Join me on my sofa for an informal and totally contained chat amongst friends. Bring a cuppa, cake, crochet, your cat - whatever makes you feel at home (although I’m not a cat person so I may invite my tortoise 🐢), as we chat through a topic which has been floating around in our minds or is inspired by something going on in the world.

This week, let’s talk about…

FAIRY TALES & FOLKLORE

I started down a gorgeous rabbit hole of exploring fairy tales and folklore recently, inspired by a storytelling session I attended at a festival in Wales. It got me thinking about the stories I heard and read as a young child, and how common tales are passed down from generation to generation. I was also interested to explore how these change and evolve with each iteration - which parts of the story are erased, embellished or changed. I wrote about this here.

I’d love to hear what stories you remember from when you were a child - what were the fairy tales that entranced you? Or perhaps you had a family member who loved to share their stories? What draws us back to the same stories time and time again, and which parts do we remember and hold? What was scary and what brought joy?

Come and join me on the sofa tomorrow to explore this further. It is SUCH a fascinating subject.

There’s no agenda and no judgment, whatever your view we can talk through anything and everything. No-one will be forced to speak, called upon or put in a Zoom room (!!), so you can come along and just listen if that’s how you feel on the day.

Just bring yourselves and we’ll curl up on our respective sofas for a good old natter for about 45 mins.

The regular Zoom link is below, and I cannot wait for us to spend this time together 🫶

See you tomorrow,

Love & lemons 💕🍋

Em xx

Read more

Last weekend at a festival I spoke at in Pembrokeshire I attended a storytelling session. We sat in a large bell tent on cushions and chairs as the storyteller brought to life some ancient Welsh legends about waterways, told in a way to engage and inspire. Within minutes he had created a whole world, and the audience, young and old were joining in with the chant of the ‘talking soil’, carried along by the soil’s need to be cleared from the river in such a way to let the water flow. The story took the audience (and the talking soil) on an adventure led by a kingfisher, an owl, a salmon, a hedgehog and others until they finally reached the one creature who knew how to help…an ancient, giant beaver. A simple story with a simple message, but one that the children in that tent will remember for the longest time.

He then told a follow up story about the sea, situated as we were on the coast, and the image that is etched into my mind is one of a young girl placing her feet into footprints she finds on the sand. In that moment as her feet connect with prints from the past, she is transported to another place in time - a new environment, people, situation… and then she is back. It reminded me of stories like Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are where trees grow through the young boy’s bedroom and he finds himself having a ‘wild rumpus’ with the wild things… and then he is back. Or the wardrobe to Narnia… or….

Myths and memories

Last night I held a Story Circle for my members, and inspired by the Welsh storyteller, our theme was fairy stories that we remembered being told, or reading, as children. The stories we treasured, that we returned to again and again. Thank you and for joining me - we could have talked all night! As we started recounting our stories, it was fascinating to see how the stories morph and evolve in every re-telling. It was so lovely to see Linda’s childhood copy of Rapunzel - the Brothers’ Grimm version, not the Disneyfied ‘Tangled’. This is the darker story where the ‘rapunzel’ is a herb that a pregnant mother is craving. When her husband finds some rapunzel in a sorceress’s garden, he is caught by the sorceress and promises to give her their unborn child in exchange. In this version when years later a prince seeks to rescue the (by then) young woman from her imprisonment in the sorceress’s tower, he falls to the thorns below and is blinded. I don’t recall this happening to Flynn Rider in the Disney version.

There are threads that run through, however, such as the power of tears to heal. As Flynn is revived by Rapunzel’s tears in the Disney story, so in the Grimm version her tears restore the Prince’s sight after he wanders blindly, searching for her for years. Variations on a theme.

The Brothers Grimm themselves were not the originators of the stories in their collections, they, like so many others, were gatherers, enhancers and documenters of tales. In 1697 Charles Perrault published a collection of stories including one named Le Petit Chaperon Rouge which the Brothers Grimm adopted as Little Red Riding Hood. In the original, the wolf eats the girl. Their Rapunzel was based on a French literary tale ~ Persinette, from 1698 by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de la Force. Fascinated by the evolution of language the brothers sought to preserve the cultural inheritance inherent in folk tales, capturing them in writing, and what a joy for us that they did. Hansel and Gretel is believed to have come to them through oral storytelling, although some quick Google research tells me that folklorists classify this as a tale type: ‘The Children and the Ogre’ which is represented in many prior literary works such as the Neapolitan fairytale Nennillo and Nennella by Giambattista Basile published in 1634. In this telling, two siblings are abandoned in the woods by their wicked mother and captured by an ogre. Sound familiar? A template from which a thousand versions hang. It’s a fascinating rabbit hole to go down, and one I highly recommend.

I’ve always been fascinated by the etymology of language, but this is the etymology of stories.

The stories from my childhood

As we talked in our Story Circle, it became clear how we continually adapt the stories we know and love. We spoke of other childhood books that were etched onto our memories such as The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. We questioned - ‘was it two children, or three?’, ‘boy or girl?’, ‘who was the adult?’. The message of the story itself - the healing power of nature and connection was embedded in our hearts, but the detail? Fuzzy and open to variation. Similarly I always had such a strong memory from my own childhood of a beautiful story about ‘Jesus in a tree’. I was brought up Catholic and went to church as a child, but this was no bible story. It had a giant, and a garden, and it snowed, but I could remember little else. When my own children were born I said to my sister: ‘I need to find the story of Jesus in a tree! I want my children to hear it.’ She somehow managed to work out what I was remembering, and it was The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde. Now it has become a beloved story for my girls as well as for me.

I was very lucky as a child in that my mother was a voracious reader. To be fair she still is - she’s 85 years old this week and she goes to three book clubs (as well as art class, U3A, WI, aqua-aerobics twice a week, Fine Art Society…I know I know…apple…tree…). Her knowledge and what she has gained through all those years of reading is something to behold. When we were small, I remember a highlight of my week being the trip to the local library, my only frustration being the limit on the amount of books we were allowed to take home. I can still see the orange carpet in the children’s section where I would carefully select my Meg & Mog books, and the green carpet squares of the more grown up section where I’d discover Earthsea, Narnia, Middle Earth and many other worlds.

At home we had compendiums of fairy stories - large and heavy with deep red hardback covers and black binding. Like old-fashioned spell books. I would open them up with a light crack, and the magic would unfurl. I read them time and time again. I don’t have those any longer, but yesterday I did find some others from my childhood: The copy of Pinocchio that my mum covered in brown paper and illustrated and my beloved ‘Hans Christian Andersen’ collection complete with ‘This Book Belongs to Emma McDonald’ scrawl. Stories he wrote, filled with pain and heartache. Sometimes with redemption, often not. My memory of his original The Little Mermaid story is not one of happiness and singing crabs, but one of agony as the mermaid has her tongue cut out and the price she pays for gaining feet is that every step feels like dancing on knives. Not only that but the prince marries someone else and she has to return to the waves with a broken heart where she dissolves into sea foam. The Snow Queen was also a favourite, where a brother and sister become wrenched apart by a wicked shard of glass from an evil mirror that turns the brother’s heart to ice. This one is unusually redemptive for Andersen as the sister battles through snowy wastelands to find her brother, her tears finally melting his icy heart. No such joy for the Little Match Girl though, who freezes to death in her story.

Whether original, gathered or orally passed on, the tales have darkness and light, sadness and redemption, cautionary messages and lessons. It is only in more recent years that they have been polished into dreams coming true and happily ever afters.

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The stories from my ancestry

So where did it all begin?

Another book that is so clear in my childhood memory, perhaps because it was so different to all the others, was a small book of Irish Fairy Tales I had as a child of Irish heritage. It was published in 1973, the year after I was born, and written by Sinéad de Valera, an Irish children’s author who married the man who went on to become the 3rd President of Ireland. This small book of 12 tales is another one I revisited time and again. I didn’t see the familiar stories of The Pied Piper, Thumbelina or The Princess and The Pea, instead this was:

Modern takes on ancient tales, going back to the oldest kings of Ireland, belief systems before religion, and the dance of humans with Mother Earth. Drawn from legends of the otherworld and fairy folk, of shape-shifters and changelings, witches and wise-women.

This has inspired me to want to learn more about the folklore of Ireland in particular. Having found out that I am 100% Irish after taking a DNA test last year, I feel ever more drawn to understanding its culture and history, especially as I have never lived there. Ireland’s modern history is complex and heartbreaking, violent and prescient, and alongside that I want to go deep into the roots. To the stories of this nation of storytellers. To learn about the seanchaithe - the storytellers who would bring the heroes of Irish myth and the legends of local lakes with them as they visited from house to house. Family members gathering around the hearth to hear of pookas, banshees, wolves and fairies, with the seanchaí the arbiter of communal memory. A living, oral storyteller, just like the one in the tent in Wales where this short tale of mine began today.

