Blog Tour: Death and Life in the City of Dreams by Nicholas Deitch #interview #fiction #literary #giveaway #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours

 

Literary Fiction

Date Published: April 16th

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

Jaded city planner Townsend Meadows looks out across Evermore Valley with the ghost of his dead friend by his side. “Do you ever wonder,” Fen asks, “what this city will look like five hundred years from now?”

Their city is teetering on the brink of collapse, and the mayor’s answer is a gleaming new auto mall at the valley’s edge. For Townsend, it’s the death of everything a city should be. Struggling to regain his passion and forced to choose between compliance and conviction, he must risk his career to fight for a more hopeful and verdant future.

From an architect’s vision at the dawn of the twentieth century, to a rancher’s dynasty scarred by violence and greed, to a city founder’s hidden message of hope, this story about the rise, fall, and reawakening of an American city reaches far beyond the present. A timely, sweeping novel of memory, corruption, and resilience, Death and Life in the City of Dreams asks, “What legacy will we choose to leave for our children?”

 

Interview

Is There a Message in Your Novel That You Want Readers to Grasp?
I wouldn’t call it a message so much as an invitation. The book suggests that the places we build—our cities, our neighborhoods—are reflections of who we are, collectively and individually. When something feels broken in the landscape, it’s usually pointing to something deeper in us. But the reverse is also true: repair is possible. Not perfectly, not cleanly, but meaningfully. If readers walk away with anything, I hope it’s a renewed sense that the future isn’t fixed—that we still have agency in shaping it.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Holding complexity without losing clarity. I’m drawn to big ideas—time, memory, cities, ecology—and multiple timelines, but the real work is making sure the reader never feels lost or pushed out. Also, dialogue. Getting it to feel natural, unforced, and true to each character is always a challenge. You know immediately when it’s not working.

How many books have you written and which is your favorite?
This is my first published novel, though I’ve written many short stories in the last several years. I expect to release a story collection this year, titled The Boatman in the Shadows, a collection of quiet, haunting stories that reveal the fragile boundary between the known world and the deeper, shadowed truths just beyond the surface of our awareness.

If You had the chance to cast your main character from Hollywood today, who would you pick and why?
Townsend Meadows isn’t a typical hero—he’s thoughtful, a bit worn down, quietly intense. Someone like Mark Ruffalo comes to mind. He has that ability to carry intelligence and vulnerability at the same time, without overplaying it. There’s a groundedness there that feels right for the character.

When did you begin writing?
I’ve been writing in one form or another most of my life, but more seriously over the past decade. At some point it shifted from something I did occasionally to something I felt compelled to do.

How long did it take to complete your first book?
Longer than I expected—several years. Not just writing, but reworking structure, rethinking timelines, cutting and rebuilding. It wasn’t a straight line. The book evolved quite a bit along the way.

Did you have an author who inspired you to become a writer?
There wasn’t just one. Writers like John Steinbeck, Richard Powers, and David Mitchell all had an influence in different ways. They each showed me that you can take on large, interconnected ideas and still tell a human story at the center of it.

What is your favorite part of the writing process?
Those moments when something clicks that you didn’t plan. A connection between characters, or a line of dialogue that suddenly feels inevitable. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it feels less like invention and more like discovery.

Describe your latest book in 4 words.
A city, remembering itself.

Can you share a little bit about your current work or what is in the future for your writing?
I’m working on a new novel that leans more into mystery and philosophical questions—set between wartime Amsterdam and contemporary California. It deals with identity, concealment, and the idea that what we hide to survive can shape everything that follows. It’s structurally different from City of Dreams, but it’s asking some of the same underlying questions about truth, memory, and repair.

 

 

About the Author

 

 Nicholas Deitch is a writer, architect, and advocate for social justice whose fiction explores the intersection of cities, history, and human resilience. His passion for storytelling began when a colleague recognized the emotional depth of his nonfiction work. Since then, he has honed his craft, publishing short stories in Litro Magazine, Club Plum, and Santa Barbara Literary Journal. His short story “Grace Eternal” won Best Fiction at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference (2019).

Death and Life in the City of Dreams, his debut novel, is deeply influenced by his experiences in nonprofit leadership and the design of inclusive communities and urban places.

Originally from Los Angeles, he now lives in Ventura, California, with his wife and creative partner Diana.

 

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