Nicola Cassidy – Ghostwriter

I was approached with a fascinating 19th century memoir manuscript and asked if it was possible to use it in a modern novel, combining the historical elements of the existing memoir, while writing a contemporary, dual timeline story. Working very closely with the author, we created a detailed outline of the story and are currently approaching the half way mark on the writing of the chapters. This project is scheduled to finish in the autumn of 2024.

Sorcha, Queen of the Castle, is a fully illustrated historical fiction novel for children aged 9-12, commissioned by Louth County Council in 2023 as part of the Decade of Centenaries funding. It was published in May 2024 and print copies are being distributed to all schools and libraries in Louth, free of charge. As part of the programme, I as the author, alongside illustrator Sophie Coyle will be visiting primary school to discuss the book Autumn 2024 / Spring 2025.

I was approached to work on a fictional novel based on a true story of an injustice in the American legal system. Through a series of interviews over many months with the real life characters involved in the story, we created an outline of the story, edited to allow for drama and intrigue. I am currently working through the chapters with the client and the book will be going on planned submission at the end of 2024.

This was a short turnaround on a 40,000 memoir for a client who wished to gift the book to her father for his birthday. He had written down his memories of his childhood and the early part of his working life and the client asked me to rewrite the book to ensure flow, clarity of structure and story and to improve the writing style, as the writer's first language was not English. It was a fascinating window into a life and culture I had not experience before (India) and a pleasure to work on.

On this project, the writer, whose first language was Portugese wished to have their draft memoir re-written to bring the work up to a publishable standard. Her book told the story of her life of being brough to America in her late teens and getting to grips with growing up, feeling like a fish out of water and fitting into a culture she had long admired but found the reality of quite different. Working with the client, I rewore the chapters, examined and updated structure and added 15,000 new words to complete the book.

In this interesting project the client wanted to fictionalise their life and work, through a slow, writing process as part of a healing process for themselves and generational trauma. They sent me drafts of writing and I rewrote the chapters, examined plot and character development and ensured the writer was achieving what the dream of their project was - a high end literary narrative memoir, with fictionalised elements, based on memories of the author's own family.

**THIS BOOK HAS NOW BEEN PLACED WITH A PUBLISHER** I have recently completed ghostwriting a non-fiction book based on a true story set in Ireland. It tells the tale of a bereaved mother fighting to find out what caused the death of her son and in doing so, taking on the national health system to find answers. The book is currently on submission to publishers.

My fourth historical fiction novel is newly published on 25 September 2022.

I edited this book and worked as a sensitivity reader and consultant as a hired freelancer. I enjoyed working directly with James and turning the project around quickly.

I worked with a social media influencer to develop a book proposal and secured a publishing deal for the author. The book was to be a collaborative affair, with my job to outline, prompt and edit the text and ghostwrite in parts. For personal reasons the author decided to withdraw from writing the book and did not sign the contract, due to family and work pressures.

I wrote this bio-fictional account of Fred Astaire's forgotten sister Adele Astaire. It was published by Poolbeg Press in 2020 and received widespread national press coverage.

I wrote this historical fiction novel (my debut) and it was published by Bombshell Books. It reached number one bestseller on Amazon in its category in 2017. Bombshell Books have since been reabsorbed by parent company, Bloodhound Books. I now have the rights back to this book and have since self-published it, including having an audio book recorded professionally via Audible.