Call Sign Feb 08

Call Sign February 2008 Page 14
Dial-a-Cab driver Nick Nicola (O99)
doesn’t always see too much of wife
Joanne, even though they are just a normal
married couple living under the same
Essex roof. That’s because for 8 hours
each day, Joanne locks herself and her
laptop in a room and continues writing
the follow-up to her book, Holly Blue,
which is to be published later this month.
Nick joined DaC last year and had been
driving a taxi for four years previous to
that. Joanne on the other hand was a nail
technician, but decided to take a year off
because she had long wanted to put the
novel that had been floating around her
head for such a long time, onto paper.
“I used to write poetry,” Joanne told
Call Sign, “but I just knew that this
story was inside me waiting to come
out. One day, around two years ago, I
just sat down at my laptop and the
words just flooded out of me! It was
incredible! I still had some doubts
because I had no formal training and
prior to being a nail technician, I was
a fashion designer. The only writing
involved invoices! But I always felt
that this book was inside me.”
Even then, it still took her the whole
year – 7 days a week and 8 hours each day
- to complete Holly Blue before hawking
it around to find a publisher prepared to
take a chance on a new author. Yianoulla
Nicola – Joanne uses her Greek name for
writing - wasn’t a name that had ever sold
a book before and publishers weren’t
queuing up for the book rights!
Some time later, a friend of Joanne’s was
at a seminar and mentioned Holly Blue. It
turned out that the person she spoke to
was with a publishing company and after
Joanne phoned them, they agreed to take
a look at the manuscript. Time passed, but
then last February Joanne got the call she
had been dreaming of, asking her to go to
the publisher’s office to discuss her book
and to sign a contract!
“I was thrilled,” said Joanne, “I had
lived Holly Blue for so long and now it
was no longer just in my head but
with a publisher who wanted to print
it! Even better, they wanted the first
option on a sequel!”
The sequel has turned into a trilogy and
having completed the second book in
around 11 months, Joanne is now into the
third. So what is Holly Blue about?
“Well, it’s a romantic novel,” said
Joanne “and recently a total stranger
to me read the book and described it
in a single sentence: It tells of the love
we have, the love we never forget and
the love we cherish. I thought that
summed it up perfectly.”
The novel is set in the 1970s and involves
a Greek girl, Sofia, who lives in England
and is trying to mix her traditional Greek
morals with her English life. The book follows
her journey as she tries to sort out in
which direction her life and love is going.
So what did Nick say when Joanne said
that she wanted to write a novel? There
was laughter in her voice as she remem-
The Wife’s
Writing a Book - I’m
off Down the Gym!
Holly BlueYianoulla Nicola
bered the early days of Holly Blue…
“Come on,” he’d call, “let’s go out.
Holly is only a hobby! Some hobby, I
thought!”
So does she have any real hobbies?
“My hobby is now my work,” she
said, “I just love it so much and I don’t
really have time for other hobbies –
although I do enjoy cooking and reading
when I have the time.”
And Nick?
“Well he quite likes reading autobiographies
and going to the gym. I
think that’s it!”
Good luck to Joanne and of course, to
Holly Blue…
Holly Blue by Yianoulla Nicola
HandE Publishers Ltd £6.99
Published 15 February
LTI JOINS THE FUN!
LTI Vehicles have long been one of the trade’s prime supporters of
charities and showed that side of themselves once again at the
80th birthday party thrown at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel
by the London Taxi Drivers’ Fund for Underprivileged Children and
where the taxi manufacturers donated £1,500 to the Fund.
Presenting the cheque to LTFUC Hon Chairman David Lessman
(D19), LTI Vehicles’ Government Affairs Manager, Richard Daniels,
told Call Sign:
“We are delighted to help this worthwhile charity as it kicks off its
80th anniversary. This party means so much to the children and their
families and we would like to congratulate those who helped organise
such a superb event.”
David Lessman added: “A big thank you to LTI Vehicles for this generous
donation. Without their support we would be unable to give
such pleasure and excitement to hundreds of disadvantaged children
and their helpers.”
Richard Daniels presents David Lessman with a
cheque for £1500 in front of some rather strange
looking witnesses!