S5 EP235 | Nathan Jorgenson on Otto's Portal and the Stories That Connect Us

Bleeped words (done to make sure we do not get censored anywhere): S3x (x3), sh0t, bl00d, b0mbs, k!lled

Hello My Happy People, 

Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Nathan Jorgenson joins me today for a conversation that goes well beyond his latest novel, Otto’s Portal.

Nathan spent nearly 40 years as a dentist, but writing and storytelling were already part of his life long before he became a novelist. He wrote for outdoor magazines, told stories around campfires with friends and family, and eventually found his way to fiction through a deeply personal story he began for his father.

We talk about the unexpected path that led to his bestselling and award-winning career as a novelist, the importance of words, learning from both positive and negative reviews, and why connecting with readers means so much to him. Nathan also shares his thoughts on finding inspiration in the people and places around us, the role his wife plays in his writing career, and why retirement apparently leaves a lot less time for writing when the fish are biting.

And of course we also talk about Otto’s Portal, a fascinating new Amazon bestselling novel that brings together real historical events, science, good and evil, and characters searching for redemption.

For more behind the interview information from this episode, read today’s blog at BurckhardtBooks.com/blog.

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Nathan on Amazon

Transcript

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Dianne Burckhardt 0:01

You're listening to BookBanter with Diane Burkhart, your Book Talk podcast. Join me every Wednesday for real conversations with authors and publishing insiders, where you get to connect with the humans behind the books you love. Let's get on with our show today. Well, hello, my happy people. Today is Wednesday, August 12, 2026, and today we are talking about what happens when a lifelong storyteller who never planned to become a novelist suddenly finds himself with a story he needs to tell. Today's guest spent nearly 40 years practicing dentistry, but writing was certainly not new to him. He had been writing for outdoor magazines for years, and storytelling was something that came naturally, whether on the page or sitting around a campfire with friends and family. Writing novels, however, was never part of the plan. That changed because of something deeply personal, and I'm going to let him tell you that part of the story himself. What followed, though, was a best-selling and award-winning career as a novelist. But today's conversation goes well beyond his latest novel, Otto's Portal, as well as his other books. We talk about storytelling, the importance of words, connecting with readers, finding inspiration in the people and places around us, and why retirement apparently leaves a lot less time for writing, especially when the fish are biting. But don't forget to stick around until the very end today, because we do have information on who's coming up next week and updates from Burkhart Books and BookBanter Productions. And whoo boy, do I have a lot of things going on. But that's enough blather for me for right now. Let's get right to today's interview. Please welcome to BookBanter with Diane Burkhart, best-selling and award-winning author, Nathan Jorgensen. Please tell everyone who you are and what you do.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

I used to be a dentist, and now I'm sort of a full-time fisherman and author.

Dianne Burckhardt 2:16

That's one thing that I found really interesting because you spent nearly 40 years practicing dentistry while you were actually building your career as a novelist. How did those two very different pathways come together?

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Well, I think dentistry was sort of a hindrance because when you do dentistry, you sit in a little room and you drill little holes and little teeth, and pretty soon you think only little thoughts. And I I never intended to be a writer. I never cared about it back in college. I didn't care. But a few years back, a long time now, my father was really sick and was dying. And I sat by his bed for weeks and I started reading to him. And then I um thought, well, if I'm going to read to him, I'm going to read something that I wrote because this is the end for dad. So I started a story with two guys in a duck boat because when I was a boy, we did a lot of that stuff. And dad died when I was on about page 30. Uh he was my best friend. And for whatever reason, I went to my little office in the basement, and when the kids were in bed, I finished the story that I had begun. And it took about two years, and along the way, two things happened. I got closure with my dad, and I rediscovered the written word. And that's how.

