The End is the Beginning with Emily Johnson

Intro: 0:36

Welcome to Story and Horse, a podcast where we hear stories from creative lives. Meet new people, hear about their challenges and triumphs, and get inspired to move forward with your creativity. Now, here's your host, Hilary Adams.

Hilary Adams: 0:58

Hello, thanks for joining me here on the Story and Horse podcast. I'm your host, Hilary Adams. I'm a creative coach, theater director, and founder of Story and Horse. I offer personalized coaching for creative people. And here on the podcast, I share stories from creative lives. And today we are joined by Emily Johnson. Emily is an author, a marketing and advertising consultant. And she joins me here today to also share a very special story about a book that she co wrote with her mom. And I'm really excited to have you with us today. Emily, welcome.

Emily Johnson: 1:33

And thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Hilary Adams: 1:36

So can you start off, start us off by telling me a little bit about who you are and what you're up to, and maybe a little bit about this project that we're talking about?

Emily Johnson: 1:46

Sure. Well, I live in Raleigh, North Carolina with my husband and my son. And as you said, I'm in marketing and advertising by day. I have a degree in journalism from UNC Chapel Hill, actually. But journalism is one of the only things that I haven't actually done with my career. But it is writing based. I've worked in sports marketing, and I've also worked in grant writing for nonprofits. So I have a very diverse background. I love to play golf. I live in a really great place for that. But yeah, to the background on the story, the book is that I co wrote with my mom is a fictional work called Bird of Paradise. And it it's really unique, at least in my mind, because it wasn't originally my book. It was originally begun by my mom, probably close to 17 years ago when she was diagnosed with advanced stage ovarian cancer. And I always thought it was a way for her to escape the fact that she was facing something terminal. I mean, the statistics for the type of cancer she had were not not good to have to face. And I asked her all the time, you know, what are you? What are you writing? Can I read it, and she always kind of looked at me with a smile and said, you'll know eventually. And I never really knew what that meant until years and years later, when she passed away. And about a week later, I found a letter from her that had a copy of her unfinished manuscript and a request that I finish it for her. So she made it about, well, I'm not going to reveal how far she made it, because I don't want to. Um, she, you know, she had had left off writing it. And she entrusted me with a story of her characters. And to finish it, and it took me about eight years, I never intended to publish it. So I call myself the unintentional author. And, you know, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. And all of a sudden, I had a published book.

Hilary Adams: 3:44

And it is published. So people -

Emily Johnson: 3:48

it is,it was published on March 29 2021, which was actually my mom's 71st birthday. So we, you know, it's even more of a reason to celebrate her birthday, because we still do every year, even though she's not here was that.

Hilary Adams: 4:02

I'll use the word coincidence lightly. But was that not planned?

Emily Johnson: 4:06

It was not planned up until I knew that everything was going to be ready to go in March, which was just a complete fluke. And so then I asked for us to delay it a few weeks so that it could have the official release that day.

Hilary Adams: 4:18

That's beautiful. And do you mind sharing your mom's name with us?

Emily Johnson: 4:22

Her name was Marilyn Hughes. So, oh my gosh I miss her.

Hilary Adams: 4:28

Yeah, I'm just I'm curious about when you when you discovered the letter and the manuscript because she hadn't let you read it before. Correct. As you said, Do you mind Did she leave it? I doesn't mean stories, obviously. Did Did she leave it a place where in a place where you would encounter it?

Emily Johnson: 4:51

Yeah, she actually left it. She had a closet that she kept her computer and all of her books not written by her but things that were you know, work related and stuff. And, and it happened to be underneath her computer and I think she knew that at some point. I was going to go looking for that computer. I knew what her password was. And I think she just instinctively knew that I was going to look for that computer because I was going to try and read this book. There was an envelope with my name on it.

Hilary Adams: 5:23

Wow. So you lifted up the computer and there was an envelope.

