Everyone has a story; here is the story behind New York author John Nuckel. John grew up in the welfare apartments of a middle-class town. “I’ll meet you there,” he’d always say to his friends. Couldn’t have them seeing the two-bedroom apartment in which he lived with four siblings and his mom. John walked in two worlds back then. Jock and good student in school. Getting busted for smashing car windshields back in the neighborhood. Once, he and his brothers broke into an apartment, then proudly walked around waving the gun they’d found. They didn’t have much food, the furniture was charity, the TV a small black-and-white. He went to bed hungry many nights. What they did have was a mother with a creative spirit. They had music—her record collection was bigger than all of theirs combined. They had books. A new book every two weeks. John devoured them. The ingredients to develop “John the author” were tossed in the pot at an early age. The old-school music—Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw. Reading “grown-up” books before he was ten—Dickens, Swift, Hemingway, Chandler, and too many more to list. He’d finish a novel then go hop the fence to the schoolyard to see what his buddies were up to, back behind the handball courts. Those nights with an empty stomach is what he remembers most. That’s what drove him to a successful career in the financial world. The creative spirit he doesn’t have to remember; it is always there. It took him a while to have the courage to tap into it. Yes, courage. The courage to work on a story when he should have been doing something to make money. To put his deepest thoughts and heartfelt words into print. To allow others to judge his work. Now he goes to bed with a full stomach, but it is the creative spirit that keeps him awake. Rising early with thoughts of plot twists and character development. Maybe hunger has nothing to do with it. Maybe it’s his drive. www.johnnuckel.com John’s Novels #RectorStseries: The Vig Grit Blind Trust John’s Short Stories The Garden The Victory Grill