The Many Talents Of Nate Shumate...

Nathan Shumate is a local author, editor, sculptor, and artist who helped out a friend yesterday by selling some pictures he drew then donating the profits to a great cause. He chronicled his participation in the fundraiser on his blog. You can read more about it: HERE. 

I, without permission from him, copied a couple of the pictures he drew yesterday and included them here. I think they're pretty amazing. I think you'll agree.

I've written about Nate in this blog before. He's a man of many, many talents. When you look at these pictures, you might think that he's first and foremost an illustrator. It's obvious the man can sketch. I don't know if he looked at something while he drew these, or if they grew from just his imagination. I suppose it doesn't matter--they're good either way. But when I think of Nate, I think of him primarily as an author. He's written several books and short stories. He's also an editor and was kind enough to include one of my short stories in his latest edition, Redneck Eldritch. 

Even though he is many things, he also is a caring soul who gave up his time for another. I don't know Sal personally, but I know many who do. They pitched in to help while he confronts serious health issues. Sal has a GoFundMe page set up and you can access it: HERE. 

I'm amazed at the talents we've all been given. Some are visible, but many are not. It's also a talent to give of yourself for others. So, Mr. Shumate has that talent, too.

Meet Treion Muller, Author, Gentleman, All-Around Good Guy...

One of the benefits of participating in community theater is the people you meet. And almost every time, the people I meet surprise me with not only their incredible talents on stage, but the kind of people they are off stage.

When I first met Treion I couldn't quite understand what people were calling him. It took a while but I finally understood his name was Treion. As these things go, there's downtimes during rehearsals when we can chat and get to know the other cast members. Treion and I talked and I found out he's originally from South Africa and works for a company where I once worked, though it's been almost 20 years since I worked there.

It wasn't until tonight that I learned my friend is an author--a real, live published author. You can access his website: HERE. He wrote Reality Parenting: As NOT Seen on TV, and Dad Rules: A Simple Manual for a Complex Job. He's also co-written several other books. I learned also he was a university student body president, university mascot, professional dancer and motivational speaker.

I know a lot of people who can't understand giving up so much time to do a show and spend all that time doing something and not getting paid to do it. For me, there's a lot of reasons to do a show and meeting people like Treion helps make it all worth it.

Ladies And Gentlemen, I Present Tom Carr...

One of the best parts of attending a conference is creating and building friendships. Some call it networking, but for me, networking is too informal, too stuffy. The guys and gals I hung out with over this past weekend are friends. 

I met many new people last weekend at LTUE and enjoyed being with others I already knew. And as today was President's Day, my mind wondered to a friend who recently wrote, directed, produced, starred in a show about President Lincoln. My friend's name is Tom Carr.

To put it simply, Tom is amazing! There's really no other way to describe him. I first met Tom at the Salt City Steamfest convention last summer. The table our publishing company rented kept encroaching on Tom's table. Tom never complained, at least, not to me.

Since then Tom and I attended both the Salt Lake Comic Con, and LTUE as panelists. I friended him on Facebook and have followed his posts for several months. He has a project called Pinkertons A Secret Mission and he tried several fundraising efforts to produce the series. So far, he hasn't raised enough to do what he wants with that--and several other--projects.

There is no quit in Tom. The guy's tenacious! I probably would have given up after trying one fundraising effort. Then again, I might not have started up such a project in the first place. I'm just not as brave. You can see an excerpt of Pinkertons on YouTube: HERE. If you get a chance, watch it. It's not perfect and Tom admits as such, but he worked hard and he created it, flaws and all.

Tom and I shared several panels at the conferences we attended. I'm hoping we'll be able to share more in the future. And as I hear him talk about his experiences, his successes and not so successful endeavors, I will sit and be impressed by him. I hope only the best for him because if he accomplished a tenth of all the things he wants to do, I think everyone in the world would definitely know who Tom Carr is. I'm lucky enough to already know.