Hi. I’m Nina MacNamara.
I’m an author, publisher, and podcaster. My books are Icarus and A Bitter Spring. I co-host the Pop Medieval podcast with my friend, Dr. Richard Scott Nokes. I am the co-founder of Witan Publishing, an academic publishing company.
If you can’t tell from my very northern accent, I’m originally from Detroit, MI — where the weather is cold and the people are colder. Today, I live in the Atlanta area where the temperature is much hotter and the people are warmer, but the accent stayed. I live with two cat roommates and a spoiled little dog.
When I’m not writing my books, podcasting, or working on someone else’s book, I’m hiking in the Georgia mountains, cooking in my Instant Pot, or trying to learn the clarinet.
From the Blog
I am Euphoric: An Ode to My Current Favorite Melodrama
I, an Elder Millennial, discusses my love for a show about GenZs, written by GenXs.
Progress Report December 2021: A Long Delayed Update
Here are some things that got me through 2021.
Progress Report October 2021: I’ve Had Better Months
“So it goes.” — Kurt Vonnegut. — Nina MacNamara
My Books
A Bitter Spring (2012)
“It’s like carrying around a backpack. It’s heavy and it’s on your shoulders. It hurts. It weighs you down.”
The world has just come down around Mae. Her father unexpectedly died, and her despondent mother has no other choice but to take Mae and her two sisters to live with their loving but unprepared grandparents. But while her sisters quickly adjust to the changes of a new house, new school, and new life, Mae finds herself numb and indifferent. The school bullies still harass her for her weight. Her sisters are still beautiful and popular. Her mother settles back into a routine of frivolity. For her, the scenery has changed but not the situation.
When shadows from her family’s past resurface, Mae finds comfort in only two things. One, a purple composition book that becomes her emotional and creative outlet under the encouragement of her grandfather and guidance counselor. And two, her friendship with Dawn — a girl her own age with a gentle wisdom Mae has yet to understand.
A Bitter Spring is a novel about grief, abandonment, and the trauma of being a 15-year-old girl suffering through both. But also, it is about forgiveness, and the painful steps one takes in getting there.
Icarus (2011)
Man versus machine. Anarchy versus order. Power versus love.
Centuries of war have ravaged the world. Those left are sheltered under domed cities — like the decrepit city of Kennedy — but they’re not really protected. Class warfare wages. The lower classes are kept down by the upper class that strives to eventually replace them with easily-controlled artificial intelligence. The man who created this AI is Jerrid Fieger, the most powerful man in Kennedy.
Citizens by day and terrorists by night, the Project is the only force fighting against this takeover. Ayaku was once the principal dancer for the city ballet; Riley, an acrobat for the circus. Flake and Copse were computer programmers. They and the rest of the Project want the man who created synthetic robots to suffer for their losses. But an intense drug called called Clout hinders their revenge on him — a drug so addictive, it causes them to continue using it long after their skin has turned green, and their insides have begun to turn to mush.
West is different, however. He doesn’t fight for a lost career. He fights for the woman he loves.
Contact
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Nina MacNamara 