There is so much more to say about how we pass on our folklore, from modern to ancient. How we see those stories represented, which ones captivated us as children, perhaps shaped us, scared us and brought us joy and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

This month’s Lemon Soul Café LIVE will be on this very subject. Join me next Wednesday 17th June at 1015 BST to talk about Folklore and Fairy Tales. I’d love to see you there 🫶.

Further food for thought

While I was discussing this piece in the Heartleap writing hour this morning, I was told about two very relevant events:

1. The British Library Fairy Tales Exhibition - which while aimed principally at children promises to have a trove of archive fairy story facts. I’ll definitely be visiting this summer.

2. A talk that happened at the Hay festival recently featuring Dr Martin Shaw and

   Dr Sian Williams on Fairy Tales: the stories that shape us. This event has passed but I will be following their work, and this also led me to:

3. The Folklore Society

4. The Folklore Podcast

As I said…many rabbit holes to explore!

In a very timely manner as I have been researching this topic, invited me today onto a live chat for her gorgeous At Heart Substack. You can see or listen to our conversation about the power of storytelling here:

At Heart

Inside The Story with Emma Simpson

I loved chatting to Emma today about the power of storytelling in her work and life…

Listen now

13 days ago · 3 likes · Claire Tomkins and Emma Simpson

It’s obviously a topic of the moment! There is so much more to discuss with you so do join me if you can at our Lemon Soul Café on the 17th. Just us on our respective sofas with a cuppa having a good old chat.

What fairy stories or folklore really made an impression on you as a child and why? Is this something that has featured strongly in your cultural background, or would you like to learn more?

As always, I’d love to hear.

Leave a comment

Love & lemons 💕🍋

Em xx

You can order my 5-star rated book BREAKING WAVES: Discovery, Healing and Inspiration in the Open Water here:

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“Inspirational, original, beautiful. One of my favourite books this year.”

For access to the inside track on the book publication process (what it’s REALLY like) read my dedicated Book Deal Diaries series. This includes the ultimate VIDEO MASTERCLASS ‘From Book Inception to Book Deal Moment’.

Paid subscribers have access to this as well as 3 x Live Zooms a month in our Story Circle, Café and Writerly Book Club.

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When invited me to be part of her Substack tour, it was a whole-hearted yes from me for several reasons, principally because:

• Kathryn’s work really resonates with me as someone with chronic health conditions as she explores how ‘health and circumstance impact art and creativity’;

• She’s a crocheter… 🧶;

• This sense of community here on Substack and the power of sharing each other’s words is something very special and I love collaborating with fellow creatives;

• Her list of essay topics was so engaging - and this one stood out to me immediately:

It is my love for long-form writing that brought me to Substack in the first place. I found I had no ‘home’ for the words I wanted to share with the world. I never engaged with Twitter even before it became the toxic minefield it is now - the 140 character limit (as was) horrified me! I am not known for my brevity…

I took to writing longer and longer posts on Facebook but that did not seem like the right platform - and also I was just sharing words with people that knew me, it didn’t enable the chance to engage and connect wider. But then I came here, and the rest is, well I want to say history, but actually it’s very much the present and the future.

Kathryn’s beautiful essay speaks to the uncertainty inherent in long-form writing at the outset, the courage it takes to follow the thread to where it may lead, the attention and presence required, the joy of the experience for both the writer and the reader, and ultimately the relationship that this kind of writing enables between them.

Moreover, it encapsulates the connection between long-form writing and creative health, how the reward is in the ‘journey’ (which chimes beautifully with what we have been reading in our Writerly Book Club recently with Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird), and the deliberate and conscious practices required to give space for this precious art form.

Thank you, Kathryn, for sharing your words with the Lemon Soul community 🙏

About Kathryn

Kathryn Vercillo is an artist-writer-researcher who explores the complex relationship between art and health. She is the author of ‘Crochet Saved My Life’, ‘Hook to Heal’ and ‘The Artist’s Mind: The Creative Lives and Mental Health of Famous Artists’, among others - you can find all of her books here. She is also the creator of the Creative Health Cartography framework and workbook and writes Create Me Free on Substack. Kathryn lives in San Francisco, the city where her creative heart beats best, with her partner and two large dogs.

[She had me at ‘crochet’.]

Kathryn’s Guest Essay: Why I Still Believe in Long-Form Writing in an Age That Wants Short

“I have always been someone who loved long-form. I am more likely to read novels than short stories and even better if the author has multiple long books for me to read. I am more likely to watch a TV series than a movie but more likely to watch a movie than a single episode of something. If a podcast episode is under an hour, I probably won’t bother. It’s just the way that I’m wired. So, even though all of the metrics say that nobody wants to read long form writing anymore, I just can’t buy into that story, and I just keep writing it anyway.

The numbers shared online by those that share such things consistently say that long-form writing underperforms short-form writing by almost every measure that platforms are designed to track. Engagement falls after a certain word count. Readers skim or leave. The algorithm favours the thread, the note, the punchy take, the image with three lines of caption. If you write in public, or write for a living, you hear this constantly: shorter, tighter, hook them in the first line, give them what they need to share it in thirty seconds.

And still, I keep writing long essays. I have been writing them since the early 2000s, when the infrastructure of distraction was considerably less developed than it is now and the case against long-form was still mostly about editorial word counts rather than algorithmic penalties. I kept writing them through the rise of social media and the decline of the personal essay as a commercially viable form and the emergence of the attention economy as a structural reality that shapes how writing circulates and what writing gets made. The decision to continue doing so has become something I think about more explicitly than I used to, because the case against it has gotten louder and more data-rich, and because I have had to be honest with myself about whether the stubbornness is principled or simply habitual.

What I have arrived at, after twenty years of sustained engagement with the form and with the question of why it matters to me, is that long-form writing is one of the more important elements of my creative health, and that the relationship between form and wellbeing is worth defending against the pressure to optimise for what is easy to measure.

What long-form writing asks of me

A long piece of writing demands a particular quality of attention that I have come to understand as a health practice itself in the most direct sense of that phrase. To sustain a line of inquiry across several thousand words, to follow a thread into territory that has not yet been mapped and stay with it through the difficulty of not knowing where it leads, requires a quality of presence that shorter forms genuinely do not demand in the same way. The short form can be made from a captured moment of clarity, a thought that arrived whole and needs only to be transcribed into something shareable. The long form requires going into uncertainty and remaining there until the uncertainty resolves into something, and the remaining is the work. The willingness to stay, to resist the pull toward premature resolution, to trust that the not-yet-knowing will eventually open into something worth having arrived at: this is the central practice of the long essay, and it is hard in the specific way that anything genuinely worthwhile tends to be hard.

This staying quality is both what makes long-form writing difficult and what makes it valuable for my creative health. The essay that works through something, that follows a question rather than presenting an answer it already possessed, that arrives somewhere genuinely different from where it began: this essay has done something to the person who made it. The destination matters. The journey through uncertainty is what produces the effect, the effect on the reader if the piece works as intended, and the effect on the writer regardless of whether the piece ever finds a reader at all.

What I get at the end of a long piece that I have actually worked through, where I have followed the thread and stayed with the difficulty and found my way to something I could not see from the starting point, is the feeling of having genuinely been somewhere rather than having just produced something. The object is the evidence that the journey happened. The journey is the actual thing.

The specific health of the long form

Writing teachers sometimes talk about the difference between writing to express and writing to discover. Writing to express begins with a formed idea and finds language for it. Writing to discover begins with a question or an intuition or a felt sense that something needs to be worked through, and uses the writing itself as the instrument of that working. Long-form essays, the kind I care most about and find most valuable to make, tend to require the second mode. They tend to be, at their best, a form of thinking rather than a form of reporting on thinking that has already been completed elsewhere.

This has specific implications for creative health. The essay that requires genuine discovery requires a quality of contact with your own uncertainty that shorter forms can bypass. You have to stay long enough to actually meet the difficult thing, to follow it past the point where the easy answer presents itself, to find out what you actually think rather than what you initially assumed you thought. This is uncomfortable in a productive way, and the discomfort is part of what makes it a health practice. Avoiding difficulty in creative work tends to produce work of a certain kind, competent and sometimes even beautiful, but sealed against its own deeper possibilities.

The long form also creates a particular relationship between the writer and time. A piece that takes several sessions, that has to be returned to across days or weeks, requires you to sustain a connection to something through the ordinary interruptions of a life. You carry the piece with you in a way that a piece you finish in an hour does not require. It lives in the background of other activities, and the background processing that happens there is part of the making. Ideas arrive in the shower because the piece is open. Connections form while you are doing something entirely unrelated because the inquiry is still running. The long form teaches you to hold something over time, which is its own skill and its own form of care.

