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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
My Dolly, Derek Nikitas
My Dolly, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
It was high time for me to fetch frozen Dolly from the butcher shop, but even in an ambulance the drive was rough, it being the Apocalypse out. This girl was too young to be called Dolly, just a teenager, but I named her Dolly because I liked the Golden Oldies, grassroots sheen of it. See, Dolly was dead, and along with the rest of her scrubbed memory, she lost what ever dull moniker her parents had imposed on her. It would be a new dawn for Dolly when I came to her rescue.
All Nite Video, Derek Nikitas
All Nite Video, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
Show & Tell features two types of writing: published creative works and essays on how to create them. The book is divided into fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry sections, each of which presents three essays addressing a distinct element of craft in that genre. The essays reflect how their authors approach matters such as character development, setting, research, and the music of poetry in their own work. New to this edition is the appendix, “As If by Magic: Tools & Tips,” including essays on grammar, revision, and the art of editing. At the behest of teachers and readers, we’ve also …
The Long Division, Derek Nikitas
The Long Division, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
An Atlanta housecleaner flees her nowhere life to reunite with the son she gave up for adoption. The teenage boy joins his longlost mother on an unlawful road trip that proves how much they both have to lose by finding each other. Elsewhere, a deputy must track down the shooter in a drug-related double murder before other investigators discover the deputy’s illicit ties to the case. The killer is an unbalanced college kid hunted by vengeful drug dealers and the police, haunted by loves both dead and for bidden. When the renegade mother and son arrive, past sins and present …
Runaway, Derek Nikitas
Runaway, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
Sixteen shades of noir, all interesting, some compelling.Three of Child’s contributors—Ken Bruen, Allison Brennan and Duane Swierczynski—are seasoned pros, but the collection’s gems come from the 13 members of the younger set. Derek Nikitas’s “Runaway,” for instance, is a superbly ambiguous chiller about an adolescent girl who may or may not be a real runaway, or for that matter real. In Toni McGee Causey’s artfully composed “A Failure to Communicate” introduces the indomitable and irresistible Bobbie Faye Sumrall, a steel magnolia whose steel will cause three lowlifes to rue the day they took her hostage. “Perfect Gentleman” by Brett Battles …
An Apology For A Crime, Derek Nikitas
An Apology For A Crime, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
I live a double life. By day: student/teacher in the hallowed halls of higher education, kingdom of the highbrow literati. By night: hack writer of seedy, violent crime stories. I’m like a double-agent in the perpetual war between champions of literature who think crime novels are shallow and sensationalistic, and noir fiends who think “literary” means dull and pretentious. Luckily, I’ve met plenty of people who recognize that some great novels live in the gray zone between literature and pulp. Let’s face it: some crime novels are flat and hokey tales drawn from the same tired blueprint as a million …
On The Literary One-Night Stand, Derek Nikitas
On The Literary One-Night Stand, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
I’ve read quite a few guide books on creative writing, all of which spend considerable time on character—whether the guide book is an almost-religious mediation on great writing like John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction or an asinine paint-by-numbers workbook like (and I’m making this up, I hope) YOU, TOO, CAN WRITE THIS YEAR’S GREATEST BESTSELLER EVER IN THREE SHORT WEEKS!!!! One gets all sorts of advice about building great characters, and, because I’m an insufferable iconoclast, I question some of what I’ve read, if only a little bit.
Failure, Derek Nikitas
Failure, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
When Murderati asked me to substitute-blog for Ken Bruen, I feared at first that I’d have to feign Catholicism, use Irish slang, write in experimental prose-poetic enjambed lines, and evince a hearty blend of ruffian and gentleman. I’ll save us all the embarrassment.
On The Poetry Of Crime Fiction, Derek Nikitas
On The Poetry Of Crime Fiction, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
Last weekend I saw a presentation by Walter Mosley as part of a convention for college creative writing instructors. I was excited to see him, not only because he was one of the few fellow noir writers to crash the academic/literary party, but also because I’d been reading Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress. I’ve been getting cut to pieces by his razor sharp language, and I wanted to meet the man behind the masterpiece.
