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I started writing my new novel, The Retroactivist nearly two years ago. It began with a conversation that led to an email draft loaded with notes on what an ideal world might look like. I was partially inspired by the resounding support I received from a piece I had written about Denver’s economic and population boom. The world seemed ripe for advancement, for a new beginning. I wanted Denver to be a city that could break the centuries-old mold of societal engineering. At the time, I honestly believed that we were closer to things like automation, universal basic income, and a forward-thinking culture that could embrace giving all people what they needed out of life.

Throughout 2015 and 2016, my friend, Antoine Valot, put in the time to help me clarify and fortify my utopian vision. We went through the first draft with the finest-toothed of combs. He guided me toward the things that worked and away from those that didn’t. And Antoine helped me bring the world of 2087 to life.

Imagine, a world where you vote daily, digitally, and directly on the issues that matter to you. Imagine, a world in which healthcare, hunger, homelessness, and hate have slipped away because we’ve come together to take care of one another, and have left the tired notion that “suffering = purpose� behind us. Imagine, a world where you pursue whatever dreams you have because robots do the jobs. Imagine, a society that cares so deeply for its people that it provides for them, instead of shaming them for wanting.

That’s what the book is about. And I’d really, infinitely, love for you to buy a copy and read it and talk to me. But, even if you don’t, maybe you’ll join me in this dream for a better future, and come together to make it happen in this reality. As artists, we can easily fixate on the darkest human proclivities, but we don’t have to. We can pave the path to the future with new ideas, with hopeful stories, with novel approaches to unsolved problems. Each one is a seed that plants a hopeful thought in readers, viewers, gallery goers, and listeners. If we can imagine a brighter tomorrow, we can make it happen.

But, we have to start imagining it.

If you’d like, check out our new sci-fi press, Spaceboy Books LLC. You can check out my book, too. But, most of all, I hope you’ll join the fight for a more loving tomorrow.

I recently had the honor of doing an interview with Friday Phrases, a Twitter-based Friday writing prompt/game. If you haven't tried it, you absolutely should visit their Twitter feed on a Friday and start responding with your flash fiction and poetry. My experience with the game even led me to write a short story, "The Purpose of a Fence," which they featured at the bottom of the post. The interview process was awesome, and they're doing similar interviews with other writers... so it's a great place to meet indie authors who you should know, but don't. Here's an excerpt:



#FP: Why do you write? What inspires you most about it?

NR: I write mostly because it feels good. I love doing it. I love creating. I exploring ideas. I love sharing, and reading. I write because I have to� it’s in my blood, and I don’t know what else I would ever do. I’m inspired by the challenge of getting better with every story, and by the conversations I can have with readers and other writers.

#FP: Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you? Plotter or Pantser?

NR: Usually, I start with a basic timeline/outline and abandon it around 1/3 or 1/2 of the way into a manuscript. The characters, once come to life, take control of the story almost immediately, and I realize that my plan for, say, Chapter 14, isn’t happening because the living characters wouldn’t go there� even if I wanted it for the on-paper versions of them. So, I guess I’m a Plotter with a heaping side of Pants.

#FP: What is the hardest thing about writing for you?

NR: Revision, and pitching. I love the process of revision, but I usually need a partner to help me see some of the things I’m missing. And the pitching process is fun, but it’s the most emotionally risky as it’s full of rejections and patient waiting for acceptance.


Read the rest on the Friday Phrases website:



Love, Nate

I recently had the honor of doing an interview with Friday Phrases, a Twitter-based Friday writing prompt/game. If you haven't tried it, you absolutely should visit their Twitter feed on a Friday and start responding with your flash fiction and poetry. My experience with the game even led me to write a short story, "The Purpose of a Fence," which they featured at the bottom of the post. The interview process was awesome, and they're doing similar interviews with other writers... so it's a great place to meet indie authors who you should know, but don't. Here's an excerpt:



#FP: Why do you write? What inspires you most about it?