The attention economy and what it is doing

Maryanne Wolf, a cognitive neuroscientist who has spent her career studying the reading brain, argues in Reader, Come Home that the conditions of the current media environment are producing measurable changes in how we read, and that those changes have implications for our capacity for the kind of deep, slow, associative reading that long-form prose requires and develops. The reading brain, Wolf demonstrates, is a cultural artifact as much as a biological one. It develops the circuits it exercises, and an environment that consistently rewards skimming and fragmentary engagement exercises different circuits than an environment that supported sustained deep reading. The brain that reads quickly across many surfaces becomes differently organised than the brain that reads slowly through long sustained texts, and the differences are real and have consequences.

Wolf is careful not to frame this as simple decline. She is interested in what the new reading modes make possible as well as what they cost, and she holds the complexity genuinely, which is something I value deeply. What she argues is that we are in a moment that requires deliberate cultivation of deep reading as a practice, because the ambient conditions no longer produce it automatically the way earlier media environments tended to. The skill requires tending. The capacity requires exercise. It does not maintain itself in the current environment without some deliberate effort to maintain it.

The implications extend from reading into writing. A writer whose relationship to sustained reading has been significantly altered by the conditions of the current media environment tends to find long-form writing correspondingly more difficult to enter and to sustain. The muscle weakens from disuse. The form that requires it becomes harder to access, which makes the form feel less natural, which produces less of it, which weakens the muscle further. The cycle is real and worth being conscious of.

Long-form writing is, among other things, a practice that maintains and develops the capacity it requires. Writing a long essay exercises the ability to sustain attention, to hold complexity across time and across the resistance of not-yet-knowing, to remain in productive uncertainty rather than reaching for premature resolution. These are capacities with value well beyond the essay itself. They are ways of thinking, ways of being present to difficulty and ambiguity, that transfer into every other domain of creative and intellectual life. They are also, I would argue, ways of being in relationship: with the reader who is asked to stay, with the subject that is asked to yield, with yourself as a maker who is being asked to go somewhere you have not yet been.

On Substack and the long essay finding new form

It is worth saying something about this particular context, because Substack and the broader independent publishing landscape have been doing something unexpected in the conversation about long-form writing: they have demonstrated that there is an audience for sustained work that does not fit the metrics-driven predictions. At least some of the time.

Some of the most widely read and passionately followed writing on Substack is long. Some of the writers with the most dedicated readerships are people who write essays that take twenty minutes to read and do not apologize for it. The relationship between a writer and a reader who shows up week after week for long, careful, serious work is a different kind of relationship from the parasocial connection produced by algorithmic reach, and it may be a more durable one. The reader who has stayed with you through several thousand words of genuine inquiry has done something that makes their engagement qualitatively different from the reader who liked a caption.

I am not making a claim about superiority here. Different forms serve different purposes and different readers and different moments in a creative practice. Not all long writing on Substack does well and there’s the whole thing with “Notes” that trends towards short and punchy. But the prediction that long-form writing would be driven out entirely by the attention economy’s incentives has not fully materialised and there is longform writing here to provide that. There remains appetite for the form among readers who have made a deliberate choice to seek out writing that asks something of them. That choice feels meaningful, and I feel a corresponding responsibility toward the readers who make it.

The connection to creative health

The material domain of the Creative Health Cartography framework examines the medium and conditions of making. For me, long-form prose is the medium I keep returning to across two decades of practice, and its conditions are specific in ways I have become increasingly deliberate about honouring.

• Time: a session of at least an hour, preferably two or three, because the essay takes time to enter and time to find its depth.

• Genuine quiet, the kind that allows the interior quiet necessary for sustained inquiry to develop.

• A relationship to the first draft that allows it to be genuinely rough and genuinely exploratory, because the essay that is polished too early tends to polish out the discoveries before they have been fully understood.

• Permission to follow the line rather than deliver the point, which requires a relationship to the work in which the outcome is genuinely open rather than being shaped toward a predetermined destination.

When those conditions are unavailable, when the practical domain is in enough distress that the desk cannot be defended for a two-hour stretch, or when the psychological domain is generating enough noise that the quality of settled attention the long-form requires cannot be reached, the work often shows that. Long-form writing requires something of the nervous system that shorter forms simply do not need in the same quantity. Sustained regulation. Sustained presence. The specific kind of creative safety that allows genuine exploration rather than only delivery of what the writer already knows.

Understanding this connection has made me more deliberate about the conditions in which I write, and more attentive to what the choice of form is telling me about my creative health at any given time. The period when the long form becomes inaccessible is information about the state of the whole system, as useful in its way as the periods of genuine access. When I cannot write long things, I have learned to ask what that is telling me about the other domains rather than simply pushing harder toward the form I prefer.

What I would say to writers who write long things

The metrics are measuring something real and important about how writing circulates in the current media environment. They are measuring reach at a particular cultural moment shaped by particular platform incentives. They are measuring one thing and leaving out several others.

What they leave out is what a long essay does for the person who stays with it to the end, which is often something that person cannot fully account for but that shifts the quality of their thinking or their feeling in ways they notice afterward. What they leave out is what the long form does for the person who made it: the journey taken, the discoveries made in the process of taking it, the specific kind of making-sense that sustained inquiry produces and that no other form quite replicates. What they leave out is the quality of the relationship between a writer and a reader who have agreed, tacitly, to stay together through something that takes time.

Write the long thing. Write it for the reason it needs to be long, because the subject requires the space, because you need the space to find out what you actually think, because the short version would leave out the most important part. The form knows something about what the work requires. The discipline of staying with it, of resisting the temptation to surface early, is its own kind of reward, separate from and more durable than what anyone else does with the result.

The essay that has genuinely gone somewhere has gone somewhere regardless of how many people come with it. That matters. It has always mattered. It is part of why I keep making them.”

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This is a guest post from Kathryn Vercillo as part of her Creative Health Cartography Workbook tour. Follow the full tour at createmefree.substack.com. If you liked this piece, you might also like to read:

Create Me Free

The Semi-Lost Art of Letter Writing as a Means of Healing Self and Others Through Connection

I used to write SO many letters. I got my first pen pal when I was still in elementary school. I continued to gather pen pals from around the world. I hit a peak of over 100 of them in my early twenties. Now, to be honest, that was too many. By then the deep sense of really understanding each other was lost as I attempted to keep up. But during my high school years and shortly thereafter, I had a steady ongoing pen pal relationship with 25-40 people. I would come home and open the mailbox and feel daily joy. I would read those letters and really get a sense of who was writing and what their hearts were saying. Then I would sit down with a pen and paper and - in scrawl that changed regularly as I spent my teen years working out "who I was" - I would write about my own life. I'd share the little and the big, the thoughts and the feelings. I would decorate those letters (anyone remember mail art?) and seal them and send them off. …

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2 years ago · 36 likes · 9 comments · Kathryn Vercillo

You can follow Kathryn’s writing and new podcast at createmefree.substack.com. If you’re curious about your Creative Health archetype, take the free quiz here.

Kathryn has developed a practice of ‘Creative Health Cartography’: mapping how your holistic health shapes your creativity across the domains of:

• Creative Process

• Creative Medium

• Creative Content

• Creative Productivity

• Creative Identity, and

• Creative Business and Sustainability

This is a self-guided framework for understanding how your health shapes your creative life. Built from twenty years of research and interviews with more than one hundred artists, writers, and makers, it works through these domains of creative practice with reflective exercises, composite real-world stories, and a six-archetype pattern system.

It is available as a PDF download and in print (U.S. shipping only), and it is absolutely gorgeous. Over 161 pages it contains meditations, reflective questions, creative exercises and so much inspiration. Kathryn is offering a 20% discount with code WorkbookTour20

I hope you enjoyed reading this and I’d love to hear what resonates with you. As someone who, like so many of us, frequently manages the delicate balance between health and creativity - what relationship do you have between your creative practice and your health? How does one inform or impact the other?

Leave a comment

As always

Love and lemons 💕🍋

Em xx

You can order my 5-star rated book BREAKING WAVES: Discovery, Healing and Inspiration in the Open Water here:

Order BREAKING WAVES

“Inspirational, original, beautiful. One of my favourite books this year.”

For access to the inside track on the book publication process (what it’s REALLY like) read my dedicated Book Deal Diaries series. This includes the ultimate VIDEO MASTERCLASS ‘From Book Inception to Book Deal Moment’.

Paid subscribers have access to this as well as 3 x Live Zooms a month in our Story Circle, Café and Writerly Book Club and the full Lemon Soul Archives.

