Tomorrow we open for pre-orders of the Mothership Notebook! A big day at Mothership HQ. It's been a proper labour of love, this book, something I had the idea for several years ago but only decided to go ahead with this Spring. Sitting here now, I’m so incredibly glad I went for it. It’s no small thing, making a book without arts funding or publisher backing, but I kept coming back to the fact that I wanted to hold Mothership - put its spirit between two covers, and celebrate the relationship between creativity and maternity. A passion project through and through.
Since launching in 2019 I've run over 200 Mothership workshops and seen first-hand how becoming a mother awakens an urgent need to put pen to paper, to express the intensity of motherhood, untangle the knotted emotions, and capture the wonder of it all (… and the rest!). Every single session has been a joy and a privilege, and I've been constantly humbled by the things that people endure; the resilience and the love, the feelings and experiences that are profound, transformative. No matter where someone is on their motherhood journey - with a babe in arms, or children who’ve long since flown the nest – every mother has a story to tell. Every mother is creative. And, while every mother has words that deserve to be written, sometimes we just need that extra encouragement, and space, to do so. That’s where our Notebook comes in.
We've made books before - an anthology of writing from our first year of workshops (my first role as an editor and one I loved), and Born in Lockdown (an incredible collaborative writing project with over 277 mums contributing prose fragments that I then wove into a narrative whole) but both were only available as keepsake copies and on a really small scale for those who took part. I wanted the Notebook to be different.
Esther Curtis was game from the get-go, and I knew she'd make it look cool and beautiful: she's been our Mothership artist from day one and I'm so grateful to her for bringing all my writing-mama dreams to illustrated life. Over the summer we did a number of test copies to get the perfect paper stock, binding, and all-in ‘I really want to write in this’ vibes. We couldn’t be happier with how it’s come together.
Our Notebook is full of tips, advice, inspiring words, and beautiful illustrations. It’s 112 pages, with 40 clear double page spreads that use song title writing prompts (AKA, the Mothership Jukebox) to get your thoughts moving, your pen grooving, and tell your story of motherhood. It costs £11, plus postage. And it's made with LOVE: it’s printed on good quality recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks; we’ll include a free set of Mothership postcards with every order; and we’re raising money for charity too …
Through Mothership projects we've so far raised money for Baby Bank Network and Sands UK and for this new venture we’ve chosen Project MAMA as our charity partner: for every copy sold, we'll be donating £2 towards their amazing work with migrant mamas. And thanks to a fundraising campaign with The Big Give, any donation Project MAMA receives before Mon 26th Sept will be matched - so in the case of our Notebook, that effectively doubles every contribution from £2 to £4. The perfect motivation to get in there early with a pre-order! While the official release day is 20th October, pre-orders will help us know how many books to produce. And raise that extra money for charity too!
Here’s the back cover …
So on this Pre-Order Day Eve we’re raising our mugs of coffee to maternity & creativity. And writing as a force for good. We hope you join us!
Emylia x
