Welcome to Who’s on Fourth where one member of the yeah write community will interview another yeah writer, and the interview will publish the fourth Monday of each month. Eighth in the series features Arden of Arden Ruth Writes interviewing Nate of the relative cartographer.

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yeah write on yeah write: Arden interviews Nate 

During the first week of the 2014 summer series, the editors at yeah write began noticing an increased presence from one of our newcomers. He dove in head first to the series, starting conversations, providing useful, constructive criticism and contributing his own pieces for review. We knew he was quickly becoming a valuable part of the community even though he’d only been hanging around for a few months. That writer was Nate James of the relative cartographer.

Nate launched his blog in early 2014. While taking a Beginning Blogging course from WordPress, he was encouraged to find a writing event to participate in. Stumbling onto yeah write, Nate first submitted a piece to one of our challenges in May of 2014. The very next week, he submitted his first gargleblaster and the rest was history. He is now a weekly presence on multiple grids and we’re happy to have him.

Considering our recent jump to site-wide moderation, Nate’s advice to yeah write virgins could apply to anyone who plans to submit:

Considering his success at the speakeasy (did you read his Crowd Fave submission last week?), it surprised me to hear that it took a few months for Nate to gain the courage to first submit to our fiction & poetry grid.

Speaking of genealogy, if you read Nate’s blog regularly, you know it is a favorite hobby of his. He first started researching his family’s history to see if he was related to Jesse James. Once he started digging, he began to uncover all kinds of information about both sides of his family.

I can see the resemblance!

Between writing and researching, I’m surprised that Nate has time for much else but he’s managed to latch on to quite a few other hobbies as well. By his own admission, all of his hobbies seem to be things that a much older person would like. I hope it’s napping. I love napping.

Sketch // Watercolor by Nate James

He’s also a big reader and is currently on a young adult fiction kick. Nate just finished The Fault In Our Stars by John Green last week. He’s also reading The Fever by Megan Abbott and Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins for research on a story he’s writing.

Nate, when do you sleep?

When he’s not hanging out here at yeah write, Nate’s spending time with his partner, Michael, and their two cats who apparently love them but only tolerate each other. They all live on the north side of Chicago. For a living, Nate writes and edits reading and social studies schoolbooks. The creative gene didn’t skip everyone else in Nate’s family though:

Make sure you check out Nate’s blog, the relative cartographer, for all of his stories. In the meantime, here are five more things you never knew about Nate:

Mesmerized by Nate’s vocal prowess…

1. Certain steering wheels in cars turn his hands puffy and bright red. He thinks it’s an allergy to rubber.
2. Thankfully, he doesn’t have to deal with that allergy too much as he’s been car-free since 2001. You don’t really need one in the city.
3. Being car-free means always being prepared for a rain shower. That is why Nate has an umbrella on him at all times.
4. Showering is where he does his best thinking. Also, operatic singing.
5. Nate’s cats are mesmerized by his (or anyone’s) singing.

You can follow Nate on Facebook at the relative cartographer.

[hr] Summer may be coming to an end but the fun is just getting started here at yeah write. We hope you’re enjoying the changes around here. Are you ready for the yeah write #180 weekly writing challenge that opened today? We hope so! Your badge awaits in the sidebar. Grab the code, paste into the text or HTML view of your post, then submit your post to the moderated grid for a little friendly competition. We’re glad you’re here.