About/FAQs

I craft copy with the care of a poet...because I have a master's degree in poetry and can't help myself. I love language, storytelling, and teaching—especially about language and storytelling. If you let me, I'll annoy you endlessly with "fun" facts and my fervor for Oxford commas (which I will begrudgingly omit when adhering to AP style).

Abridged version not cutting it? I got you. Here are some questions I seem to get a lot, along with my (let's be honest, probably snarky) responses. Enjoy!

Q: What's with your name?

A: My mom claims she just liked the name Nathan but that my father wanted his sons to have LJE initials like him and his dad. However, she did once confess she wanted to name me Leighton, which was the last name of a guy she had a crush on, altering it to conceal this fact from my father. She now denies she ever said that.

Q: How'd you get into this line of work?

A: As I remember, I once had a tiny toy gun to go along with a G.I. Joe. I mean, this thing was almost microscopic. Anyway, I was playing with it by the bathroom sink. My father walks by and asks where I got it. I say, I just thought of it and plucked it out of the thought bubble above my head. He shakes his head and tells me to be careful with that by the sink. Sure thing. But ya know, G.I. Joe had a tough fight with the BBEG (big bad evil guy), and BBEG ended up knocking the gun out of Joe's hand...and right down the drain. When my father later inquires about where the microscopic gun went. I tell him I put it back in my thought bubble because we're supposed to put things back where we found them. Instead of giving me a spanking, he just shakes his head again. And I realized, a good story can really save your ass.

Q: Is that really true?

A: It is 100% true to the best of my recollection. But, memory is inherently fallible. So, most of our childhood memories are probably half truths. Sorry if that ruined you a little.

Q: Why did you capitalize words like "of" and "for" in the subheads of your home page?

A: I spend a comically (perhaps cosmically) large amount of time adjusting the capitalization on lines in title case...because AP style is nonsense when it comes to title case. If you don't know parts of speech, you'll never get it right. And I don't think you should have to be a writer just to be able to capitalize a freaking header. We should all use start case, meaning the first letter of every word in the title gets capitalized. It's easy. It's better. Please join my cause!

Q: Is there anything you can't write?

A: Probably not? I like to think if it can be written, I can write it. I'm at least willing to try. I'm pretty sure I've written most things, but if you've got something new, hit me up.

Q: Hit me with a fun fact!

A: Not really a question, but OK. You know that fake banana flavor that doesn't really taste like bananas? It actually does taste like bananas...just not the banana we have today. The Gros Michel banana was our main banana before it was rendered essentially extinct due to disease. It had particularly high levels of isoamyl acetate, the organic compound found in all bananas and the basis for banana flavoring. The Cavendish banana we know and love today has isoamyl acetate too, just not as much as the now-defunct Gros Michel.