Just Clearing Some Things Up!

Hello, folks.

So I am going to be posting a number of all-new, Supernatural related posts over the next three agonizing weeks, as we all wait for the show to return form yet ANOTHER break.

Is it just me, or have they done an unusually high number of breaks this season?

Anyway.

Lately, it seems there have been some rather interesting though somewhat incorrect things going around the internet regarding me. None of it is BAD, necessarily … and I certainly don’t want people to think that I get upset every time someone mentions me online. I do not. In fact, I encourage it.

By all means … mention my work online to your heart’s content.

Seriously, I can always use the publicity.

However, that being said, I do try to clear things up when things are posted online, about me or my work, that are inaccurate and/or misleading. Mainly because this prevents uncomfortable situations for me and my readers … especially in those times when I have been at public appearances and some poor misguide soul has stood up during the Q & A to blindside me with some weird question that I don't know how to answer without making him or her feel silly … which usually goes something like this:
“So I read this thing online that said you [insert rumor here]. Is that true?”

So … the point of today’s blog post is for me to clear up some of these things.

Misleading Internet Rumor #1: “Nathan Robert Brown is ‘close friends’ with Jensen Ackles.” (or “N. R. Brown works with Jensen Ackles”)
No … totally not true. I mean, I have nothing against the guy, but it’s not like the two of us hang out or have long chats on the phone.

I honestly think this rumor got started because, yes, I DID go to Apollo Junior High at the same time and in the same grade as Jensen Ackles. But that's where the connection between he and I ends.

When we were in the 7th grade, Jensen was a “cool kid” that the girls used to swoon over. And, back then anyway, I was a chubby socially awkward kid that the girls used to laugh at, if they noticed me at all. By the 8th grade, thank God, I had a growth spurt and did some weight lifting, and eventually managed to find a place for myself among the “metalheads” and misfits, whereas Jensen mainly hung out with the jocks and the “cool kids”.

So, even back in junior high, the two of us were not exactly friends. I have not even seen the guy since I was in the 9th grade, right before my parents shipped my trouble-making butt off to military school. And even then I just saw the guy in passing.

We are not buddies ... nor do we work together.

So ... please, please, PLEASE. Do not come to one of my appearances and ask me questions about Jensen Ackles (unless they’re related to the show or the book, of course). I have not seen him, aside from on a TV screen, in nearly 20 years … and I honestly have no idea what the guy is like these days.

I assume he’s still a good person.

Misleading Internet Rumor #2: “Nathan Robert Brown was once rescued from bullies by Jensen Ackles.”
Okay … this one is actually kind of true. But the whole thing was not quite as dramatic as it has been made to sound in most of the online forums.

Sigh … I guess I have no choice but to finally tell this story.

To be honest, I doubt that it was all that big of a deal to Jensen. But to me, at the time, it kind of was.

In the 7th grade, I was a new kid in a new school.

And it didn’t help that I was a chubby, socially awkward bookworm who spoke Japanese (in a place where NO ONE spoke it), talked about anime, and loved comic books. That was not a good year for me, needless to say. Pretty much the only thing I remember from the 7th grade is being “pantsed” in the hall, having my head shoved in toilets (“swirlies” they were called), and being a regular target for wedgies all the time.

And rarely, if ever, did anyone stick up for me.

Well, one day a group of jocks (who shall remain nameless) were in the process of shoving me into a bathroom stall, for yet another round of “Let’s stick the nerd’s head in the toilet and flush.”

At that moment Jensen and another kid, Chris Dowling (who, by the way, is now the director of the TV show Repo Games) just happened to be in the bathroom. Chris lived a few houses down from me back then, and I have to tell you that he is definitely one of the nicest and most talented people I have ever met.

“Come on, guys,” Chris said to them. “What are you doing to him?”

“We’re gonna shove his head in the toilet,” one of them replied.

“Why,” Jensen spoke up. “What did he do?”

“Nothing,” one of them laughed. “It’s just fun.”

“Let him go,” Chris told them.

“Seriously,” Jensen chimed in. “Five of you guys are gonna shove this poor kid around? What the hell? He can’t even fight back. That’s just stupid.”

Long story short … they let me go.

And that’s the story. Probably not quite as dramatic as what some people may be thinking. And, as I’ve already stated, this probably did not seem like a very big deal to either of them, Jensen or Chris. I highly doubt that either of them even remembers doing it.

But I have to admit that, at this time in my life, it was sort of a big deal to me… mainly because I was so grateful that I wasn't going to have to (yet again) go through the rest of my day with people asking me why my shirt was soaked.

Luckily, when I came back to school the next year I was nearly a foot taller, had been training to fight all summer, and was about 165 pounds of pure muscle. So I didn’t need much protecting by the time the 8th grade rolled around.

Misleading Internet Rumor #3: “Nathan Robert Brown is a ‘famous TV writer.’"
This is just completely untrue … I do not and have never written anything for television. It’s not that I am opposed to the idea or anything. I just have never had a reason or an opportunity to do so. Which is fine with me … I like writing books, because I know that people are going to read what I create. The only people who read what TV writers create are actors, producers, and the like. Nothing wrong with that...but I do prefer writing books.

In any case, I think I have finally figured out how this one got started. Apparently, a former student of mine (probably from back when I was a GTA teaching Freshman English at either Midwestern State or University of Texas Arlington) posted this on a Reddit forum.

I don’t think the student did this on purpose, though.

You see, I signed my contract to write The Mythology of Supernatural around the same time that I decided to abandon my plans to obtain a Ph.D., just taking the master’s degree I already had and running like hell.

I explained to my Freshman English students at the time that they would be my last class for a while, possibly ever, because I was leaving academia for a job in the private sector as a Tech Writer. I also told them that I had gotten a new book contract. Some students asked me what Supernatural was, and I explained to them that it was a TV show. Apparently, this particular student was confused and thought that I was leaving the university to go write for a TV show instead of just writing a book about a TV show.


Well…those are about as many internet rumors as I have the energy to address for now.

I will be posting both a reader response and a Mythology of Supernatural update later on this week.

As always … thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU.

Sincerely, thank you for the support and interest in what I do!