LA CRESCENT — When it came to writing, David Nash had focused on songs and music for a good part of his life. In a recent What We’re Reading interview, the La Crescent, Minnesota singer songwriter recounted that his first venture into writing novels was when he was inspired to turn a song of his about Paul Bunyan into a book. The Man in the Pines, a reimagined life story of the folk legend, was published in 2018.
David’s second novel In Wells’ Time was published in 2024 and was recently named a Minnesota Book Award finalist in the Novel/Short Story category.
In Wells’ Time tells the story of a family trait, or curse, depending on how you see it: some members of the Monasmith family are able to stop time. The son, Wells, has developed the ability--which leads to the question: what would you do if you could hold on to time?
Despite the time-stopping elements, In Wells’ Time isn’t a work science-fiction--the story is more focused on characters, personal relationships and family. The time stopping aspects are nuanced and serve more as a mechanism for readers to think about what time means to us and how we spend it.
David explained that the idea behind the story, “What if you could hold on to time a little bit longer? What would you do with that time? It gets to sort of the deeper questions of ‘How do we use our time and what is valuable to us?’ ”
As the story progresses, we learn there are dire consequences to the gift of time-stopping, and that Wells has a tough decision to make. David compared this to addiction, and also noted some anxiety he was working through shortly after his youngest child was born.
“I remember waking up in the middle of the night and just [thinking], ‘They're growing so fast, and time is moving so fast,’ and that was the worst train of thought to get in at 3:00 AM when it's dark and you think of space and eternity…and that did at least spark some of that concept of what if I could slow it down? Hold on to a hug a little longer.”
As a musician, it’s no surprise that music plays a role in David’s stories and in his writing process. On the publisher’s webpage for his book is a playlist of songs that either inspired his writing or show up in the book, including artists such as Regina Spektor, Alabama Shakes, Bob Dylan, Gillian Welch, and Minnesota artist Humbird.
David explained, “I really like having music around, and if it's the right music sometimes I can just flow with it in a way. Humbird, who's a regional musician and a wonderful person, her album Pharmakon--I would just put that on and usually it fit with about the time that I had to write, so it actually kept as like a pacesetter for me and I could… write through a scene and it kind of let me get out of the way of myself.”
In Wells’ Time is David’s first book to be recognized by the Minnesota Book Awards. In January, his book was listed as a finalist with 3 other books, with the winners to be announced April 22. Being a finalist has David stunned. He said, “It's an honor. Exciting. It's bizarre. Unexpected. It's all just sort of a strange journey in a way…It feels maybe a little bit like Imposter Syndrome. And I'm excited to meet these other finalists and I'm excited and thankful just to be a part of it and that the book is resonating with some people.”
David will continue to work on music and writing. He’s working on a collection of stories due out in 2026 called The Burnt Wood Anthology, along with other writing projects. You can learn more about David’s music and writing on his website.
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