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WORK TITLE: All Things Violent
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.nikkidolson.com/
CITY: Las Vegas
STATE: NV
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES: N/A
PERSONAL
Born in Carbondale, IL; has children.
EDUCATION:Attended Columbia College Chicago.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
WRITINGS
Contributor of short fiction to periodicals, including Shotgun Honey, Thuglit, Day One, Bartleby Snopes, Red Rock Review, Spinetingler, and Storyglossia.
SIDELIGHTS
Nikki Dolson is a novelist and short-story writer. Her work has appeared in a varied group of publications, many of them devoted to mystery and crime writing, including Spinetingler, Shotgun Honey, Thuglit, Bartleby Snopes, and Storyglossia.
All Things Violent is Dolson’s debut novel. The story centers on Laura Park, a young African American woman who is pursuing a university education, with the usual interests, talents, and dreams of a college sophomore. Laura’s life changes dramatically, however, when she becomes a killer. On a lonely road outside Las Vegas, Laura stabs Jimmy MacAvoy, a thug and drug dealer, killing him with multiple wounds to the chest. MacAvoy had been responsible for the death of Laura’s best friend, Fiona, who overdosed on drugs that the dealer provided.
Dazed and bewildered over what she’s done, Laura is found by Simon Pritchard, the owner of Pritchard Investigations, a private investigation firm. Instead of calling the police when he sees Laura with a dead, bloody body, Pritchard recruits her to join his team of professional killers. Very quickly, she also becomes Pritchard’s lover.
Laura is handed over to Frank Joyce to receive her training in how to kill quickly, quietly, and with as little fuss as possible. Joyce’s training is harsh and brutal, but Laura learns her lessons well. Though she never expected to become a professional killer, she is good at it. Add in her relationship with Pritchard, and she beings to think that things can’t get any better.
In fact, they get worse. Pritchard dumps her for a younger and classier woman, Marjorie Adams. Devastated, Laura continues to work for him, and she even continues to serve as Pritchard’s occasional lover. Even though she remains associated with Pritchard on both the personal and professional level, Laura contemplates revenge, wondering if she can work up the nerve to kill Pritchard if she ever gets the chance. Soon, in a deadly atmosphere of shifting loyalties, Laura realizes that it is she who might be most in danger.
Throughout the novel, “it’s the distinct point of view of a young black woman in an overwhelmingly white man’s game that keeps the reader’s interest engaged,” commented David Nemeth, writing on the website Unlawful Acts. A Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded, “Dolson’s wicked if somewhat contrived thriller lives up to its ominous title.” Nemeth called All Things Violent a “good character study of how a young woman deals with the savagery of her chosen cut-throat trade.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, March 13, 2017, review of All Things Violent, p. 61.
ONLINE
Nikki Dolson Website, http://www.nikkidolson.com (November 11, 2017).
Storyglossia Website, http://www.storyglossia.com/ (November 11, 2017), interview with Nikki Dolson.
Unlawful Acts, http://www.unlawfulacts.net/ (July 25, 2017), David Nemeth, review of All Things Violent.
ABOUT
Nikki Dolson's stories have appeared in Shotgun Honey, Thuglit, Bartleby Snopes, Day One, and others. She lives in Las Vegas, NV with her children.
Storyglossia Issue 38, February 2010.
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Issue 38
An Interview with Nikki Dolson
Nikki Dolson's "Take the Hit" appears in Storyglossia 38. Here, Nikki discusses the story's origins, how setting reinforces character, Kendra herself, and what she's currently working on.
Anne Valente: Where did the premise of this story come from?
Nikki Dolson: A line of dialogue popped into my head—"I live for this!"—and the image of a woman standing over someone. She wasn't angry just determined. I initially thought that was odd until the rest of the story firmed up for me. Then I knew who she was and why she was there in that moment.
AV: I love the details of setting here—old high school gymnasium ready to be demolished, older men in Kendra's bar retired from steel mill factories. How do these details reinforce the story itself?
ND: Now that I think about it, these details are like Kendra—discarded, thought to be past their prime. I imagine those older men in the bar to be in their late forties or early fifties. They could definitely do something more with their lives but they are content to sit in a bar and drink and commiserate all day. The old gymnasium has seen better days when it was alive with children and needed for games and dances but all of that has changed. Kendra gave up a lot and ultimately didn't get what she wanted. She had made her peace with her lot in life she is content in her life and then she is presented with an opportunity.
AV: Kendra mentions that she's resisted becoming a sex symbol, that she and Athena are an opening act for the main fight between male boxers, and that those men are respected for what they do. How much is discrimination a part of Kendra's decision to ultimately leave boxing?
ND: Kendra never wanted to be anything but a boxer. She thought she was good enough not to need the extra flash of cleavage or out of ring dramatics her handler wanted from her. I don't think Kendra cared about what other people thought. She took note of others comments and opinions but she did what she loved, what she believed she was born to do. Discrimination or a lack of respect wasn't a factor yet. Perhaps if Kendra had made it to another level, like the boxer Laila Ali or even the MMA fighter Gina Carano, the opinions would have mattered more and she might have agreed to flaunt what she had.
AV: The other part of Kendra's decision is, of course, a lost child and hope for another through a fertility clinic. How did these elements fit naturally into the story for you?
ND: Kendra is very independent. Once I figured out why she gave up boxing, it was easy to for me to believe she would go back to boxing to achieve her larger goal of a family. She gave up a lifelong passion to have a child and when that didn't go according to plan she just went on with life. Her window for greatness had passed her by. But her chance for a family was still available to her. She could do it by herself.
AV: What are you currently working on? Any stories forthcoming that we can point readers to?
ND: I'm working on a story about Kendra's former boyfriend. It's giving me fits right now but I think it'll smooth out into something enjoyable soon. I have a story coming out later this year from The Back Alley Webzine.
Nikki Dolson is a fiction major at Columbia College Chicago. Her fiction has appeared in Spinetingler Magazine and the Red Rock Review.
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All Things Violent
Publishers Weekly.
264.11 (Mar. 13, 2017): p61.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
All Things Violent
Nikki Dolson. 280 Steps, $15.95 trade paper (196p) ISBN 978-82-8355-024-5
Laura Park, the narrator of Dolson's dark first novel, meets her future boss, Simon Pritchard of Pritchard
Investigations, over a dead body one night on a road outside Las Vegas, Nev. The body belongs to thug Jimmy
MacAvoy. Laura has just stabbed Jimmy in the chest multiple times because he was responsible for the death of her
best friend, Fiona, who overdosed on drugs. Laura suggests Simon call the cops, but instead he takes her under his
wing and makes her part of his team of assassins--and his girlfriend. Brutal Frank Joyce trains Laura to become a
professional killer. Even after Simon dumps her for the more upscale Marjorie Adams, Laura continues as both his
employee and occasional lover. Simon, Frank, and her assignments test Laura to the utmost. Anyone can become a
target, loyalties can shift in a blink, and when everyone is homicidal, people are going to die, possibly even Laura.
Dolson's wicked if somewhat contrived thriller lives up to its ominous title. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"All Things Violent." Publishers Weekly, 13 Mar. 2017, p. 61. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485971631&it=r&asid=a2842c9351807be59a726eaf493aa9e4.
Accessed 23 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485971631