Dianne Burckhardt 3:54

I find that so interesting because we kind of have something in common about that. My father is the face of my pen name for my first series. And whenever he was dying, I told him that every future historical fiction or western that I do, I was going to keep him as the face of that pen name. And I think that's one of the things that you touched on. That's like it gives you that continued connection to family. Sure. To have that story be something solid that is there that you shared with him. I mean, you began that story because of him, and that's gonna be there in print forever.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah, and that connection never goes away. And I think that's why that story has done so well is because you know, when you're a dentist, you don't get much fan mail. But I would imagine. Yeah. But when White Horses came out, I started getting such touching email from people, oh, you know, from Martha's Vineyard or Phoenix, you know, wherever, about their father or their best friend, or some loving connection that was lost, a broken heart. And you know, the beauty of the written word is that it allows the imagination of the reader to merge with the imagination of the writer. And I I guess I didn't know it at the time, but that's kind of what I was offering. And it's been a great experience.

Dianne Burckhardt 5:27

You know, that's actually something that I was just talking with somebody earlier in an interview was that every story is a partnership between the reader and the writer. Because for every reader that you have, your story becomes a whole new world because of what they turn it into when they read your words. So every story that you write has millions of possibilities.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Well, you know what you hope for, and I didn't have this in mind when I began all this, just what you're talking about. When you come to the last page of a novel that you really like, and you turn that last page and you think, damn, I'm gonna miss these people. I wonder what they're gonna do now. Bingo. That's the connection that that I look for as a reader and hope for as an author.

Dianne Burckhardt 6:20

I know that before you actually started publishing novels, you did have experience writing. You were writing for outdoor magazines. Oh, wow. What did you think that writing that nonfiction taught you that helps you with your fiction today?

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Good question. And I never thought about that, but I think all it suggested was that well, maybe I could write a longer story. I wrote a couple of stories for like Field and Stream that that I thought were pretty good. And at the magazine, all they wanted to do was cut them down, cut them down, make them make them shorter so they could sell more stuff. And I guess that's what they do. And so when it came time to sit there at my desk after my father passed away, I didn't have to cut anything down.

Dianne Burckhardt 7:06

I started out with like magazines and newspaper, and for that, you always have to write for the space that you have.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Yep.

Dianne Burckhardt 7:13

And whenever you move to fiction and books, you can just write your story, you can make it as long as you need to to get that thing out.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

And it really helps if you tell the truth. Yeah. Because when you're faking it, it shows.

Dianne Burckhardt 7:27

Oh, definitely. Whenever something is personal, which I get the feeling that everything that you write pretty much is personal somehow. It really comes through to the readers, and that helps you connect better with your audience.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

What else can it be? I mean, the only thing I know about is the life I've lived. Hey, I just came across a great quote today while I was getting ready to talk to you. And I I should have read this before, but I I didn't. But the person who does not read lives only one life, the reader lives 5,000. Reading is immortality backwards. I love that. Yeah. That's perfect. That's exactly it. You know, what you read is one thing, and then the people that you meet along the way, the stories that they tell. I've always been the guy that sat around the campfire, and I'm the storyteller. But you have your hands and your eyebrows and your tone of voice, and you can tell a story. When you sit down to write something, all you've got is your number two lead pencil or your word processor. So you better use good words.

Dianne Burckhardt 8:36

Absolutely. And one of the things that we have been talking about this season is that words have meaning. You need to use the correct words too.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Oh boy, when when I was a freshman in college all those years ago, my bonehead English professor, and I was in Bonehead English, had a great line, and I've never forgotten it. And I don't know how I remember it because I wasn't paying very close attention. But he said, if you want to be a writer because you think you have something to say, you'll never make it. But if you want to write because you like words, well, you've got a chance. And that's absolutely perfect. I can expound on that a little bit. You know, as a high school kid, I read a book called Last of the Mohicans.

unknown 9:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Love that story. And then I went on and read all the leather stocking tales by James Fenomar Cooper. I love those stories. And the that character, the Hawkeye or Natty Bumpo, I believe morphed into the great hero in American fiction. Uh Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood. But man, the English in those books was brutal. Like great story, but oh my goodness, hard to read. And then later on, I found people like Stephen King that didn't always care for the story, but man, he makes good sentences. He owns the language pretty well. Oh yeah. That's what I look for now. Uh if I read, I think, damn, I wish I would have said that. That was a good sentence.

unknown 10:12

Yeah.

