Nicola Accordino

Nicola Accordino was born on a midsummer night in 1980 in Gioiosa Marea, a small town on the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily. The small town, at the time invaded in the summer by tourists from all over the world, teased his imagination since he was a child and put him sporadically in contact with realities different from his own.  

He spends his childhood peacefully, enriched by the arrival of two brothers. His character, which becomes melancholic and introverted over time, pushes him away from others and certainly does not help the move to the country house when he was 11 years old. But not all the bad things come to the bad, because his almost voluntary isolation pushed him to seek refuge among books, all except school books. Not that he was a dunce: he preferred serial novels to school books. 

At the age of 15 he met his second passion: working in bars. It was the beginning of a stormy but also beautiful love, which put Nicola in contact again with other realities from all over Italy. Input that pushed him to look at the reality in which he lived with new eyes, amplifying his already strong critical sense towards the somewhat withdrawn life he led. 

At the age of 19 he reaches the goal of the diploma of Accountant and Commercial Expert. From there begins a new period of discovery: the continuous work at the bar, the first loves, but also the first experiments in writing, with the writing of a first novel. For a short period of time he worked with his father as a construction worker even though he knew very well that this was not the job that would have helped him get where he wanted. 

At the age of 22, he decides it is time to leave, also driven by the first family bereavements. He defines it a bit melodramatically "first expatriation": landed in Sardinia, he returns to work as a bartender staying there for 5 months. That period, characterized by personal and relational problems, pushed Nicola to question everything in which he had believed until then and to change his way of thinking and despite the support of special people he met, the result was a terrible year in which he closed himself in his house and in himself. A year in which he has reflected deeply on his future and his past, struggling with feelings of guilt and inadequacy that threaten to drag him into the abyss of depression. Thanks to his family who spurred him on, he decided to react by going back to work. 

Nicola with Barbara, her friend since elementary school days

The following year he left for Trentino, another season of discovery in which to test his limits and understand that he could do it alone. And that he didn't want to go back home because he felt it to be more and more distant and far from what he wanted for himself. He had to choose between seasonal work and a stable destination, but the choice was neither easy nor painless. 

So he landed in Tuscany for a new period of growth and independence which helped him to understand that this was not the life he aspired to. Even here he had some fundamental encounters both among his work colleagues and elsewhere and perhaps without these encounters he would never have been able to make a decision about his future. In that period he also knew and began to appreciate the songs of Renato Zero, which had a great influence on his work as a writer, giving him inspiration and determination. After the Tuscan experience, he moved to Rome, a city he had always loved and desired. 

A new adventure begins: new discoveries, new horizons opening up. The work in a well-known club in the center and the Roman life. He meets Paolo Vietri, who will become his friend, brother, and companion. But Rome is changing, it is not the golden dream he saw as a child, it is no longer the city of Sordi, Mastroianni, Manfredi, Fabrizi and Magnani. It is a city that is slowly losing its luster, inventiveness, desire to grow and improve and is abandoning itself to decline... 

In 2008 he moved to Ladispoli, 24 km from Rome, together with his inseparable Paolo. In 2010 he manages again to turn his life upside down: he finds a job only in the morning, he changes his lifestyle... it's a new Nicola the one who appears at the threshold of thirty, full of desire to do and say, as if the experiences accumulated so far felt the need to get out... So almost as a game, taking old notes from his first book, he begins to write during his daily commute by train to work in Rome. And page after page his first book was born, I Figli della Topa, which he published in 2011. It is a series of metropolitan stories taken from the songs of Renato Zero that tell of discomfort, fear, but that follow the thread of hope. 

This first success, the ease with which ideas popped up as if they were waiting to be found, pushed Nicola to put even more grit and passion into his work as a writer. And between a morning of work, a trip out with Paul and walks with little Figaro, a beautiful mestizo that becomes part of his life, he writes his first novel: A time to return (for everything there is a time), which he published in December 2012. The story of a love outside the lines, the schemes, the rules, which sweeps all prejudices and opens the heart to joy.  