Emily Johnson: 5:26

Yep,

Hilary Adams: 5:27

your name on it. I love the fact she knew Her daughter said she was like,

Emily Johnson: 5:30

oh, gosh, she she knew me I couldn't get away with anything. As a child, it was always, you know, mother knows. And she would just kind of let me go on and make my mistakes if I could, if they were ones I could take back. But she, I couldn't hide anything from her was very difficult.

Hilary Adams: 5:46

So you found this envelope. And obviously that must have been quite a discovery. I'm getting the feeling that maybe you weren't super surprised, because it sounds like you know, your mom too. And so there was a little bit of a, I say, this was great love, like a little mischievous quality, almost like a little sense of just like, Oh, she's gonna find this and have to open the envelope is that?

Emily Johnson: 6:07

Yeah, she knew my curiosity would get the better of me. So she had any doubt, that's the way it would go. But you know, it was I was still shocked finding it. It was it was I wasn't surprised. But I was shocked. Yeah. And, you know, in the letter contains a lot. I mean, she put a lot of thought into this particular letter. You know, I believe in my heart of hearts that she knew that things were coming to an end, she just spent so many years in chemotherapy, that her body just couldn't fight it anymore. Even if there the cancer was it wasn't cured, but it wasn't the problem in the end. And I think she knew that she always was very in tune with her body and had a great sense of, of what was to come. And so this letter clearly stated that I mean, there was no way that she didn't know because of what she she said, and a lot of the letter actually appears in the book. Because it was something I wanted to share. And, you know, so yeah, sure, there was every intention that this would happen. So it's like I said, no surprise, but still stalking. And then when I sat down and read it, that's where the major kind of oh my gosh, I can't believe this is, you know, she's written this and, and there was tears, and there was laughter. And there was just, you know, sometimes I had to put it down, because the emotion was so overwhelming, I couldn't do anything with it. But, you know, in the end, I came to realize, I mean, in what she had written was her voice, you can clearly hear her voice in it. And it allowed me to continue a conversation with my mom, even though she wasn't here anymore. And that happened during the period. That's the hardest, you know, right after it happens. And in those first few years, when it really starts hitting hard, I was able to go back and talk to my mom, because I was finishing her words.

Hilary Adams: 7:56

It's an unusual circumstance, if you will, that that then you had your marching orders, you had your request. And as you were reading it, and you were learning about the story for the first time and the characters, knowing that you're going to that you've been pass this baton, and being asked to pick it up and write them what was going through your, your, your mind or your body or how did it feel knowing that that these characters are now and the story it was now entrusted to you.

Emily Johnson: 8:32

I was honored. I mean, I was just because she's spent so many years developing these characters, and I knew how invested she was in them, and the fact that she thought I'd be able to finish the book. Just just, you know, it was incredible. And she left no notes as how she wanted to finish it. I mean, there was nothing she had, fortunately created all but one character. So I had a really good basis to go off of, I really had to get to know those characters, their motivations, their particular personalities, so that when I took over, it would make sense. And I could complete a story arc without sounding like two different people. But, you know, I think, you know, there was one character, I knew who it was, I knew a name, I knew the purpose, but I got to create them on my own. And I, I really think my mom meant for that to happen. He was a very fun character. I mean, it doesn't take a genius. It was the romantic love interest. You can pretty much tell that from reading the very first part of the book. I'm sorry, I said spoiler, but yes, it is romance. And you know, and I think she left it at a place where she knew I would need it. She stopped writing in the last year, and I don't at first I thought it's because she didn't feel well. But you know, years and years later I kind of realized she did this because she knew I'd need it. She knew I'd need the creative freedom to be able to go where I wanted with it. She didn't want to box me in and this is all speculation of course but um, you know, and I like to think where I took it is she be really proud of of it. It was not easy to complete.

Hilary Adams: 10:12

Yeah, especially not knowing what was that her mind about continuing forward?

