“He who completes a quest does not merely find something. He becomes something.”
– Lev Grossman, The Magician King

The Writer (abbreviated)

Nolan McGill is a 28 year-old fiction and fantasy-fiction novelist, of namely the YA Tides of Terrene series. He considers himself largely inspired by such authors as Lev Grossman and Stephen Chbosky.

McGill is a creative soul. He spends his time as a Full-Stack Developer, crafting Web apps and pages for different purposes, including for an ongoing, collaborative Fantasy gaming project called Overstep. Expect to hear more about that soon.

What’s left to say about Nolan? Just the early days. The boy was raised in the Walt Disney-inspired town of Celebration, Florida. He attended the University of Florida, where he crafted the literary short stories Branding and Scott’s Out of Body Vacation. After graduating, he proceeded to translate his high school conception of The Tides of Terrene onto page. The unpublished, anticipated trilogy is ongoing.

Nolan currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wonderful wife, Polina.

The Person

I’m also the central protagonist in my own life. Obviously.

Some of my earliest memories are of my old house in Ohio. As an only child, I would run around outside, do push-ups, and shoot basketball, training my body for an eventual superpower that would one day never blossom inside of me. At age 11, even after my parents moved us to Florida, my life expectations didn’t change. Still, though, no powers.

I had the same group of friends from high school through college—yes, we all attended the University of Florida (except for the one who joined the Marines)—although, by now, we’ve all gone our separate ways. That’s what happens in adult life, I guess. Now I live near Austin, Texas, where I work as a banker by day, gallivanting wordsmith and aspiring coder by night.

Things I love:
Making lists.
Long showers.
Cholesterol—eggs, cheese, sour cream.
Brotherly plot elements. (Sad, I know.)
Wind.
Budgeting.
The use of swords in stories.
Jalapeños.

Things I don’t love:
Wet socks.
Opening credits.
People that don’t use turn signals.
Waking up on the couch and being told to move.
The use of guns in stories.
Sweating from jalapeños.

Author insights:
Time control will always be the coolest superpower to daydream about.
The only reason I go to the gym is so that I don’t look too lazy.
Those acting classes in college were a failed attempt to conquer stage fright.
IKEA furniture has taken over my apartment. Please send help.
If I could do it all again, I would.