From the Booking Desk:

While I have yet to meet Nick Kolakowski in person, I have long been a fan of his books and social media presence. No matter what topic he is covering, Nick always does it honestly and with well-crafted intelligence. Never shy about speaking his mind toward injustice and stupidity, he remains always respectful and willing to listen to differing opinions. I am thrilled to add him to the roster of Composite Sketch profile subjects.

Name: Nick Kolakowski
Location: New York, NY

This person from my personal life is such an inspiration:

It’s hard to isolate one person for a call-out. I will say that I take daily inspiration from the people around me who’re struggling with all kinds of issues—health, financial, etc.—but they’re still getting up at 6 AM to go to work, still plowing forward anyway, and finding the time to fit in what they need to do, whether that’s art or music or simply just expanding their knowledge. Whenever I feel like I’m being ground down, I think about those folks persevering, and it gives me the strength to push harder.

One of the people I admire most in the crime fiction community is:

Alex Segura. I don’t know how he friggin’ does it. Co-president of Archie Comics? Writing one Pete Fernandez novel after another, regular as a metronome? Advocating for the mystery community and many of the authors in it? And doing all that while balancing a family?

The man is a machine. Seriously, I’m half-convinced there’s a T-800 endoskeleton under there.

STALKER ALERT! If this fictional character were real, they would likely need to get a restraining order against me:

There’s a character in one of my books, Frankie, who’s a gun-runner and general all-around badass. I’d want to follow her around just to witness the lunatic things she’d get up to. There’d never be a dull moment. The downside is, she probably wouldn’t get a restraining order against me—she’d take sterner measures, because that’s her nature. Frankie scares me.

People are always surprised that I am a fan of this individual (singer, actor, or artist):

I don’t know if it’s because I inadvertently give off some kind of highfalutin intellectual air or something, but folks are surprised—really surprised—when they find out that I have a deep and abiding love of action and horror movies—and the cheaper/cornier, the better. This surprise sometimes escalates to outright terror when I start quoting Bruce Campbell as Ash in the “Evil Dead” movies (and ultra-gory TV show).

My personal catch phrase is (or should be):

“You’re a speck of carbon on a space-rock. You have nothing to lose!”