Nicole Dieker

Nicole Dieker is a writer, teacher, and musician. She began her writing career as a full-time freelancer with a focus on personal finance and habit formation; she launched her fiction career with The Biographies of Ordinary People, a definitely-not-autobiographical novel that follows three sisters from 1989 to 2016.

Dieker writes the Larkin Day mystery series. She also maintains an active freelance career; her work has appeared in Vox, Morning Brew, Lifehacker, Bankrate, Haven Life, Popular Science, and more. Dieker spent five years as writer and editor for The Billfold, a personal finance blog where people had honest conversations about money.

Dieker lives in Quincy, Illinois with the great love of her life, his piano, and their garden.

nicoledieker.com

Titles by Nicole Dieker
🏆 Bestseller
🥇 Award Finalist
A Dark Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Anthology
🏆 Bestseller
✎ Editor's Pick
Magazine Pieces by Nicole Dieker
The Candy Cain Kills author shares his thoughts on the horror community, 80s nostalgia, and why he’s so excited about the Killer VHS series…
The Melon Head Mayhem author tells us why he decided to become a writer, what happened after he started reading Stephen King, and why expanding a short story into a Killer VHS novella was one of the best decisions he ever made…
When you sign with an indie publisher, you get a lot of benefits that traditionally published authors may have to give up. Input into cover design, for example, as well as the opportunity to experiment with different types of marketing and promotion…
Some people judge books by their covers. I like to judge a book by its first three paragraphs. The opening sentences of a story tell you a lot about the experience you’re likely to have with the book—and since many readers turn to books to find specific experiences, skillful writers often use their first paragraphs to let their readers know exactly what kind of experience to expect…
I email other writers a lot—and, believe it or not, most of them write back. I could drop some of the names that are now saved in my contacts list, many of which you may have heard of, but that would be both inappropriate and indiscreet…
Rip ‘em apart and steal what you learn! If you want to become a better writer, you have to know how stories work—and if you want to write like your favorite authors, you have to know how their stories work…
There are two kinds of distractions that can get in the way of your writing: external distractions and internal distractions…
I use what I learned, during those early days—not the tricks, necessarily, but the tips—to maintain a relatively consistent 1,000-word-per-hour output. Day in, day out. Here’s how I do it—and how you can, too…
I’ve written novels before. I’ve even written sequels. But this is my first time writing a series. My first time writing a collection of novels, with a cast of compelling and recurring characters, that can either stand alone or be read in sequence…
Larkin set down her glass of spiced wine. She wrote Is truth pleasant? on a yellow legal pad. Ben, at the end of both his breath and his tether, watched her. “Is something wrong?” he asked. “I know it’s pitchy…
It was a wet-fingered October morning, the air like a formerly-celebrated guest who refused to notice the repeated glances at the calendar, when Annilee Morgan Fox first performed real magic…
Nicole Dieker News
May 15, 2024
Our debut anthology, OBSOLESCENCE, was named a Finalist today in the Best New Horror category at the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards…
March 27, 2024
We’re very excited to announce the fourth book in the Nicole Dieker’s Larkin Day Mystery Series, Murder on the Nerd Cruise…
September 4, 2023
Ode to Murder, the first entry in Nicole Dieker’s Larkin Day Mystery Series, was listed as one of just 36 “Indies Worth Discovering” by Kirkus in their latest print edition…
August 28, 2023
Today we’re excited to announce “Don’t Scratch / How I Learned to Read”, a new split chapbook by Ai Jiang and Nicole Dieker…
July 14, 2023
Nicole Dieker’s third entry in the Larkin Day Mystery Series, Shakespeare in the Park with Murder, is IndieReader Approved with a 4.3/5 review…
July 6, 2023
Shakespeare in the Park with Murder, the third entry in Nicole Dieker’s Larkin Day Mystery Series, received a very positive review today from Kirkus…
June 15, 2023
To celebrate the release of Nicole Dieker’s third Larkin Day Mystery, Shakespeare in the Park with Murder, we have partnered with two stores for two exciting launch events…
June 12, 2023
Horror DNA recently poster their review of our anthology, OBSOLESCENCE, edited by Alan Lastufka and Kristina Horner. They gave the book a perfect 5 out of 5 star rating, saying…
April 28, 2023
We’re very excited to announce the third book in the Larkin Day Mystery Series, Shakespeare in the Park with Murder…
February 9, 2023
Like, Subscribe, and Murder, the second entry in Nicole Dieker’s Larkin Day Mystery Series, received a very positive Kirkus review today…
January 25, 2023
Horror DNA recently posted their review covering the first two books in the Larkin Day Mystery Series, Ode to Murder and Like, Subscribe, and Murder. They gave four stars to each book, saying…
December 16, 2022
Publishers Weekly recently published their review of Nicole Dieker’s Ode to Murder. We were pleased to read just how much they enjoyed this first-in-series cozy mystery…
December 6, 2022
Naomi Grossman is wrapping up her Foreword for OBSOLESCENCE this week! She called OBSOLESCENCE co-editor, Alan Lastufka, after reading the first five stories…
November 3, 2022
The OBSOLESCENCE anthology started with 12 Featured Authors a few months ago. Then we read through 628 open submissions and narrowed those down to just 12 additional stories to complete the anthology…
October 6, 2022
Our latest title, Ode to Murder, the first book in the Larkin Day Mystery Series by Nicole Dieker, was featured on John Scalzi’s The Big Idea today…