Emily Johnson: 10:18

Yeah, it was it's, you know, it's when I read it, it is I like to almost say it's a love letter to me. It you know, follows a girl at the beginning who's 17 who's just on the threshold of reaching that place where you're no longer a child, but you're not quite a full woman yet. And it's that very confusing time period. So the book kind of starts off as the coming of age. And, and then it starts coming, a family saga. And then as this character grows, it starts moving with her and eventually becomes a romance. So it doesn't really fit into one particular genre. But because of what it focuses on in the family, and this girl's you know, journey of self discovery, a lot of it was meant as almost as a roadmap for me, you know, you you have all this advice as a parent that you want to pass on to your children, and you want to be there to guide them. But my mom never knew if she would be. I was 13 when she was diagnosed, so there was no, we didn't know one way or the other what was going to happen. So a lot of this, you know, while it is fictional, I can really see a lot of my mom and the things she believed and the things she wanted me, you know, to know. And her hopes and dreams for me, are in these characters. And so that it was such a gift to have that.

Hilary Adams: 11:36

Did your mom write? write before this, and I understand she had you said she had books around her computer area and stuff. So obviously, she read. But she wishes a writer also, or

Emily Johnson: 11:47

was not a fictional writer. She was an educator for years. And after she retired from teaching, she went on to do curriculum development. And so there was a lot of articles written about curriculum and teaching and things like that. But this is the first fictional book, as far as I know

Hilary Adams: 12:03

that. Unless you find another envelope,

Emily Johnson: 12:06

yeah, there's a possibility there's envelope waiting for me.

Hilary Adams: 12:12

Part two,

Emily Johnson: 12:14

I don't know that would probably throw me through a loop at this. Yes, so one of a major theme that's in this book, is something that, that came from my grief and my comfort. And it was something that I know my mom believes strongly in but didn't really articulate. It was the idea that, you know, death isn't the ending, it's merely the beginning of the next chapter. And in a way that has always helped me keep my mom with me. And she forever will be.

Hilary Adams: 12:44

And this book is a way to share across generations. Also.

Emily Johnson: 12:52

it is, I mean, there's, you know, obviously, this book comes from, from my mom down to me, but so much of of things are going from, you know, me now down to my son, leaving a legacy in a way she did to me. And then there's the theme, overall theme in the book that things can last generations, there is no start and stop to life. It it goes on. And, and to me, personally, it's a very beautiful sentiment. And I actually may end up writing a prequel to this book that goes back one more generation and writes the story of the parents, we'll see if that ever happens.

Hilary Adams: 13:32

What was the most challenging thing about this journey?

Emily Johnson: 13:39

You know, I think it's kind of two parts. At the beginning, the most challenging was just working through my emotions. You know, this wasn't this was within weeks of losing her and the end, you know, because her her illness was so long. And in a sense, I'm very grateful that I got all those years with her. You know, you're very prepared, you know, that, you know, and she did a great job of preparing me for it. I mean, I didn't, it The loss was sudden, at the end, it was just a matter of days or one day, she was fine. The next day, she was on life support. But you know, but you're still shocked by it in the end. So I think at first there was this intense emotional reaction to it, where I almost couldn't think clearly enough, I read through it several times, just not even with the intention of writing it. But just because I needed to figure out process what she had said. And then when I was kind of able to stick that initial emotional response, you know, a lot of people like, Well, how did you come up with a story? That was the easy part for me? I, you know, I knew after reading it several times, I knew exactly where I had what I wanted to do at the end. So I wrote the end first and backtracked my way with relative ease, to the point where you know, that black and white line was and then I had to go back to what she had written and add in conversations and add an event so that the story arcs that I wanted to create made sense, and that nobody could tell this was two different authors that wrote it at two very different times. And what was really really hard for me was she was very descriptive and poetic in her writing. I mean, just the idea a lot of people said it's like reading a movie, and you can just picture it and feel it and get a sense of smell and touch and feel and and being in marketing and advertising. that's very different. You don't get descriptive, you say what you want to say you've got, you know, a five word tagline, or a blog that only allows you, you know, 1000 characters. And so that was the hardest for me was melding the writing technique, because this was her book, and it was going to be written in her style. And that wasn't an option for me. Otherwise, I just didn't want that. I could have gone back and written differently, but that it just wasn't right to do that. And so, you know, I wrote it. And my first draft was really journalism, like it was very black and white. And you could clearly tell it was two different writers. And then I just had to go back and back and back. And I've always equated it to an oil painting where you just have to put layer upon layer of paint on top of it until it came up to the level of what my mom had written. And it was, you know, it was it was very much Oh, you know, as I said, a lot of hers in the beginning of the book, it's, it's a lot of her emotions and her experiences, she was 17 and 1960s. What is it 1967 - She was 17 living in San Francisco, which is where the main characters living at the same age. So there's a lot of life experiences in there that my mom left. And so I decided to do that as well. So once I started getting to that point where I can write from things that I've seen in places I've been and feelings I've had, then the details started coming. And I started getting deeper and deeper into it. And then in terms of, you know, I took the book to places I have been physically in my life, but then I had to describe it. So I literally just went through old family photos and Googled photos and things just to get, you know, ones that spoke to me so that I could get a level of description, that would be a movie as well.

