{"id":72861,"date":"2017-04-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-english-professor-co-authors-books-with-worlds-best-selling-writer\/"},"modified":"2017-04-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T00:00:00","slug":"uri-english-professor-co-authors-books-with-worlds-best-selling-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2017\/04\/uri-english-professor-co-authors-books-with-worlds-best-selling-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 English professor co-authors books with world\u2019s best-selling writer"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I.\u2014April 6, 2017\u2014When Derek Nikitas was a kid, he had a special place in his 10-year-old heart for horror movies\u2014Night of the Living Dead<\/em>, Creepshow<\/em>, Frankenstein<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was terrified, but I enjoyed the experience,\u2019\u2019 he says. \u201cI liked thinking about the line between what was real and made up. I was fascinated.\u201d<\/p>\n

That early obsession with thrillers\u2014on the screen as well as the page\u2014has paid off with the publication of a book co-authored with the planet\u2019s best-selling novelist James Patterson, who has sold more than 300 million books worldwide.<\/p>\n

Diary of Succubus<\/em> was released April 4, and if there\u2019s any doubt that Nikitas, an assistant professor of English and creative writing at the 溏心vlog免费B站, played a key writing role, just take a look at the cover. Nikitas\u2019 name appears just below Patterson\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a blast,\u2019\u2019 says Nikitas, 42, of Wakefield.<\/strong> \u201cThe best fun I\u2019ve had writing anything. It\u2019s freeing to work with an established writer, with an established voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 132-page novella is part of Patterson\u2019s e-book series, Bookshots. It\u2019s about a succubus, a supernatural femme fatale who seduces powerful men to infiltrate their evil secret society. Lilly Anna lays out her devilish appeal in the opening paragraph:<\/p>\n

\u201cThough sometimes I regret it, I’m everything a man has ever wanted. Point a gun at somebody, he recoils. Slip me in a skintight dress, he leans in. That’s not vanity. It’s just biology, plus a pinch of magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Patterson is so impressed with Nikitas\u2019 work he also asked him to write another Bookshots novella, You\u2019ve Been Warned\u2014Again<\/em>, a haunted-house tale set in Rhode Island and based on one of Patterson\u2019s earlier books. That book is scheduled for release in late October.<\/p>\n

\u201cWriting for Jim has changed my outlook as a writer,\u201d says Nikitas. \u201cI like to think it will help me in terms of my own readership. It\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a shy child, Nikitas first started telling stories with action figures he\u2019d set up on the living room floor of his house in Manchester, N.H<\/strong>. By the time he was 10, he was writing stories, mostly thrillers, as a \u201cmethod of self-expression and connection with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued writing in high school\u2014even completing a practice novel\u2014and at the State University of New York, Brockport, where he earned his degree in creative writing in 1997.<\/p>\n

He reveled in a community of writers at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, where he received his master of fine arts, and went on to get his doctorate at Georgia State University. It was there that he finished his first published novel, Pyres<\/em>, a mystery thriller nominated for an Edgar\u2014as in Allan Poe\u2014Award for best first novel by an American author. His second thriller, The Long Division<\/em>, was a Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2009.<\/p>\n

Nikitas was establishing himself as a writer to watch. After teaching and directing an MFA program for several years at Eastern Kentucky University, he joined 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2014.<\/p>\n

One morning in 2015, he got an email from a man named Bill Robinson. \u201cI work for James Patterson,\u201d he wrote. \u201cCan we talk?\u201d During a phone call a few hours later, Nikitas\u2019 writing life changed dramatically. Robinson asked Nikitas if he wanted to write a book with Patterson, who recruits talented authors as collaborators. \u201cSure,\u201d said Nikitas, without any hesitation.<\/p>\n

First, he had to pass muster with an audition. Nikitas sent in samples of his work. Robinson responded with an outline for a book called The Murder of Stephen King<\/em> and asked him to write a few pages using the \u201cPatterson house style\u201d\u2014clear, cinematic and energized with short chapters that each begin with a hook and end with a cliffhanger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly difficult to do,\u201d says Nikitas, \u201ceven though people assume it\u2019s easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patterson\u2019s verdict? \u201cJim loved the pages,\u201d says Nikitas. He bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate his hiring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the best and also scariest day in my professional writing career,\u201d he says. \u201cPatterson is the best-selling fiction writer in the history of the United States. It was a wonderful feeling to be part of this, but I was also filled with anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three months later, he submitted a 130-page book that he hoped would please Patterson, as well as the story\u2019s subject, Stephen King, the master of horror writing. Although Patterson was delighted with the end result, he eventually had to cancel its publication. In a statement, Patterson explained that he did not want to cause King and his family discomfort with the provocatively titled book.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was disappointed, but wanted to honor King,\u201d says Nikitas. \u201cI was understanding of his concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undeterred, Nikitas plowed ahead with the two other books, collaborating with Patterson on both. They would talk by phone regularly during the editing. Patterson, he says, was gracious and professional.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was intimidated at first, afraid to even make suggestions for the stories,\u201d says Nikitas. \u201cThen, as we got to know each other, a rapport developed.\u201d<\/p>\n

More Patterson assignments might be coming the professor\u2019s way this summer. Meanwhile, Nikitas is working on his own projects. He\u2019s written a novelette for Cover Stories<\/em>, a forthcoming anthology from Volt Books in which contemporary writers re-imagine classic short stories. Nikitas\u2019 contribution is a fresh take on H. P. Lovecraft\u2019s \u201cThe Call of Cthulhu.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nikitas is also working on Exploiting Tragedy<\/em>, an original television pilot that is a semi-finalist in the Sundance Episodic Storytelling Lab; a horror\/romance movie script with musical interludes; teaching responsibilities, including classes in fiction writing and screenwriting; and a new book of his own\u2014a crime thriller about a high school art teacher who is accused of a violent crime against her students.<\/p>\n

Nikitas is right where he wants to be in his life and career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it here,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve worked very hard to get to this place in my career, and this kind of teaching position. I\u2019m not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I.\u2014April 6, 2017\u2014When Derek Nikitas was a kid, he had a special place in his 10-year-old heart for horror movies\u2014Night of the Living Dead, Creepshow, Frankenstein. \u201cI was terrified, but I enjoyed the experience,\u2019\u2019 he says. \u201cI liked thinking about the line between what was real and made up. I was fascinated.\u201d That early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}