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Welcome to June!

Hello friends - this is the first of my monthly ‘happenings and dates’ posts to ensure that you can easily find out what is coming up in Lemon Soul world this month. At the bottom are all the links as well as this month’s Story Circle prompts for our meeting on 10 June at 1900 BST.

If you’re new to Lemon Soul, everything you need to know and all the goodies you receive as part of this gorgeous community can be found HERE 🍋💕

Our key dates for June are listed below. Remember that in addition to my regular posts, author interviews and Lemon Soul Slices, paid subs get ALL of the following:

🍋 An invitation to my monthly Lemon Soul Café. The café meets on a Wednesday morning, generally the third of the month, and we chit chat from our sofas on a topic chosen that month. We’ve talked about everything from neurodiversity to ancestry, storytelling to empty nests. 45 minutes, just us, a cuppa and a good old chat. The topic will be shared in advance.

🍋 An invitation to my monthly Lemon Soul Story Circle. We have just started this up and it is so lovely - on the second Wednesday evening of the month we come together, light a candle and share stories inspired by a variety of prompts. It’s quite magical and this month’s prompts are shared below.

🍋 Membership of The Writers’ Accountability Book Club. Over the course of the year we are working our way through a selection books on the craft of writing by six brilliant authors. We discuss one book over a period of two months accompanied by 2 x Zoom discussions on each book, downloadable PDF creative journals and reflective summaries of what we learn, understand and gain each time. It’s a very special space.

Our JUNE book is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

🍋 An invitation to my subscriber chat

June dates and times

• Lemon Soul Story Circle ~ WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE at 1900 BST

• Lemon Soul Café ~ WEDNESDAY 17 JUNE at 1015 BST

• Writers’ Accountability Book Club ~ TUESDAY 30 JUNE at 1800 BST

Do put the kettle on, and come on in.

June Story Circle prompts and Zoom links

Please see our next selection of Story Circle prompts and the Zoom links. These are paywalled as these live sessions are for my paid subs only. It’s never too late to join, you are so very welcome.

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In the sweltering May heatwave here in the UK, we met for our first WBC live Zoom call together for the book: Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life. The subtitle really says it all, this is more than a writerly guide, it’s a companion. It’s engaging, funny, warm, insightful, and all in all like having a really good creative chat with a wise and compassionate friend. We felt it struck a nice balance after the quite differing approaches of our first two books: Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones and Stephen King’s On Writing.

The style of the book is very conversational, which can almost mask the insightful nature of it, but that said, I turned down pretty much every page to make a note on something! It blends solid advice on character, plot, dialogue and what she describes as ‘set design’ (literally the contextual setting for your book) with reflections on how to approach writing life. Managing emotions, comparisons, blocks and also how to embrace the pure joy of writing itself.

This quote really sums up the ethos of the book:

Think you could benefit from our book club? Join us - it’s not too late and you will be so very welcome.

From now until the end of June we will be reading the second half of BIRD BY BIRD. The aim is to read from Part 3: HELP ALONG THE WAY and chapter ‘Index Cards’, to the end of the book, and our June Live Zoom Discussion will be on Tuesday 30 June at 1800 BST. The link is below the paywall for my paid subs.

If you missed this call where we discussed the first half of the book from the beginning up to the end of Part Two and the chapter ‘Jealousy’ or haven’t joined up yet, fear not! Below is the full recording of our discussion as well as a downloadable PDF covering:

• Quotes and that stood out for us

• What resonated

• Any concepts that we found challenging

• What we are prepared to commit to trying out this month

• A list of helpful resources

WBC Bird by Bird Recording 1

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There is always another chapter…

Hello friends

It’s so lovely to have you here, thank you for joining my Lemon Soul community, you are so very welcome.

If you’re new here, let me tell you what to expect; and if you’ve been with me a while, thank you [I love you 🙏💕] and I really hope you stay. Let me tell you a bit about who I am, what Lemon Soul is all about and the exciting things that will be coming up in the next few months.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about what Lemon Soul is, what brings me here, and more importantly what brings you here. When I first started writing on Substack nearly three years ago, I wasn’t sure what I was really going to say, or who I was going to say it to. I described myself in my bio as ‘an air traffic controller who had a dramatic change of direction’, leaning on my former career as I didn’t yet have the confidence to describe myself any other way. You have responded to me and my words in the most gorgeous way, and this has grown into such a beautiful community with many ‘real life’ friendships.

Over the last year in particular, things have evolved significantly in my writing life. My first book, Breaking Waves, was traditionally published to 5-star acclaim and has been stocked in every Waterstones in the country. I’ve spent a year touring the length and breadth of the UK - from Devon to the Outer Hebrides, and sold thousands of hardbacks. My paperback was released last month in the UK.

I am also a writing mentor and creative writing judge. Having delivered highly successful seminars and creative writing workshops on topics such as ‘Writing Through the Senses’ and ‘Noticing the Seasons’, I have delighted in seeing others find the words within that they didn’t even know they had. Partnering with other brilliant writers like and has been a joy, and I was so honoured to be invited by Amy to become a judge and mentor for WRITE UP 🙏. We have gone on to create a sold-out writing retreat in Devon in October this year, and are already taking waitlist interest for next year. This has really made me reflect on what I offer as a writing mentor, and it is all around encouraging you to ‘Write from Within’. More on this below.

The upshot? I no longer describe myself as ‘a former air traffic controller’. It seems that there is indeed always another chapter.

So who am I, what lights me up, and what has Lemon Soul got for you?

Read on 🍋💕

Who am I and what lights me up?

Right folks, I’m going to own it:

I’m an award winning author and creative writing mentor, and my first book Breaking Waves: Discovery, Healing and Inspiration in the Open Water is available in bookshops up and down the UK as well as online across the globe. It tells of the profoundly healing nature of water as we navigate the ebb and flow of life, with stories gathered from around the world ranging from the taste of an iceberg to a kiss from a baby whale. At its heart lies my own story, and that of my brother who had his arms around me my whole life, until his life was tragically wrenched away. It is a tale of grief and love, hope and joy, and the extraordinary healing power of connecting with each other and with the natural world. It is a celebration of community, renewal, and the power of writing your own life story.

Here is a sample of what others say about it:

order BREAKING WAVES

I’ve also had a wonderful selection of endorsements from authors who I admire so much, including and - I’m so grateful for them taking the time to read the book and to share their thoughts.

When I’m not writing I am generally subsumed by parenting teenage daughters, jumping in the nearest available pond (the colder the better) or drinking tea with friends. I’m an eternal optimist and I live with my fire-fighter husband, our girls (who I call Taz and Fiver in my writing - not their real names), our neurotic rescue greyhound Bea, and a sixty-year-old tortoise🐢.

Taz (17) is my fiery, ginger whirlwind, named after the Warner Bros. Tasmanian Devil character - she blows noisily through life leaving carnage, hilarity and joy in her wake. A ball of cuddles, love and chaos, there is NEVER a dull moment and she takes my breath away. Fiver (19) is my Watership Down rabbit - a young woman with the wisdom of ages on her slender shoulders. Eyes the size of dinner plates, she is one who sees into your soul. A girl who is simultaneously terrified of the world whilst having the ability to save it. Having nearly died at birth she carries a marker of that which I can’t define yet I sense it in her every day. Himself is an international rescue worker which can lead to a strange existence as he comes in and out of girl world trading earthquake zones for the drama of a lost eyelash curler. It’s a delicate balance.

I’m a full time author and a qualified tea sommelier 🫖, and I never know quite where life is going to take me. My second book in progress - Chasing Ice - is all about the upcoming phase of family life as Fiver prepares to leave for university later this year. Taz will be just one year behind her, and then my decades of parenting will take on an entirely new shape. I’m writing about the fear and excitement of being on the precipice of a new future, and my dream of visiting and possibly working in Antarctica for a period of time. That is the ice that I’m chasing… Watch this space and check out my website for updates. Another chapter awaits.

Chilling; Me, Taz, Fiver & Himself; my brother who had his arm around me all his life; my previous life.

How does Lemon Soul make you feel? Your words

I think that perhaps you express it best - here is what you say about Lemon Soul and how you connect with the words and conversations that we share:

Join us on the sofa

So what actually is Lemon Soul and what will you receive?

Lemon Soul is an invitation into real author life - pips and all.

EVERYONE in my Lemon Soul community receives:

🍋 ENGAGING WRITING: Essays once or twice a month on topics with refreshing perspectives that will leave you feeling inspired, comforted and connected, and also possibly laughing out loud or shedding a quiet tear within a community that understands. From the weight of the mother’s load to the simplicity of the perfect roast potato, from dreams of Antarctica to the madness of Marrakech, from trying to make sense of a plane crash to wanting to remarry my husband. These are inspired by things in our every day, things in the news, things in our lives, but the common thread is the feelings that we share.

