The Boone author's latest work mixes a little of the truth-based with a lot of the unreal. The setting of "The Red Church" germinated from a real-life place of worship that was built in the mid-19th century and is now a mountain legend. The people and plot of the book, on the other hand, are completely Nicholson's creations.
The writer's storytelling skills were honed somewhat at UNC. He attended the University from the fall of 1980 until the spring of 1984. According to him, he paid more attention to rock 'n' roll than to his courses, including those that dealt with creative writing.
"I was always the worst one in the class," he said, "writing wacky end-of-the-world stories when everybody else was trying to be Eudora Welty or Ernest Hemingway."
The writer dropped out of UNC -- he wouldn't graduate from college until he received a communications degree from Appalachian State University in 1996. Over the years, he has been a painter, dishwasher, carpenter and radio announcer. He has also worked as a reporter for The Mountain Times.
Lately, he has been busy with writing fiction. He has produced 40 pieces for various anthologies and magazines. "Thank You for the Flowers," written in 2000, is a collection of 13 stories. Many awards, including the grand prize in the 1999 Writers of the Future contest, have come his way.
Nicholson has stayed true to his mountain roots. "The Red Church" and many of his shorter stories feature characters of the blue-collar and rural type. He was able to observe and interact with such people as a result of his work in journalism.
"I am influenced by those I meet in my job, and that's been the best plus: meeting people I wouldn't get a chance to otherwise," he said. "Some have been famous, some have been strange, some would be considered absolutely ordinary. But nobody's 'ordinary,' and everybody has a story or two hidden away inside them."
In addition to screenwriting work, he has a new novel planned for next year. According to him, his next book will feature a telepathic UNC psychology professor, aliens and, of course, a mountain setting. He describes it as "Deliverance" meets "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." While otherworldly and extraordinary elements are an important part of his writing, he cares more about the people than the scary things he has happen to them.
"I don't pretend to have any answers to these big mysteries, but they are ripe territory for fictional exploration," he said. "But those supernatural or metaphysical elements are really just storytelling tools to me. I'm trying to figure out what makes people tick, and I do that via fiction."
