About

Nic Darling

The average age of a first time novelist is apparently around 36 years old. So, I guess that makes me just a little late to the game. I have been writing for most of my life, so it hasn’t really been for a lack of trying. I’ve apparently just never had quite the right story to tell until now.

I am a little surprised that my first book is a fantasy novel. It isn’t what I imagined writing as an aspiring poet at Syracuse University or when I was teaching at Writers and Books in Rochester, NY, and yet I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. While I read broadly, I always find myself returning to strange worlds and dangerous journeys. I am as easily captured by the idea of mysterious powers and reluctant heroes as I was when I was a kid crouched beneath my covers with a flashlight.

I live and work now in Takoma Park, Maryland, just outside of Washington DC. My life is very different from the romanticized life of a writer I imagined when I was younger. I have a beautiful, talented wife, two amazing kids and a big dog. I hardly ever dip into madness or channel the divine.

I do spend a great deal of time writing these days. This story has finally unlocked something I feel I have been fighting against for a long time, and even if it doesn’t go on to publication and great renown, it will remain an important breath of life to a flickering flame that felt near to extinction.

Books

Through the Stone Gate

Completed first book of The Way Between. Currently seeking representation.

The Rider Awakens

Second book in The Way Between series. This book is currently in progress.

The Beasts We Become

Completed draft of a YA Sci Fi/Horror. Currently out to beta readers and being revised.

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There are two sides to all that is. Those sides pull against one another, creating the tension from which power can be derived. Those who play with that power also play with the consequences on either side of it. It can be very dangerous to work in that space without training, guidance, knowledge. It can be deadly.

– The First of the Nyassa