URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Spring_2018_Melissa-McCarthy

state of Rhode Island. Nikitas’s efficient system provides time to explore other mediums. The success of television series like Ozark and Better Call Saul have revealed an appetite for complex characters and intertwining narratives – two facets of storytelling that Nikitas has long utilized. While developing a fourth novel, he is simultaneously advancing a script adapted from The Long Division . “The stakes are inherently higher,” says the professor of the thriller genre. Nikitas’s characters would be wise to take after their author, whose determination and perspective continues to trend towards success.

avoiding having to rewrite a novel numerous times. Once I have that outline solid, I try to write the book quickly.” Having this system in place allows Nikitas to accept challenges from a variety of directions. The Patterson collaborations focused Nikitas on tone and form. His third novel, Extra Life, was written with the self-imposed challenge of writing for a young adult audience and focusing on a single main character. Meanwhile, Nikitas’s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu for the anthology Cover Stories proved a lateral challenge. Nikitas reinvented the classic story through enriched language, complexity, and the influence of academic research he explored in Lovecraft’s home

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