Hilary Adams: 17:19

Hmm. I was struck by your description of it, it's like an oil painting and sort of bringing the layers up. So it has that dimensionality to it. So in a way, there was another gift from her here, where she expanded your writing tools,

Emily Johnson: 17:34

yeah, style. You know, and it's really funny, I've seen my writing, you know, I do a lot of blog writing and grant writing for clients. And I've seen my style of writing change, since I started this, it's, you know, still within the realms of marketing and advertising, you don't really have a choice, but some of what I've written has become more story based than D, you know, then facts and things like that. And so I've seen the transition. And I'm actually very excited by that. I think it's made me a better writer.

Hilary Adams: 18:10

I have a question about the the point you talked about like that line where you know, where, obviously her writing has stopped. And when you start to pick up and you worked, I love the fact you work you are at the end first. And when and because we we do that theater, sometimes too. It's like you kind of especially in the rehearsal room, you can work the end, you can work the beginning, you can work through these key scenes, and then fill in, which is what you're talking about doing. And I was wondering about that you're talking about that line, like sort of that point of intersection, where where that seam is where the where the book has to continue for it. And then you went back and layered other things into but what was it like working out that at that actual place of where the writing had stopped?

Emily Johnson: 18:54

You know, she she stopped at, I don't want to give too much away because nobody knows where the line is. She's She stopped at a place where she knew I would be well prepared to take the take it forward. I almost said maybe to take it forward. Um, you know, and so it wasn't going to be an impossible task for me to be able to figure it out. Because she knew emotionally I was, I was in a place that I was there. I probably just totally given the whole thing away. But

Hilary Adams: 19:25

I don't think so. I don't know, the story. I don't think so.

Emily Johnson: 19:29

In the end, there's there's a it's it's about a 50/50 collaboration between what I wrote 100% And then what I went back in and commingled into what she had written. So, you know, I've gone back many times trying to figure out exactly how much did I write how much does she did and it was it was definitely 50/50 in the ends. But you know that that black and white point, the one of the things for me is that I needed to turn it into that that black line, I needed to turn into a gray area and then eventually disappear it because that was very important. Because you know if you could tell this was two different writers, two different periods. It wasn't going to be a book. It was you know, it was gonna be two individual stories. One of which looks like it copied the other. You know, and to this day, my publisher has no idea where that line was. Lots of people have tried to guess nobody has gotten it completely correct yet. And I am thrilled with that. You know, my dad's the only one that knows exactly where that line was drawn.

Hilary Adams: 20:31

Yeah, you arrived at a place of collaboration, even though your mom was no longer alive, you were able to collaborate with her. And what you just described really sounds like, the way you would collaborate with a living with living co writer.

