Hi,

I'm Nathan Ridge, and no, that is not my real name. Writing has always been a passion of mine, but as much as I love it, there's something better out there. I believe that Jesus lived and died for us, and that by professing one's faith in him, one will have made the best decision of one's entire life.

As I said above, I love to write. If you were a stalker and happened to be trailing me, you would probably find I write fiction more than anything. Usually I write short stories that never seem to end until they're full-fledged novels, although I dabble in poetry, novellas, and whatever happens to spark my fancy whenever I find a pencil. I don't mind writing most school assignments, preferring research papers and persuasive arguments over everything else. I doubt however that you'll catch me showing much of my school stuff off here; I don't feel pieces I was forced to write merit internet publication, even if I slaved for weeks on the paper.

I'm currently in my second year of college, majoring in French and Creative Writing. I hope to get a PhD in Creative Writing and become a college professor some day. Ideally, it would be cool to accidentally write something that pays off the mortgage in the first month its been on the shelves, but I don't expect much. Hence, I continue my education, and expect to be paying the bills with my fluency in French for quite a while.

Please understand that I will not post any perfect drafts of major stories up here because I have every intention of publishing such works professionally. By posting only the first drafts of my favorites with minimal editing and revision, I can protect myself from theft. If it bothers you that something or another is missing details or I didn't bother erasing every typo, or something of the sort, then I'm sure you can find yourself a therapist.

Space Tail is probably my favorite work. I am told this is my best work but I will leave the choice up to you. Thanks to the grace of God, Space Tail is finished and in the early stages of publication. As much as I'm sure you would like to see it, I'm not going to be posting the rewritten version of Space Tail; I will however leave the mildly edited version of the first draft up. Ironically, I expected Space Tail to flop when I first started it, but now the first draft is 300 pages long on MS Word, and it inspired two sequels.

Malevolent and Undoubtedly Grotesque Arthropods is the first of the two sequels to Space Tail. Technically Malevolent and Undoubtedly Grotesque Arthropods is actually a prequel since it starts about a year before Space Tail but I cal it a sequel because Space Tail was written first. Whereas Space Tail follows the end of the war with the Catrions, Malevolent and Undoubtedly Grotesque Arthropods chronologues the arrival and occupation of the Catrions on Earth. As of 8-7-08, Mauga is roughly halfway done and already two-thirds the length of Space Tail.

The second sequel to Space Tail, also a sequel to Malevolent and Undoubtedly Grotesque Arthropods, is The Other War. As I've said, Malevolent and Undoubtedly Grotesque Arthropods is a glimpse into what life was like on Earth while the Catrions attacked and Space Tail follows the story of how humanity wouldn't stand to be bullied. The sequel is about the reasons the Catrions attacked in the first place. As an added challenge to myself, this tale won't depict past events in its explanation of the past; to give you an idea of how The Other War will play out, the main characters are the children of various characters from Space Tail and Malevolent and Undoubtedly Grotesque Arthropods.

Let's get onto other things I have posted, shall we?. Who am I?, Fiction, and Strategy are my feeble attempts at writing poetry. Meanwhile, The Color that Can't Be Shared isn't really poetry but it is kind of poetic; I wrote it in one of those inspired moments.

All the other things I've posted are short stories and novels written by some friends and I. Most often, these books are totally random, quirky, and represent the best of my friendships with authors such as CrystalEye, Shadow Reina, or dk-rune. Sadly, I doubt any of them will ever be updated again, but because they have sentimental value, they will remain here.

A Tale of Many Series 1 Volume 2: Laura's Life is the sequel to Curly the Cuddly Cockroach by CrystalEye. The evil twin brothers plot to ruin everyone's lives and so forth. A Tale of Many Series 2 Volume 3: A New Way is the sequel to Laura's Life. This story is just one more reason to avoid summer camp. Together these stories represent the first of many, many stories to come; I think there were a total of four different series, with six to eight different volumes in each story. Granted, the books never really amounted to much, and each one typically filled one seventy-page notebook that was also used by three different people for school-related material.

Immortal War is technically another chapter in the "A Tale of Many" series; it's also the exception to the rules set by the other stories. For starters, it expanded on the ideas of two other stories instead of inventing a new one; in that respect, Immortal War is in a way a rewrite of other stories. On top of that, Immortal War was long for the age at which we wrote it. Lastly, Immortal War was the first story to introduce a totally new author halfway through. Although I don't expect much at the moment, Immortal War has the potential to be rewritten, either by some of the original authors and I or by myself alone.

Dragon Mates was a failure, plain and simple; I kind of started it so I could ask my coauthor out. That wasn't the only reason but it was the main one. Yes, my reasons were romantic, but the story died weeks after the other author and I hooked up.

Fair Folk Adolescent Refugees had a reasonable chance at success but my own desire to connect each of my stories somehow pretty much killed it for me. Plus my coauthor and I couldn't keep up with it while in school. For a while it got lost, and then found again, and then we lost interest.

With a brief description of my postings finished, I now move on to things I promise to do for you, my readers. I ask that all my readers please review, and I promise to return all reviews. I can't guarantee how long it will be before you receive a review, but it will be as soon as I get a chance. Oh, and if you know me personally, feel free to prod me a little into reading something in particular. If you discover me reading and reviewing to your stories unexpectedly, I will try to review for every chapter, and comment on things similar to how your English teacher might, if all you ever got were A+s. I hope you've enjoyed my introduction, and I hope you enjoy reading my stories. Farewell until we meet again.