Dianne Burckhardt 10:12

Yeah, that's when you know you're reading something good, whenever you wish that you would be the one writing it. Yeah. I know your first book, Waiting for White Horses, was your debut novel that won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best New Voice in Fiction. Did that change the way you viewed yourself as a writer?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Well, yeah. I mean, uh when I finished that manuscript, it weighed about eight pounds, and I put it on the bottom of my desk, and I figured, well, who's ever going to read this? And I had no intention of anything other than it was the end, and I owned my dad again, and I had fun with it. And we started talking about a publisher. Well, I happened to listen to public radio one day, and a guy named Vince Flynn was on there and uh a Minnesota boy, and he had written a novel, and it he he had 61 rejection letters from New York City publishers, and then he self-published, and he's famous. I mean, he's written many more, he's he's really good. Oh, yeah. But he he was just nothing but rejection. And I thought to myself, you know, I get enough rejection at work every day. I don't need to do that. So we looked at self-publishing, and if I had known then what I know now, I probably wouldn't have done it, but it worked out really well. That novel, it's on our we're on our 15th printing right now, and still selling them. I've been contacted by the books to movies person at uh William Morris agency. Oh, nice. It hasn't gone anywhere, but and probably never will. But anyway, it's been a great success. And you know, after that was finished, sitting around a fire at trout camp, because I'm a fisherman, one of my buddies said, Well, you know, Nate, anybody can write one novel. Can you do another one? So I wrote the mulligan, and that's about the 50-year-old man who hates his job, hates his wife, and takes a mulligan at life. Like that's a golf term. And that says done very well, too. So yeah, I think a little bit of success helps, but you also got to go read the negative reviews because they're coming.

Dianne Burckhardt 12:24

Oh, yeah. Somebody always has something. You can't please everybody. Sure, sure. Whenever you won that award, did it make writing and publishing your next book a little more intimidating, or were you a little bit more relaxed knowing that you had done well the first time around?

SPEAKER_01 12:43

I'd say more relaxed. You know, I've been married to my best friend for 48 years, and without her, none of this would have happened. So she's been my first reader, she does a lot of the stuff that I don't want to do, but she's been pretty constant support too. So yeah, getting that a little bit of success kind of helps. And you know, I've always been that kind of person when somebody says, geez, this is really hard. You better not do this. That's about all I need to try it. So yeah.

Dianne Burckhardt 13:13

That's usually the surest way to get me to do something, is tell me I can't do it. And then my answer is always watch me. Yeah, you better. But you know, that's one thing that we've been talking about too, is it is so important to have a good support system, especially when you're doing self-publishing, because you do have to do everything yourself.

unknown 13:33

Yeah.

Dianne Burckhardt 13:33

And if you don't have good support, it can really be draining.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Oh, I don't know how you could do it. I mean, you have to be that uber confident person to do this. I'll give you one little example of my wife's input on this. When I finished White Horses, we drove to our cabin in northern Minnesota, where everybody in Minnesota has a cabin up north. And the next morning, she had read it in the on the road. I was fishing, and she came down and she said, Hey, I read the story, and it's really good. But she said, There there's no sect in there. So I said, Well, no, I don't know. She said, Go back and put the sect in. You know where it goes, just put it in there. So I did. And about a month later, I made some other fixes. We came back to the lake, same thing happens. She comes down to the lake the next morning and says, Hey, I I just finished it again. You got to get some of that psyches out of there. Man, it is way too hot. So I did. But if you don't have that first reader who who gets it, you never get it right. So a lot of this is my wife's doing too.

Dianne Burckhardt 14:43

Whenever you start a new novel, since this one, Auto's Portal is your fifth novel, is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 14:49

Correct.