Emily Johnson: 20:45

Yeah. And that was that was part of, you know, the healing process with this, it was part of it, you know, be fun. Because I, I was the one. And I think, again, she did it intentionally, I was the one that came up with, with the real theme of the book, she laid the foundation of it, but I could have not gone in that direction. But I just instinctively knew that this is where she'd want to take it based on her and her beliefs, our beliefs, you know, in general matched one another and, um, you know, but but that arc, and that eventual theme wouldn't have made sense, if I hadn't gone back into things she had written and added in conversations and added in events that set more of a foundation for that way. She just, she had a little sprinkle in there. But you know, and one particular conversation that really laid the groundwork for it, and almost where I came up with the idea of it was actually a conversation I had had many times with my mother, um, you know, and, and I wrote that into it. You know, not only because I it was special to me, but it made sense for where this whole journey wanted to go. You know, it holds very true in my life. You know, my mom had wishes for me, she had advice, particularly when I was younger, you know about how to stay on your own two feet as a woman and never, you know, let yourself be defined by a man, whether you're married to them, or you're in a relationship. You know, it's it's very important to bring a complete individual into a relationship. And I struggled with that in high school, I was very, you know, kind of took a backburner to, you know, some high school boyfriends, all of whom she clearly did not like, because they're obviously written into this story, and they're not good characters. I got a chuckle out of that when I read about that. But yeah, that was the that was really important to her. And I tried to do that in my life. And lo and behold, I got to that point and within a couple of weeks met the man that I ended up marrying.

Hilary Adams: 22:56

I love the fact sheet sort of. Didn't like those guys. Especially put them into the book.

Emily Johnson: 23:01

Yeah, yeah, no, and there's, there's bits and pieces of my father in there, I can see my dad and my mom and the characters of the parents, I can also see a lot of my dad in the character of the little brother, which brings, you know, some of my dad's childhood into there. And then, you know, just unbelievably, the character James, he's the little brother. And this is very similar to my son, and my mom never got a chance to meet him. She passed away about a year and a half before he was born. And I the parallels between the two of them just shocked me every single day.

Hilary Adams: 23:37

That's amazing. Like she she wrote him before he arrived.

Emily Johnson: 23:40

Yes, yeah, I mean, it almost feels like that, which means I am in for a whirlwind as a mom in the car.

Hilary Adams: 23:50

Wow, that's incredible. And so for people listening, the link to, to purchase the book will be in the show notes. Also, for people listening, do you have a, like an inspiration or a takeaway, a thought an offering for them about creativity that you'd share?

Emily Johnson: 24:09

I think really, it's, you know, so many people are afraid to express creativity, because they don't think they can do it. You know, I had myself in this little box of marketing and advertising and never thought in a million years, I would publish a fictional work until somebody else put me in that position to do it. And so I think, you know, I think every creativity lives in everybody, even if you don't think it's there, you just have to pull it out from the back of your mind or find something that will inspire you to do it. No one can give you the creativity, it's there. You know, and whether or not you choose to pull it out is is kind of a decision you have to make yourself but don't ever let fear, you know, put a put a wet blanket over creativity.

Hilary Adams: 24:53

And before we started recording, you mentioned that you've done ballet for many years. So that's another form of creative expression.

Emily Johnson: 25:05

Yeah, I mean, I did it from the time I was a young child. You know, I was never I didn't dance professionally by any means. But I did it all through high school balanced it with playing competitive golf, which are two very opposite things. You know, and I stayed with competitive golf because that, you know, was was better for my career in the end. But, you know, I loved being on stage. I still remember you know, every year Nutcracker opening up that stage door in the smell of backstage is just such an eclectic mix of good and bad, but it just still to this day brings memories back to my mind of that moment of stepping on stage. And just the sheer excitement of being under the lights. And now while I'm not on stage, you know, I'm still a huge supporter of the ballet, we've got a wonderful professional ballet company here in Raleigh, little plug for the Carolina ballet. And, and I love I am such a huge fan of musical theater. Because it just gives me that feeling of being back on stage and the sheer amount of work that goes into producing something like that. I'm, I just I have such envy for people that that do that for a living. You know, or or anyone that that wants to do that for a living. It's just it's sheer joy to me, just the excitement of it. So yes, so yeah, from ballet to my now be in the audience. It's a huge passion of mine.

