Well, howdy there!

Hi everyone and welcome to my website! I'm so glad that you took time out of your day to check out my first ever blog, I appreciate you!

This first post will just be introductory, a little bit about me, my writing style and reading preferences, and my personal life. If you want to know more after you've read this post, click that "video" tab up at the top, or visit my YouTube to view the first Writecast video.

My first name is Heather, and my middle name is Nichole, hence the "H.N." in "H.N. Oetken". I was married a little over a year ago to the love of my life, Matt, who I met at work 16 years ago almost to the day! At the time I was 16 years old and he was 23, so of course even though I had a raging school girl crush on him, a relationship at that point would have been inappropriate.

Matt and I stayed in contact over the years, talking every few months just to keep in touch. When I was 20, I was married to a guy, my age, who I knew in high school. He joined the Navy and we lived in South Carolina while he was in nuclear mechanic school, then we were stationed in Washington State. We were married for six years and while the relationship was toxic, both with each other and with his family, I'm still glad for the life experience I gain in the six years we were married.

After my ex and I split up, I reunited with Matt and we struck up a pretty close friendship, then quickly began dating. He asked me to marry him on Valentine's Day of 2020 and we were married 05/10/2020.

By day I am a medical biller and coder for an optometrist office. I've been with them for a little over six years now and while there are some downsides to the job itself, I love the doctors I work for and the people I work with.

I love to write fiction. I never really found my genre until I began the novel I am currently re-writing. It is dark and twisted and very much adult, and apparently I thrive when torturing my characters. Those who have been brave enough to read through the manuscript in its entirety have called it a "crime-thriller." I will go more into depth on this novel in a future post!

As far as reading goes, I love all kinds of genres but I'm drawn a lot more toward thriller in general; specifically crime and psychological thriller. I can read books that are more espionage-driven, but I tend not to pick those up often just because they are very drawn out with their descriptions, and have tons of info-dumps. I also like YA as long as it is written well. I find that some YA is written specifically for the pre-teen age range and I just can't get through that. Some, like The Hunger Games and Divergent are considered YA but written with an adult audience in mind. While they are fast-paced and have elements that will keep the younger readers hooked, the narrative doesn't talk to you like you're twelve. I appreciate books like that.

What about you? Do you write? What do you like to write? What do you read? Tell me all about yourself! And don't forget to visit my YouTube channel for an even more in-depth introduction!