Dianne Burckhardt 14:50

Okay. So whenever you're starting a new novel, what usually comes first? Do you come up with the characters, the plot, the central theme? How does it work for you?

SPEAKER_01 15:02

I don't know that I have an answer for that one. I it comes as it comes to me. Uh for for Otto's Portal, it's a little different than the others. The others all deal with some broken people seeking redemption. And it's a pretty common theme. And even in Otto's Portal, you know, every good story is kind of the wizard of Oz. It's the hero's journey, it's somebody seeking redemption. But Otto's portal, I took a series of actual historical events and I used my own imagination or spin to connect the dots. And what you see is the end of it. But what I was getting at was trying to come to the place where religion and physics kind of meet. And I don't know how far down this road I can go without spoiler alerts, but Otto's portal, I have a Catholic priest who uses the analogy of the surface of a trout stream as the place where worlds meet, where you can peer into that other dimension, but you can't go there. And they can look up and see you, but fish can, and they can't go there. And you can do damage to them, but you you can't go there and live. And it that's just an analogy, but I had several analogies like that all the way through it. And I was searching for the confluence of physics and religion and the struggle between good and evil, and characters searching for redemption.

Dianne Burckhardt 16:34

I tell you, that was one of the things that really appealed to me about this. I am like such an amateur physics nerd. I love I love reading about physics. So whenever I saw that that was actually a central theme in your story, I was like, yes, this is going to be good.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Well, you know, that's probably the heart and soul of it right there. And I don't want to go down, I don't want to look like a physics nerd because I'm not. But you know, in 1686, Isaac Newton published his book on the principles of mathematics, and his stuff on gravity is still the cornerstone of modern physics. 1915, Albert Einstein comes up with a theory of relativity, and his stuff on gravity is still a cornerstone. I mean, it it's they've both been proven correct, however, they both kind of prove each other wrong. So then along comes string theory a few years ago, and string theory was supposed to reconcile Newton and Einstein, and we've been waiting for 50 years for it to happen, and it it's it's not gonna happen. So I kind of went down that road, tried not to go too deep in the weeds on the physics, just to conflict the idea that we still don't understand the fabric of the cosmos and the nature of God and the design of it that well, but I got people searching for it, and then I built in some good and evil in there.

Dianne Burckhardt 18:03

I think that's an amazing soup. You know, every you've got everything in there to give it like all the flavor that it needs to be amazing. Well, good. I hope it works. Since you retired from dentistry, has your writing process changed now that you have more time? Or does it stay basically the same, just kind of rearranged a little?

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Well, I'd say I almost have slowed down a little bit because I live in paradise. I live in northern Minnesota, where I've spent my whole life trying to finish up right here. And I live in a beautiful little lake. So I when the fish are biting, uh I'm fishing. So it has slowed me down a little bit, but it's also given me time to sit around the fire and hear these stories. You know, a while back, I was sitting around a fire and I heard a story about it's actually about my uncle who was shot down over Tokyo in 1945 and survived. Wow. And this loving man told us, I was always told, don't ask about this. So he one day when I was young, I did ask. And he went, I said, Yeah, what do you want to know? So he told me about the getting shot at and bloated and fire and a ball was going off and plane and parachute. And then he said something that I never forget because I saw his face when he said it. He said, You know, the worst part was when I was in my parachute floating down to the ground, said, I knew that tomorrow morning a car was going to pull up in the front of our farmhouse and someone was going to get out and tell my mother that I was killed. And what he said next, the words in his mouth, they wouldn't come out. So the look on his face is what you try to describe after that. And those are the moments that if you can find the words for that face and for that moment, that's what you search for. That's what you're right about.

Dianne Burckhardt 20:04

From just the beginning of Otto's portal that I've read, I think you've pretty much nailed those kinds of descriptions.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Well, good. In my other life, my young life, my best friend was a Catholic priest. So uh he was my fishing buddy, still is, but I don't see him as much anymore. But we had a lot of late-night discussions about good and evil and physics and the church and everything. But there's another guy. Those are people who, you know, you hear the story, and the hard part isn't having a great imagination, it's having enough imagination to connect the dots between these stories and giving these stories to characters, I think.

