Author Spotlight: Nat Weaver

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Author Spotlight: Nat Weaver

Nathan “Nat” Weaver has been writing for a long time across stage, film, television, short stories, and finally became a novelist in 2020 when he published Sweet Sixteen Killer, the first in his Mercedes Masterson Detective series. He followed it up with Her Last Halloween, a short story in the series, in 2023.

Weaver’s noir detective series, Mercedes Masterson, is ongoing with several installments available now.

Books: mercedesmasterson.com

Threads: @natweaverwrites

Facebook: @weavern

Newsletter: weaver.wtf

Blog: weaversdeepthoughts.com

Cash App: $natweaverwrites

Ko-Fi: ko-fi/natweaver

How do you plot a Mercedes Masterton novel – can you talk us through your process of drafting from an idea to a full outline?

Well, I don’t have a full outline in advance, so there’s that. I typically have a basic idea for the plot and a beginning and ending. It’s all the middle bits that muck it up. I typically, outline a little out in front of me using a spreadsheet method with a brief description of the action in the chapter, characters, estimated word goal, and actual word goal when I finish the first draft (that also gets updated regularly during the editing stage). I’ll have about 5-10 chapters outlined ahead of me as I go. With it being a series, I do have to regularly go out and plan things ahead from time-to-time, to make sure I’m hitting my marks.

How did Mercedes develop as a character as you were planning the series?

I first came up with the character in the summer of 2005. I was working with a group of friends on a short film that I was to write and direct. I needed a character for an actress, and I developed Mercedes. Mainly, because I was like, “Hey, where are the cops? There should probably be a detective after this murder.” It’s a character I’ve been developing off and on for years since then, along with the actress who first played her – she appears on the cover and website. That’s her. At any rate, at some point I had this idea of doing a spin-off TV series where she quit the force and became a private detective. Years passed, and I decided to reverse adapt that private detective idea into a book series. Now that I’m working with her in the novel form, I get to play around a lot more with her than I ever got to in film. Not that you can’t in that medium, but it has opened me up to delve more into her character. There’s a lot to come.

In The Sweet Sixteen Killer, we’re introduced to Mercedes Masterton and her transition from one career to another, from law enforcement (after a decade of fighting police corruption and organised crime) to the private sector. Why did you choose to pick up her story at this point, rather than when she was still with the force?

As I mentioned above, I have worked with her in a previous storyline. In that storyline, though, she is more of a supporting role. In this series, I’m able to put her front and center, and really develop her character. Plus, I think it’s just a fascinating storyline, she is turning 30 and turning over a new leaf. This was something I did when I was 30 as well. Mostly, I just wanted to write about her. Originally, I started with a 7-book series of books about her high school career. One of these days maybe I’ll get back to that.

What do you think noir as a mode/subgenre adds to your themes of personal identity exploration and absences/loss in Jonah of Olympic?

When I was first writing Mercedes, I pictured her as both a femme fatale and a heroine all wrapped up in one. And that first film with her was a noir series, even in black and white. That said, I would say when writing noir, you have to be willing to get a little dirty, or gritty, and also inside the mind of some of the characters. I think that helps these themes along. Things tend to be sort of bleak in noir, especially classic noir, so it sort of raises the bar when it comes to the emotional toll of the characters. This was a fascinating question.

What aspects of the series (or your newest release specifically) do you find most difficult to write, and how do you manage this?

Honestly, editing. Editing longform, especially my own work, I find a daunting task. I enjoy the heck out of editing, when it comes in shortform. But that’s not what the question is really about. You would think it would be violence since the series has violence, but honestly, I don’t find it too difficult to write. Maybe that’s because I’ve seen violence. I don’t know. But I tend to come at it from the perspective of wanting to know what the goal is, where is the violence taking us emotionally. And also, this is important, to know what you don’t want the violence to do. But some types of violence are just extremely difficult to process, even in fiction, and I tend to shy away from that stuff, or I write about it vaguely. Or maybe we could learn about it through someone reading a police report. That way the reader isn’t in the thick of it. I always say that I tend to write about things I hate. I actually detest violence and am not a violent person at all.

Now that I think of it: sex scenes. I think it’s important to write good ones, not like the comical ones we see on social media written by men about women, like, “she moved breastedly across the floor.” I’ve actually been practicing writing some. Mercedes is closeted bisexual, but I do want her to have an active sex life.

How many stories are planned for the series as of now and what are the next releases to look out for?

That’s hard to say at the moment. Originally, I was sitting at about 15 plots/books. But that didn’t include some of the short stories and novellas that fall between the novels (and yes, it’s all important). But recently, I went through and consolidated some plots into subplots, and I realize that’s probably what I’m going to try and do moving forward. I’m 40, I don’t know if I have enough life in me to write 15 books. Plus, I’m of the opinion that a book cannot be made of one single good idea, but many good ideas. So, the consolidation of subplots can help make a book great.

On the Mercedes Masterson site, we’re trying to plot out ahead so we can see what’s coming – at least in terms of a title and a stand-in graphic. Currently, there is Sweet Sixteen Killer and Her Last Halloween out now, and then up next is Jonah of Olympic and The Book of Jude (which is currently missing on the site), followed by Winter Wanderland and Supernature.