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I’m Nicole — a writer, musician, and freelancer.
Google calls me an American composer. Vox calls me a personal finance expert. I've been a freelance writer since 2012, I've written six books and dozens of songs, and I'm working on a chamber musical.
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Current projects
Thoughts
Blogs that have improved the way I think
I wrote last week that if you started your own blog (not a Substack, that's the metaphorical equivalent
More on teaching
So that piece of writing I put up yesterday, "To teach a child piano," is worth reading for
To teach a child piano
To teach a child piano is to teach them how to master their environment.
This, in turn, teaches them how
Showing my work (and more thoughts on work in general)
The MELISANDE excerpt will be behind the paywall as usual, and if you are curious why I even have a
A bit about money, plus Herbert Croly's The Promise of American Life
I have a new personal finance advice column in Vox today: I plan to retire in 2025. Am I financially
Recalibrating
Larry is in the other room practicing a piano accompaniment that sounds just enough like the theme to The Young
Is Beast Games the final form of philanthropy?
Last night Larry and I went through all of the existing music for MELISANDE and talked about what worked and
Selected Works
THE BIOGRAPHIES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE: A novel of artistic ambition that follows three sisters from 1989 to 2016
WHAT IT IS AND WHAT TO DO NEXT: A four-volume inquiry into the process of understanding reality
I WISH YOU PEACE: A secular choral benediction for SSAA or SATB
FRUGAL AND THE BEAST: A collection of financial fairy tales
Reviews
Dieker excels at depicting how real people think and act.
Dieker writes with unrepentant honesty about the human condition.
A lovely, unpretentious story, suffused with feeling, that unfolds at the speed of life.
The longest consecutive quantity of lines that have required me to read them with full and focused attention.