🍋 AUTHOR LIFE INSIGHT: Lemon Soul Slices - my regular-ish round ups on writing life, life on Walton’s Simpson’s Mountain, book news and my hot pick recommendations on what I’ve been reading/watching/listening to.

🍋 AUTHOR INTERVIEWS: the Lemon Soul Sessions - interviews with hugely inspirational (and often Sunday Times bestselling) authors and creatives. These are unscripted, unrehearsed and unedited - true conversations reflecting the diversity of writing life.

🍋 COMMUNITY: the joy of being in an engaged community where you feel heard, understood, and know that you are not alone.

The overwhelming feedback I receive is that I articulate feelings that you feel, but perhaps haven’t known how to express. This is a place of inspiration and connection with a whole load of heart. There is a lot of humour, and I’m fairly sweary, because amidst all of it sometimes you just need to laugh or say ‘fuck it’. Remember…

My Antarctic dream; our wedding; my roast potatoes

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My PAID Lemon Soul community 🙏💕 also receive:

🍋 MONTHLY LIVE CAFÉ CHATS: We meet online on a Wednesday morning, generally the third of the month, and we chit chat from our sofas on a topic chosen that month. We’ve talked about everything from neurodiversity to ancestry, storytelling to empty nests. 45 minutes, just us, a cuppa and a good old chat.

🍋 MONTHLY LIVE STORY TELLING CIRCLE: We have just started this up and it is so lovely - on the second Wednesday evening of the month we come together, light a candle and share stories inspired by prompts I give out in advance. It’s quite magical.

🍋 MONTHLY LIVE BOOK CLUB CALLS AND CREATIVE JOURNALS: This year we are exploring creativity together, reading a selection of excellent books on the craft of writing in The Writers’ Accountability Book Club. We discuss one book over a period of two months accompanied by 2 x Zoom discussions on each book, downloadable PDF creative journals and reflective summaries of what we learn, understand and gain each time. It’s a very special space.

🍋 THE INSIDE TRACK ON PUBLICATION: The Book Deal Diaries series tells the publication process as it really is, and how I went from Air Traffic Controller to Author with my first book published at the age of 51. I wrote this in real time as I experienced it, and this is definitely ‘pips and all’! It includes how I got an agent, the agent/author relationship, what the publication process actually involves, the book tour, they mystery surroundings sales figures and so much more.

🍋 VIDEO MASTERCLASS: on ‘How I Got a Book Deal’ with hints, tips and what I learned along the way.

🍋 EXCLUSIVE BOOK EXCERPTS: snippets of my books in progress are shared here - you will be the first to read some of Chasing Ice!

🍋 FULL LEMON SOUL ARCHIVES which includes over 200 essays as well as recordings of previous Lemon Soul Sessions with authors such as and more! We have had the best conversations.

🍋 PAID SUBSCRIBER ONLY CHAT

Lemon Soul café; Story Circle; Our Writerly Book Club

The New Chapter Club - Write from Within

Coming later in the year will be a very limited number of bespoke mentoring opportunities. I have worked as a coach and mentor for years, and love nothing more than supporting others in finding their sense of meaning and purpose, and to uncover those sparks that bring us creativity and joy.

I have never been taught how to write (beyond English GCSE), my words comes from within. They are born of the feelings and stories we hold inside, in what I see in the world around me, and perhaps most importantly in listening to the tales of others. Rather than a ‘how to write…’ or a ‘roadmap to publication’, this is an invitation to unlock your own voice, to start seeing stories in the everyday regardless of genre, and to build the self-belief to put your words on the page. And of course, this will all be wrapped in my personal expertise, empathy and encouragement.

You may be a new writer unsure how or where to begin, or an experienced writer seeking motivation, inspiration and accountability. We all experience our own limiting beliefs and I’d love to support you to a place where your creativity can flourish.

As I develop this offering, I’d love to hear what you would value most:

If you would like to be added to the waitlist for further information, please click here:

What’s coming up? Schedule and dates for 2026:

I will send out monthly reminders of what is happening in any given month, and here is the year overview which will be pinned to my homepage with all the dates, times and links:

[There will be NO Café or Story Circle in August but the Book Club will still run so the dates for the rest of the year look like this]:

MAY 2026

• Writerly Book Club ~ TUESDAY 26 MAY at 1800 UK Time

JUNE 2026

• Lemon Soul Story Circle ~ WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE at 1900 BST

• Lemon Soul Café ~ WEDNESDAY 17 JUNE at 1015 BST

• Writerly Club ~ TUESDAY 30 JUNE at 1800 BST

JULY 2026

• Lemon Soul Story Circle ~ WEDNESDAY 08 JULY at 1900 BST

• Lemon Soul Café ~ WEDNESDAY 15 JULY at 1015 BST

• Writerly Book Club ~ TUESDAY 28 JULY at 1800 BST

AUGUST 2026

• Writerly Book Club ~ TUESDAY 25 AUGUST at 1800 BST

SEPTEMBER 2026

• Lemon Soul Story Circle ~ WEDNESDAY 09 SEPTEMBER at 1900 BST

• Lemon Soul Café ~ WEDNESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER at 1015 BST

• Writerly Book Club ~ TUESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER at 1800 BST

OCTOBER 2026

• Lemon Soul Story Circle ~ WEDNESDAY 07 OCTOBER at 1900 BST

• Lemon Soul Café ~ WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER at 1015 BST

• Writerly Book Club ~ TUESDAY 27 OCTOBER at 1800 GMT [Note Clock Change!!]

NOVEMBER 2026

• Lemon Soul Story Circle ~ WEDNESDAY 11 NOVEMBER at 1900 GMT

• Lemon Soul Café ~ WEDNESDAY 18 NOVEMBER at 1015 GMT

• Writerly Book Club ~ TUESDAY 24 NOVEMBER at 1800 GMT

DECEMBER 2026

• Lemon Soul Story Circle ~ WEDNESDAY 09 DECEMBER at 1900 GMT

• Lemon Soul Café ~ WEDNESDAY 15 DECEMBER at 1015 GMT

• Writerly Book Club ~ TUESDAY 22 DECEMBER at 1800 GMT

In our December Book Club meet we’ll also have a little end of year celebration and chat about whether we’d like to extend the book club into next year (I have quite a few book suggestions already!!). It’ll be here before we know it…

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Do put the kettle on, and come on in.

Zoom Links

I have added the Zoom links for the Story Circle and Café as well as the Book Club Zoom below so they are easy to access. These are paywalled as these live sessions are for my paid subs only.

Thank you so much for being here, I can’t wait for our next chapter.

Love & lemons 💕🍋

Em xx

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I’m delighted to be hosting my next Lemon Soul Café this week for my paid subscriber community. This week’s chat is on Wednesday 20th May at 10.15am

Join me on my sofa for an informal and totally contained chat amongst friends. Bring a cuppa, cake, crochet, your cat - whatever makes you feel at home (although I’m not a cat person so I may invite my tortoise 🐢), as we chat through a topic which has been floating around in our minds or is inspired by something going on in the world.

This week, let’s talk about…

MEETING YOUR HEROES

In our world of social media, influencers and instant, transient fame, there are still those that truly transcend. What does it take these days to be elevated to such a status, and what do we look for in those we admire? Have you ever met one of your ‘heroes’? Or a Head of State, or someone considered an ‘icon’? How did it feel? And why do we seek these moments in their presence? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

There’s no agenda and no judgment, whatever your view we can talk through anything and everything. No-one will be forced to speak, called upon or put in a Zoom room (!!), so you can come along and just listen if that’s how you feel on the day.

Just bring yourselves and we’ll curl up on our respective sofas for a good old natter for about 45 mins.

The regular Zoom link is below, and I cannot wait for us to spend this time together 🫶

See you on Wednesday,

Love & lemons 💕🍋

Em xx

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Writing Life

I started writing this post in January… and here I am finally publishing it four months later - how does that happen? I think that’s probably the best summary of writing life I can give… it’s unpredictable, busy, and I never quite know what’s going to come along…!

Having wrapped up the 2025 Breaking Waves Book Tour with a fabulous event at The Kendal Mountain Festival, 2026 has been a lot more gentle on the touring front. I’ve done a couple of low key events and have been working away on Book 2 (more on that below), but one thing that was very exciting to be involved in was this gorgeous film for International Women’s Day:

I’ve also been working with the brilliant and as a creative writing judge and mentor, and our first Writers’ Retreat sold out in less than a week. We’re hosting eight fabulous writers at various stages of their writing journeys in a stunning cluster of cottages in Appledore, Devon, in October. There will be good food, great company, mentoring, creative seminars, private writing space and the option to dip in sea pools and take coastal walks, I cannot wait. If you are interested in future retreats do let me know and we’ll add you to the waitlist!

