A New Introduction - Noah Romero & Ashley Weidenhamer

Welcome back to the Blog.

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I am super excited to start this project back up with my very good friend and fellow writer Noah Romero! We’ve been friends for more than 15 years and both writing for more than 6. 

We’re going to be sharing a lot more than just book reviews, which is largely what this blog has been up to this point. We’re going to be sharing writing prompts, fun challenges, our experiences of writing our first novels, what's inspiring us, and so much more!

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The first introduction to THE Noah Romero


What’s up fellow readers! 

My name is Noah and I’ve been reading books since probably before I could walk. Being the younger sibling to a 3 sport athlete meant I spent countless days at tournaments I had no desire to be at. Books were how I passed the hours, reading any kind of fiction I could get my hands on. I grew up in a small Midwest town in Ohio called Defiance and did a small tour of the state, going to college in Youngstown and supporting my wife while she got her doctorate in Dayton. Now, I’m based in North Carolina and enjoying the way superior weather (and beaches!).

I’ve always found books to be an antidote to the day to day dreariness that comes with the human experience. At any point of the day, I can mentally check out and enter a world crafted by somebody’s stream of consciousness. It’s a fascinating thing really, books. It’s a direct line into another human’s experiences and fantasies. Wild and pure imagination translated by endless combinations of 26 letters.

Throughout high school, I’d dabbled in writing poems, scenes of fiction, and beginnings of short stories that were never meant to be completed. Writing was more of a playful exercise at the time, rather than a genuine desire to create. One day, after replaying a video game (Mass Effect, specifically), I was inspired to look for a book that gave me a similar vibe. I wanted a sci-fi space adventure with a colorful crew in a world that felt truly alive and lived in. I also wanted the protagonist to be Mexican, like me. After about an hour in Barnes and Noble, searching up and down and googling endlessly with no results, a thought hit me like a lightning strike.

I could write this book. Therefore, I started.

It’s been a few years with plenty of breaks, writer’s block and a sense of not taking the craft seriously, but last year, I successfully finished the first draft! I thought I’d need a long break after completing it, but weirdly enough, it filled me with even more motivation to finish. I had this project I spent so long searching for in my hands, complete-ish. I’ve still got plenty of polishing to do, but I’m the closest I’ve ever been to achieving something I’m finally ready to admit: I was born to do.

Here are some of my favorites so you guys can get a little peek in my brain:

• Favorite Books: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, Ocean’s Echo and Winter’s Orbit by

Everina Maxwell, The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan

• Favorite Artists: J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Kota the Friend, Childish Gambino

• Favorite Video Games: The Mass Effect Series, Hi-fi Rush, The Bioshock Trilogy


I’m sure there’ll be plenty more opportunities for you all to get to know the person behind the words! I’m looking forward to sharing some art with you all!

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A re-introduction to me (Ashley)

I have loved to read my entire life. I ran through chapter book after chapter book until I was hauling around 600+ page novels on the daily and a back up book just in case. Looking back, my reading tastes haven't changed all that much and it is constantly shifting between epic fantasy and science fiction books. I believe the real magic of a book is how it can melt away the real world around you and allow you to fall into a world of magic, monsters, and grand adventures.

You can only live with your nose in a book for so long before the real world demands to be dealt with, and after college, my future started looking like a wide-open highway. I made it a goal to write at least one book in my life, even if it never went anywhere or no one ever read it, I wanted to try my hand at the magic. I started writing by hand and filled notebook after notebook with early drafts and dialogue that remains hidden (and will remain hidden), and it was the start I needed.

I wrote a few terrible chapters in junior high, then a few short stories in high school, and then attempted my first novel in college. Big emphasis on “attempted”. After many hours and many evenings working on that first story on and off for months, one day I went to open that file and saw that the 100+ page file had been deleted. Poof, gone. No saved PDF version, no backup on Google Drive, just disappeared from existence. Honestly, I was crushed. My life was in rough shape at that point and seeing that everything in that file was gone was just the cherry on top of the crap-cake of life. But I knew I couldn’t just give up. So I started again, and a few years later, here we are, 62,000 words into a first draft.

If you’re on your own journey to finish your first novel, or just like to read and want to connect with some small creators and almost-authors, we’re happy to have you here! 

Stay tuned for some writing samples from both of us! 

       :)