Lindsay, Nicola

PERSONAL: Female. Education: Studied at Italian Institute, Dublin, Ireland, and Irish Writers' Centre.

ADDRESSES: Home—County Kildare, Ireland. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Poolbeg Press, 123 Baldoyle Industrial Estate, Baldoyle, Dublin 13, Ireland. E-mail—nlindsay@nicolalindsay.ie.

CAREER: Writer, poet, actor, and broadcaster. Formerly worked as a nurse, flautist, and model; actor in numerous films, including Zardoz, The American, The Ambassador, and The General. Has also appeared on Irish soap operas, including Glenroe and Fair City, and has been featured in fashion program Off the Rails. Performs personal monologues and works in broadcasting.

MEMBER: PEN, Irish Writers Union, Irish Actors Equity.

AWARDS, HONORS: Yvonne O'Connor Perpetual Trophy for Poetry; Gerard Manly Hopkins Annual International School Award; Dunlavin Festival of the Arts award; Drogheda Creative-Writing Groups award; Capricorn International Authors Guild award; Jonathan Swift Poetry Competition award.

WRITINGS:

FICTION, EXCEPT AS NOTED

Batty Cat, Kestrel Books (Wicklow, Ireland), 1998.

A Place for Unicorns, Kestrel Books (Wicklow, Ireland), 1999.

Lines of Thought (poetry), Kestrel Books (Wicklow, Ireland), 1999.

Diving through Clouds, Poolbeg (Dublin, Ireland), 2001.

Eden Fading, Poolbeg (Dublin, Ireland), 2003.

Tumbling Jude, Poolbeg (Dublin, Ireland), 2004.

Butterfly, Poolbeg (Dublin, Ireland), 2005.

Writings have appeared in anthologies and periodicals published in England and Ireland. Creator of Selected Poems (audio recording).

SIDELIGHTS: Nicola Lindsay began her career as a nurse, a model, and a flautist, and then went on to become an actor and broadcaster before turning her talents to poetry and fiction. In her novel Diving through Clouds, Lindsay tells the story of Kate, who has died from cancer and finds herself caught in limbo watching the lives of her loved ones, including her unloving husband, her daughter, and her best friend. Because she is dead, Kate can also read peoples' minds and discovers that her husband and best friend were having an affair. In addition, she follows the life of her grandson and has an opportunity to intervene in way to help the boy and his mother. Aided by an exuberantly upbeat angel named Thomas who loves jazz, Kate eventually turns from being a mischievous onlooker and prankster to putting her life in the proper perspective, including her own affair with a gardener—so Kate can move on to the next level of existence. Before she leaves for good, Kate wants to achieve her goal of bringing about the return home of her daughter Celia, who fled her controlling father years earlier. Noting that the novel requires "a major suspension of disbelief," a Kirkus Reviews contributor commented that "lively dialogue and an affecting portrayal of a boy who desperately needs grandmotherly guidance … make a peculiar contrast with the appallingly realistic portrait of passive, self-deprecating Kate's marriage." June Sawyers, writing in Booklist, called the book "touching, humorous, and ultimately sweet," and noted that it is "a lovely, enjoyable read."

Lindsay told CA: "I first became interested in writing at school but never for one moment considered the possibility of it as a career. Only when I was in my early fifties and at a low point in my life did I start writing seriously. At first, it was only poetry and then I progressed to short stories, monologues, reviews and, finally, novels.

"Although I read a wide range of authors, particularly the contemporary American, English, Indian and African writers, I try not to let any of them influence my work as I have always wanted to develop my own style and voice. When I am working on a novel, I try to write five days a week from ten in the morning to five or six in the evening with a brief break in the middle of the day to re-establish my circulation. I never play music and need complete peace and quiet, which is easily achieved as my study looks out onto the garden and cows grazing in the fields beyond. I regularly go back and read what I have just written out loud and find this especially important to see if the dialogue rings true or not.

One of the most surprising things I have learned as a writer is that my characters and the plot quite often develop in a way I have not planned.

"I think my favourite book I have written is the most recent, Butterfly. Possibly because it has only just been published and like the most recently born child, it occupies my mind a lot. Also, there is quite a lot of myself in the main character, Hebe Sayer, which came out in surprising ways.

"I hope that anyone reading my books will enjoy the story, will want to know what happens next, will want to engage with the characters, and will want to rush out and buy one of the other novels of mine that they haven't yet read! I never try to preach or put over a message. I am trying to write in a way that will, hopefully, strike a chord with the reader, be thought-provoking as well as enjoyable. I also do my best to craft each book better than the last, and hope that this is apparent to the discerning reader."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2005, June Sawyers, review of Diving through Clouds, p. 1142.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2005, review of Diving through Clouds, p. 12.

ONLINE

Nicola Lindsay Home Page, http://www.nicolalindsay.ie (June 3, 2005).