I had the privilege of Nick’s help when I took my first, non-college, writing class. Not only a remarkable teacher, a quote from him gets me through the low spots as I attempt to break into the sci-fi market. ‘Wonderful weird.’ And those 2 words are all I’ll say about me.
In Nick’s words:
My first novel, A Small and Remarkable Life, is set in the middle 1800s and is as much historical as it is science fiction (maybe even more so). I did a lot of historical research on how people lived and survived in those days, and some of it even got into the book.
My second novel is completely different. Valley of Day-Glo is a far-future, post-apocalyptic comedy written in the absurdist tradition of some of my favorite authors (Franz Kafka, Mikhail Bulgakov, Samuel Beckett, Kurt Vonnegut, for example.) The story has a completely different style and tone from my previous novel, and I hope my readers will enjoy the departure.
A blurb I copied of Small and Remarkable Life:
The much-anticipated first novel by Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee Nick DiChario puts a spin on the story of being stranded on an alien planet, cut off from your own people, unsuited to your new environment, and physically different from everyone else. This is what the young alien Tink Puddah must face when his parents are killed on their first day on Earth in the year 1845, and Tink finds himself stranded in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York.A story of courage, determination, hope, and survival, A Small and Remarkable Life chronicles the journey of two people headed in very different directions: the alien Tink Puddah, a lonely outsider who finds the strength and resources within him to endure the most brutal and unforgiving conditions, and the holy man Jacob Piersol, determined to save Tink's soul, but tortured by his own past and the God who seems unable to console him.
A blurb I copied of Day-Glo:
In the grand tradition of Vonnegut's absurdist fiction, Nick DiChario’s second novel Valley of Day-Glo, a post apocalyptic satire, tells the story of young Indian brave named Broadway Danny Rose and his search for the mythic titular valley where "death becomes life".Following a nuclear blast, the Iroquois are among humanity's only survivors. Some have returned to the ways of the past, while others attempt to honor those same traditions, while at the same time drawing their names from the buried remnants of white (or Honio’o) society. Many take their names from films or theatre, such as Broadway Danny's parents, Mother Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Father The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Using Iroquois myth and tradition as a touchstone, DiChario skillfully roasts our materialistic and gluttonous society. Danny's journey from his homeland to the mythic Valley leads him to civil war, love and loss, hermitage and pyramid schemes. Science fiction is often called the genre of ideas, and Valley of Day-Glo is no exception.
AWARDS:
World Fantasy Award nominee
Nominated for two Hugo Awards
John W. Campbell Award nominee for Best New Writer
A Small and Remarkable Life was nominated for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best SF Novel of the Year (2006).
Some of Nick's plays have been presented in Geva Theatre’s Regional Playwrights Festival in upstate New York
WEB SITE: http://www.nickdichario.com/
--Arlene
