Welcome to the Saturday Spotlight, a weekly feature that shines the light on Indie and Debut authors. This week I have the pleasure introducing readers to:

NATHAN BARBER

~Author of Resurrecting Lazarus, Texas~

by Nathan Barber-2013

After hearing about or reading my latest project, a novel called Resurrecting Lazarus, Texas, people often ask one of two predictable questions when they discover that I’m an educator and former coach: “Is the protagonist actually you?” and “Is the story about you?” Both are fair questions. I’ve read and heard several times from writers and literary critics that literary characters, especially protagonists, bear at least a faint resemblance to their creator in some way, even if that was not the author’s intent. While my life story hardly could be considered interesting enough to spawn a read-worthy book, my novel’s story does reflect a few compelling events from my life. Likewise, some of my characters, for better or for worse, bear some likeness to not only me but also people whose paths have crossed with mine. Even if I tried, could I prevent that entirely? After all, I am the sum total of the places I've been, the people I've met and the books I've read.

Let me be clear, reader. The story is not about me. In fact, if I have crafted my story just so, you should recognize in my story myriad people you have known or loved or despised, not me. If I have recreated just a tiny sliver of reality, there should emerge from the pages long-lost and wonderfully familiar things, familiar to you, not to me – familiar smells, sounds, sights and feelings, some of which may have surfaced for the first time in many years. If I, the author, appear to you to be one among the cast of characters, though, then I have failed you entirely. On the other hand, if I've done what I set out to do, you just might catch glimpses of yourself meandering through the pages, laughing, loving, losing, crying, living, and staring back at you wide-eyed. After all, reader, the story is not about me. It’s about you. 

Nathan Barber, author of more than a dozen books, including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to European History, and most recently Resurrecting Lazarus, Texas, lives with his family in Houston, Texas, where he’s working on his next novel. You can find him online on Facebook or at nathanbarber.com.