Dianne Burckhardt 20:46

Now, just from what I've read so far, how much of yourself did you put into Father Gambucci?

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Oh, you know, some. I'm not Catholic, I'm a Lutheran boy, but some of it, and you know, Father Gambuchi is a composite of the minister that I had as a boy and my friend and other priests I've known along the way, and maybe some of the stuff I wanted to say too. If you've come to the Easter Sunday sermon yet, which is kind of the cornerstone, some of that is me. But it's bits and pieces of real life, it's just having the imagination to connect the dots. I don't know if a better way to put it than that.

Dianne Burckhardt 21:25

The part that I saw you the most in was his affinity for fly fishing.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

You got that right.

Dianne Burckhardt 21:33

And I was also rather interested, you did something that I have just started doing too, and I love when I find this in people's books is that among Father Gambucci's favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird, True Grit, East of Eden, and then there's The Mulligan.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yeah, a great author wrote that a while back.

Dianne Burckhardt 21:53

I love that you put one of your own books in his selection in his room. That is fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Well, I had fun with that. And you know, you mentioned those books. My wife and I read to each other every night. So she reads for half an hour, I read for half an hour. We just finished True Grit and To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm not going anywhere with that, but getting back to reading. You put a little bit of those things that you experience in everything you do.

Dianne Burckhardt 22:20

Yeah. And True Grit is such a good book. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Yes.

Dianne Burckhardt 22:25

Why don't you go ahead and tell us the synopsis of Otto's Portal?

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Well, Otto's Portal, I don't want to give away too much, but I took so many events that I saw in history that actually happened, and I researched them. You know, what we know in history about the end of World War II, the Nazi uh Wonder Weapons tech plunder by the Russians and the Americans, well, what we're told might not be exactly true. And there's a lot of material out there to read. The part about the UFO crash in Kecksburg in 1964. Well, you're going to find a lot of interesting stuff about that one, too. The government, okay, I hate to say conspiracies, that uh they're out there. And if you're looking, you can find a way to link all this stuff together. But what I was searching for all along was a way to unite all these stories and get back to the confluence of physics and religion. And I had to use a Catholic priest, I had to use historical events and some fiction, and I used a Faustian bargain there, you know, at the end to kind of bring it all together. And I struggled with the end of this for a couple of years because I just didn't know how to end it properly. And the end that you come to is the only way it could end, and I probably shouldn't tell you what that is.

Dianne Burckhardt 23:53

Well, people have to buy the book and read it for that part. There you go. There you go. So now seems like the perfect time to do our five quick questions that never turn out to be quick, but I just refuse to give up because I'm just too stubborn to let it go. Are you ready? I'm ready. Now, as usual, I went snooping on your social media to come up with these questions. So you may recognize some of these things. Question one As a dentist, what was the number one piece of advice that you always gave your patients?

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Brush and floss. And I don't care about any of your excuses. It's brush and floss. You know, we wound up telling patients everybody's got an excuse, and you have to tell them, you know, I spend all this time showing you how to put me out of business, and then you go home and don't do it. You know, don't come and complain to me. This is you. Yeah. And you get a little farther along in dentistry and you can say that to people, but when you're young, you want to fix everything, and you can't do that. Is that a good answer?

Dianne Burckhardt 24:57

That's a great answer. And it's like as somebody who is, you know, getting close to my 60s and I still have all my own teeth. I'm very happy that I listened to my dentist when he told me to brush and floss. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Stand real close to your toothbrush. You're that's about the best advice.

Dianne Burckhardt 25:11

Now, question two. Whenever you're lucky enough to spend time with your grandchildren, what is your favorite activity to do with them?

