Meet the author - Emma Steele

Well, hello and welcome to our little substack about writing while being a mum. Becs and I have been talking about doing this for a long time, but I suppose classically, we were just so busy juggling the chaos of writing and mum life already that we kept delaying. In fact, both of us said yesterday that we could write this post but around our editing too and childcare, so it would have to be swift!

A little info about me, I’m mum of two gorgeous girls, Flora (9) and Daisy (6) and I’m married to Ben, a level headed, funny guy, who keeps me sane because he is NOT a writer, thank god. I used to work as a lawyer in Edinburgh but I’d always wanted to write books. It wasn’t until I had my first child at thirty that I finally looked around and went – what was it I wanted to do again? Long story short, I set off on a big writing quest to figure out the industry (something I’m still doing today) and I published my debut hardback, The Echoes of Us, in Germany in 2023 and in the UK in 2024. It’s recently come out in paperback here too and it’s been optioned by Amazon for a movie. My second book is coming out in September. But that doesn’t mean that the whole thing has been plain sailing for me, and particularly around caring for children and a home.

I’m also in the process of moving house as it happens (joys!) so in between writing, the kids, I’m also constantly decluttering or emailing builders or chatting to estate agents. Someone is viewing our property this week amidst big edits, we have to paint the woodwork this evening, I also have a cold and half term is looming. I’m literally writing edits while my husband calls asking if he should get the “white mist” or “cornflower” paint. My heart rate is high. And I think that’s all a bit of a metaphor with writing really – it’s a chaotic trying to build a writing career at the best of times, but with kids, there are added challenges.

And I guess that’s the purpose of this whole substack, shining a light on how two mums manage to also write books in practise. The day-to-day nitty gritty stuff – the screaming tantrums when you’re trying to work out the protagonist’s “mirror moment”. We will also post up guides to demystify the publishing industry as we go too, starting with a beat sheet next week.

But for now, hope you’ve enjoyed reading about us and looking forward to posting more!

Emma