NR: I write mostly because it feels good. I love doing it. I love creating. I exploring ideas. I love sharing, and reading. I write because I have to� it’s in my blood, and I don’t know what else I would ever do. I’m inspired by the challenge of getting better with every story, and by the conversations I can have with readers and other writers.

#FP: Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you? Plotter or Pantser?

NR: Usually, I start with a basic timeline/outline and abandon it around 1/3 or 1/2 of the way into a manuscript. The characters, once come to life, take control of the story almost immediately, and I realize that my plan for, say, Chapter 14, isn’t happening because the living characters wouldn’t go there� even if I wanted it for the on-paper versions of them. So, I guess I’m a Plotter with a heaping side of Pants.

#FP: What is the hardest thing about writing for you?

NR: Revision, and pitching. I love the process of revision, but I usually need a partner to help me see some of the things I’m missing. And the pitching process is fun, but it’s the most emotionally risky as it’s full of rejections and patient waiting for acceptance.


Read the rest on the Friday Phrases website:



Love, Nate

Hello friends!

I'm excited to announce BONED a new collection/project that I'm running.



This new publication will feature original short stories of 500 - 1500 words in length, all of which include a skeleton. The skeleton can be a protagonist, antagonist, setting, MacGuffin, whatever... there just has to be one.

And the stories will be by YOU. So, if you're interested in joining this collection and reaching readers on Medium and beyond, check out the link above, follow the publication and submit a story.

We will make great things happen with this. No bones about it.

Hugs.

"Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?"

David Bowie was always about transcendence, of style, of gender, of genre, of norms, of life itself. He was more than the sum of his songs, albums, personas. He was a role model better than any athlete or actor. He created with wild abandon. He stared down challenges. He lived without the kind of self-serious apology that many people do.

When I was a kid, 'Changes' was one of my favorite songs. I was a kid who other kids called "weird" and I always replied, "Thank you." I can't say for certain that David Bowie had anything to do with that confidence, but he definitely paved the way for generations of artists, and people in general, to embrace their own weird... and live fully with confidence.

Also, the especially prescient lyrics above, from Life On Mars?, featuring a skewering of humanity's violent tendencies, our fears, our social and class struggles, and our obsession with horrid acts, just goes to show that this man was truly timeless, and quite possibly from some distant star out there far above the world.

I got a chance to speak with Daniel Ramos of Authors Studio/LocalBroadcasting.tv about There You Feel Free, writing, and the creative process.

Or, attaining a goal, indie publishing, and the marathon lives of creatives.

I don’t remember exactly when I knew I wanted to be a writer. It was sometime during elementary school. I have evidence of this in the form of an old report card (the kind graded with checks and pluses) on which my teacher noted that “Nathan wants there to be a weekly writing workshop time.� During that time, I filled notebook after notebook with yarns and adventures written in cursive pencil.

In college, I majored in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. I did this because it was the only job that I really wanted. I would be a writer. I knew it. I knew the odds were long and absurd. I knew that, even in 2004, how and what we read was changing. Still, I just knew, and unlike many of my peers, I kept writing long after the campus disappeared in my rearview. I kept writing through the rejections and the dreadful silences of emailed pitches that went unanswered. I gave up for windows of time here and there, but I always came back to writing because I am a writer. All the while, I dreamt of writing a book. Seeing my name on a cover. Having someone, somewhere, read my work, discuss it, love it or hate it.

Then, in the fall of 2013, I actually heard back. There are few feelings better than receiving an email reply that combines both acceptance and validation. My soon-to-be editor at my soon-to-be publisher, Black Hill Press, wanted me to know that she liked my work and wanted a book. I was overjoyed. And I wrote and wrote, until I had something for her. Over the following year, we edited and edited, expanding and contracting the words until they were as tight as they could be. I spent that time counting down. First to the contract. Then to each manuscript review. And finally, to the publication date.

On January 6, 2015, my life’s dream came true. I had written a book, which now existed in physical form, with a brilliant cover, and all my words inside. I had done it. I could finally exhale. I could finally embrace my success. I was a writer.

And I did embrace success� until January 7th.

