Let me start somewhere and we’ll call it the beginning.

The first time I was really captured by books was in the seventh grade. My last two periods of the day were in the library. I picked up a book and it wouldn’t let me go. I had no choice but to walk out with it still holding on to me. (I didn’t even sign it out.) I finished reading it before I returned to the library the next day. (Some of my homework may have suffered that night.)

Being offended by the way that book had manhandled me, I thought to assert my power over books and I picked up a different one. It was worse! It kept me from doing any homework in the library AND made me take it home.

Hundreds of adventures later, me and the books were on a first name basis.

In eighth grade my time in the library was stolen and my time reading fell to manageable levels. My organic friends found sports and I found I couldn’t hit a backboard if you gave me a ladder and a bat. Just when I feared that I’d be dropped from the not-so-cool crowd I discovered I could snap a locker room towel with thread-popping explosiveness.

That is a much respected skill.

I signed on to all of the sports teams and traveled around the state with my pals—I was the towel boy. It’s not as bad as it may sound. Out of loyalty to my paperback friends I often took along an explorer, or sleuth; maybe a magician or even an alien would make the trip with us.

Eventually I found true love, followed by the wonderful pitter-pater of mischievous feet.

When I made my way back into the world of print: WOW! New friends had mingled with the old friends. New worlds were populated, romance had put on robes of dignity, villains reveled in the spot light, and heroines and heroes jumped off the page and saved us all.

That’s where I want to go!

I invite you to come along.

****

Nate Kirtis is a pen name for record keepers who travel to new worlds, and invite us to come along—adventurers who were brought up on Edgar Rice Burroughs, CS Lewis, Asimov, and Heinlein. Travelers who have trained in the worlds of Modesitt, Sanderson, Rowlings, Meyer, Collins, and many more.

If there are worlds you would like to see explored, send a note to Nate at natekirtisbooks@gmail.com and maybe, one day, an adventurer will swing by your world to take a look and share those discoveries with the rest of us.