Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Dublin! I hope you’re having a festive day – wearing green, making green pancakes, or drinking a few pints of Guinness! Slainte!

The week before last, I hosted our third Dublin Lifestyle Blogger Meetup at Coppa Cafe in the city centre. I was really excited that Federico and his team at Coppa agreed to host us because I’ve fallen in love with their little cafe and the way they run it like it’s an extension of their home. What better place to bring twenty lifestyle bloggers and creative types for a gathering! 

Federico had a chance to tell everyone about his little slice of Dublin – and how his mom back in Italy sews every single one of their red checkered napkins! Federico spoke to us about his mom’s legacy in Coppa and how she not only taught him so many of the recipes they now use, but that she taught him the value of service and hospitality. She should be very proud, because the one thing I always, always feel when I walk into Coppa is welcomed and taken care of. Coppa is a haven of friendliness and delicious food and I hope someday you find yourself there! You can tell them I sent you! (Although if you do, they might roll their eyes and say oh Emily, we can’t get rid of that girl!)

We were really lucky to have some great companies send us treats for our goodie bags, including Etsy (!), Tiger Stores (have you been? They’re popping up all over Dublin), and Clover Rua. Trish and Priscilla were our lovely little models for the goodie bags. Thanks, girls! 

After we had sampled lots of delicious Coppa treats and had time to catch up, we hosted a little resource party (a la Erin Loechner of Design for Mankind). We each wrote down something we’re hoping to find – a resource to help us in our blogging hobby or careers – and then we went around the room to read them out loud. If another person thought they might be able to help with that need, they raised their hands and the two would connect afterward. I’ve been wanting to host a resource party for years now after reading about the idea on Erin’s website so I’m thrilled it went over so well. 

Everyone was warm and encouraging and quick to offer their help. That is what I love about this growing group of people. They are genuinely generous with their time and with their smiles. It makes a world of difference to look up to a sea of smiling people when you’re trying to convince them to do something new. Thanks, everyone!

We also gave away a few spot prizes after the resource party – some lovely tea towels and prints from Clover Rua, a few copies of Claire Burge’s new book on creativity, and a gorgeous cashmere scarf from Eilis Boyle, all of which I really wanted to keep for myself.

A giant thank you to everyone who helped make this yet another successful Dublin Lifestyle Blogger Meetup! If you’d like to be involved in the next one, let me know!

Super photos by Rincy Koshy!

Happy Saturday, friends! Did you have a nice week? I spent the week trying to recover from the flu and I’m still feeling like it’s beating me. I’m hoping a few extra hours of sleep this weekend will kick it for good because I’m ready to have energy for more than sleeping and working!

Today, I’m taking a strong dose of cough medicine and then meeting friends for afternoon tea at Ariel House and then hopefully I’ll have enough energy to meet another group of friends for Mexican food tonight with Lily of My Mexican Shop. Michael is playing some of his last basketball matches of the season this weekend (thank goodness!) and his team might even win their league!

I hope you have a wonderful, healthy weekend, wherever you are!

I have exciting news to share today that I’ve been waiting so long to tell you. My dad and I wrote a crime novel together! After a year of researching, writing, tweaking and editing, it’s finally finished and ready to be sent out into the world. We’re just beginning the process of sending it around to publishers, so while it’s a long time in the making, it’s still a long way from publication. Even so, it is finished and my dad and I both feel it’s ready for a little sneak peek.

I’ve mentioned before that my dad, Gerry Boyle, is a crime novelist. He has published eleven books in two different series (you can find them all on Amazon), and he just signed a new deal for another book in each series last week! This is the first book in what we hope will become a series about an American travel blogger getting mixed up with some dangerous people abroad. It’s also the first time we’ve ever written together, and I’m so proud of the result. The crime novel is called Samaritan and I’m thrilled to share a little piece of it with you today.