But the crisis is pressing and the work is lacking. Forced by the short-sighted laws that facilitate the recruitment of those under thirty, the thirty-three year old Nicola, now considered too old to work in Italy, decides to accept the proposal of his cousins to move to Monaco of Bavaria, where the day after his arrival begins a new adventure working as a dishwasher. In July he landed in the RTL II Bistrot, the canteen of a famous German TV, working in a colorful and heterogeneous brigade. A new challenge that Nicola takes up with his usual enthusiasm. In the suitcase he doesn't forget to put all his notes, which he elaborates to include them in his new job. In December 2013, after just six months of work, his second novel was published: Quando parleró di te. A new love story set between Monaco and Rome and dealing with the thorny issue of homosexual parenthood and the father/son relationship. 

2014 is a very important year for Nicola. First of all his first grandchild, David, son of his younger brother, arrives. Nicola becomes aware that it is time to take charge of his life and stop just dreaming and turn those dreams into reality. So he embarks on a new spiritual and conceptual path that will lead him to explore himself and his own desires, until he decides to get out of that cloud in which he had taken refuge and face the reality of the facts.

In 2015, absorbed by his new parallel activity of Networking and the study of German, he also finds the time to publish a new edition, revised and enriched with two new stories, of "I Figli della Topa", for the fifth anniversary. This edition, enriched by the preface of his friend and literary "accomplice" Stefania Ignazzitto, is the starting point for Nicola, who decides to give a new turn to his life. He participates in seminars, reads more training texts and tries to recover, as far as possible, the gaps due to his non-specialized training. He tries to improve himself, to grow, to enrich his knowledge in order to put himself at the service of others, as much as possible.

2016 is a year of deep changes and important choices; aware of having to face and win new challenges, he commits himself even more to his studies, leaving not without pain the quiet of the RTL II Bistrot to land in a beckeräi of the Central Station in Munich, after studying and looking for integration in Germany. The experience ended after a few months, but without losing heart, Nicola began working with Chicco di Caffé, a well-known chain of coffee shops in Munich, bringing with him the experience gained in the long years behind the counter in Italy. Always looking for new stimuli, guided by a new awareness of his projects and ambitions, always with his head held high.

Nicola together with his Parents Pina and Franco, and his brothers Tonino (on the right with his wife Veronica) and Mirco (on the left with his wife Francesca and little David)

2016 was a profitable year, also and above all for the important professional and personal encounters we had. In the crowded and colorful universe of the Author enter Andreas and Riccardo, two people who will stand out in time as important and loyal friends, with whom he will tighten a strong human partnership. An encounter that will push Nicola to ask himself more and more questions, to adjust his priorities, his projects, his expectations.

In 2017 he decided to resume the activities of the Youtube page "Sogni di Latta", where he opened new playlists dedicated to the review of texts, personal growth and music. Guided and inspired by a guru of communication via video as Marco Montemagno, he threw himself into the media fray experimenting, testing, building his brand and trying to create a community with which to share interests, ideas and passions.

On December 1, 2017, on the occasion of the five-year anniversary of the first edition, he publishes a revised and corrected version of "A Time to Come Back (for everything there is a time). At the same time, a Crowdfunding campaign is launched to translate the novel into German.

A series of events begins that will involve Nicola Accordino in an intensive work of promotion of his work, available on Amazon in paper and ebook and, above all, on the online store of this site.

2018 opens under the sign of hope and ambitious projects. Fortuitously, at a meeting of a German-Italian literary group (Letteratura spontanea), which meets monthly in Munich, a group of work and friendship is born, which takes the name Villa Serena. Supported by Michela Pavan (who will also become his collaborator on the channel Sogni di Latta as well as on the Facebook pages Italiani Residenti a Monaco and I Libri di Nicola Accordino), the author approaches the cultural events of Munich creating connections and a network of interesting and stimulating friendships.

