Instead of building modern highrises, Nathan Ogloff now builds new universes.
After years of working in the construction industry, he’s taken the jump to become a full-time self-published writer and is now the proud author of the post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel, The Sapien Empire.
The setting: a far-flung future in the Pacific Northwest in a world still healing from the damages of humankind from our modern era.
From atop the towers dotted throughout the Lower Mainland, Ogloff has been able to get some of the best views of where we live and has incorporated those aspects into his storytelling. He’s also been able to carefully nail the details of his former craft into the protagonist’s journey.
“I was told, as an author, that you put a little of yourself in every character,” Ogloff explained. “So I said, well, why don’t I have them start here because it’s where I live and I know the area very well.”
He details local geography like the narrow canyons of the Fraser River, sailing through the Salish Sea, navigating up to the Columbia River and even takes you to the peak of Mt. Washington.
On the ground, the story follows in the steps of a gritty engineer, mechanic and underdog, Shido Dacan “the Machine Wright,” fighting to survive in a world of competing city-states and ruthless rulers.
Finding a path to becoming an author has been anything but easy.
“I just think of it in terms of what do I have to do to get to where I want to be,” Ogloff said.
“Some people might tell you it starts with you having to go to school and get a degree in creative writing. That’s absolute garbage," he said. “The industry and medium is so pure. It’s simply, if you write you’re a writer. It just starts with that.”
For Ogloff, it began in 2013 with a goal of finally making his dream of writing a fictional series come true. He didn’t want to see himself as an 85-year-old man looking back on his life and wishing that he had given authorship a shot, but missed it.
However, along the way he’s faced many unexpected challenges.
“There’s a lot of disappointments that you come across. Most people think that you just write a book, you send it off to a publisher and that’s it,” Ogloff said, adding that’s not the case at all.
You have to start by creating a platform, a website and social media. Then you have to do a lot of marketing to promote your novel and vouch for yourself as an author.
One of the most important lessons and pieces of advice he’s learned throughout his journey to authorship is that the industry is subjective.
There will be times where everyone is raving about a new book and you just don’t get it and that’s normal, Ogloff said.
“It doesn't mean you’re incompetent or you don’t know what fine art is or what a real story is and that you’re not capable of telling a good story. It’s probably just not for you,” he said.
The last challenge is the times we live in. With the relative ease you can enter the publishing world, the market has become flooded, he explained.
“I didn’t actually finish it until nine years later,” Ogloff said, adding he then spent another year finding a literary agent to arrive at where he is now.
“By the time you get out of it, I call it the gauntlet. If you really want this you will survive the gauntlet.”