Well hello there...

Have we got to know each other yet?

Hello

It’s been beautiful and humbling to engage with this community over the last 6 months or so, it really is a bloody marvellous place to be. Thank you to each and every one of you 🫶.

What is so special is the forging of new connections, whilst continually deepening the ones we have already made. I don’t know where you will have joined me on this journey, so in case we haven’t managed to get to know each other yet, I would like to re-introduce myself, to show you…well…me.

Me

Who am I?

Well apparently I am an award winning author, wild swimmer, tea sommelier and fairy dogmother. Oh and I used to be an air traffic controller. It says so on my bio so it must be true.

And whilst those are all definitely facets of me…also:

“My favourite colour is purple, I love elephants, like to rescue bumblebees and I think tea is the solution to most world problems. I am a lioness for those I care about, and a scared rabbit at the same time, and my passions centre around the endurance and optimism of the human spirit. I am fascinated by the dark beauty of all corners of the world and our capacity to love through adversity. I can generally be found swimming in rivers in a bikini in the snow, drinking tea with friends, or embarrassing my teenage children with my compulsion to talk with anyone I meet.”

It says that on my website so that must also be true.

Capturing it in one word?

It’s slightly strange reflecting back at descriptions of yourself you have written at a certain place in time. I remember when I did my final interview for air traffic control and the interviewer asked me to come up with one word to describe myself:

“Determined” I said without hesitation, and it was true. I wanted to be an air traffic controller and I was going to make it happen.

I smile back at my twenty-something self. That is not my defining word anymore, far from it. I don’t think I have just one word anymore but on asking myself the question today, I think I would say…

“Interested”

If you could describe yourself in one word…what would it be?

I am interested in people, in the world, in ways of being, in the human mind. I am interested in myself - which I almost deleted as soon as I wrote it because I’m conditioned to think that makes me arrogant/uninteresting/self-absorbed (delete as appropriate), yet I am interested in myself, and that’s ok. There’s great value in reflecting inwards, before we turn the mirror over and opine outwards.

Photo by Andre Mouton on Unsplash

Self-reflection

I don’t even begin to understand myself - why sometimes feel like I am being crushed like a concertina, with everything closing in on me and no space to breathe, and then the bellows expand and I am as light as air. How I can have worked in a highly technical career for twenty years but still can’t put up a deckchair; how somedays I can swim for miles and other times I cannot move; how I care so deeply and respect other people’s time yet am late for everything. How I can find the words to write a book but can never ever find my wallet or glasses. How I am hugely optimistic yet suffer with depression. How I love fiercely but rarely cry. How I seamlessly coordinate the lives of all 4 individuals in my household down to every last mufti day and dentist appointment but literally can’t remember what I did yesterday.

You may at this point be questioning my neurodiversity - well you’re not the only one. That in itself is an ongoing voyage of discovery.

I don’t fit the left brain/right brain moulds - I have a degree in maths and a masters in risk, crisis and disaster management (just thought I’d slip that in there). I can analyse, research, and am in someways highly practical and excellent in a crisis, yet at other times I find myself stabbing a milk carton with a knife because I can’t work the lid. Sometimes I am so paralysed by overwhelm I am like a small child. It makes no fucking sense at all. But do any of us truly understand ourselves? I very much doubt it.

I am also a chronic illness warrior which I wrote about in my most personal piece ever. Whose body is it anyway?. I’ll leave that to speak for itself.

So if make no sense to myself, how the hell am I supposed to make sense of other things - but somehow I do. I really do, and that is what I write about…which is a rather pleasing segue into…

My Substack

If you’re new here, then a HUGE welcome to my Substack, to Lemon Soul - my corner of the writing world, where I share with you slices of life, bringing refreshing and inspiring perspectives on our every day. Somewhere I post surprisingly little about the open water, but that’s ok - I’ve written a whole book on that. I write on all sorts of things, life, observations, but mainly I write so that in this community we know that we are not alone. You can find out all about it here.

This week I am also launching my new series ‘The Book Deal Diaries’ which I am so very excited about!! Click here to find out more

My books

My website details my current and planned books. Breaking Waves is being published in Spring 2025 with Icon Books, through my agency MMB Creative. More on this whole process - getting an agent, my route to publication, writing life and everything around that in ‘The Book Deal Diaries’ as above.

I am currently working on my second book - Little Tufts of Tea, about the rituals and wonder of tea, the significance of tea as a love language, and how we pass down our history in ways other than words.

My world

I live with Himself - a fire-fighter and international rescue worker, and my two teenage daughters Fiver (scared rabbit of Watership Down fame), and Taz (red-haired Tasmanian Devil). I think this article will give you the best insight into how we roll. Home life is chaotic, wonderful, happy, heartbreaking, busy, peaceful and everything in between, and often full of dogs. Writing doesn’t yet ‘support’ me in the way the world demands so dog sitting is one of my side hustles!! I wouldn’t have it any other way…for now…but it is a continually evolving piece.

In 2 days time I am travelling to India with my 82 year old mother. We are attending a family wedding in Kerala where it will be wonderful to see my Irish family uniting with a family from South India. I also cannot wait to explore the tea - I will be beavering away on my second book whilst I’m out there.

My next few articles will be published whilst I am away, but I will be in touch as much as I can!!

In the meantime, thank you with all my heart for being here, you are so very welcome. If you think someone you know may like to join us here, please do share this.

My space is your space, and we grow together.

Photo by Cathal Mac an Bheatha on Unsplash

---

I’d love to know more about you:

If you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be?

Please feel free to share any links for your own work/writing/Substack below.

Love & lemons 💕🍋

Em xx