This September I’ll be going back to my old hometown, Rolla, Missouri, where I grew up in the 90s, to read from my queer YA sci-fi horror comedy short story “Blood Frequency” and doing a Q&A. My story takes place in that town during the 90s. And the event is hosted by the local LGBTQ+ group.
It’s sort of surreal to think about it. But a lot of good work has been done these past few years in my old hometown to be more inclusive and kind. Doing something like this there in the 90s would have been unheard of.
In preparation for this event, I’ve created an Events page on the website with details and a link to the Facebook Event. In the future, I’ll be posting all events I do to that page.
This anonymous question was submitted to me on July 11, 2025. I answered it then, but I’d like to share my response to this question once more here. It’s a great question and I enjoyed answering it. If you’re an author reading this, answer the question in the comments. I’d love to hear what inspires your writing, too.
You can ask me questions with my Ask Nat form linked below and I’ll answer them on the blog.
Lots of things. In terms of inspiring my writing, I’m gonna answer this as both what informs my ideas and what gets me excited.
I tend to turn to a mixture of things for inspiration regarding ideas. History (especially ancient history), folklore, other media (like film and music), and real-life crimes and social issues tend to cause sparks to fly.
Some examples:
Sweet Sixteen Killer was born out of listening to “sweet sixteen” songs of the 1950s as an adult and realizing how gross they were,
my current work is a gothic horror piece set in Victorian era England that germinated as an homage to Universal monster and Hammer Horror films,
I have an upcoming Mercedes novel that’s inspired by an FBI report published during the Bush administration about white nationalists infiltrating the police to recruit members,
Jonah of Olympic has a subplot about an old dying Hollywood actress who has remained a closeted lesbian her whole life (for this I researched a number of Hollywood actresses from classic Hollywood who were closeted lesbian or bisexual — Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Katherine Hepburn, etc.),
and many of my works have hints to ancient or obscure folklore — two upcoming Mercedes Masterson stories, Aibell and The Book of Jude, delve into Irish folklore.
But also, movies and music. Movies inspire me a lot when it comes to writing. Some of you may not know, but I did a lot of indie film work in my early 20s. I love movies — especially horror (all kinds), action, noir, and some sci-fi. I think what I love most about films is how you can get sucked into a world for a very short amount of time and just be absorbed by its aesthetic and mood. Often times I’ll watch a collection of movies that have the vibe I want right before starting the first draft of writing. I’m a very visual person, so being able to absorb a lot of visuals before the writing process begins is important. I do this with Pinterest as well. I use Pinterest to create a mood board before I start writing. And then, there’s music. I can’t overstate its influence in my writing. I build playlists for my novels. My longest one to date is for Jonah of Olympic, which is over 10 hours long. I explore music I know, but also discover a lot of new music. I can often sit with a song on repeat while my mind creates a scene or character. It’s a very meditative process.
📚 Already up to 70+ downloads and still growing. There’s still plenty of time today for more folks to get their alien paws on a free ebook of my queer YA sci-fi horror comedy Blood Frequency. 🌈 👽
And don’t forget to browse and find other good stories from other authors. I went through and got a handful just a bit ago. My TBR is a mountain of good intentions.
I wrote this little poem about men who send unsolicited dick pics to women on social media at my local writer’s group during our writing prompt. Enjoy.
I haven’t written a poem in like 20 years, so savor this, I guess.
No Thank You
By nat weaver
No thank you, I must be going. You’re annoying And I don’t like it, too. So no thank you, I must be going. Your unsolicited Dick pic Ain’t it, Nick. I must be going. No thank you, I must be lamenting. I screenshot your dm Shared with mentioning. My followers are dunking And reporting. So no thank you, I must be going. No thank you, Nick, In the dms with the dick, You must be going. Your LinkedIn is found, Your boss has been warned. You’ve been fired, Won’t be retired. But don’t thank me, It was an internet sleuth, You must be going. You deactivated, Must be aggravated. You must be going. No thank you necessary.
I forgot to post this earlier, but I recently picked up this Nancy Drew book from the 1980s. Not gonna lie, I mostly picked it up for the fabulous cover but the plot sounds fun too.
It’s time for a book cover reveal! This is the wholly original cover for my queer YA comedy horror sci-fi short story called Blood Frequency.
Front cover.Back cover.
If you previously bought the ebook, that was released last Thanksgiving, I’ll be updating it for free with the new cover. And I’ll be releasing a paperback version in the near future as well with this lovely cover.
I’m so happy Jamie Hahn could help me bring to life this weird alien creature I wrote in the story and with an old VHS rental vibe.
If you look closely at the fake movie credits, you may recognize a few names. This was my way of shouting out other indie artists and authors.
And… on July 18, I’ll be participating in the Midsummer Night’s Scream event by making the Blood Frequency ebook available for free — with the new cover and all!
🔗 Follow the link with the button below and bookmark that page and come back to it on July 18:
I finally started watching Dark Winds. I’ve been wanting to watch it since before the first season had even aired. It’s everything I hoped it would be and then some multiplied by ten thousand.
Currently about halfway through season two and absolutely loving this show.
Anybody else a lover of Dark Winds? Sound off in the comments.
The first draft of my Nancy Drew horror mystery novella cover art work arrived yesterday. I’ve made notes and sent them back. Y’all this is so exciting. It looks fabulous and will continue to improve. Can’t wait to share it with y’all in the near future.
I’ll be participating in the Midsummer Night’s Scream book event by giving away free ebook copies of my short queer YA comedy sci-fi horror story called “Blood Frequnecy.” Mark your calendars for July 18! 🌈 👽
Other authors will be involved in this event as well across Threads and Instagram either with discounted works or free ones.
With the whole Sony PlayStation “no more games ownership” crap, it seems like a good time to remind people I’ve created a “library” on my newsletter where I’m building up a collection of short stories and poetry across genres. These are free and DRM-free ebooks from a diverse group of authors and poets. Meaning, you can download them and keep them forever. No license, no subscription. Just save them somewhere safe and back them up.
Fellow indie author C. M. Rosens has some new publishing news with Dead Fox Publishing. Super exciting. Check it out! And look around Rosens’ website for stories you may want to read. She’s an excellent author.
