“Please allow me to introduce myself.” – from “Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones
I was going to write about something profound this month, but that topic is still percolating in my mind, so I will tackle something much easier, inspired by another newsletter I just read.
Who am I?
Okay, so that sounds like a philosophical question, but it isn’t. Not this month, in any case.
I write as Kathryn Amurra, but that is a pen name. When I published my first book in 2020 during Covid, I decided not to publish under my real name because I have a day job as a lawyer, and I didn’t want people who looked up my name for legal services to find books with handsome men on the covers. I also didn’t want to get fired (or laughed at). So far, so good—I’m still employed, and the number of people who laugh at me has not increased.
I chose the first name Kathryn because it is my oldest daughter’s middle name and was my mother’s middle name and my aunt’s name. I chose the last name Amurra for a few different reasons: (1) I wanted a last name that started with “A” so I would be at the top of any alphabetically-organized list; (2) it sounds like the French word for love, amour; and (3) it also sounds like the Arabic word for the moon, amar. (I know the Arabic word for “moon” because my parents are from Egypt, and I spoke Arabic growing up.)
I am a wife and a mother of three teenage girls. I met my husband when we were both engineers in Allentown, PA, right out of college, before we went to law school (his idea). Because of law school, I was thirty when we had our first child, and I was worried I was too old to be starting a family. I then proceeded to have two more (kids, not families). My oldest is now a senior in high school. If all goes well, she will be leaving the nest next year, and I really don’t want to think about what the house will feel like without her in it.
I have a brother who is three years younger than me and has a lovely wife and three girls of his own. They live in Connecticut. My mother passed away in 2011, and I still miss her. She was my best friend. My father lives a few miles away, which is ideal, but I still feel like I don’t see him as often as I should. I adore my husband’s parents, and I consider myself very lucky to have them in my life.
I love writing. I always have. It makes me feel like a whole person. It helps me process the things that are going on in my life, to understand the people around me and why they do and say the things they do sometimes, myself included. Writing brings me joy, and it helps me find meaning during those times when joy is a bit harder to grasp.
It is because I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a coworker, and a friend, that I can be a writer. And I am grateful for all of it.
Maybe this was a philosophical post after all.
- Kathryn Amurra