Almost immediately, I had to switch gears, from writer to marketer, salesman, brand manager, etc. I discovered that while this amazing indie press had given me the opportunity to achieve my goals, they weren’t equipped to make me a best-seller. What I thought had been the marathon, my life writing until I was published, turned out to have been nothing more than the opening few miles.

Creatives live marathon lives. We create, bask, take criticism, recreate, bask� repeat. That’s how we work. That process doesn’t begin and end with an individual piece of art, either. We fine tune every aspect of how we present our art, just as actively as we create it. We have to, and that can be disheartening to realize, but it’s also exactly why we have a distinct advantage.

My skills in combining sentences to paragraphs, paragraphs to pages, pages to chapters, translates into combining Tweets into blog posts, blog posts into essays, and essays back into Tweets. In other words, if somehow I wasn’t a creative person, I couldn’t talk about my book, advocate for it, and push it. And if I couldn’t do those things, I don’t think I could have ever written the book at all.

There You Feel Free is a story that took my focus and passion to write, and getting it out into the world will take that same drive. Being on board with an indie publisher means being on board with the new marketplace that technology has given us. We all have a pulpit, so we strive to enlist an audience. That means that my life’s goal has had to change. I’m not simply a writer. I’m also a PR agent, a marketer, and an advocate for my own work. My book isn’t an ending. It’s just another beginning in a string of beginnings that make up my 21st Century writing career. The challenge attached is a beautiful one.

Twenty-something years after demanding 3rd grade writing workshops, my path is mostly unchanged. Write the stories. Share the stories. Start again. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

There You Feel Free

Psyched to announce that Part 2 of the book panel podcast is now live. Check it out for the thrilling conclusion!

Will I reveal deep truths about There You Feel Free? Can I stop laughing so much? Will the audience ask any questions to close the event?

Find out at



If you missed Part 1, check it here:



Thank you!

Be well and be wise,

Nate

Back in January, I had the honor of sitting on a panel with other authors from Black Hill Press at Los Angeles's Book Soup. I got to trade stories, experiences, challenges, and laughs with a great group including Peppur Chambers, Corrie Greathouse, Veronica Bane and Arianna Basco.

It was my first trip to the City of Angels, and a welcome break from the cold winter here in Colorado. The best part of the panel was meeting great fellow authors. The second best part was that we were recorded, and there's a podcast of the whole thing. Give a listen to part one now. Part two coming soon.



Thanks for listening!

Nate

Hello! This is my first blog, so I'm going to start with a safe, blanket statement. Music affects each of our lives in ways that few other arts can. We remember that song that was playing when we were broken up with. We know the song that pumps us up for a run or a workout. We have a playlist that fills our ears as we commute to work. There are songs that remind us of the people we've loved and lost. There are songs that remind us of specific moments. Whether we know it or not, we soundtrack our lives... using songs as bookmarks to call back and forth in time.

My first book, There You Feel Free is at least in part about the impact music has on us. Sometimes we seek refuge in it, hoping that the song will wash away the gloom and bullshit, or at least replace the existing gloom and bullshit with a new, more beautiful kind. Other times, we let music teach us lessons about faith, courage, perseverance, optimism, pessimism, or resistance.

Each of the protagonists in There You Feel Free experience music in their own way. Music is also a spiritual touchstone within the poem portion of the book ("The(se) Waste(d) Land(ings)"). In short, this book is deeply about music, deeply influenced by music, and powerful driven by music. So, it makes perfect sense to me (and hopefully to you) to present a playlist featuring the songs and artists mentioned in the book.

It's not common for a book to have a soundtrack, but since this book is about life, and life is soundtracked by the tunes we love... well, that's Intro to Logic stuff right there.

I'm calling the playlist HEAR You Feel Free because I love me a good pun. You can find it on Spotify and Grooveshark at the links the below.





You'll be treated to a spectrum of songs from Arcade Fire to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beirut to ELO, Bowie to Ted Leo and the Pharmacists.

I hope you'll check it out.

Dig,

Nate