{"id":8877,"date":"2020-01-16T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=8877"},"modified":"2020-01-15T20:01:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T03:01:37","slug":"nathan-bransford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/nathan-bransford\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Bransford"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Nathan-Bransford.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8885\" width=\"133\" height=\"147\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Guest Blogger Nathan Bransford reflects about this\npast decade with the constant of books by his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following is excerpted from <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Nathan\u2019s December 30, 2019 blog post (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.nathanbransford.com\/2019\/12\/a-lot-can-change-in-a-decade-and-yet\" target=\"_blank\">Nathan\u2019s December 30, 2019 blog post.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>So much can change over the course\nof a decade or two. Thank goodness the books we read and write will still be\nthere waiting for us when we need them.<\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the clock struck midnight to ring in January 1, 2010, I was a literary agent with Curtis Brown Ltd. in San Francisco, I was married, and the ink was barely dry on my first book deal for the&nbsp;<em>Jacob Wonderbar<\/em>&nbsp;series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Little did I know that within a year and a half all that would change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amid all this change, amid all of this upheaval and turmoil,\nthere\u2019s only one thing in my life that hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Books.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first time I visualized my current life was during a vacation in 2010 in Hawaii. I looked around and felt like a bolt of lightning hit me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I thought, \u201cWhat if I just focused on helping authors with their manuscripts, wrote my own books, and worked remotely?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It took me a whole decade to achieve that dream. What if I\u2019d\nleaped when I first had the idea? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Regrets are pointless, lessons are\nvaluable<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As much as we might want to change the past, the truth is that the past makes us who we are. (Something I explored at length in&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.nathanbransford.com\/books-by-nathan-bransford\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp (opens in a new tab)\">Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know I needed to go on my career odyssey to see what was out there, to learn new skills, to make new friendships, and grow as a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve definitely made some huge mistakes along the way. When\nI look back, the worst ones happened when I didn\u2019t follow my own instincts,\nwhether because I had talked myself out of what I was feeling or because I\nlacked the nerve to act on my gut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The comforting power of books<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a world where things constantly change and often\ndisorient us, there\u2019s something comforting about the way books are stuck in\ntime, artifacts of a particular moment and place. They provide that soothing\ncertainty that we can return to them and they\u2019ll be there, unchanged, ready for\nus to revisit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This especially applies to the books we write ourselves. It\u2019s such a powerful and meaningful pursuit to write a book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Note from Marlene:<\/strong> I hope Nathan&#8217;s story inspires you to pursue your writing project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.nathanbransford.com\/2019\/12\/a-lot-can-change-in-a-decade-and-yet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"here  (opens in a new tab)\">here <\/a>to read the entire reflective post, including an endearing letter from Nathan to Roald Dahl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nathan Bransford is&nbsp;the author of&nbsp;<em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"How to Write a Novel (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/314waht\" target=\"_blank\">How to Write a Novel<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2sFukDA\" target=\"_blank\">Jacob Wonderbar<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;series. Nathan is dedicated to helping authors chase their dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nathan\u2019s blog has everything you need to know to write, edit, and publish a book. Can\u2019t find what you need or want personalized help?<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.nathanbransford.com\/book-editing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" Contact Nathan (opens in a new tab)\"> Contact Nathan<\/a> for help with your book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest Blogger Nathan Bransford reflects about this past decade with the constant of books by his side. The following is excerpted from Nathan\u2019s December 30, 2019 blog post. So much can change over the course of a decade or two. Thank goodness the books we read and write will still be there waiting for us [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[1307,1306,1292],"class_list":["post-8877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-how-to-write-a-novel","tag-jacob-wonderbar-and-the-interstellar-time-warp","tag-nathan-bransford"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2jb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8877"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8889,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8877\/revisions\/8889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}