Trace Literary Welcomes Nicola Cassidy

Nicola Cassidy is a writer and blogger from Co. Louth, Ireland.

She first began attempting novels around the age of six, but claims it took a random encounter with a ghost in her early 30s before she realized her true calling towards historical fiction writing and her first novel, December Girl.

Often the only student high fiving the air when essay homework was handed out at school, Nicola knew she wanted to make a living from writing and graduated with a BA in journalism from Dublin City University in 2005.  She worked for a short time in journalism before turning to a career in political PR and later, marketing.

While working in Dublin, Nicola undertook a number of advanced writing courses at the Irish Writers’ Centre, and later started a lifestyle, parenting and literary blog www.LadyNicci.com

With the arrive of her daughter in late 2015, Nicola felt inspired to go back to her writing roots and used some of her maternity leave to start researching and writing a historical fiction novel, based on a true story and set in the Boyne Valley, Co. Meath, near to where she grew up.

Since 2015, Nicola has been long listed in the Fish Publishing Short Memoir and the Irish Times Amateur Travel Writer Competitions, shortlisted in the Fish Publishing Flash Fiction and the Celtic Imbas Short Story Competition and selected and published in the Ernest Hemingway Flash Fiction Prize 2015 and OriginalWriting.ie’s 2015 Anthology.

Her writing has been featured on widely read websites such as RTE Lifestyle, TheJournal.ie, The Irish Times, IrishCentral.com and HerFamily.ie.

Her blog LadyNicci.com was shortlisted in the Blog Awards Ireland 2015 and 2016.

She lives with her husband and daughter in Termonfeckin, Co. Louth.