Esther Wilding is written!

In March, I finished my first draft of The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding. I’d planned a break by the sea where I grew up, to sleep, swim, listen to country and recover from the toll the novel had taken. 48 hours after I finished the manuscript, Sam and I got Covid and we went into isolation.

Once we came out of isolation and I felt well enough, my first outing was to print Esther in her entire tangible form. There were tears in Officeworks.

Afterwards we went to Bundjalung sea country, where I grew up. My bones sang with gratitude. Writing this book throughout the last 18 months has been beautiful, and it has been…hard. Often while I was writing I listened to Emily Wurramara’s Black Smoke. Her velvet voice and music became ritual at my desk. ‘Everything will be alright. If you let go.’

I can say it now that I know it, now that she exists and is alive, whole, written: friends, The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding will be in bookstores around Australia and New Zealand, September 30 2022.

Thanks for being on this ride with me.

Wherever you are, I hope you and everyone you love are okay. And to anyone dragging their heart through the last few years, through all of fear’s trappings, to show up and make something from nothing, I’m cheering you on. Step by step by step.

✨🌊 🐚 🦢 🦭 🧜🏻‍♀️ 🌸

#TheSevenSkinsOfEstherWilding #OnBundjalungCountry #JoyIsAnActOfResistance