Guest artist for short story illustration

Remember my short story, “Baptized in Fire“? Well, I’ve added something new to it, something I want to keep adding to the other stories on my site: illustrations. I commissioned my brother Jarod Marchand, a young  aspiring artist, to create some artwork of the battlemech designated Achilles in the piece. He gave it to me recently, and I posted it just now. Check it out.

My goal is to use artwork and photographs done by myself or other aspiring artists I know as illustrations for my stories (FYI: I myself can’t draw, but I do love photography). Stay tuned to see more work from other great artists you don’t know (yet).

Second novel completed!

Guess what, readers? I finished my second novel, Ninjas and Talking Trees! Well, the rough draft, anyway. There’s gonna be a lot of editing and/or rewriting ahead of me now. But it’s done. Some say writing the second novel is the hardest.  If that’s true, my writing life should be easier here on out (maybe).

Now to write a short story for a special project I’m doing with my writer friends…that’s “due” in three weeks. Oy vey…

New novella coming soon! (most likely)

Some of you may have noticed I’ve had a “Novellas” page within the “Nathan’s Works” tab since I started this website nearly a year ago, and that there was a title listed there. It said, “Destroyer – Coming Soon!” That was in reference to a novella I co-wrote with two writer friends over the course of a year from 2008-2009 as part of a writers’ project. It is a pulp science fiction tale. I was very happy with how it turned out and even looked for a place to publish it for a short while, but to no avail. So it’s been left on the drawing board ever since.

Until now.

Having tasted some success with Pandora’s Box, I’m thinking about venturing into the world of self-publishing with this story. The length and genre make it difficult to market to prospective publishers, so I believe this is the best route to take. Not only will I get a byline, but so will two of my friends. I’m even toying with the idea of recording an audio version and posting it on iTunes.

But this is all down the road a bit. Currently, I am considering artists to create the cover. Then I will talk with Nick Hayden, who has some self-publishing experience, about how we might go about it. I still have no idea when or if this book will be published.

Stay tuned.