While Emma Brattin’s life may not be a thriller, she’s sure found a lot of adventure.

She can’t really answer the question “Where are you from?” because by the age of 19, she had already lived at twenty-nine addresses in six states. Skip ahead a bit and after a twenty-year career in information technology, Emma decided to pursue her passion of writing. She recently settled into a cozy 100-year-old home in Tulsa, Oklahoma with three kids, three cats, one husband, and so many ideas. The main of these ideas will become her first novel, Heart Pins.

Charlie, the protagonist of Heart Pins, shares similarities with Emma. Many personal family struggles and painful memories are inspiration for the emotional trials Charlie experiences. While Emma finds humor in real life, she also sees the emotional mysteries of humans as real-world story lines and writes them into her novels.

Charlie’s character arc shows her learning to stop feeling guilty that she is still angry and confused about her past. She must learn to be okay with her past, to live alongside it; not stuff it down and ignore it. She may even just experience what it is like to have her past appear in human form and attempt murder her.

Although nobody has tried to murder Emma (that she is aware of), she’s experienced these emotions of the past and when the wave of memories tries to overcome her, she’s learned the tools to fight back and accept the past. Charlie will also learn this process in Heart Pins.

At any given time, you can find Emma Brattin with a notebook and a pen sitting in her mature flower garden. Her garden and backyard are very poetic, providing daily stirrings of creativity.