‘Spirit of Titanic’ author’s Waterstone’s appearance

Now an author, Nicola Pierce will be back in Waterstone’s in the Fairhill Centre at 11am on that date to launch her latest creation - Spirit of the Titanic.

Nicola was born in Dublin and grew up there, the eldest of four girls.

On leaving school, following a Fás course in Graphic Design, she went into the retail industry, working in a number of shops before finally making it to a dream retail location, a book-shop and after a number of similar jobs she took up employment in the sales department of the O’Brien Press.

Meanwhile she was putting herself through college. Having completed a modular degree in Arts from UCD, she moved North and married her Belfast husband, Damian, helping him out with his publishing press while working in WH Smith.

About a year later she found herself ghost-writing the biography of Thai state executioner, Chavoret Jaruboon for County Meath publisher Maverick House. Two more Thailand-based books followed with Maverick and she also wrote three small history books for the Brehon Press, about Ballymena, Coleraine and Lisburn.

By this stage she had started working for Waterstone’s in Ballymena. A little under two years later, O’Brien Press contacted her to ghost-write Mother From Hell.

On completion, the O’Brien Press commissioned Nicola to write a children’s book, which was a new and exciting departure. They provided the topic: the Titanic, and Nicola came up with the story about the first Titanic death. Fifteen year old Samuel Joseph Scott, who was working on Titanic, fell to his death in Harland & Wolff, as he – presumably – raced up a ladder with a boiling hot rivet. He lies today in an unmarked grave in Belfast City Cemetery.

Currently, she is just finishing another ghost-writing project for The O’Brien Press, with a few more ‘potentials’ in the pipe-line. When she has time, she is working on a second children’s novel, also for The O’Brien Press.