Buy my books
You can buy them at all good bookstores. For example, Time Out in Mt Eden, Ekor Bookshop & Cafe or Unity Books or Scorpio Books in Christchurch. If you can’t get to a bookstore, order it online here.
Or you can get it as an E-book through Apple, Amazon Kindle and Kobo.
Reviews
The Spinoff (Michele A'Court):
“Emily writes with a warmth and honesty that pulls you in, making her stories feel deeply personal and utterly relatable.” The Spinoff
NZ Herald (Louise Ward):
“A beautiful book that is full of love and joy and mess and terror... transparently honest... heart‑warming, funny and open—a reassuring hug of a book.” NZ Herald
Booksellers NZ (Sarah Forster):
“Everything about parenting suddenly made sense… she knows how to build the community she wants to see… ‘advice‑free zone.’… short, cleverly formatted pieces.” Booksellers NZ
NZ Booklovers (Rebekah Fraser):
“This village will be a friend in those long days... hilarious, hair‑raising, and heart‑breaking, but above all, brilliant and amazing.” nzbooklovers
The New Zealand Listener:
To call what Writes writes “rants” is reductive. This first book is a celebration of childhood and community, and most of all, of motherhood. It is packed with cliché-free tributes – to her husband and her kids’ crèche teachers, to her midwives and her online “village”. Other pieces are gorgeous, prosaic fly-on-the-yogurt-smeared-wall snapshots of family life. Small people and small moments matter. Here’s one piece in its entirety: “Goodnight, my sweet little sausage.” “I AM NOT A SAUSAGE I AM AN LIDDLE BOY CALL EDDIE YOU STOP DAT NOW.”
Then there’s the satire. She nails it. From an essay called Natural Parenting: “I’m on a mainly grass diet. I have grass in the morning and at lunchtime and at night. Grass is paleo, so you’re really safe using it as your main food group. But it really needs to be grass-fed grass.”
Babywearing with Jess
It is not hard to see what has resonated in Emily’s writing. Far too much of parenting now days can feel like barrages of often conflicting advice or pressure – if only on ourselves from ourselves sometimes, to do the best we can as parents.
Emily takes a fresh, humorous and enlightened approach to relating to these real aspects without the bullshit of how to fix it. More so than that, it is uplifting, compelling and a relatable, real story of her experiences in parenting that many would enjoy. - Babywearing with Jess
The Best Nest
Rants in the Dark will find audiences among mothers, obviously, but I think there is a great read in here for anyone who themselves HAS a Mum, or knows a Mum, or is married to a Mum. Emily gives us short, snappy, witty vignettes that don’t bog you down with the oft-mundane minutiae that is #MumLife, rather, these details are woven into beautiful accounts of how, at the end of the day (or in the early hours of the morning!) we can still love it all, and be ready to repeat these days over and over again.
For 18 years or so.
Buy it, read it, love it, lend it. - The Best Nest
NZ Booklovers (Rebekah Lyell):
“Her vulnerability and resilience... gives parents and whānau reassurance that they are not alone... funny, sad, thoughtful and inspiring... she has your back.” nzbooklovers
Happy Mum Happy Child (Maria Foy):
“She’s a no‑bullshit kind of person… It made me nod a lot; it made me laugh a lot… I’ve never connected with a book like I have with this… She is my people.” Rated 5/5. Happy Mum Happy Child
Mandy:
“Emily Writes is a very funny writer. Her blog posts frequently make me laugh til I cry… I found myself crying almost as often. The writing about having a sick baby… made me sob not‑so‑quietly into my pillow.” Goodreads
Kate:
“I wish Emily Writes had been around when mine were babies!” Goodreads
Jessica:
“I have to say this is the best non‑judgemental and advice‑free zoned book I have ever read… I am now going to check her blog regularly as I think she is amazing :)” Goodreads
Melissa:
“Amazing, hilarious, thoughtful and so so very relatable.” Goodreads
Caryn:
“Solid 5-star read. An absolute delight to read, equal parts funny and deeply moving. It put into words many of my own feelings about parenting.” Goodreads
Jasmine:
“The warm hug every mum needs. One of those hugs that makes you feel understood and safe… laugh and cry happy tears again!” Goodreads
Here's the speech that Gem Wilder gave at the book launch.
When Emily was pregnant with her delicious ham child, she was a wreck. Aside from incessant vomiting, she was incredibly anxious. About many things, but one of her anxieties, which those of you who have more than one child may recognise, was the worry that she might not love this child as much as she loved her firstborn, Eddie. If you know Emily the idea that she not have enough love to share with a new baby is absolutely ridiculous, but pregnancy and hormones and brains create weird vortexes of emotions.
Our friends rallied around her, reassuring her that she would love this baby, that she was a good mother, that she could do this. We reminded her that we would be there, loving her babies alongside her.
And then we got to work, making a quilt so that Ham could have a physical manifestation of the love we wanted to wrap him in. We are not professional sewers by any stretch, but I’m proud of the custom creation we pieced together.
One side was an homage to Emily’s true bogan heart. It features leopard prints and skulls, and a giant patch of Alice Cooper’s face. The other side is all bright primary colours, horses and birds, and some patches made from old pyjamas of Eddies featuring cute little baby dinosaurs.
You could say that the quilt represents parenting – the light and the dark – but we know it’s not that simple. Parenting is less black and white and more a haze of blurry grey areas. This is what Emily so perfectly captures in her writing. She knows that sometimes parenting feels like you’re rocking out wildly at a gig, having the best time ever, and the next minute you’re just covered in someone else bodily fluids, smelly and tired and aching and longing for bed. Sometimes parenting is sunshine and rainbows and cute baby dinosaurs, and sometimes those dinosaurs grow teeth – sharp teeth.
Emily knows these things about parenting. But what she knows, more than anything, is that when the dinosaurs start to bite you, when you think you’ll never find your way out of the grey fog, the most important thing is that you don’t feel alone. She wants to remind parents that someone is there, rallying, reassuring, loving their babies. She’s there behind her blog posts, she’s there editing The Spinoff Parents, she’s there creating opportunities for community, like Ballet is for Everyone, and The Lighthouse. And now, she’s there, right there with you, on the pages of this book.
This book is a gift. Emily has put so much thought into it, taken so much care to make sure it is just right. She acts like these things just happen to her – invitations to talk to Kim Hill, & Kathryn Ryan, a feature on a current affairs show, a book deal, the need to order another print run, and another, and another…these things happen and Emily says “I don’t even know why.” They happen because you make them happen. You work so, so incredibly hard, and you take the time to make sure that your words will make the world a better place. You deserve every good thing that comes your way. I knew this book was special from the first time I read the manuscript, sitting in a café on my lunch break, laughing out loud and scaring the other patrons. It is no surprise to me that people are flocking to buy copies.
Thank you, Emily. Thank you for the work you do advocating for parents and children. Thank you for writing this book, so that parents can know they are not alone.
I think Emily describes the book best herself, in the chapter “The World is Big”. She writes “It’s a call. Of some kind. To make a world where all of our children are safe and all of our children keep others safe. We need a big heart for this big world.” Congratulations to the woman with the biggest heart I know. We are here tonight to answer your call.