Hilary Adams: 26:32

Yeah, that backstage smell, as you said, there's good parts and bad parts to that. But it's definitely a particular smell that very evocative for people who who know it. Yeah. That's funny, I don't golf. So I'm going to ask a, I haven't gotten to ask anybody about the creativity of golf. So is there anything that you could share about the sort of creative aspect of golf?

Emily Johnson: 26:56

How crazy? Yeah, I mean, the worse you're playing, the more creative you have to be, you know, it's, it's, you hit a ball straight down, you know, the fairway and you hit another ball onto the green and you put, you know, it's a lot of fun, you know, but it's, it's that it's not creative until you end up in the woods, and you have to get yourself you know, under a tree and over a tree and around Iraq. It's, it's funny, because you have to envision that before you can hit the ball, there's a lot of, of, you know, just mentally looking at all the different angles and determining, you know, the best way to get yourself there without too much trouble. In so it comes up, there's some creative, you know, you have to hit a ball around a tree. That's, that's creative. It's not easy to do by any means. And sometimes it doesn't work out that well. And but it's envisioning the big picture in your head, knowing where you need to be, and then trying to figure out how to get there. I would say that's the creative part of golf.

Hilary Adams: 27:56

Hmm, that sounds a little bit like what you were doing with the book, when you had sort of envisioned your way backwards into the, into the story, does it feel like in your body or when you were working? Does it feel similar in a, in a way it is?

Emily Johnson: 28:12

And you know, that's funny, because I never thought of it that way. And so you just said that, but I mean, your ultimate goal on the golf course, is to get that ball into the hole and how you get there, there's a million different ways to do it, and rarely does it work out the way you want it to. It's a difficult game, there's a reason why people you know, get mad out on the golf course. And, um, and, yeah, I guess it's the same way with the book, I knew exactly where I wanted to end it. And then I had to backtrack my way, the best way to get there. And occasionally I went down, you know, a road where I'd write you know, a 20 some odd pages, and then realize, well, this, this is not gonna work. You know, I've hit too many trees. Now the balls in the water. Exactly. Yeah. Mo again, and try that again. So yeah, it was actually very similar.

Hilary Adams: 28:58

It sounded like a similar process. Hmm. That's very interesting. Thank you. Without I haven't had a chance to ask about creativity in golf. So that's really fun. Yeah, I can imagine. I'm sure if I tried to play there'd be a lot of creativity as I attempted to get out of the woods multiple times to find the ball.

Emily Johnson: 29:17

Right. Sometimes it takes creativity just to find where the ball went. Where did it go?

Hilary Adams: 29:22

You all keep playing? I'll just be over here trying to find my ball. If people want to reach you, how can they reach you? What's a good place to find you?

Emily Johnson: 29:32

I have a website, Emily Johnson writes dot net. And that's writes with an "s." And you can also reach me on Twitter and Instagram. And I wish I knew what my handles were to tell you, but I don't

Hilary Adams: 29:51

I'll find them and put them in the show notes.

Emily Johnson: 29:53

That would be good. I probably need to memorize what those are. But I'm very active on both Twitter and Instagram. And I'm very open to talking to people about the writing process or even about the process of going through grief and losing someone or growing up with somebody that's facing a terminal illness. But you know, that's another one of my mom's legacies is that I through me, I think she gets to help people heal. Because I've been there and I'm many years out from having had happen now. And you know, I think that's a gift that she's left

Hilary Adams: 30:27

and the collaborative process co writing with her was healing.

