Dan Shick writes using a clackety keyboard, sits in an orange office chair and dreams of someday retiring by the sea, all the while basking in the wild and rich multicultural world that is 2020s Berlin.

Durance Vile is his first novel. It comes at the end of two solid decades of participating in National Novel Writing Month--not that he plans to stop anytime soon.

Learn more at nanowrimo.org.