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Oh, well, without a doubt. We we live on a beautiful little lake, and we have a little pontoon and we have a lily pad out there. And I have an old hot tub, one of those snorkel stoves that you have to build a wood fire inside the hot tub to heat the water. So we pump lake water up. The grandchildren are all small enough that when they come here, the hot tub is like a warming house. When they get cold from lake water, they run up and sit in the hot tub and giggle and splash. That's it. It's just being at grandpa's house.

Dianne Burckhardt 25:51

That sounds fun. It is great.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Yep.

Dianne Burckhardt 25:55

Now, question three: what is your favorite Edgar Allan Poe story?

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Ooh, geez, there are so many. Um, I suppose off the top of my head, the telltale heart.

Dianne Burckhardt 26:09

I was gonna say that's always got to be at the top of the list somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Yeah, if we had a couple beers in a campfire, that might change, but I'll stick with that one for now.

Dianne Burckhardt 26:19

Now, is it beers or is it what was it I saw on your Instagram? Duckfart?

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Oh, that is we I did a book event at a book club in nearby here at people I didn't know. And they had red white horses, and the duck camp was the theme of that evening. And the woman is really funny, and she came up with these a drink called a duck fart. It's Kalua and Scotch, and I forget, but it was pretty good. The other one that we got a kick out of was we call the Mitch Morgan. It's Southern Comfort and Bacon Grease. Oh my gosh! So that's what we do at Duck Camp.

Dianne Burckhardt 27:02

But that ought to slide down pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

It's pretty smooth.

Dianne Burckhardt 27:06

So now question four What is one of your favorite things about living in the north woods of Minnesota?

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Well, that we have four seasons. Winter can get kind of long up here, but my wife and I still love the winter, uh, snowshoes and walking in the woods, and we love all the four seasons. When I walk tonight with my wife, it's fairly likely that we'll have an encounter with a bear somewhere in the wood. So it's it's where we live. Um, but the four seasons that it's it's just wonderful. All of them are great. I wouldn't want to live anywhere without four seasons.

Dianne Burckhardt 27:45

Yeah, I think here in Germany we get cold, wet, and hot. That's like the seasons here. So now your last question. We are asking everyone the same question this year because we're making a list to put in our year-end book buying guide to help people with their holiday shopping. So, question five is in your opinion, what is the best book to movie adaptation that you have seen so far?

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Okay, I have a couple answers. Uh Lonesome Dove, uh by uh McMurtry. Uh unforgettable, really good. Um I'm probably the only man who's gonna tell you this, but I thought Bridges of Madison County was spectacular. Uh I like Clint Eastwood. I liked what he did with that story. The last part of it was fantastic. It was way the movie was better than the book.

Dianne Burckhardt 28:46

Who is an unforgettable?

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Oh, yeah. It was a gut wrencher. It was wonderful.

Dianne Burckhardt 28:51

Who who was in that one? I don't remember that one.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Eastwood and Merrill Street.

Dianne Burckhardt 28:55

Oh, yes, okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

When he had to, they both had to decide what their future was going to be right now. That was so well done. And to kill a mockingbird, I suppose. Um yeah, that was good. That's a classic.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Well, those would be pretty good. There was one local author up here named Will Weaver who wrote a book called A Gravestone Made of Wheat. It's a short story, and they did a movie called The Sweetland, and it won at Capan Film Festival about 15 years ago. Really good, too.

Dianne Burckhardt 29:23

It's actually kind of amazing how many movies and television shows have been started from a short story or a novella. I mean, there's quite a list of those.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Well, you know, if you remember the song by Kenny Rogers, you know, the gambler, Every Hand's a winner, and every hand's a it's the same with stories. Somebody tell you their story. Well, it's how you tell it that matters.

Dianne Burckhardt 29:46

Absolutely. Now, I do have to ask you, what is a lyre's cage for?

SPEAKER_01 29:52

Oh. A lyar's cage is a little building over about a hundred feet over there by our cabin. And it's where we have screens on it. So when we come in from fishing at night and have fish to clean, that's where we clean them. And then we take all the fish remains and back and dispose of it in the woods or in the lake. But sometimes every good fisherman is a liar because the fish get bigger after you know, later when you can't see them anymore. So the liar's cage is where we clean our fish and make up stories, and sometimes there's alcohol involved over there too.

