I need you!

A short post this week and a request. First some news though:

My reading at Rain-or-Shine is in two weeks but other authors have already started the series off! There will be other readings every Thursday in September. Check out the event for more at: http://www.facebook.com/events/350291445056430/
See you on Thursday the 20th, and please tell your friends!

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Have you read Water Rounded Stones, or any of the stories from it posted on this site? If you have, then I need your help. Help me get rated on Lulu.com and Barns&Noble.com. User review and star ratings push me further up on google and make it easier to find my book and act as a key insight for literary agents. Even a one sentence "I loved this book, especially the quirky sci-fi stories," helps me out. I can't review myself so I need help from my readers, please lend a hand, won't you?  

My book on Lulu can be found at:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/nathaniel-hart/water-rounded-stones/paperback/product-18815538.html

And on Barns & Noble I'm at:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/water-rounded-stones-nathaniel-hart/1109559446?ean=9781105511905

Thanks to everyone for anything you can offer...

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And lastly a promise: Next week I am very excited to post the cover of my next novel Coming Home. You can catch an exerpt from it at my Rain or Shine reading along with a story from Water Rounded Stones!

Live Reading at Rain or Shine

Hey folks, come to my reading at Rain or Shine Cafe on Thursday September 20^th! As part of Rain or Shine's local writers exhibition I will be reading from Water Rounded Stones and my forth coming novel Coming Home, due out this Autumn. Please come on out to support Portland businesses, local authors, and my writing. Here's the details:

Thursday, September 20^th, 6:30 to 7:30 PM

Rain or Shine Cafe, 5941 Southeast Division Street, Portland, OR 97206

Kids welcome, but content of part of the reading is PG-13

Drop me a line if you have questions or concerns and please share this event with anyone you like!

The Venue

For more on my forthcoming book be sure to check back every Saturday...  

More Carriers for Water Rounded Stones

I am pleased to announce that Water Rounded Stones is now available as an E-Book at Barns and Noble and the apple I-Bookstore app! It will now read clearly on the Kindle, Nook, or other e-readers. You can check it out or purchase through B&N at the link provided with this post. And it saves trees, which is pretty cool.

For those of you in Portland or the surrounding area stay tuned to this space in early April when I will be announcing a further readings in Portland and beyond, as well as a word on my next novel due out in Autumn of this year. Take care and enjoy Spring (such as it is.)    

Book Release Party! 6:30 PM, 2/2/2012 at the Alberta Street Pub

The headline says it all! Come on down to the Alberta Street Public-house for the release of Water Rounded Stones. I will be reading stories from the book on stage and books will be available for purchase (in paperback, can't do the e-book in person, for obvious reasons). I'll even sign it, if you like. No cover charge or expectations, just come on down, bring a friend, and help me make it a big event!

The reading and release will be at the Alberta Street Pub, located at 11th and Alberta. Show is at 6:30 PM on February the second (Groundhog Day). Run-time should be three stories in 60 mins, stay for some or all.

See you there!      

Water Rounded Stones

₪₪₪

From life’s storms I am water rounded stone,

From life’s hearth fires I am full-cured mud brick,

From life’s leave taking I am bone become rock,

Death marvels at me.

~ Grandmother Behigha

₪₪₪

Water-Rounded Stones is a story about storytellers. This grouping of short stories, engages with the idea of stories from science fiction, to fantasy, to modern character studies.

From the bleak similarities found in four people living at the four corners of time in Mingled, to the denial of entropy and sorrow in The Poet's Secret, to the ever present now of recollection in Five Season in Rudren, this collection dwells on Story, rallies around it, and embraces it

While the stories themselves often have little in common in terms of their place, time, or subject matter, Water-Rounded Stones ties them together with shared ideas and themes. The metaphors and similes of one story create echoes in another, just as many diverse stones may share the bed of the same stream.

Ultimately, Water-Rounded Stones is an examination of our need of stories, and hopes, with its own contribution, to sate that need as well as a hearth-fire sates cold and tired bones.  

Water-Rounded Stones Released!

It's out! Water Rounded Stones is finally out on LuLu.com in paperback or E-book. You can read the blurb to follow, or hit the link straight through to Lulu.com and checkout the storefront.  

Some of you may remember the earlier bootleg (Water-Rounded Stone Collection). Well, this is more than a second edition. Not only are there two new stories (for a total of 18 in the book) but every single story has gone through some tweaks that have made the entire work a better read. Cover and interior photos tie the whole package together. You really should check this out!

The Hearthside is live

Welcome to the Hearthside, an author's blog for the work of Nathaniel Hart. Expect updates here about my writing, forthcoming projects, and appearances. My most recent novel is Water Rounded Stones. If you don't know what that is, here is the blurb:

What do stories mean to us? What can we really say about our lives without them? Water Rounded Stones, the debut novel by Nathaniel Hart is a collection of carefully crafted short stories exploring the ways we define our lives. The 18 stories in this new second edition range from science fiction, to modern; from fantasy, to poetry. Each story is a separate tale, but draws from the shared metaphor and symbolism of the others suggesting contrasts and connections between the entire work.  From the cynical sentimentality of Two Cent Society to the diversity of truth in A Spark it embraces the role of story as the medium of existence. From fear of the entropic void in Mingled, to the denial all endings in The Poet's Secret it bears forth Story as the wellspring of hope.


If you want a taste of what that looks like, read one of the sample stories offered on the right. Copies of Water Rounded Stones will soon be available from this site and Lulu.com. Also, be sure to check out this site for more on my next work Going Home due out in 2012, and events I am attending around Portland. Cheers.