I’ve wanted to be an author since I was a wee one sitting in my painted, wooden rocking chair pretending to read a work that I had memorized. I don’t fully remember the plot line, but it involved two characters named Jack and Jill and mountain climbing.

The never vague part was how I jonesed for the writing/reading experience, how much I never strayed or wavered on my love for the feel and promise of a book in my hands.

My first full book, A Spork in the Road, was published this spring by Epic-Carteret Books, an imprint of Planck Length Publishing.

The journey from manu to pub has been fraught with the bumpiness of time and turbulence. I first wrote my original book in 2009. It was 75,000 words. The title was Wake Up, Baby. I shopped it with agents. A lot of them. They are elusive and moody creatures, those agents –hard to capture. Two bit into my samplings. None signed on for a committed relationship.

This went on for the next sixteen years.

Content came and went. My blog got traction.

Titles entered, evolved, and exited.

Life is a Big Sixth Grade.

The South Side of Forty. 

Dream-storm.

The South Side of Fifty. 

The North Side of Sixty. 

Not Dead Just Yet.

In 2023, I went back to the basics, drilling into the what and why of having a book. I hunkered down in writing groups. I dove down into Carteret Writers. I wrote and edited, rinsed, repeated.

What? Still a collections of creative non-fiction essays.

Why? To share my story with the intention of shining a light for others. Life is hard and there’s hope in the hanging on.

Which is why after sixteen years, I got booked. Praise the Lawd, it happened.

As is the tendency in our household, my grown-up kids have nicknamed the book, Sporky. She’s already a family member and we are happy to have her in legit printed form. It’s a moment of joy and like most of life, it’s fleeting. The world asks, “So what? Now what?”

And my answer is the same it’s been since my teensy rocking chair days, “More books, please.”

Catch Emily this Thursday 5/15 at the Bogue Banks Public Library at 4-6pm