Nathan Gower: On the Mystery of the Writing Process

Nathan Gower is Professor of English at Campbellsville University in Kentucky. He holds an MFA in fiction from Spalding University and a PhD in humanities with emphasis in aesthetics and creativity from the University of Louisville. His work has been published in Baltimore Review, Birmingham Arts Journal, Louisville Magazine, Louisville Review, New Southerner, Santa Fe Literary Review, Valparaiso Fiction Review and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Nathan Gower

In this interview, Nathan discusses how a passing comment from a family member in childhood led to his debut historical mystery, The Act of Disappearing, his advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Nathan Gower
Literary agent: Danielle Bukowski (Sterling Lord Literistic)
Book title: The Act of Disappearing
Publisher: Mira
Release date: May 28, 2024
Genre/category: Historical; Mystery
Elevator pitch: The Act of Disappearing is a dual-timeline novel about a haunting photograph that captured a woman’s death, and the young writer hired to investigate the incredible, heartbreaking story behind it, for fans of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, The Dollhouse, and The Last Story of Mina Lee.

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What prompted you to write this book?

Oh—I’m not sure I fully know the answer to this question. I generally find the creative process, even my own, to be opaque. But the seed of the idea came from a conversation I had with my maternal grandmother—my Mamaw—when I was a young boy.

This may be worth noting: Memory is a fickle thing, ever changing like light in a mirror maze. I’ve thought about this memory with my grandmother many times—even dreamed about it—so I can never be sure to what extent my brain has changed or overwritten it. But what I remember goes something like this: I was with Mamaw at a community festival in my small, western Kentucky hometown. We were sitting on the shore of the Ohio River, looking up at a truss train bridge stretched between Kentucky and Indiana. Mamaw was dreamy-eyed and distant, and she said absentmindedly, “I wonder what it would be like to fall from up there.” That moment was a bit shocking and scary for me as a child. What did she mean? What would make someone think such a thought, let alone say it aloud?

Well, decades later, one day during the height of the pandemic, I had a dream about that conversation with Mamaw, and when I woke up, an image came to me—the bleeding edges developing into focus like a Polaroid: a woman falling from a train bridge, clutching a baby to her chest. I wrote down an early description of what I saw, and that description became the opening image in the book, the hook that grounds the rest of the story. To be clear, the book is not about my grandmother or any other member of my family—but it does touch on issues that are very important to me personally and within my family history—issues like depression, anxiety, and parental responsibility.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

Once the idea took hold, I wrote the book quickly—in just under a year, mostly during lockdown in the early stages of the pandemic. But as often is the case with debuts, the process slowed quite a bit after I went from the private world of writing to the public stage of seeking publication; querying for representation, working with an agent on revisions and edits, going on submission, etc. All told, the process from idea to publication has taken a little under four years—and yes, the book has changed tremendously during that time!

There were tweaks and changes along the way, but the biggest change involved the narration of the book. When I first started outlining, the story was told from two alternating points of view. But as the book found its voice, I knew the story demanded many more perspectives—so the historical timeline of the novel moved from one narrator to an ensemble POV, with a complex web of plots and subplots to better elucidate the central conflict of the book.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

The Act of Disappearing is my debut novel, so you might say that the entire journey has been one big “learning moment” about the publishing process. For years I was writing inside a vacuum, so when I began working with my agent (the incomparable Danielle Bukowski) and eventually with my editor (the brilliant Meredith Clark), I learned just how collaborative the publishing process must be. But a pleasant surprise for me was learning, despite hearing horror stories to the contrary—how smooth and organic that collaborative process could be. Perhaps this is only because I’ve been fortunate enough to work with publishing professionals who share my vision for the book so well.

The biggest surprise for me has been how meticulous the publishing team has been about finding the perfect title and cover design for the book. Without exaggeration, we considered more than 50 titles—and at various points in the process, we had decided on a “final” title five or more times … only to hit the drawing board again. A similar process ensued with the cover design. In the end, I’m so glad the process was as thorough as it was; I think we landed on the perfect title and cover!

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

The only real surprise in the writing process came quite early for me: I knew the story was a mystery, an investigation of a woman falling from a train bridge in the 1960s; but I didn’t know which of the characters was the woman who fell. The early writing process was full of discovery and surprise—for me, as the writer—as I learned the story I was telling.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

We all come to books with our own lived experience, our own complex histories, our own worldviews—so I’m not sure I’m in a position to say what I hope any particular reader will receive from this story. But I will say this: The Act of Disappearing is a story about generational legacies, small-town secrets, and found family. It’s a story about the vicissitudes of mental health. It’s a story about how personal tragedy and communal loss are outweighed only by the mercies and forgiveness we give each other—and afford to ourselves. Above all, I hope readers will find it to be a riveting page-turner that delivers on its promise to captivate, surprise, and satisfy on many levels.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Don’t waste your time chasing a publishing trend or writing what you think the big publishing houses want to see. Think of the story that you desperately want to read—for yourself, for your own pleasure—and then write it. Above all, live inside this conviction: there is a story out there waiting to be told—a story nobody else on the planet has the capacity to tell—waiting for you to have the courage to tell it.

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