Friday Five: Q&A with ‘Mercedes Masterson’ author Nathan Weaver

Welcome to the inaugural post of Friday Five interviews with fellow travelers on this writing journey. I plan to post occasional five-question email interviews to spotlight other authors and their work. We kick it off this Friday with a question-and-answer session with Nathan “Nat” Weaver, author of the Mercedes Masterson series of detective stories of the hard-boiled variety. The first in the series, Sweet Sixteen Killer, was published in 2020. The next book, Jonah of Olympic, is expected out later this year. Nat is also a personal friend and a friend of this website.

1. What inspired you to start writing fiction?

That goes way back for me. My eldest brother first wrote a fiction short story and shared it with us siblings. It got me excited, and I wrote (read: plagiarized) a short story that I read to one sibling who pointed out how I had plagiarized. I didn’t know the first thing about writing. A friend of mine and I began writing and sharing short stories with each other shortly after that. I think we were roughly 12.

When I entered high school, I sort of dropped off writing short stories, but took up writing stage scenes when I got into drama and acting. After high school, I got into television, and then independent film. I was writing, directing, producing, acting, doing cinematography and editing, and all the things one does when they work in indie film. Somewhere in there I began to write short stories again. Some of the stories were filling gaps or providing back stories to my film work. At the end of the day, I think it was my glee of watching old suspense, film noir, Sherlock Holmes, and horror films (mostly Hitchcock and the Universal monster films) that got me excited about the idea of stories.

2. What is the inspiration behind the Mercedes Masterson series?

Trekking back to my early twenties, and doing indie film work, I started a film series called Kings. It was a black-and-white homage to old film noir movies. When I was writing the first screenplay, I had an actress who needed a character, and I realized my story didn’t have a detective investigating a murder that took place in the opening of the film. I sat back in my chair and thought of the most film noir last name I could come up with: Masterson. And added Mercedes as an homage to Alexander Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo character of the same name. Ironically, the character ended up being the most interesting character in the whole film series, and by the time I was working on the screenplay for the second film I knew I wanted to spin off and make a private detective television series with her.

Trekking back even further, it was no doubt my love of film noir and Sherlock Holmes films that brought me to writing her character in the first place. In 2016, I decided I was going to give it a very serious go at writing a book and decided to reverse-adapt my idea of a Mercedes Masterson television series into a book series. In that first screenplay many years ago, one of the concepts I worked with but eventually didn’t flesh out until the second screenplay was that Mercedes was constantly hounded by corruption and sexism in the police force. I also toyed with innuendo of her being bisexual and that being another way in which she would be harassed. I was writing that screenplay in the early 2000s during a tumultuous time with regard to bans on same-sex marriages across the country. The books sort of continue with this tradition of feminist and LGBTQ themes, but I definitely feel like I’m in a much better headspace now to write about these topics than I was in the early 2000s. 

3. What is the greatest challenge you face as a writer?

Time and confidence probably. It’s always challenging finding the time to get the writing work in as a stay-at-home dad and full-time student. Sometimes I’m very confident, but then I don’t get the reception or response I expected, and that confidence can waver. That can put me in a rut. With regards to time and confidence, I’m lately thinking a lot about Sylvia Plath and how much writing she accomplished in the last year or so of her life. After divorcing her husband for his infidelity, she was raising the two kids on her own, but every morning she’d get up at 4 a.m. and write until it was time to wake them up. The amount of excellent writing that came out of that determination makes me realize that writing finds a way.

4. Tell us about your latest writing project?

I’m currently working on Book 2 of the Mercedes Masterson Detective Stories series. It’s called Jonah of Olympic and I’m proud of it. It’s the longest work I’ve done to date, which is a big milestone for me as I was stuck writing short stories for years. That said, it’s still short by many standards, which is intentional as I like the book series to have shorter books for folks who don’t have a lot of time to read or don’t read all that fast. The book deals with missing persons, including Jonah, whose husband hires Mercedes to help find her. The main theme for this book deals with personal identity. I’m currently working on the third draft, and once done with that I’ll send it off to Grace (my editor), and after that I’ll publish it. The plan is to get it out in 2024.

5. What one piece of advice would you give to a new writer who is just starting out?

Writing finds a way. Whether it’s a lack of time, finding confidence, overcoming burnout or writer’s block, writing finds a way. Carve out time where you can. Be proud of the writing you accomplish. Just keep at it.

You can stay connected with Nat by subscribing to his newsletter or following him on Threads at @natweaverwrites.