw a little something from each of the 31 daily prompts through the month of October. I love Halloween. I consider October Halloween month. And while I do art on occasion, that’s way too ambitious for my limited skills. […]

Bookkeeping, a.k.a. Time is Never on Our Side

It was a pretty typical Saturday morning writing group–some writing, some socializing, some knocking ideas around. In discussing how some town names are more common than others, a story idea was born. Well, less an idea and more of a seed. A McGuffin. And when it was suggested that I write that story, sooner rather […]

Onward Ho Into 2015!

Well, it’s the end of the year again, and you know what that means. Yep. Buckle up, me hearties! It’s time for yet another look back at the year that was and some hints about the year to come. On a personal front, my daughter got married in August, meaning I got to wear a […]

On Writing Dialogue

“Shit. That’s not a job. That’s a hustle!” I love writing dialogue. It is, arguably, one of the the more finely honed skills in my writer’s tool box. Being able to bring characters to life with natural, unforced conversations, just makes me happy. The trick is to listen. It’s that simple. It’s that difficult. We’re social […]

State of the Nate – Travel & Refocusing of Energies

Looking back, it’s been a while since my last post. A lot has changed. Some has even changed and changed back. Some of that will be addressed in a separate post as I’d rather not dilute it. My daughter got married a month ago. The wedding took me to St. Louis for the first time […]

Publication Announcement: Dark but for the Stars

Now available for your Kindle! The darkness is where stars shine their brightest. It’s where we find what sustains us, what keeps us pushing on. Like when: A young man learns his family’s darkest secret from a faded circus clown. Shoemaker elves pit Old World craftsmanship against New World cunning. The last soldier of the […]

Influences Make the Writer

I suspect that most authors, at some point in their career, get asked who influenced them as a writer. The question came up again in a round-about way this afternoon with a writing cohort. And because of the way we got to the question, I realized I’ve been answering the question all wrong. Maybe I’m not […]

Blog Hop

I was tagged by the extremely talented (and busy) Jennifer Brozek for this Blog Hop, tasked with answering the following four questions. 1. What am I working on? 2. How does it differ from others of its genre? 3. Why do I write what I do? 4. How does my writing process work? So I’ve […]