Samaritan Preview: Sean Deery is American, fresh out of college. He rejects his dad’s push for a business job, takes a $25,000 inheritance and sets out to write for a travel blog. Sean is looking for the unexpected but gets more than he bargained for. In this very early scene he makes the acquaintance of Manny, an African newspaper seller one night in a very rough section of Dublin. They’re accosted by masked guys in a back alley. It unfolds like this:

The four were close now, the lead man halfway across the courtyard, the others trailing so they formed a wedge and he was the point. They turned as they approached and the wedge became a circle. Choreographed, like a marching band.

The first guy approached. Smiled maybe. A movement around his mouth under the mask.

“You lads got a cig, do ya?” he said, like it was normal, chatting with a guy in a mask.

Sean said, “Don’t smoke.” Manny flipped the phone shut, put it away. Stared.

The guy was five feet away, hands in his sweatshirt pockets. Bigger than Sean, slimmer than Manny. Shuffling in his Nike trainers, like a boxer waiting for the bell. The other three moved up, the noose tightening. Two were short and thick, one round-faced, one thin, black eyes close set. The third was slimmer, mouth that hung open in the mask hole like he was surprised.

“You’re a smart one, not smoking,” the leader said. “Filthy fucking habit.”

They were inching closer, the leader still talking, the voice muffled.

“Started when I was eleven, me da leaving ’em all around the flat. I’d go out on the street, thinking I was a tough guy, butt in me mouth.”

He looked to Manny, eyes like shiny wet spots in the fabric. The mask twitched. A grin. Like this was normal, talking to a guy in a mask.

“Got any reefer? You Africans, you like the ganja, right? Makes you feel like you’re back in the jungle playing the bongos, huh? Or maybe not the jungle. Maybe the slums of Nairobi. Must be in bleedin’ heaven, in Ballyer. Got da running water, mahn. Got da electric lights. Don’t have to shit in da gutter wid da pigs.”

The other three smiled, lips spreading in the mask holes. The leader looked to Sean, shook his head.

“Country going down the shitter. Immigrants, you know. Bad for the tourism. Americans come all the way to the old sod, they don’t want to be seeing bloody Africans.’”

Sean said, “I’m American,” as in, what would the IRA want with me?

“Oh, brilliant. The dude’s a Yank, lads. Makes him special.”

A snort from the others. A nod to Sean’s back.

“You got a laptop in there? I need to check my e-mail.”

Snorts all around now, wet mouths in the wooly holes.

“Can’t help you,” Sean said.

“Then I’ll help myself, like the Lord says. There now. Be a good Yank and hand it this way, and we’ll all have a nice night.”

“Let him be,” Manny said.

“Wait your turn, Nelson Mandela,” the guy said. “We’ll be getting to you.”

Sean took a step back along the wall, two of the guys moving past him, turning, cutting him off. He tensed. Felt it coming—

***

And away we go. Manny intervenes and gets the worst of it. Sean is thrust into a world blogs don’t explore: murders, beatings, beggars, and an Ireland that doesn’t make Lonely Planet’s lists – or From China Village on any given day!

I’ll keep you updated on its progress and will hopefully let you know when you can find it in book shops near you!

I got to make a little cameo in the latest issue of Irish Country Magazine, and I definitely blushed when I read their kind words about my blog! On that single page, I’m in such good company – Rosie’s Rags make the cutest embroidery kits and Roseanne is the talented lady behind the food blog turned cookbook Like Mam Used to Bake. 

But the rest of the magazine? It’s really, really good. It has a new column from Imen McDonnell, who writes the lovely food blog Farmette, a lovely article from the editor Maria Moynihan about having her husband working in China for a month, an inspiring feature about how three Irish women who have overcome disabilities, and a tour of a 400-year-old home. And on, and on, and on. It’s packed with thought-provoking articles (and some fun, frivolous ones!) and is now on my must-pick-up list, especially for any traveling that’s coming up. It would occupy at least a few hours on the plane back to Maine!