Week 1/52

01/04/26

Self-portrait in crayon.

I have seen other authors/creators on this platform do something similiar to this. I won’t tag them in this post because I am not trying to pull in readership or leech off others’ work and effort.

They know who they are, and yes, I stole this idea from you.

I’ll start with a proper introduction.

I have never actually done this. Nathan Hatch is my actual name, and I actually look like this. In addition to those two factors, I live in Dutchess County, New York State. The area that I live in is about 3 hours from NYC, or as people call it here, “the city.”

I am married, forty-five years old, and my wife and I are expecting our first child in April.

First for both of us. I will be an old dad, but this suits me.

I was born in a suburb of Boston. A magical little place called the Merrimack Valley. If you have read anything I have written, you will know this fact comes up quite often. The details of the area are not important, but interesting enough to give me fodder for fiction.

I was raised on classic weird or strange fiction, and by that I mean it literally. My father taught a course on weird fiction at UMass Amherst when he was in graduate school.

As A child, if I wished to converse with him, this was the only real topic we could discuss. That being said, I write like this and talk like this.

Unfortunately, it now needs to be stated that I do not use any AI enhancements in my writing. I have in the past used some of those sites to create art. I have chosen to no longer do this.

The terrible crayon drawings are my way of sidestepping the systems in place for story art. I do not apologize for them; in fact, it is really cathartic.

Introduction complete.

I plan on doing something like this weekly. My goals for each update are threefold.

1. Showcase a creator that I enjoyed during the previous week.

2. Showcase one of my older pieces of fiction.

3. Share a preview of the week ahead here on Substack(Either my own work or someone else's)

The showcase for this first week is actually the person who convinced me to stay with Substack. I initially signed up, posted a few stories, and ran away screaming. I am sure you all have had the experience of an algorithmic meltdown in one way or another.

Essentially, a few curious Sword and Sorcery clicks led me to a hellscape of bad political hot takes.

This person talked me down and convinced me to give Substack another go.

So thank you Jolon Fairweather.

I know you are in hiding, but your serial diary entries are fantastic, and I am satisfied reading them on repeat.

This is one of my favorites.

50. Haunting My Own Flat

An older piece of my fiction worth reading is this one. It was written in September. It was one of my earliest crayon art pieces, and it actually drew some attention. This was a real, inspiring moment for me. I was existing in aminimity, floating around 2 or 3 likes and about 10 views a day. After this piece, I gained some traction and started getting subscribers. It is a strange story. It is essentially about having to put on a different “skin” for work and social nonsense.

I read it today, and I still like it.

A future project worth looking at is the upcoming “Loving the Alien” community project that Norm DePlume and I have put together. I did something similiar to this in December, and I think it is a good model for sharing stories with a small community of creators.

There are still 3 dates available in early February, but even if you do not want to contribute, check out some of the other creators involved and their work. A list of the attached creators is at the bottom of the Loving the Alien post.

I will put out one fiction piece this week. It is entitled “Muscle and Hate.” It is about the experience I had in a Healthfood store parking lot.

“Muscle and hate” is in reference to a Nitzer Ebb lyric. That is what I have been listening to today.

If this is all too much “me”, I apologize for that. I am giving it a shot. I hope this doesn’t sound self-important. Sometimes learning a little about a creator can make enjoying their work even better, while other times it can help you realize they’re not for you and save you from wasting time.

Thanks to anyone who checked in or read anything I have written in the past. I really do appreciate it.

I’ll at least do one more of these.

---

Here are the buttons