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Me, he, Fiver and Taz - the latest from Walton’s Simpson’s Mountain

Well as I write this, I am cowering in our spare room watching the Eurovision Song Contest as my youngest, Taz, is having a party and there are 55 seventeen year olds currently marauding through our house. I’m not quite sure what planet I was on when I agreed to this - teenage girls have a decibel level and pitch that I’m not sure even dogs can hear… It’s lovely to see them let their hair down in the midst of exams, mocks, pre-uni prep and all that goes with that, but OMG the floors… the mess…the noise…

And breathe…

Himself and I have had an extraordinary couple of weeks, as having written about what it’s like being married to a superhero here, there have since been a flurry of events in recognition of his humanitarian service - including a Buckingham Palace Garden Party which I reflected on here. It’s been an absolute whirlwind of posh frocks and extraordinary venues - definitely not what our life is normally like!! The best part of it all has been to see our rescue workers and those that literally put their lives on the line to save others being recognised in this way. Am a very proud Mrs (Marge) Simpson ❤️

I also managed to get us tickets to the Royal Albert Hall for Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday event which was such an utter joy. It’s been very surreal as I’m normally in my pyjamas by 9pm watching Race Across the World with a cup of tea.

I have to say… the Palace did serve the best cucumber sandwich I’ve ever had. And now I need to go to bed for a month.

Meanwhile our sixty-year-old tortoise is very much out of hibernation and making up for months without food, and our new baby, Queen Bea, is settling in to sofa life brilliantly. I think she may even feature in a future book…

Substack Life

My Substack

I have absolutely loved my Substack community this year. Having launched the Writerly Book Club at the beginning of the year, we are now on our third book of six. We started with Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’, then Natalie Goldberg’s ‘Writing Down the Bones’. Off the back of some of our discussions on that book we have just had our first ‘Lemon Soul Story Circle’ which was a gorgeous gathering this week of story telling. Just pure sharing stories and listening - such a heartwarming way to spend time. Come and join us!

We’re now reading Anne Lamott’s ‘Bird by Bird’ which is an absolute gem.

In my Lemon Soul Sessions, I’ve had the most incredible conversations with and . This month I will be chatting with the fabulous and I look forward to sharing that with you.

On Lemon Soul, I have written about everything from doing a DNA test to meeting the King, the tragic Swiss Bar fire to the Mother’s Load. If any are in archive and paywalled and you would like to read them and are unable to become a paid subscriber at this time, just let me know and I’ll send you a coupon 🫶

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Substacks I love

This month I have been thoroughly enjoying these writers:

- her Substack ‘Living Danishly’ began as a newsletter on all things Danish, and having returned to her native UK, Helen writes just as engagingly on a whole variety of topics from back ‘home’. The influence of living Danishly shines through her writing, which is warm, observant, intelligent and well just really darn interesting. Highly recommend.

- Claire’s Substack is all about the beauty and power of storytelling - a subject very close to my own heart! Claire and I go to the same writing group online several mornings a week - the Heartleap writing hour, and it’s been so lovely to read and discover more about Claire’s imagination, ideas and the incredible connections she forges through shared stories and magical adventures.

Book Life - Breaking Waves

I had my year anniversary since the launch of Breaking Waves last March, and the paperback came out in April. It is just so cute, a little button of a book. Here is my ‘unboxing’ vid. It’s been much quieter on the touring front with some very special events including talking at the gorgeous ‘At The Chapel’ in Bruton in Somerset in conversation with , a talk at the Ocean Advocate Summit, and a partnership with the International Women’s Day Big Swim 2026. My last two events are approaching - a talk at The Big Retreat Festival in Pembrokeshire next weekend and finishing up very appropriately at The Great North Swim in Windermere in June. Do let me know if you’re going to be at either of those 🫶

Book Life - Chasing Ice

Well this has been quite a ride… Having decided to put my tea book, ‘The Purple Vine Teahouse’ on the back-burner for now because sometimes you just can’t make the story work, ‘Chasing Ice’ has become my next focus. Chasing Ice is a braided memoir about being on the cusp of a new future as my daughters are soon to fly the nest. This is entwined with my dream to go to Antarctica (as longer time followers will know!) and how it feels to be standing on the shores of parallel futures. It’s about coming to terms with my identity after two decades of mothering, and daring to allow myself to dream of a freedom I can barely remember. My book proposal is complete and with my agent… and I hope to have an update soon…

My recommendations:

Amidst all of that, here are some of the highlights of what I’ve been reading, watching and listening to over the few months:

Reading

Books I’ve read:

Alongside our Writerly Book Club reading I’ve found that I’ve had remarkably little time for fiction reading recently - something I very much hope to remedy. I did, however, read one quite exceptional book - The Names by Florence Knapp. A number-one Sunday Times Bestseller it is described as ‘the best debut novel in years’ and ‘a once-in-a-generation debut’. The premise is about a young boy being born into a family, and as the mother and young daughter go to the registry office to register his name, the book splits into three. In one thread, the boy is named in the family tradition as requested by the father, in another the boy is given a name that the mother loves, and in the final thread, the boy is named by his sister - as ‘Bear’. I won’t say anymore except that it is an exceptional read, highly original and so very moving.

Next up I’ve downloaded The Barbecue at No. 9 which I cannot WAIT to read - I loved the audio of The List of Suspicious Things so much that I’ve gone for audio again this time. I’ve also downloaded Judge Stone by James Patterson and Viola Davis - it’s been years since I’ve read any of his and I’ve got some long car journeys coming up so I’m looking forward to that, and also The Women by Kristin Hannah which I’ve wanted to read for AGES.

I’d love to hear if you’ve read or listened to any of these already?

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Watching

I’ve been doing a bit of a box set binge - which probably accounts for my lack of book reading… My absolute faves have been: Dept Q - a new twist on the ‘burnt out cop with a traumatic past’ genre, with a cast including Matthew Goode, Kelly Macdonald and Mark Bonner. Brilliant characterisation and the most chilling storyline imaginable - utterly compelling. Then there’s The Bear. I’ve finally dived into the chaotic Chicago eatery series, and it oscillates between being a joy to watch and being almost unbearable to watch! ‘That’ Christmas double-bill episode with Jamie-Lee Curtis as the fabulously neurotic, alcoholic matriarch is one of the most intense hours of TV I’ve ever watched as the dialogue is out of control - I cannot even begin to imagine how that was scripted. That said, it is also incredibly intelligent and perceptive, and I watched that episode twice just to try and keep up with the experience (although I know a lot of people were totally put off the rest of the series by it). The characters are warm, troubled, complex and full of heart. I don’t want to work with any of them or be friends with any of them but by God I love watching them.

My absolute favourite though has been the very hotly tipped The Pitt. Starring Noah Wyle of E.R. fame, it follows one fifteen-hour shift in an E.R., with each episode being one hour of ‘real time’ à la 24. Exceptional scripting and acting with a couple of characters you cannot help but fall in love with. This is alongside the edge-of-your-seat dynamic of a high pressure context which is portrayed superbly. Definitely my highlight of the year so far.

From a documentary perspective, Channel 4’s Dirty Business is jaw-dropping on a subject very close to my heart. It examines the criminal state of our waterways and how despicably the water companies in the UK have been behaving over the last couple of decades. The tragic death of a young girl through e-coli poisoning from paddling on a beach underpins the episodes. It is heart-breaking, anger-inducing and absolutely essential watching. There has also been a run of documentaries on entertainment stars from Boyzone to Charlie Sheen, none of which inspire me to ever want that kind of ‘success’. It appears to just leave a legacy of destruction.

In the cinema I’ve also been pretty busy with The Housemaid (entertaining fluff), Marty Supreme (excellent), Hamnet (extraordinary acting but so depressing) and last week I watched Michael (great music scenes but risible for its ‘non’ storyline and well publicised avoidance of anything else about his life).

Listening

Podcasts

I have done a LOT of pods on my dog walks these past couple of months. I’ve listened to two on The Salt Path. The Observer’s The Walkers is quite brilliant. It follows the outstanding investigation headed by Chloe Hadjimatheou and it’s pretty damning. The BBC’s Secrets of the Salt Path doesn’t really add much so I’d go with the original investigation.

I then segued into two other mind boggling tales of deception: Dangerous Memories and Carrie Jade Does Not Exist. The former, a chilling tale of a ‘fake’ psychotherapist and the damage she has done, and evidently continues to do, once inside the hearts and minds of her predominantly young, rich, female clients. It’s quite extraordinary. Carrie Jade is superbly narrated by Sue Perkins and follows a woman with multiple personas and a tangled web you couldn’t make up. Both very compelling.

