(about me)

by Zaira Julietti

Eric Novello is a Brazilian author who blends elements of fantasy fiction with daily life stories. In 2004, he published his first book, a historic novel called Dante, o Guardião da Morte (Dante, the Guardian of Death) and since then has been crossing the borders of genres in favor of good literature, with dynamic plots and true-hearted characters. In 2005, he published the funny novel Histórias da Noite Carioca (Rio de Janeiro Stories), which talked about night stories of his life in Rio de Janeiro, and then took a break to enroll in Darcy Ribeiro Cinema School, where he graduated as a script writer.

Meanwhile, he started working as a translator for big corporations and as a copy editor for publishers, dealing with texts and books 24×7.  When a editor invited him to participate in a horror short story collection, he took the path back to literature and didn’t stop anymore.

In 2010, he returned with a fix-up novel called Neon Azul (Blue Neon). The story is set in a nightclub where clients and employees face their fears and temptations and has received several positive reviews thanks to its balance between realistic dramas and speculative fiction, reinforcing one of his main calling cards. Among the characters were a HIV-positive publisher who refused to surrender to sadness and an author facing problems to capture one of his characters on paper, all of them pieces of a fable about solitude.

His next book was a result of a five-years project and it was a deep dive in mainstream fiction. A Sombra no Sol (The Shadow in the Sun) started as a short stories series on the author’s website, and followed the life of a male escort from the ghettos to high society. In 2012, he decided to publish all the 30 stories in an e-book, plus a 100% new story, and then as a printed book, making sure that the text completes the route from virtual to paper.

In this site, you can see a list of his publications, including short stories published in books and newspapers. Some highlights are Esqueletos no Armário, a story that honors Bernardo Bertolucci in a book inspired by movies directors, and O cheiro do suor, a truly dirty and violent noir story that has a werewolf as its leading character.

Rounding up his literary activities, you will find the list of books edited by him for Draco Pub. Co. (eight books until the end of 2012) and novels he has translated to Portuguese.

Nowadays, he is working on a illustrated fantasy series called Urban Wizards, and the first book is still unpublished.

More stuff

Going beyond literature, Eric Novello is also a songwriter, working in tandem with his sister Cássia, an indie singer. You can listen to the songs from the Noturna Project on Cássia’s website.

He has written more than 250 reviews of cinema, music and literature for the Art Journal Aguarrás and he is the creator and mastermind behind Cidade Noturna, a collaborative site dedicated to articles about speculative fiction in Portuguese.

With a focus on new media, he is developing in partnership with director Claudio Brandão the noir series Innatu, fully dedicated to the Web and the interactive experience enabled by this media.

Eric Novello was born in Rio de Janeiro and currently lives in the chaos of São Paulo. He is a former fish tank owner and has a big yellow Maine coon cat called Odin. He also cultivates cacti and succulents and loves to spend hours on his PlayStation, never running away from a Mortal Kombat fight or night walks in Arkham City.