Friday, January 29, 2010 | by nathan

Welcome (Back).

Remember how I said I was going to start a blog on Open Salon to publish pieces I’ve been writing but not publishing online? WELL OH MY GOD I ACTUALLY DID IT.

I chose Open Salon, mostly because I love Salon.com and pay them $45 a year to keep them in their elitist arugula and expresso coffees or whatever the hippies drink out in Sin Francisco. All I know is that I love Joan Walsh, and Garrison Keillor, and Anne Lamott, and Alex Koppleman, though I’m still not over my Election Fatigue from 2008 and have stopped reading their War Room altogether. At least until a year from now, when it’s time for the 2012 election to start up.

Also, I love Open Salon’s community nature. And if we’re being totally honest, I love that several people have scored book deals writing for them. Are any of our motives ever completely pure? Come on – let’s cut the crap.

But the main reason is that I loved writing these kinds of pieces for GCN, and I want to continue writing for them. But there’s no reason why these can’t be in two places at once; AMIRITE?

Also (and I have yet to e-mail them about this, so we’ll see how it’s going to go over), I really want to start a blog over at Voices of Oklahoma, because I think they’re one of the coolest Okie internet outlets going right now.

And – JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THE SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION WAS OVER – if you have a blog and live in Oklahoma, you can totally vote for me in the Okie Blogger Awards! I’m gunning for Best Kept Secret and Best Writing, though as of December 24 I totally qualify for Best Veteran Blogger! And if you’re looking for recommendations for other blogs to nominate, can I recommend the Mixtape Jones Report (Best Culture Blog), K.C. Clifford (Best New Blog), Rocks in My Dryer (Best Humorous Blog) and Angela and Luke (Best Inspirational Blog), just to name a few?

In the meantime, I’d love it if you’d head over to Open Salon to read and comment on my new stuff; here’s a taste to whet your appetite.

As a young man my faith was marked by deep impatience. Every prayer session was marked by a sense that any moment God would – or should – reach down and make me Victorious over all that vexed me. I figured I’d struggle with this or that sin or challenge for awhile, then I’d experience a miracle healing, and my life would finally begin. Of course, this never happened and at some point I realized that my desire for miracle healing was less about faith than it was about no longer wanting to be dependent. I wanted God to come down and fix me so that I didn’t have to feel broken anymore, so that I didn’t have to be constantly reminded of my need for Him.

Friday, January 15, 2010 | by nathan

What I’m Working On

Writing a novel is hard, but the beauty of it is that when you’re working on your rough draft, you don’t have to worry about whether or not it sucks. In fact, you can’t worry about that, or you’ll find yourself paralyzed by self-doubt and criticism. Editing as you write is a surefire way to get yourself shackled by the monster known as perfectionism, that oppressive force that will keep you forever wondering why you never lived up to your potential. You keep hearing the voice of your high school principal, or your meanest relative, or your worst friend, telling you this will never work out, that you’d better just go get a job at Aldi and forget about it. Well – probably your mind doesn’t sound like this. But mine does.

All that is to say, I’m editing a novel right now, and it’s really hard because I don’t get to be free anymore. I don’t get to plow blissfully forward, getting my work done each day and keeping the monster of perfectionism at bay. I have to critically evaluate my own stuff, patch plot holes and seek out my worst writerly and grammatical mistakes. It feels less like being an artist and more like being an engineer.

Also, I’m working on new stuff for this website, specifically an entry – or, more likely, a series of entries – about some of my religious and political beliefs. I’m certain these entries will in no way offend anyone at all and that my comments will be filled with glowing praise. I’m also sure the yet-to-be-announced Apple Tablet will be able to make me coffee and will wake me each morning by gently massaging my naughty bits.

FInally, I’m considering starting another blog, on OpenSalon. I have a bunch of pieces that are, frankly, too good to put on this website but have been more or less pocket vetoed by other places I write for on occasion. I don’t want to start another website with its own domain name, mostly because OpenSalon blogs seem to more or less promote themselves, or at least, to make themselves a little easier to promote. I haven’t forgotten you dozen or so awesome souls who read this site. But I did promise myself that 2010 was going to be the year I wrote more, and lo and behold if that resolution hasn’t come back to bite me in the ass a little bit.

Saturday, January 2, 2010 | by nathan

Rolling Over

You may have noticed that things look a tiny bit different here at my little website. I moved the sofa, so to speak, and while I don’t believe in change for change’s own sake, I have been feeling an itch to shake things up blog-wise for some time. So, the Weekly Reader and Daily Photo features are disappearing, and in their place … well, nothing’s rising up to take their place, to be honest. I’m just going to write more.

I started this blog five years ago, just as I was getting ready to start a graduate program in professional writing. It’s expanded to cover more topics than I ever intended or expected, and while I’ve been happy with it on the whole, I’ve never felt wholly satisfied with what’s been going on here. Which is okay, too; the only mission statement I’ve ever had for this website was that it was sort of a living electronic piece of paper on which I was free to do what I wanted and to share with you.

As much as I don’t believe that having a blog automatically makes one a writer, any more than Guitar Hero makes one a musician, the fact is that I am a writer, and though I don’t expect Okay City to net me a book deal anytime soon, I want to get back to the reason I set up my own website in December of 2004 – to write. There will still be pictures, and tasteless jokes, and the occasional political aside sure to net me in lots of "trouble," but the simple fact is that though I never want this website to become my number one creative project, I could be giving it more than I am, and that’s what I intend to do. So, thank you all for reading this, the maybe nine or ten of you who do. You really have no idea how much I appreciate you. (HINT: It’s a lot).

Friday, November 6, 2009 | by nathan

OMG U GIZE!

Apologies for the lack of blogginess for the last week or so. We had a whirlwind and very chaotic – but very, very wonderful – trip to North Carolina the first half of this week, but I seem to have caught some kind of demon cold that is slowly devouring me from the inside and will soon leave me a hollowed-out shell for its demonic host, not entirely like the thing that turned Fred into Illyria on Angel. I think I caught it from some virulent little Trick-or-Treater last weekend. Stinky little petrie dishes. Also, in my absence I ended up with a heaping plate of work that I’m trying to whittle down; I hope to do that by the end of the day.

ALL THAT IS TO SAY.

I’ll be back as soon as I get to feeling better.

Thursday, April 30, 2009 | by nathan

We Interrupt This Interruption

I’m back from my blogging break soon. Brian and I are celebrating our four-year anniversary today and spending the next few days at Black Mesa.

Still trying to figure out why I have a blog; don’t worry, I’m not deleting it or giving up or anything, just trying to figure out where it fits into the rest of my writing life. I’m writing new GCN columns and it’s some of the most challenging, rewarding and best writing of my life. In general I’m inspired lately; trying to make sure the blog gets its appropriate share of that without taking over.

And given that I’ve received no fewer than half a dozen requests to talk about the whole Miss California-Perez Hilton thing, I may have a go at it, though I have to say, I don’t have much nice to say about either Perez Hilton OR Miss California, so.

In the meantime, comedian Paul Scheer (you may know him as Donny the Head Page from 30 Rock) visited the Michael Jackson Auction and came back with photos that might make it hard for you to sleep for the next week or so. Click the photo for more because OH MY GOD.