The Story Behind Nathaniel Theos

Every writer has more than one story inside him.

For years, I have written as L. Neil Thrussell, creating spiritual fiction that explores the heart, the soul, and the path of the Spiritual Warrior. Those stories are deeply connected to who I am, what I believe, and the principles of the Shin Dao.

But there has always been another current of stories moving through me.

Stories of history and mystery.

Stories that explore freedom, identity, power, courage, sovereignty, and what happens when ordinary people are confronted by extraordinary circumstances.

Those stories needed a different home.

And eventually, they found a different name.

Nathaniel Theos.

Why a Pen Name?

Nathaniel Theos gives me the freedom to explore stories that move beyond the world readers have come to associate with L. Neil Thrussell.

Some may be darker.

Some may be historical, suspenseful, provocative, or unsettling.

Some may explore difficult questions about freedom, identity, masculinity, power, technology, government, faith, human resilience, and the direction in which society is moving.

The pen name creates a natural distinction between two expressions of my writing.

L. Neil Thrussell writes stories that speak to the heart and invite the reader inward.

Nathaniel Theos writes stories that challenge the mind, explore the edges of what we believe, and ask questions that may not have easy answers.

But they do not come from two different men.

They come through the same writer.

And, ultimately, from the same source.

The Meaning Behind the Name

The meaning of Nathaniel Theos became clearer to me after I had already begun using the name.

Nathaniel means gift of God.

Theos is the Greek word for God or the divine.

At first, I simply liked the strength and sound of the name…    Nathaniel Theos

Then came the revelation.

The name seemed to describe something I had been slowly coming to understand about my writing.

I write the words.

I sit at the keyboard. I develop the characters. I research the history. I wrestle with plots, dialogue, scenes, and ideas.

But I have increasingly come to believe the stories themselves don’t originate entirely with me.

They come through me.

There are times when I am writing and a character says something I had never consciously planned.

A connection suddenly appears.

A scene takes an unexpected direction.

An idea arrives that feels less like something I invented and more like something I was finally quiet enough to hear.

Some people might call that inspiration.

Others might call it intuition, creativity, the subconscious, Spirit, or the Muse.

For me, it is God.

And somewhere along the way, I realized that the name Nathaniel Theos had become my slightly playful way of honouring that connection.

Gift of God. Through God.

I certainly don’t mean that I believe every sentence I write has been handed down from heaven. I still have to edit the darn things.

But I have come to see writing differently.

Writing, for me, has become an act of listening.

My role is to become quiet enough to hear.

Open enough to receive.

Courageous enough to follow where the story wants to go.

And disciplined enough to sit down and put the words on the page.

That realization changed the meaning of the name for me.

Nathaniel Theos is no longer simply a pen name.

It has become a small acknowledgement of the source from which I believe creativity ultimately flows.

And a reminder that perhaps the writer’s job is not always to create the river.

Sometimes our job is simply to stop building dams and allow it to move through us.

Nathaniel Theos.

Writer.

Seeker.

Storyteller.

A man learning to listen for the words that come through.