Portobello Book Blog

Taking her turn on my #TenThings feature today is author Nicky Black. Although she’s not really Nicky Black as she explains as one of her ten things! Over to Nicky….

10 things you should know about me:

1. The Prodigal and the book I’m currently writing are both based on original scripts written by a good friend of mine called Julie. The Prodigal was originally commissioned by ITV as a two-part crime series but never got made after many years under option. Thank goodness, because we think it makes a cracking novel!
2. Nicky Black is a combination of both of our names: Nicky Doherty and Julie Blackie.
3. My next novel, Tommy Collins, was originally a screenplay called “Heads” which follows a bunch of lads who organise rave parties in the late 1980s and their nemesis, DCI Peach, who is determined to stop them.
4. I love chips (with gravy preferably).
5. I used to be a director of a social enterprise in London, but decided I wanted a whole different life experience. I moved back to Newcastle in 2016 and now work for a hospice charity in County Durham writing their funding applications. Since August I’ve raised over £100k – it’s great to use my writing skills for something really worthy. It also gives me a whole day a week to write (not including weekends of course).
6. I am one of 7 children (I was the baby for 8 years until number 7 came along. Not sure I’ve ever really forgiven him lol).
7. I am NOT a natural platinum blonde.
8. I’ve had three short stage plays produced by the Live Theatre in Newcastle. One of them was about two Wham! fans who run away to London to convince George Michael and Andrew Ridgely to stay together. It was a hoot! Great fun for an 80s throwback like me 😊
9. I just turned 50! Whaaat?!
10. Book three (the third in the Valley Park series) will not be based on one of Julie’s scripts. I’ll be all on own and I’m interested to discover whether I can actually plot a whole story from beginning to middle to end with no base to work from. Watch this space… 

You can find Nicky on Twitter @AuthorBlackNE

On Facebook  @AuthorBlackNE 

Buy a copy online here: The Prodigal

He’s back. But at what cost? 

Exiled from his beloved Newcastle sixteen years ago, Detective Lee Jamieson is returning home in search of the teenage daughter he’s never met.The last thing he expects is to fall in love with the wife of notorious villain, Micky Kelly.

Lee’s new job takes him to Valley Park, an urban sink estate riddled with crime and drugs: the place he grew up, and home to the Kelly family. As he becomes more and more entwined in the lives of the Kellys, things get personal and he knows he has everything to lose.

Will love save the day? Or will the criminals prevail?

The Prodigal is a story of star-crossed lovers, whose worlds collide on a Council Estate where organised crime is rife, and violence, drugs and fear are the accepted currency. It is new “Geordie crime fiction at its best.”