Emily’s news: Back to school, getting technical and author events in Bristol
If you follow me on any of my social media accounts then you’ll know that I’ve been busy working away at starting a newsletter. Which sounds quite simple, doesn’t it?! And it probably could be, but I want to do a really good job of it so I’m putting a lot of hours into making it as good as possible. This is involving quite a lot of fairly technical behind-the-scenes work on my website and the software I’m using for my newsletter, but I love this kind of thing. I know it’s not for everyone but I’ve always been a bit of a computer nerd and when I worked as a journalist I ended up running the website for the newspaper I worked on, which has given me a lot of skills and confidence when it comes to stuff like this. Anyway, I hope to have my newsletter up and running this summer, ready to tell my most dedicated readers all about my third novel before anyone else hears about it! The plan is for all new subscribers to get a free short story I’ve written, too.
This short story is based on something I wrote back in 2015 when I was on a creative writing masters (where I also wrote my first full draft of If I Die Before I Wake). It’s inspired by my paternal grandparents, Hanns Koch and Christine Leeds, and some of the prejudice they faced - Hanns was an Austrian national who had fled the Nazis in 1938 and moved to England. Although he was himself a victim, I imagine many people would have heard his voice and put him down as being German, and therefore the enemy. I’ve loved working on this story for you and can’t wait for you all to read it.
My makeshift desk while away for the half-term visiting my mother-in-law - it was here that I started rewriting my short story
It has also inspired me to do something I’ve been meaning to do for ages - learn more about writing historical fiction. This is an art in itself and, I am finding, very difficult! I’m doing an eight-week online course with the brilliant author Imogen Hermes Gowar and loving it so far. It is wonderful to be learning again - I loved my MA in creative writing and feel I want to build more ‘career development’ (ugh! very much for want of a better phrase there, but you know what I mean!) into my life when I can.
Today I’m feeling especially enthusiastic and buoyed up about my writing as I went to a brilliant event in Bristol last night. Emma Stonex, the author of The Lamplighters, was in conversation with Sam, the owner of my local independent bookshop Max Minerva’s. It was fantastic to hear her talk about her inspirations, writing process and background. I knew quite a bit of it as I’m very lucky to count her as a friend, but it is always so good to hear another author speak about what they do and I invariably leave feeling really excited in some way about my own work. After the event we got together with another local author, Emylia Hall, and chatted about our books and the publishing industry and writing whilst having young kids. It was just what I needed - writing can be a lonely business sometimes and it is always good to talk to others who are on similar paths.
