grew up in a house full of words and books: my mother worked as a librarian and a proof-reader, and my father was a writer.
Every day Dad would go down to the little room he'd built under the house and work on his latest book. If he was writing a children's fantasy, he'd read the manuscript aloud to my sister and me. Those were marvellous evenings--curled up on the sofa listening to another chapter.
In primary school I wrote lots of stories; in secondary school I didn't. English became my least favourite subject and I dropped it as soon as I could. Nothing would have made me take English at university!
I had no intention of becoming a writer. Ever. I got a science degree, I spent several years travelling and working overseas, and one day I was sitting on a bus in Syria, with the desert stretching in all directions, and I thought, What if...
Many years have passed since then, but that what if eventually turned into a manuscript, and then another, and another.
I've been a rehabilitation instructor, a library assistant, a postie, a waitress on the Isle of Skye, and even (briefly) a field assistant in Antarctica. I love to travel and have lived in Sweden, backpacked in Europe, and journeyed overland in the Middle East, China, North Africa, and North America. Most recently I've lived in Marlborough, New Zealand and worked in the wine industry.
I write fantasy novels (with strong elements of romance) as Emily Gee, and regency romance novels as Emily May. For more about me, check out this interview on my Emily Gee website.
My parents, my sister (l) and me (r).
cherry blossom image © Abi Gee 2007; portrait © Kylie Duncan 2006; family image & web site © Emily Gee 2010
