Trader’s Diary

Comment from Ben Rogers
Time: July 16, 2008, 1:37 am

Absolutely love your books! Normally I listen to the more horror driven sci-fi but I find that your stories are very well put together, so it is difficult not to listen to them. Just wanted to let you know that you are doing a fantastic job and that I look forward to more of your fiction in the future.

Comment from Steve Duffield
Time: July 19, 2008, 10:23 pm

I was trying to save this book for another time, but I lacked the necessary discipline! I started Friday night and finished this morning - all the episodes. Fantastic. Can’t wait for the next book in either series.

Comment from Holly
Time: July 20, 2008, 6:06 am

and if you want to get a little more hi-tech - take a look at bbPress to run your fan forum…..
thanks for getting the last book episodes out so rapidly. But now you are going to here from all of us about wanting yet another book!

Comment from Nate
Time: July 20, 2008, 6:09 am

Yea, I don’t like bbPress. I’ve used it before and SMF does fine. I just need to take some time to make it pretty, and I got too much other stuff going on

The last episode wasn’t published for 2 hrs before I got the first query about “when’s the next book coming?”

It won’t be TOO long.

Comment from Tag
Time: July 26, 2008, 6:20 pm

I really enjoyed your shares series of books. Somehow I missed downloading the last 5 episodes of Double Share and it just ended with nothing resolved! I was quite upset! Then I found the final episodes and stayed up most of the night finishing the book and series. It is really rare that I get THAT HOOKED by a book. But you GOT me!
Thanks again!

Comment from Nate
Time: July 26, 2008, 6:26 pm

I’m glad you got the last set

I’ve had a couple people ask me when I was going to finish the book … in each cast it was because the episodes just hadn’t been downloaded

Comment from Eric
Time: July 28, 2008, 2:58 pm

Hey Nate,

Thank you for everything you do for your fans. I have spent the last hour browsing your site. I am a hard core geek and I completely loved finding the background info on the Great Diaspora, the McKendrick, etc. This is really going above and beyond! And I love it!

Also wanted to thank you for inspiration. It really shows that a guy with an idea and a gift for words can do geat things, even without a major publisher. You’ve got me working on my own space-based novel again. =)

Thanks again!

Comment from Nate
Time: July 28, 2008, 4:18 pm

A little bit at a time — you can do a lot. This place has changed a lot in the last 18 months

I’m happy to be an inspiration! We need more people writing and podcasting

Comment from Megan Pawlak
Time: July 28, 2008, 6:14 pm

You always make me hungry the way you talk about food >.>. I’m vegetarian, but I eat eggs and dairy. When I listened to the trilogy a year ago (I think) I ate omlettes for dinner for a week straight! With all the eggs and bacon I kept wanting breakfast! Can’t wait to see what ELSE Ish is going to do for Billy. :quivers with excitement:

I’ve already listened to Double Share 3 times cause I listen to audiobooks all day at work. Good books make time fly!

Comment from ben
Time: August 3, 2008, 5:28 pm

Dear Sir
Thanks for the great books. Having spent most of my life on the ocean as a captain and engineer you have managed to capture quite well the inner workings both good and bad of life on board a vessel, was wondering if you spent any time on ships?.
Cant wait for triple and quadruple share!
Cheers

Comment from Nate
Time: August 3, 2008, 7:03 pm

Hey, Ben. I spent time at sea on a Coast Guard Cutter on patrol in the North Atlantic.

Glad you like the books and I’m looking forward to Captain and Owner myself

Comment from Vince
Time: September 2, 2008, 11:07 pm

Mr. Lowell,
I must add my thanks to all the others. I have listened to all 4 books of the Share series and am just about done with South Coast. I cannot wait for more. You have managed to capture the very best of story telling. Wonderful characters, beautifully crafted stories, perfect settings, and oh the food and coffee… Without the splash and crash of a Star Wars or flashy story and set you tell a riveting tale. Pure Art. Since I started listening to audio books I truly appreciate hearing the author read it. No wondering about the tone of the speech or the feel of the character - we get it straight from the source. The quality of your recordings and pacing is superb. I’ve been a Science Fiction fan for some 45 years and consider your stories to be some of the most welcome in a long long time. Please don’t ever stop.
Thanks

Comment from Nate
Time: September 3, 2008, 4:45 am

Thanks, Vince.

