Nick Nethery spent a career as an Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer before he wrote fiction full-time. His debut started with a working observation that unexploded ordnance looks completely different depending on which country built it, which spiraled into a better question: what would a weapon look like if it came from something that wasn't human? In this episode he argues that technical accuracy has to yield to story, explains why he writes faith into characters without ever climbing into the pulpit, and walks us through Raconteur Press — the "pirate skiff" of a developmental press that gave an unknown writer his shot. Join us for a conversation about craft, faith, authenticity, and why the future of storytelling might not be a book at all.

In This Episode

* The bomb tech who became a novelist: Nick walks through a military career that ran from maintenance officer to WMD team chief, and explains the leadership philosophy that pulled him toward EOD in the first place.

* Alien ordnance and the spark for the debut: Different cultures build weapons with wildly different philosophies — how much they’ll spend to protect their own troops, what they want a device to actually do. Nick took that fascination to its strangest conclusion and asked what humanity would make of ordnance left behind by something that doesn’t share our senses, let alone our intentions.

* The crowdfunded airstrike that came true: His US Naval Institute prize-winning story imagined a Marine platoon Kickstarting a JDAM strike they couldn’t get approved through normal channels. Nick explains the real-world signals he and co-writer Mike Burke were watching — drones, 3D printing, soldiers leaking their own base locations through fitness trackers — and why any tech handed to grunts will get gloriously abused.

* Detail versus story, and who wins: Every technical writer eventually meets the guy at the back of the panel pointing at one wrong line. Nick makes the case that story has to win, that 99% of your research should never reach the page, and that learning to walk away from hard-won knowledge is what makes the writing feel lived-in instead of like an encyclopedia entry.

* A Thirty Years’ War fantasy with the magic dialed low: The Peace Child trades future tech for period-accurate wheel locks, taverns, and travel — an alternate Europe where the church and the nations are recognizable but renamed. Nick explains why he leaned on real historians to keep him honest and why the era fascinates him as a genuine before-and-after in how the West thought about faith and money.

* Faith on the page without the sermon: Nick argues that scrubbing belief out of every character is its own kind of unrealistic, especially in the military and law-enforcement worlds he knows. The trick, he says, is that the moment “the moral of the story” is the first line in your outline, you’ve already lost the reader — so he just lets his characters pray, argue, and stay faithful to their spouses the way the people he served with actually did.

* Is gaming the next novel: Nick lays out a genuinely provocative thesis: just as epic poetry gave way to the novel, interactive games may become how we primarily live our stories. He points to the emotional gut-punch of certain games as proof, while wondering aloud what we lose when there’s no longer a book or show everyone has read.

* Raconteur Press and the return of the pulps: Nick calls Raconteur a “pirate skiff” — a developmental press in the old pulp tradition, taking chances on unknown writers who can tell a good story and are easy to work with. He and Kristin land on the unglamorous truth that answering your emails and learning track changes will do more for your career than being edgy online ever will.

Guest Links

* Read Relics of the Fallen: https://amzn.to/4uwSwpN

* Website: nicknethery.com

* X: @nicknetherybro

Kristin’s Links

* Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com

* Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com

* YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristin

Timestamps

00:00 - Meet Nick Nethery.

01:56 - What EOD Really Does.

04:08 - Ordnance Inspires Sci Fi.

06:51 - Nonfiction to Fiction Skills.

10:02 - Crowdfunded Airstrike Satire.

14:14 - Accuracy Versus Story.

17:02 - Writing Peace Child.

20:31 - Faith Without Preaching.

23:35 - Faith Feels Normal.

24:22 - Romance and Infidelity Tropes.

26:15 - Military Religion Culture Shock.

27:35 - Secular Myths and New Religions.

28:24 - Gaming as Future Literature.

32:11 - Raconteur Press Pulp Revival.

36:01 - Editing Lessons for Writers.

38:55 - What Nick Writes Next.

40:18 - Where to Find Nick.

41:27 - Publishing Plans and Farewell.

About This Podcast

Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them.

New episodes weekly.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com