Ask Nat and Microblog
Simply submit a question, any question. Could be deep, could be ridiculous, could be curious. I’ll answer questions below and on post them on social media. Hit refresh to submit more than one.
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Happy New Year!!
I hope you are having a good start to 2026. Do you have any goals for 2026? Sound off in the comments.
How are you feeling about rejoining the workforce after such a tumultuous year in politics?
Anonymous question submitted December 22, 6:13am. This is an intriguing question. I mostly feel excitement as I’m ready to go back. Politics does play a role in my job search, though. I try to carefully vet companies and organizations I’m looking at applying to. Mostly, I look towards organizations that are making a positive impact in general as I would like to feel like I’m working on something useful and good each time I clock in. And this excites me as well. That doesn’t mean I’m looking at jobs that are political or have some cause, it just means I do look at ones that are gonna have a positive impact on those they serve. And I avoid organizations that may play into the awful things currently happening in politics, whether directly or indirectly.
Back in the Mercedes saddle again
Today, I jumped headlong into the work of writing the next Mercedes Masterson story. It’s a short story called The Book of Jude that will come out before the next novel. I like planting little stories between the novels to whet the appetites of the readers, especially since it takes me a few years to release the novels. You may recall Her Last Halloween was the first short story and it fell between the first two novels.
I managed to write chapters two and three today in full. It felt good to be back in the Masterson universe, if you will.
And because I’m nice, here’s an excerpt from tonight’s writing.
THE BOOK OF JUDE, Chapter 3 Excerpt.
Dr. Klein stood up and kicked the stool away again. “I think we’re good. I’ll call you in a few days about the bloodwork.” Jude stood up awkwardly. “The fatigue still being a bitch?”
“Always.”
“Well, Jude, I wanted to tell you I’m working with some guys. Some vets, some docs, a few nurses, and a couple of state senators.” He grabbed the folder and handed it to him. “We’re trying to get some movement on legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes.”
Jude opened the folder and it had a document about the goals and purpose of the group written on the first page. There was a stack of maybe ten pages behind it. “Yeah, that’s good.”
“I’d like you to join us,” Dr. Klein continued, “so you can tell the state senate about your experience with Gulf War Syndrome and using cannabis to manage your symptoms.”
Jude scoffed, “I’m not going before the state senate to confess my crimes. That’d be about the dumbest thing I could do.”
“You can tell your story anonymously.” Dr. Klein rested a warm hand on Jude’s wrist. “Just give it some thought, will ya?”
“Sure, I’ll think about it.”
Outside the VA’s office, the wind had picked up and the temperature was dropping. Jude flipped the collar up on his military green jacket to block the brisk wind from his face. He pulled out a cigarette and stuck it between his lips. He lit it with a lighter that said John on it, using the folder to shield the flame from the wind. After he got the cigarette lit and took the first puff of smoke, he discarded the folder into the combination trashcan and ashtray.
He climbed into his van and dreaded that the trip home later would be cold as hell without the heater working. He rolled the window down, letting in the wind, but also letting out the smoke. He turned over the engine to listen to the radio while he smoked his cigarette. A song by Canned Heat was playing on the radio and that immediately took him back to John’s bedroom.
Super Cool Stuff (end of year review) coming soon…
Last year, I started a new thing called “Super Cool Stuff” that was my take on Spotify Wrapped or Apply Music Replay (if you listen to Apple Music like I do). I made fun graphics about different stats and such regarding that year in the newsletter. My favorite part was finding ways to shout out to the community here and put ya’ll in those graphics.
Well, I’m doing it again. I put together some graphics already and just need to see if I can come up with anymore category ideas before publishing it in a week or two.
I also used last year’s end of year review to set some goals for 2025, so I’ll examine how I did, and make some new ones for 2026. One extra bonus for 2024’s Super Cool Stuff was that I chronicled the origin story of Weaver’s Deep Thoughts — spoiler: it wasn’t originally a newsletter, it was a hashtag on Google+.
If you have any ideas for categories or stats to include, let me know in the comments. Or maybe you just want to ask me some questions about my behind the scenes process of doing the newsletter, you can ask those questions below, and I’ll answer them in the review.
Advice to my son
Advice to my son: “Let the poops fall where they may, preferably in the toilet. So that they may go bloop.”
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From my Twitter archive. Originally tweeted January 1, 2015. Next interview conducted with author Lana Casiello
The interview with author Lana Casiello went great last night. If not a little longer than I’d hoped. I’m trying to pull out some deep thoughts in these interviews and even with a short list of questions, we managed to talk for over an hour. I’ll be happy to jump in and start work on the write up of the interview. I may cut a few video clips from the interview as well. Stay tuned.
In the interview we discussed Lana’s native Hawaiian heritage and generational trauma and why she writes.
Two ideas for leading a decent life
I think two ideas can help people lead a decent life. And that’s “be kind to each other” and “don’t be a dick.” They’re simple ideas. The first is to default to kindness with people. The second is to avoid being ugly to people. Many people fail both concepts on the daily which is sad.
I gave the site a makeover
You may have noticed it looks a little different. That’s because it is. Wanted a fresh coat of paint, especially with the new micro-interviews incoming. Hope you like it.
Going places with characters, the psychology of people
This short story I’ve been working on has been quite enjoyable. I’m pretty proud of it. And it certainly took me through some interesting territory in terms of understanding people. So much in writing (and acting) is understanding the psychology of people. Even people you would generally not like or find repulsive. But to write them well and realistically, you have to spend some time trying to understand and explain their behaviors. Especially if they aren’t villains.
I should probably add that when I say “understanding the psychology of people” doesn’t necessarily equate to empathy or sympathy.
It just means I can connect the dots as to why they do what they do or why they tick the way they tick. It doesn’t necessarily mean I can relate or that I may change my view with regards to their behavior — I just understand it on a psychological level. Which I believe is super important in writing believable characters.
Side note: This isn’t about “The Bride of Usher” which I am currently writing and publishing to the newsletter, but another short story I’m also currently writing called “Blood Frequency.”
My darn iPhone alarm hates me
My iPhone does this thing where it’ll sometimes randomly turn down my alarm volume. Which means I end up sleeping through my alarm. It’s been doing this a lot the past week or so. Did it again this morning and screwed up my whole morning. So annoyed right now. Did a search and it’s apparently a glitch that comes around a lot on iPhones. Been an issue for years.
So now I’m setting my Echo Dot alarms again for backup. Jeez.
If you have an iPhone, has this ever happened to you?
Sup.
I need to get better about writing to the Ask Nat microblog. Especially, as social media seems hellbent on ruining themselves by catapulting content moderation, being insufferable, and caving to right-wing extremism.
I really do think this is a good time for folks to go back to blogging, even if it’s owning their own microblogs.
On that note, would it be fun to just have a collaborative blogging space for likeminded folks? Basically a tiny microblogging platform, because the only posters would all know and trust one another. It could even be private. Just thinking out loud.
As always, you can hit me up with anonymous questions in the Ask Nat form to keep me busy.
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