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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin
@nickarvin.bsky.social
1.3K followers 560 following 1.3K posts
Writer & engineer. Author of MAD BOY from Europa Editions + 3 other books of fiction. Writing in the NYer, NYT, WSJ, Ploughshares. Technical and consulting work in green energy. Colorado based.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 1d
I'm honored that the University of Colorado, Boulder, English Department chose my novel MAD BOY for this year's Common Read, and I'm really looking forward to discussing it with students.

If you can, come join us for the public event on Thursday 10/16 @ 5:00!
Join us for a reading and discussion with Nick Arvin, author of this year's Common Read book, Mad Boy, about a boy traversing the wilds of Maryland and Virginia during the war of 1812, on a quest to bury his mother and reunite his family. Arvin will read from the book, discuss the writing and research process, and talk about his double career path as a novelist and an engineer. EVENT DETAILS OCTOBER 16, 2025 5-6PM AT THE CENTER FOR BRITISH & IRISH STUDIES (LIBR M549) FOOD AND DRINK PROVIDED STARTING AT 4:30 PM
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 14h
Pretty much same story with my mom. Ambidextrousness is the silver lining, I guess.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 14h
I'll check it out!
nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 15h
It would have been a good show if there had been somebody there to shoot it every episode of its run.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 15h
A Good Show Is Hard to Find
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 1d
Come for the snacks; stay for the Burning of Washington.
nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 1d
I'm honored that the University of Colorado, Boulder, English Department chose my novel MAD BOY for this year's Common Read, and I'm really looking forward to discussing it with students.

If you can, come join us for the public event on Thursday 10/16 @ 5:00!
Join us for a reading and discussion with Nick Arvin, author of this year's Common Read book, Mad Boy, about a boy traversing the wilds of Maryland and Virginia during the war of 1812, on a quest to bury his mother and reunite his family. Arvin will read from the book, discuss the writing and research process, and talk about his double career path as a novelist and an engineer. EVENT DETAILS OCTOBER 16, 2025 5-6PM AT THE CENTER FOR BRITISH & IRISH STUDIES (LIBR M549) FOOD AND DRINK PROVIDED STARTING AT 4:30 PM
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 3d
It was in fact a particularly dulcet chirp.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 3d
Dreamed last night that I was going to write a book of flash fiction with @duchessgoldblatt.bsky.social, after @elizmccrack.bsky.social suggested it. Then I lost my bicycle. I was still looking for my bicycle when the carbon monoxide detector began chirping because of low battery and woke me up.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 5d
It always makes me think of the Zaphod Beeblebrox character in Hitchhikers Guide.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 5d
The toddler years are fabulous, and you don't want to miss it. But it also did no one any good if I neglected my own sense of identity and mental health, which for me writing is an essential component.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 5d
Sometimes it would come down to stealing a few minutes in a parking lot or right before bed. Almost always it would end up being more than a single sentence, but if not that was okay. The important thing for me was to keep it in my mind and maintain a smidge of day to day momentum.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 5d
"Inessential" is pretty flexible. Certainly some amount of social life and relationship maintenance is essential; how much depends on the situation. Regardless, I think it's possible to keep chipping away at the writing. I tried to maintain a "just write at least one sentence a day" rule.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 5d
☹️
nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 6d
I wrote through that period while working and splitting parenting duties. In my experience, it's possible, but I had to accept a slower pace of progress, and almost everything else that was inessential fell away. Zero TV time, for example.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 6d
Teachers would smack my mom's hand with a ruler if she used her left.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 6d
Same happened to my mother!
nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 6d
An amazing graph, what happens when you destigmatize a behavior.
Graph, titled "The history of left-handedness," shows the rate of left-handedness among Americans by year of birth. The graph illustrates a significant increase in the percentage of left-handed people from the early 1900s to the 1960s, after which the rate stabilized.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 6d
I'm loving the Florida-Texas game too.
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Reposted by Nick Arvin
europaeditions.bsky.social
Europa Editions @europaeditions.bsky.social · 10d
“A jaunty mix of high and low: of affecting devotion and rough high-jinks, sometimes tender and sometimes raunchy.”

Alida Becker in @nytimes.com on THE BOOK OF I by David Greig, out now.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/b...
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 9d
And the novel is very fluid and inventive, but it's not exactly clear from this book why Hua is considered a giant in contemporary Chinese literature. I'll probably try one of his earlier novels.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 10d
Yu Hua's CITY OF FICTION -- just finished this novel & I'd say the NYT review by @chrispower.bsky.social is quite fair although I maybe liked it more than he did. I found much of the first third & last third quite beautiful. The banditry in the middle is pretty silly.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/b...
A Tale of Bloodshed and Lost Love in China’s Turbulent Past
www.nytimes.com
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 12d
Congrats, Joy!!!
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 12d
Apparently a praying mantis doesn't have proper eye pupils, but they have 'pseudopupils," which sounds like some of my friends in college.

Anyway, this one was on our smoke bush.
Praying mantis on a purple leaf
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 13d
My understanding is that Spanish peanuts are a type of peanut, whereas roasted and cocktail are ways of cooking the peanuts, but regardless I totally agree that they are garbage.
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nickarvin.bsky.social
Nick Arvin @nickarvin.bsky.social · 13d
roasted peanuts > cocktail peanuts
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