Emily Johnson: 30:31

Yes, yeah. And it was I mean, I, I kind of look back on it, and I'm sure I would have found a way to heal. Because, you know, at some point you don't have a choice you have to go on or, or stop. I mean, there's you know, you don't you have to go on in life. And I often wonder what my process would have been had I not had this book to go through and, and I have no answers for it. But I know that I wouldn't have been able to get to where I am now. as strongly as I, I did, I mean, I of course, have had my moments where I've broken down, I fallen apart, and there's still moments today where I want to pick up the phone and ask my mom, you know, my son sneeze do I need to take him to the hospital. But um, he's seven, I'm kind of starting to figure it out now. But, um, you know, and, and I think I just think this book brought so much comfort to me and allowed me a closure that I really wouldn't have had otherwise. And I think that was really important for me to be able to work through that work through the guilt that I felt about every little, you know, I was snotty to my mom as a teenager. And now all of a sudden, I'm just this horrible, horrible person. And, you know, and it's, it's working through those kind of feelings. With a creative way of doing it, I think helped me is just made it so much easier for me.

Hilary Adams: 31:52

Yeah, I think it's interesting that it was working through a fiction story, a fictional story, or as you said, there's many aspects of it that pulled from real life. It is a fictional story that you are working through that helped process your real life grief and, and your on your mutual stories of your you and your mom.

Emily Johnson: 32:12

Well, it was like journaling, in a sense. I mean, there are a lot of people will tell you when you're dealing with grief to journal, and it doesn't always work for people. I had never in my life ever kept a diary or journal or anything like that. And this was almost a way of doing it. And with every part of the story that I closed out, I almost felt like I could take a breath. And I almost felt like I had a weight lifted off my shoulders, because I had been able to let go of that particular part of, of the process that I was going through personally. And it just, it was a gift that I I know my mom did it intentionally. But gosh, it was just it was the gift of a lifetime for me.

Hilary Adams: 32:54

But it's absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing you and your mom's story and creative process with us. That's a, it's a, I look forward to reading it. Thank you. And for people who are listening. Again, just a reminder to take care of yourself if you are dealing with grief, reach out and get assistance of with professionals if you need it. And to know that creativity can help healing in many different ways to be creative, expressing creatively expressive. So anything else you would like to share before we close

Emily Johnson: 33:32

Really just to buy the book!

Hilary Adams: 33:35

Absolutely. Fine. celebrate the life and creativity of mom and daughter pair.

Emily Johnson: 33:43

It's just It's been amazing. The response to it has just blown my mind. I still haven't quite caught up to exactly you know what has happened with all of this. I keep the book on my desk and it's constantly a reminder of me of wow, you know, we we did it together we actually have a published book together. But yeah, I just I love getting to share it with people. I know how special it was to her. It's really special to me and I love just getting it out there.

Hilary Adams: 34:11

It's called Bird of Paradise. And, and the link will be in the show notes so people can can purchase it and and again celebrate this, this beautiful co-writing journey that you went on. I love the fact that it came with her birthday that it

Emily Johnson: 34:28

Yeah, that was that was very special. So you know. Yeah, I will never never not think you know fondly on that, that it was released on her birthday.

Hilary Adams: 34:39

Yeah. And it turns that into a day of celebration then too for you.

Emily Johnson: 34:43

Yeah, yeah.

Hilary Adams: 34:45

What a beautiful thing. Well, thank you very much for sharing this and for joining us today. And for everyone listening if you want to reach story in horse you can reach us at Story and Horse dot com Facebook and Instagram @ Story and Horse. Stay creative. Help support somebody else. Be creative. Again, if you are going through grief and you need some assistance, don't be afraid to reach out to professionals who can help. Emily, thank you again for joining me here today.

Emily Johnson: 35:26

Thank you so much. It was great talking to you.

Hilary Adams: 35:28

It's great talking with you too.

Outro: 35:30

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