Dianne Burckhardt 30:29

So isn't that the way you're supposed to fish?

SPEAKER_01 30:33

You do it right.

Dianne Burckhardt 30:35

So now what is next for you?

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Well, you know, I I think I just may bring a couple of characters back. I get a lot of requests for Joe Mix from the Mulligan, and uh I might go back when I wrote White Horses. I killed a couple people off, but I brought them back to life a little bit later on in a crooked number and made them all about 30 years younger. That's a good way to do it. Worked out great, but I might go forward now and make them old and tell the stories that brought them all the way through that. So I guess we'll see.

Dianne Burckhardt 31:13

And you have one more book that we haven't mentioned yet, because you have Waiting for the White Horses, The Mulligan, A Crooked Number, and Contrapaso. Contrapaso.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

Contrapaso is a term from Dante's Inferno, and it refers to your punishment in hell as when you die, is equal to or proportionate to what you did on earth. So I have a a man who is having a hard time in life, and he feels that he's being punished for something he did as a young man, and he's working that out. And I had more fun writing that one, and then more difficulty in reading because I covered breast cancer and um an old buddy who was not a great guy, and two old men dealing with their youth. And I had it was I had fun with the characters, and then I had a lot of pain writing about something, so I like that one.

Dianne Burckhardt 32:13

And apparently your readers like it too, because actually all of your books have a rating on Amazon of 4.4 or higher. Nothing is below a 4.4. So I think people like what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Well, good. That's good to hear. You know, I'm having fun doing it, and it's really nice when you get contact from readers. They'll send an email and talk about something that they read or something that we connected on. I try, I think I respond to everyone because that connection is what I'm searching for. And sometimes it's really painful to write about, but it's telling the truth.

Dianne Burckhardt 32:47

And of course, we are pre-recording this. So tomorrow, I believe, on July 14th, Auto's portal will be published. So by the time people hear this, they can go out and buy that book right now.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

Yeah. And I always tell them, you know, you can buy it on Amazon, and after that, you can write a review if you like it. And if you don't like it, just keep your opinion to yourself.

Dianne Burckhardt 33:12

And the thing is too, people always worry about I don't know what to write. It's like, you know what? You can just write, I liked it. You don't have to write anything else. It doesn't need to be a big paragraph, a soliloquy, you know, you don't have to do verse. Just write, I liked it. That's that's all you need to do. There just has to be something in the box.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

Yep.

Dianne Burckhardt 33:30

So now please remind our listeners who you are and where they can find your work.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

I'm Nathan Jorgensen. You can go to my website, uh, Nathan Jorgensen. Uh, you can find the work on Amazon. Should be available in bookstores. It's going to take a couple weeks now after it goes live on Amazon, but it should be available at any bookstores. Uh, I actually built a studio in the basement and had narrated the first four. Oh, nice. So that they're on audiobook. I'm still working my way through Auto's portal for audiobooks, but Amazon and bookstores. And if you want to reach out, go to my website and send a note.

Dianne Burckhardt 34:09

And to make it easy for everyone, as always, your information will be in the description of today's podcast, along with live links so that they can just click and go and buy your books right now. Perfect. This has been absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much for doing this with me today. I was so happy whenever I got the synopsis for this book because this is the kind of book that I just love to read for myself.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Well, perfect. Let me know when you're done. Write a review on Amazon.

Dianne Burckhardt 34:36

Oh, yeah. And then I have a review page that I have put up on my own website where I am slowly working through all of the authors who have been on my podcast and given me their books to read. There will be reviews up there eventually.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Thank you. And you do a nice job too. I did listen to most of your stuff, as much as I could find here in the last couple of weeks, and really good. You do a nice job.