Thanks To The Mentors, Derek Nikitas
Thanks To The Mentors, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
Hey, Derek Nikitas here. Thanks to the Murderati regulars for inviting me to write this post on the week my first novel, Pyres, is released. In the spirit of thanks, I’ll blog about college creative writing programs, by way of thanking those writer/teachers who made me. Much of what makes my writing “mine” is owed to those who have nurtured me over the years.
Unsolicited Writing Advice, Derek Nikitas
Unsolicited Writing Advice, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
I’ve been teaching college for—Jesus, nine years now. It’s the end of the semester down here at Georgia State University, the week when I dole out advice to my fiction writing students because there’s really nothing else left to do. They’d rather I let them out a few minutes early, but I feel obligated to let them loose with some last (and perhaps first) words of wisdom for the semester. I have no idea if my words are wise, but they work for me, so I say them anyway.
On The Positives Of Hypocracy (In Writing), Derek Nikitas
On The Positives Of Hypocracy (In Writing), Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
Hypocrite. It’s one of the ugliest words I know. Its prefix makes me think of hippopotamus—a rough, fat, ugly beast. The Latin/Greek makes the word sound medical, like an age-old term for some sexual perversion that dares not speak its colloquial name. It’s as bad as a curse—if not worse; I’ll wager most people would prefer being called an asshole over being called a hypocrite. I know I would, even though I’m about to argue that my hypocrisy is good for me, if not for all fiction writers who are (dis)honest with themselves.
What The Hell Is A Literary Thriller, Anyway?, Derek Nikitas
What The Hell Is A Literary Thriller, Anyway?, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
’ve been trolling. Saw some blog chatter re: the endless debate over literary fiction versus genre fiction. (what’s to debate, except that lit fiction gets more prestige, genre fiction sells more books; seems to me an even tradeoff.) One guy’s got this long-winded theory about literary fiction being all logical and grownup and staid, while genre fiction is primitive, ritualistic, fantastic, appealing to the child-mind inside us all. This was his advertisement for genre fiction: reintegration of the child with the adult to become the fully self-actualized self, or something like that. I didn’t get it. He quoted Freud; I …
On Dedicating Pyres To My Grandfather, Derek Nikitas
On Dedicating Pyres To My Grandfather, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
I take an unusual interest in the dedications at the beginnings of novels. I don’t skip that page like most people probably do; in fact, I spend time ruminating on the circumstances that led to the dedication. Wives, children, parents—usually pretty obvious. Sometimes the author will supply an explanation, but often a cryptic “for Jane” will be all the reader has for clues. Months later I’ll be reading an interview with the author and something he says will make a connection back to that dedication. I try to guess, often with scant clues, why the author chose his/her particular dedicatee. …
On Innovative Forms In Crime Stories, Derek Nikitas
On Innovative Forms In Crime Stories, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
More recently than I care to admit, I was a video store clerk. I’d like to think I’ve moved on to bigger and better things, but one perk I do miss is all the free movies. Free movies are why I’ve seen a lot more crime/noir films than I’ve read crime/noir books. I’m trying slowly to remedy that imbalance, but right now I’m going to celebrate movies—the steady stream of fantastic crime movies that have been produced in the wake of Pulp Fiction, the film that rather single-handedly revitalized the genre way back in 1994. Some folks call these movies …
On Boston Teran's God Is A Bullet, Derek Nikitas
On Boston Teran's God Is A Bullet, Derek Nikitas
Derek Nikitas
Never heard of Boston Teran. Nor God is a Bullet. Not till last year after my first novel, Pyres. Random readers made comparisons. I sought the book, saw a plot hauntingly similar to mine, noted further comparisons to Jim Thompson and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. I shelved the book a while, afraid. What if it’s too similar? Will mine lose its thin cred, cease to exist?