I’m really pleased with the way the stories turned out, myself. It’s doubly gratifying to get great feedback from the listeners.

There’s more on the way!

Comment from Mark
Time: September 19, 2008, 6:03 pm

To start off with. Love all of your books. I can’t wait for more. The stories are wonderfully done. I hope that there will be more stories with ishmail. I listen to alot of audio books, but yours keeps me hungry for more. Keep them comming .
thanks.

Comment from Nate
Time: September 19, 2008, 6:22 pm

There’s more on the way.

Comment from lois mckendrick
Time: September 25, 2008, 1:51 pm

I would appreciate it if you would in future desist from using my name in your stories- I’m getting fed up of my name now being an item on peoples tee shirts!!! Or perhaps I could get royalties for your use of my name??

Comment from Megan Pawlak
Time: October 6, 2008, 11:49 am

I was just wondering if any one else is having a problem with podiobooks.com feeds or if you know, Nate, if something is going on. I can’t get to the website anymore and I had to delete all my book feeds becasue they kept coming up as “!” in iTunes. I’ve even tried going through the iTunes store instead and got the same problem with any books originating at podiobooks.com. I hope everything is ok! Is it just me?

Comment from Nate
Time: October 6, 2008, 2:56 pm

I’m actually logged into the podiobooks site in another window now. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it that I can see here.

Comment from Scott
Time: October 7, 2008, 10:07 pm

I am almost finished with Double. Will there be two more books - Captain & Owner? If so, when will they be released - and please hurry!! Very excellent story

Comment from Nate
Time: October 8, 2008, 3:55 am

Yes, two more Share novels and at least one more Shaman’s Tale - the sequel to South Coast. As for “when?” … I don’t have a good answer, I’m afraid.

Comment from Megan Pawlak
Time: October 14, 2008, 9:10 pm

Thanks Nate. I’ve gotten on through another computer elsewhere too. I don’t know why my computer has issues, but it does, and it’s ONLY my computer. ^_^0 just wanted to be sure everything wasn’t tipped over and crashing to the ground.

Comment from Chad Winters
Time: October 25, 2008, 2:32 pm

Nate, I loved your books. I don’t think I have ever seen Sci-Fi done so well in an everyday living kind of way. I really liked the comfortable life-story kind of feel and did not miss the guns and explosions at all! Your first 3 books kept me company while I was deployed in Kuwait in 2007.

P.S.
Have you thought about releasing them on the Amazon Kindle? They have an interesting self publishing option.

Comment from Nate
Time: October 28, 2008, 4:29 am

That’s a possibility. I have considered it, but at the moment, I’m holding all textual representations for a publishing house.

Comment from Christina Schwab
Time: November 14, 2008, 3:50 pm

I love your book! They are one of the best series that I have come across in a long time. I love that it is about an ordinary person and that it is full of humor. I work as a scanner so I have to do something to break up the boring work of scanning medical files in all day and your books do that. My comrade in the scanning department all love your books and all you can hear is laughter from our room. Thank you so much for them and I can not wait to read the rest. ( We are still of half share and working our way through

Comment from Brian
Time: November 26, 2008, 3:00 pm

Just finished “South Coast” and am now in official “Golden Clipper Withdrawal.” It’s really helped me get through the work day on a tedious and long-lived project.

Great work Nate! Looking forward to “Cape Grace.”

Comment from Kenn
Time: January 4, 2009, 8:30 pm

Love all the stories and have recently gone back to relisten to all the shares. BTW when is the next release Nathan!

One thing that caught my mind was the beaten lady who joins the crew of the lois is Sarah Krugg, is this a character that is going to get more attention in the st. cloud line? is Sarah the wife of Otto? It would break my heart to think that Otto becomes a wife batterer.

Comment from Nate
Time: January 4, 2009, 10:08 pm

We’ll meet Sarah in Cape Grace — which I had hoped to do in November

:[

Comment from Kenn
Time: January 5, 2009, 6:44 am

I just got to the part in Half Share where Sarah tells the snipit of her story, and all thoughts of Otto being that mean are gone. But new thoughts of this must be his daughter have surfaced, and makes me even for excited to hear Cape Grace.