Dianne Burckhardt 34:57

Thank you very much. It's fun. Yeah. I figure as long as I enjoy it, I'm going to keep doing it. Keep on. You bet. Thank you. So there you have it, folks. That was my interview with the incredible Nathan Jorgensen. One of the things that really stood out to me during our conversation was how much Nathan's writing comes back to connection, connection with the people in his life, connection with his readers, and connection through the stories he chooses to tell. He genuinely wants to hear from the people who read his books, so if you have read any of Nathan's work, be sure to go on his website and send him an email and let him know what you thought of his work. The reception for Otto's Portal has been impressive. It was released on July 14th and just six days later it reached number one on Amazon's hot new releases in Philosophy of Good and Evil. A month after its release, that paperback is still sitting in the top 100 in that category. And if you haven't picked up Auto's Portal yet, you really should. I am actually reading it right now because it was selected in a random computer drawing for a review to go into our BookBanter magazine year-in book buying guide, which will be published this November in time for holiday shopping. And I can already tell you that the review is going to be a good one. His book blends real historical events with questions of science, life and death, good and evil and redemption. It is so well written. And I can honestly say you should really go pick it up. Now, next week I will be talking to another Amazon best-selling and award-winning author, Leslie Hatchel. Leslie has written 19 romance novels spanning historical, time travel, and romantic suspense. We'll be talking about her latest book, Come Back to Me, a time travel romance about Sky Blaine, who is willing to travel through time in search of the man she loves and the chance to find her happily ever after. Now, before I let you go, we have so much happening at Burkhart Books and Bookband Productions right now. I suggest if you really want to know what's going on, go to Burkhartbooks.com slash subscribe and sign up for our mailing list. You can unsubscribe at any time, no strings attached, and we only send out one email a week. There's just so much coming this season that this is going to be your best way to keep up to date on everything we have going on. We have our new Zazzle store that is open. We have merchandise that is coming out every week for writers, readers, and fans of the books from Burkhart Books and products for Bookband Productions. Plus, we have the new Haunted Hearts Paranormal Romance series coming from Burkhart Books and DS Stevens this year. It is coming along really well. And we are actually even currently redesigning the cover for the first book in the series based on feedback we received from several people, and we really appreciate that kind of feedback. Hearing from people in our potential market is incredibly helpful. We also have our media courses coming. We haven't started recording the video lessons yet because I have just had so many projects going on at once. Between trying to get ready for a vacation, finishing this season's interviews, preparing for the Frankfurter Bookmesa coming in October. I've had to prioritize the things that need to be done right now. But the courses are still coming, and we will get those videos recorded and available as soon as we can. And speaking of the Frankfurt Bookmesa, I will be recording interviews live on the convention floor that we will be using to broadcast during our holiday hiatus between season five and six in December and January. So that definitely gives you something to look forward to. If you can't make it to Germany to go to the Bookmesa yourself, I can at least bring a little bit of it to all of you. Now, be advised these will not be like my other podcast episodes. They're not going to be edited the way that I do during the regular season. You're going to hear those interviews as they were recorded at the convention. So there will be a little bit of background noise, though I did buy new microphones to try and cut that down this year, and you'll probably hear a lot more ums and uhs and things that you don't hear in our regular episodes. I am also working on our Bookbanter magazine Year In Holiday Shopping Guide. I estimate that this season's issue will be around 200 pages. The first third of the magazine will be our regular magazine content, and the final two-thirds will be our holiday book buying guide featuring every author who has appeared on the podcast this season. I am working very hard to have the digital and print editions ready to be released at the same time this season, while creating a template to make it easier and faster doing this in the seasons going forward. And that's not even everything that I'm working on. Apparently I have decided that sleep is optional for me. But I think that is more than enough for today, folks, so you know what that means. It's that time. It's time for you all to go forth and be really happy that we have so many great things coming for you. Thank you for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe to BookBanter with Diane Burkhart on your favorite podcast streaming service. Because if you love books like we do, you do not want to miss a single episode of this podcast.