Since July 1, 2018, at the end of the translation project, Zeit zurückzukehren, the German version of "Un tempo per tornare", translated by Sabrina Fuchs, is officially available. The text is getting a lot of interest among the readers and, in order to facilitate its diffusion, the author and the translator are engaged in a series of promotional events to make the story of Cris and Scott known also in Germany. An exciting and compelling work that continues day after day. You can follow the author through the page Nicola Accordino Deutschland

Also in July 2018, the author inaugurates Sogni di Latta, a weekly blog where to share thoughts about current events, historical events, free thoughts. A meeting space that becomes NicVLog on the channel Sogni di latta. An exercise in writing and style but also a way to propose to his readers on various topics.

In May 2019, thanks to the help and support of the CSU - United Writers Collective, the author brings his works to the Turin Book Fair, where he can not only meet some of the freshest and most promising talents of Italian publishing, but also immerse himself in a world that has always fascinated him, being able to confront it and understand mistakes, oversights, mistakes. It's an important step for Nicola, who understands not only the importance of being able to distinguish himself from the masses, but above all, how much there are companies around disguised as publishing houses that consider the reader a chicken to be plucked instead of someone to whom a message can be sent. A consumerist vision that is detrimental to publishing and that the author disapproves of both as a reader and as a writer.

In 2019 she accepted the invitation of her friend and collaborator Stefania Ignazzitto to open a non-profit cultural association, which they decided to call Stella & Aratro, remembering an old proverb: "If you want to draw your furrow straight, you have to tie the plow to a star". As a first project they are working on a book of short stories (also written by some emerging authors from CSU) to support an organization that provides assistance to families who have a member suffering from ALS. The book is called "Words from the Eyes", in memory of the communication difficulties of terminally ill ALS patients, who can often only communicate with a computer interfaced with their eyes.

The year 2019 closes with two news that revolutionize the life of the Author: the sudden death of his father Franco and the birth of Mattia, his second grandchild. Two events that greatly affect his way of perceiving the world, his choice of priorities and where and how to invest his energies. The loss of a parent is always traumatic, even more so when it is completely unexpected and sudden.

During the quarantine of 2020 for the Covid19, he decides to commit his time in writing a daily blog, #iorestoacasa where he faces every day a topic trying to engage with his followers in a healthy and constructive debate based on facts and against the counter-information and the proliferation of fake news. In the same period he suffered, quite arbitrarily, the closure of his YouTube channel Sogni di Latta, but undaunted he decided to start again, taking all his experience to treat the official channel of the Association Stella & Aratro, setting weekly meetings, video poems, biographies and creating a working group that includes both elements of the Association and external. A channel that collects new members every day and that closes 2020 with a more than positive balance.

A year that, in spite of the difficulties of the Covid19 situation, sees the Author participating in a new project for Stella & Aratro: Oltre il castello di bolle, a collection of fairy tales written together with the members of the Collettivo scrittori uniti CSU created and directed by Claudio Secci. A collection whose proceeds will go to support projects to help and support autistic children, who have had to pay a great price in this pandemic. and to whom we must give a concrete and precise support.

The book can be purchased on the online store (along with the books of the author, who will donate a portion of the proceeds to support Stella & Aratro), with free shipping throughout Italy through the book fold.

On February 3, 2021, the birthday of her first grandchild David, a new revised and corrected version of "Quando Parleró di te" will be released, becoming the first book in the trilogy "I Figli del Sogno". The trilogy tells the story of a rainbow family and the characters will move between Italy and Germany. A long and challenging project, but that gives great satisfaction to the author. Manuela Chiarottino takes care of the editing and with Paolo Randazzo composes the beautiful cover.

More joys and sorrows. In August the first granddaughter Ginevra is born, the family is shaken by some unpleasant events that strengthen the ties and, despite the situation of Covid19 proceeds with ups and downs, Nicola works with Manuela at the editing of the second chapter of the trilogy I Figli del Sogno: Mentre aspetto che ritorni (While I wait for you to come back) that took two years of work and that is very much influenced by the experiences of the author in Munich (and is also much more expanded than the first chapter of the trilogy). The book officially sees the light on December 7, 2021, the second anniversary of the death of his father.