PS I loved your addition to the POV James Keeling. You Sar are a magician of words my good man.

Comment from Rich
Time: January 19, 2009, 4:33 pm

I love your stories, they leave me needing more. Keep up the good work.

Very best regards
Rich

Comment from Gilles Maranda
Time: January 21, 2009, 1:04 pm

Keep writing, you are very good at it. Thank you

Comment from greg
Time: January 26, 2009, 2:16 pm

I am in full withdrawl for more of the golden age of the solar clipper. When many podcasts are excessively violent it’s great to hear podcasts that deal with everyday life in the far distant future. Your character developement is in depth and leaves us with characters we care about . Looking forward to cape grace and eventually Captains Share. Keep writing…..THANKS THANKS THANKS

Comment from Carl W
Time: January 29, 2009, 9:46 am

Hi Nate…just started on Double Share, and I’m still hooked! One question: I love the little literary allusions in the books, especially the way you start the books with a first line from another novel, but I was disappointed you didn’t carry that through for Double Share. Was this deliberate, or was it just not something that you were able to work in? Keep up the great work!

Comment from Nate
Time: January 29, 2009, 11:52 am

Thanks to everyone! You folks are the best!

Carl:
It was deliberate. After the first three novels — while they worked out particularly well there taking many of the themes of the original work and revisiting them in a new setting — I thought maybe it was getting to be too much of a gimmick. So I took out the one I had set up for Double Share “The sky above the port was the color of a television tuned to a dead channel.” It didn’t really *work* as well as I’d hoped because of the somewhat anachronistic use of “television” and “dead channel.”

I’m not sure I made the right decision to stop the allusions, but it was definitely the right decision not to use THAT one.

Comment from Shirley
Time: March 10, 2009, 10:51 am

Hey Nathan,

Just had to tell you how much I love your stories. I’ve been hooked on many authors through Podiobooks and find there is so much talent out there. Kudos for giving your books away. Will you be publishing them! While I enjoy listening I always find something I missed when I go back to read the actual print copy. Perhaps you could see the books as a app through iTunes that I could download onto my iPod touch???? I also like that your stories are more family friendly - although I wouldn’t mind seeing Ish in those jeans!!!!! Keep up the good work and let me know if I can help promote your material in any way!!!!

Comment from Jonathan
Time: April 2, 2009, 6:58 pm

Hey Nathan,
Just had to say I love these stories too, and can’t wait for the next ones to come out. I’ve listened to the Share series at least twice so far while at work, and am going to be on my second time listening to South coast as well. Like others here, there is something refreshing about having sci-fi without having the explosions and guns at every turn.

But a thought occured to me earlier this week while finishing up Double share again… after Cape Grace, Captain’s Share, and I’m guessing Owner’s Share… have you thought of maybe pursuing Pip’s story post Full Share? Or maybe some more back story on Alys Giggone? Just wondering if you have plans for after Ishmael’s story is through I guess…

Comment from Nate
Time: April 3, 2009, 4:26 am

I have, yes! There are so many stories to tell here.

- the story of the original Lois McKendrick
- Pip’s back story
- the asteroid miners’ story
- Francis’ back story

And I’m sure there are a ton that I haven’t thought of.

Comment from Jason Buberel
Time: April 14, 2009, 4:23 pm

For any of you using Shelfari (http://www.shelfari.com, now owned by Amazon.com) to track your literary consumption, I have created book entries for Quarter Share, Half Share, Full Share and Double Share. I have also created an author page for Nathan:

http://www.shelfari.com/authors/2627768/Nathan-Lowell/summary

If you get a chance, sign-up for an account and add his books to your shelf to help spread the word!

-jason

Comment from jon whitley
Time: May 24, 2009, 6:09 pm

I too would like to say that I am enjoying your “share” series VERY MUCH. It is refreshing to get sci-fi without huge battles and military themes (they are fun too, but not every time). The character development is great, you really make the reader (listener) care about them, in my case maybe too much. Keep up the good writing and best of luck with your day job. You have another fan and evangelist!