On the darker side I also listened to two brilliant true crime pods. West Cork follows the investigation of the murder of a French woman in rural Ireland. The subsequent investigation and bizarre behaviour of the prime suspect are something to behold. My latest listen is set in an equally remote and mysterious rural setting - The Anglesey Vampire Killer. In this one we find out fairly quickly who is responsible for the ritualistic killing of a 90-year-old woman, and this seeks to understand why, and also examines the impact of the horrific crime on this small community. Fascinating stuff.

Podcasts I’ve been on

Finally, I was delighted to be invited onto Yorkie Talkies podcast where host Emma and I had a good old natter about all things adventure, creativity and confidence. It was so lovely to chat about the magic that happens when we open ourselves up to new experiences and the people we meet along the way.

I think that’s about it for this time!! Phew it’s been a LOT, but such wonderful experiences. Thank you for being alongside me 🙏💕

There is never a dull moment!

I’d love to hear if you’ve seen or read any of the above, what has piqued your interest, and what your favourite recommendations are too.

Leave a comment

As always…

Love & lemons 💕🍋

Em xxx

You can order my 5-star rated book BREAKING WAVES: Discovery, Healing and Inspiration in the Open Water here:

Order BREAKING WAVES

“Inspirational, original, beautiful. One of my favourite books this year.”

For access to the inside track on the book publication process (what it’s REALLY like) read my dedicated Book Deal Diaries series. This includes the ultimate VIDEO MASTERCLASS ‘From Book Inception to Book Deal Moment’.

Paid subscribers have access to this and the full Lemon Soul archives.

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We are all storytellers

I believe that we are all hard wired for stories - to tell them, to listen to them, to share them. Maybe not all of those three, and maybe not all of the time, but stories are how we pass on and validate what it means to be human. How we connect, how we understand and feel understood, how we learn and grow, how we know what to fear and what to seek out.

Humans have shared stories since time immemorial, passing down wisdom, bias, knowledge, myths or legends from generation to generation. Ensuring legacy, empowerment, inspiring the will to change, and binding us together under a collective spell.

Some of my own most powerful memories are of gathering with girlfriends in my teenage years, lighting candles and telling ghost stories in the dark. Even though we often scared ourselves witless, something magical happened in those moments. I wrote recently about the power of storytelling here.

The Lemon Soul Story Circle

While discussing the book ‘Writing Down the Bones’ by Natalie Goldberg with our Writerly Book Club last week, we all took a pause on the chapter ‘A Story Circle’. In it, Natalie describes how she would invite friends to gather at her home. They would sit in a circle on the floor, light a candle, and Natalie would give a prompt such as ‘Describe a time you were really happy’, or ‘Tell us about a place you really love’, and then one by one, they would go round the circle and share their stories and listen. The impact was profound.

We all agreed this sounded like such a lovely way to spend some time, and so the Lemon Soul Story Circle was born, and you are all invited. Starting this Wednesday 13th May at 7pm UK time we will gather online and share stories. We’ll all find our own comfy space with a tea, hot chocolate or perhaps a glass of wine, light a candle to bring us all into a shared sense of atmosphere, and tell stories based on the prompts given below. I’ve provided a couple of prompts in case we have time to go around the circle more than once, depending on how many people are able to come. As Natalie says ‘once the stories begin, they are all the enchantment you would want’.

We won’t interrupt each other or offer critique or feedback, we will simply listen 🫶

I can’t wait.

The prompts and the Zoom link are below for my paid subs. See you there? 💕

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“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

~ Bird by Bird

Welcome to Book Three:

Oh I am so excited to be starting on this book - it’s the one I’ve been looking forward to the most, and I think it’s because when I have dipped in and out of it, it has instantly captivated me. It is humorous, highly relatable and I’m sure packed full of invaluable advice. I can’t wait to see how it builds upon everything we have already learned with our first two Writerly Book Club books: Stephen King’s On Writing and Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones.

I’ve started listening to it on audio already, and as I walked the dog this morning, listening to this made me catch my breath:

For me, this is a ‘You had me at ‘Hello’’ moment.

If you’ve started reading Bird by Bird already, I’d love to know how you’re finding it and how you feel it compares to our first two books. If you’re new to the book club, we have two live calls per book so that we can read over the course of two months, giving us time and space to read, absorb and reflect. Full details of the Writerly Book Club, and how we will be learning together throughout the year can be found here.

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Our first Zoom discussion on Bird by Bird will be on Tuesday 26th May at 1800 BST (UK time), with our second one on Tuesday 30 June at 1800 BST. Mark the dates in the diary and I’ll post the Zoom details below. Do come along and join the conversation whichever stage you are at. Here we will chat through some of our favourite quotes and ideas, what resonates with us, any surprises or lightbulb moments, and also anything that just doesn’t quite chime. We will also discuss which ideas or techniques might support our own writing practice, and hold ourselves gently accountable for incorporating that practice in between our meetings.

If you’re not able to make the call please do put any comments and thoughts on our subscriber chat or send them to me, and the live session will be recorded and available for you all. If you don’t manage to read the book at all I will be sending out creative downloadable journals to prompt thought, along with reflective summaries at the end of each book incorporating all the best nuggets we have discovered.

You can come in and out at any time and have everything you need to participate - this book club will meet you wherever you are. Although, I do encourage you to stay on track with it as much as you can - a little bit of accountability goes a long way and we will get such a lot out of learning together.

Here is the link to the subscriber chat, do join us:

Introduction to BOOK 3: Anne Lamott ~ Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life.

So why this book and why now?

This book centres on emotional resilience and the writer’s inner life - her honesty and relatability regarding the ‘messiness’ of writing life really struck me. Having begun our book club with tools, rules, form and structure with On Writing before moving onto the much more philosophical perspective presented in Writing Down the Bones, this book feels like a good sit down with a well informed and reassuringly sweary friend. A friend who takes no nonsense, laughs a lot, and makes you feel like this writing malarkey might actually be possible. Having experienced two very differing approaches to the craft of writing, this allows us to take stock and look at our own writing lives. The key elements include:

• Taking writing step by step

• Shitty first drafts

• Perfectionism

• Managing comparison & envy

• The writer’s ego & vulnerability

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Anne Lamott is both a novelist and non-fiction writer, as well as a political activist and creative writing teacher. This book is described as:

With its wry style and earthy humour, it promises to be funny, humane, highly informative and deeply reassuring. With much of the writing advice wrapped in stories, this book teaches the craft of writing through personal anecdotes, family stories and hard-won lessons. AND…it is this book that coined the now infamous concept of the ‘shitty first draft.’ I think we can all relate to that! Her advice on technical aspects such as character, plot, dialogue and overcoming writer’s block is grounded in compassion. With Anne’s warmth and guidance presiding over rigidity and rules I think this will be an absolute treat.

For our first meeting in May, the aim is to try and read Parts One and Two: WRITING and THE WRITING FRAME OF MIND. For the month of June we will continue with Part Three, Four and Five: HELP ALONG THE WAY, PUBLICATION - AND OTHER REASONS TO WRITE and THE LAST CLASS.

Bird by Bird Writery Book Club Journal and Zoom Link

Attached is the third Writerly Book Club Creative Journal for you to download and print out. At the end of the year I will amalgamate all of these into one ‘takeaway’ but please do use this to prompt thoughts and make notes and scribbles as we go along.

I can’t wait to discuss this book with you! There are some reflective questions to ponder prior to our call and some discussion prompts to spark our imagination when we meet. We will also have plenty of time for ‘free’ discussion on the learnings we have found most meaningful. I have included a few optional activities that we can work on as we read through.

[I will also be sending something out later today about our first Lemon Soul Story Circle this Wednesday 13th May at 1900 BST - watch this space 🥰]

Writerly Book Club Journal 3: BIRD BY BIRD

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The actual King. King Charles III, the King of the United Kingdom. (As I write that it has only just occurred to me that we call it a ‘Kingdom’ and not a ‘Queendom’ but I digress)…

Himself had received an invitation to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party in honour of his humanitarian work in International Search and Rescue, and I tag…

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‘Writing is the act of burning through the fog in your mind’

Natalie Goldberg ~ Writing Down the Bones

Our second WBC call - reflections and learnings

This week we had our second WBC live Zoom call together for the Natalie Goldberg book: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within.

There is so much that came through in reading this book, and we started our call this time considering ‘WHY’ we write? Natalie gives some great examples!

