Denise Nicholas (Room 222, In The Heat Of The Night) now an author!

Denise Nicholas, Mind, Body and Soul
Actress Mines Her Past for a Novel

By Teresa Wiltz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 25, 2005; C01


She staked everything she had on this book. Everything . Denise Nicholas already had a thriving career, with multiple movies, TV series, Emmys and Golden Globe nominations on her résumé -- but she wanted something else. So she gave up acting, blowing off repeated audition requests from her agent, holing up in her house, glued to her computer, living in her pajamas for days on end, hair standing up all over her head. Typing.

"I took five years of my life," Nicholas says, laughing her lyrical laugh. "Spent every penny I had. I'm broke, but I'm published.

"I'm totally broke."

Has it been worth it?

"Oh yes. Definitely worth it."

Call it a second act, by all means. Nicholas doesn't mind. As second acts go, one could do a lot worse. With her debut novel, "Freshwater Road," Nicholas, 61, is garnering stellar reviews, the kind that most first-time authors can only hope to get: Publishers Weekly declared it a "rich, absorbing debut" that marked the arrival of a new talent; The Washington Post Book World said, "It is impossible to praise 'Freshwater Road' too much."

<snip>

he stopped to drink, delighted to have the cold water in her mouth. It tasted like first snow. As the cold stream flowed down her throat, the deputy shoved her head hard into the fountain. She vomited the water as her mouth slammed into the shining chrome spigot. A quiet crack, then she saw her blood going down the drain as pain shot from her mouth up into her head. Stunned, she moved over to the side, her brown hand slipping from the white porcelain bowl. . . . her feet tangled into a knot and she stumbled to the floor, her head and back bumping into the wall. The black of his police shoes was the last thing she saw.

In the tunnel of a cottony fog, she heard the words, "That water's not for niggers. . . . "

-- from "Freshwater Road"

She was in several movies with Bill Cosby and Sidney Potier. She also starred as O'Connor's love interest in "In The Head of the Night". And did you know that Cosby originally asked her to play Claire Huxtable in The Cosby Show but she turned him down?

suited to that role. Of course, Phylicia Rashard was a great Claire Huxtable :-)

Thanks.

UGRR :hi:

and totally dedicated to writing.

Classy lady!