We went into breakout rooms and came up with our own reasons why we write - it’s all on the recording and downloadable PDF below - it was such an interesting exercise to really consider what brings us to the page. This book also focuses on clarity, detail, specificity and trusting in our own voice - hence the prompt to ‘answer with clear, assertive statements’!

This is the second book in our Book Club series, and the focus here is very different from Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ which we looked at previously. Natalie’s focus is very much on feeling the experience of writing rather than the technical aspects of writing such as form, plot, structure. She encourages us to find the freedom in our writing, to trust in our own voice, and to consciously develop our own practice of writing.

At the end of each session I encourage everyone to consider what would feel like a meaningful creative shift through the learnings we are gaining, and to notice ‘what is shifting for you’ at each stage. In this call, I was so happy to hear book club members describe their creative shift as:

• changing how I view and notice the world around me and to bring that into my writing

• really learning how to hone my craft

• starting to think of myself as a writer’ and feeling it’s becoming ‘what I do’

• embracing the possibility of being ‘more of a writer’, and to think that ‘perhaps I could…possibly…write something more’

• that ‘I’m reading like a writer’

YESSS!!!! I could not be more delighted than to hear all of these responses!!

Reading, writing, and sharing our experiences together is proving SO significant.

Think you could benefit from this? Join us - it’s never too late and you will be so very welcome. All the previous recordings, notes and downloadable PDFs are available to my paid subs, and we are only 1/3 of the way through so there is much more to come.

Our thoughts on the book

Overall this book has impacted the way that we THINK about our writing, rather than our craft of writing. It has caused us to perhaps notice things in a different way, and to test our own ways and methods of writing practice in order to release limitations. It is in many ways antithetical to traditional ‘advice’ on how to practice writing: showing up regularly, setting writing targets, finding a writing space… but it is based in Zen Buddhist philosophies and so approaches how we embrace a writing life from a very different perspective.

It is not about guidance or tools per se, it is about turning up to the page in a way that will bring creative freedom and help you to find your own way to the page. There are some great nuggets of guidance which we discuss on the calls, but largely it is about freedom, writing without aim, and more than anything - trusting in our own voice.

One really gorgeous and unexpected thing that came out of this was learning about Natalie’s ‘Story Circles’, where people come together, light a candle, and just tell stories on a particular theme or idea. We chatted about this on the call and I am going to hold some bonus ‘Lemon Soul Story Circle’ sessions where we can do exactly that: just show up, share stories, and practice one of the most ancient and enduring ways in which we connect as humans.

The first ‘Lemon Soul Story Circle’ date options along with the full recording of this chat and the downloadable PDFs are below the paywall for my paid subs.

So what’s next?

From May until the end of June we will be focusing on the third book in this Book Club series: BIRD BY BIRD - Instructions on Writing and Life by . I am very excited about this one having had a sneaky peak previously - it’s going to be brilliant.

We will begin with parts One and Two: WRITING and THE WRITING FRAME OF MIND - from ‘Getting Started’ to ‘Jealousy’. The remainder of the book will be our focus for the month of June.

The first Zoom discussion for BIRD BY BIRD will be on Tuesday 26 May, with the second call on Tuesday 30 June.

The Zoom details for BIRD BY BIRD are below alongside the recording for our WRITING DOWN THE BONES discussion, the PDF summarising the key learnings from that book, and the poll to choose the best date for our forthcoming Story Circle!

Come along - you are so very welcome 💕

WBC Writing Down the Bones Recording 2

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Tomorrow is the paperback launch of my first book, Breaking Waves, and I have…or had… planned to mark it by spending the day at a writing retreat with and friends, working on my second book and then having a celebratory drink afterwards. A day to focus on that one thing, and to spend it in writerly world.

To say the launch of a book …

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Join me on my sofa for an informal and totally contained chat amongst friends. Bring a cuppa, cake, crochet, your cat - whatever makes you feel at home (although I’m not a cat person so I may invite my tortoise 🐢), as we chat through a topic which has been floating around in our minds or is inspired by something going on in the world.

This week, let’s talk about…

COMMUNITY

I have been reflecting a lot recently on why I have felt so untethered…and I think it comes down to community as I wrote about here. I feel that being part of a community or communities is critical to our social wellbeing, and I have enjoyed many different ones over the years, from the workplace to the lake, toddler groups to crochet. Recently, however, I have noticed that a lot of them have fallen away - not through any active intent, but because we naturally transition in and out of communities, and life circumstances change. Thinking about it has inspired me to re-engage and to build up this invaluable source of social support again.

I would love to chat about this with you, my amazing Lemon Soul community. One that has become so important to me, thank you 🙏

Come and join us on the sofa with a cuppa on Wednesday at 1015 UK time. How important is community in your life? Which communities do you turn to for support? Which have fallen away and how does that feel?

There’s no agenda and no judgment, whatever your view we can talk through anything and everything. No-one will be forced to speak, called upon or put in a Zoom room (!!), so you can come along and just listen if that’s how you feel on the day.

Just bring yourselves and we’ll curl up on our respective sofas for a good old natter for about 45 mins.

The regular Zoom link is below, and I cannot wait for us to spend this time together 🫶

See you on Wednesday,

Love & lemons 💕🍋

Em xx

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On Thursday we had our first WBC live Zoom call together for the Natalie Goldberg book: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. I think it’s safe to say it’s pretty different from our first book club book - Stephen King’s On Writing!

It’s a gorgeous book, and largely we found this one much more accessible and open to different ways of approaching the craft of writing. The way the book is structured is a series of ‘vignettes’ rather than chapters, each conveying a message. Her philosophies are rooted in Zen buddhism and it almost feels like a book of mini fables. All of us found different pieces that really resonated, and we had such a wonderful discussion about these points.

Think you could benefit from this? Join us - it’s not too late and you will be so very welcome.

From now until the end of April we will be reading the second half of WRITING DOWN THE BONES. The aim is to read from the chapter ‘Make Statements and Answer Questions’ to the end of the book and our April Live Zoom Discussion will be on Tuesday 28 Apr UK time (BST post UK clock change!). The link is below the paywall for my paid subs.

If you missed this call where we discussed the first half of the book from the beginning up to ‘Being an Animal’ or haven’t joined up yet, fear not! Below is the full recording of our discussion as well as a downloadable PDF covering:

• Quotes and that stood out for us

• What resonated

• What concepts were challenging

• What we are prepared to commit to trying out this month

• A list of helpful resources

WBC Writing Down the Bones Recording 1

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I talk about community a lot, it is one of the most vital things to me. I wrote an entire book about it… (Breaking Waves is out for paperback pre-order now just in case you weren’t aware, and it is so pocket sized and cute!! 💙)

Buy Breaking Wave here

I have been lucky for most of my adult life to have been surrounded by amazing communities…but currently, thi…

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Mr Incredible

I started drafting this piece at the end of January while my husband was in Mozambique coordinating flood rescue, for catastrophic floods that most of us didn’t even realise were happening. That particular week the news was filled with the latest goings on in the Beckham household and what I had then termed ‘the Madness of King Trump’ with …

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I’m delighted to be hosting my next Lemon Soul Café this week for my paid subscriber community. This week’s chat is on WEDNESDAY 18th MARCH at 10.15am.

Join me on my sofa for an informal and totally contained chat amongst friends. Bring a cuppa, cake, crochet, your cat - whatever makes you feel at home (although I’m not a cat person so I may invite my tortoise 🐢), as we chat through a topic which has been floating around in our minds or is inspired by something going on in the world.

This week, let’s talk about…

STORYTELLING

In difficult times, stories help us make sense of chaos. They give shape to what we’re feeling, remind us we’re not alone, and sometimes even show us a way forward. In this live zoom chat, we’ll talk about why crafting and sharing stories matters so much when things feel uncertain, and how the stories we tell can help people carry what feels too heavy to hold alone.

Come and join us on the sofa with a cuppa on Wednesday at 1015 UK time. What role have stories played in your life? Do you have tales that have been passed down through your family or community? How influenced are you by the stories around you? And how can we rewrite our own stories…

There’s no agenda and no judgment, whatever your view we can talk through anything and everything. No-one will be forced to speak, called upon or put in a Zoom room (!!), so you can come along and just listen if that’s how you feel on the day.

Just bring yourselves and we’ll curl up on our respective sofas for a good old natter for about 45 mins.

The regular Zoom link is below, and I cannot wait for us to spend this time together 🫶

See you on Wednesday,

Love & lemons 💕🍋

Em xx

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I’m sitting writing this on International Women’s Day 2026, in Alnwick in Northumberland - the story capital of the North East. For the third time I have had the pleasure of coming up here to be surrounded by the magic of storytelling and good friends at the Alnwick Storyfest. I have been reflecting for some time on the wonder of stories, ho…

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