“I left school at sixteen and spent twenty years assuming that was that. She started at seventeen and got a doctorate. I signed up for a course the week I finished it.”
Marea O
Writer
Four books in development
First out November 2026
Hello from Marea O
Writing the Next Chapter: this website holds the books I’m writing, the ideas behind them, and the MoSaic Book Club.
The MoSaic Book Club
Open to all. Tell us the book that resonated with you, and why. Each month we choose one and talk about it together.
Publishing
I’m a writer, pending publication. My first book is out this November, with three more projects in the pipeline.
Letters
A monthly letter on my journey to publication. What I’m making, what’s working, and what isn’t.
About the writer
Marea O grew up in Ireland and currently lives in Dubai. She’s a director in Digital Trust for a Big Four firm. The rest of the time, she writes. She has a Master’s in Strategy, a background in law and HR, and a stubborn belief that imagination is more useful than knowledge.
One is what she does. The other is who she is.
This is a sample content
This is a sample content
“A remarkable storyteller. There’s a range and diversity to her ideas that you don’t often see. Her talent and determination for storytelling are rare and mean she has real creative potential.”
Adam Hamdy — Sunday Times and international bestselling author and screenwriter
“A corporate mind and creative voice. Marea O sharpens one against the other. That’s what makes her storytelling land: pragmatism with flair.”
Richard Chudzynski — lawyer and children’s author
Marea O
Writer & Avid Writer
WRITING the NEXT CHAPTER…
From Marea O
Issue One • September 2026
What This Is
Writing the Next Chapter is about me moving into my creative space. I’ll show you what I’m working on, and take you on the journey from creative idea to publication. My stories are in different genres, but they all have the same underlying theme: community, hope, and a bit of whimsy. I want to spark conversations. A point of view, a thought worth arguing about.
The MoSaic Book Club
Not your favourite book. The one that resonated with you, and why. Post yours, and everyone else can weigh in. The first week of every month we choose one as the Book of the Month. I didn’t expect to learn so much about people from one question. Everyone reads, and there’s always a book that stayed with them, or one in their hand right now for a reason. Someone suggested it. A friend wrote it. They were going through something and a person who loved them said, read this. Come and tell me yours.
Publishing
Four books, four genres. Mabel and the Shooting Star is the first out, this November, and it’s what I’ll be writing about in the letters between now and then.
Where the process took me
I took a chance and wrote something. It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t close to perfect, and it still got me a conversation with a bestselling author, and another with a production company in Los Angeles. How that happened is a story I can’t wait to tell you. Some of it is still unfolding, and some of it may come to nothing at all. I genuinely don’t know yet. But I’ll share as much as I can and take you through the process as it happens.
Behind the scenes
These letters are where I’ll take you through it properly. Where the ideas have come from, the false starts, and what it actually costs to get a book into production.
What’s coming next
Next month: Mabel, and how she began life as an AI short film and ended up an illustrated book. But that’s another story.
Marea O xo
PS. Join the book club. I can’t wait to hear what books you’ve read and why they’ve resonated with you.
Creativity is not something you just do. It’s who you are. So, create, create, create – in whatever form that takes
– Marea O
04
Books in progress
04
Genres
Nov
First book out
01
Letter a month
Join
the Book Club
Einstein Said
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
Read this month's letterPublishing
Four books, four genres. The first this November.
Out November 2026
The First One
Mabel and the Shooting Star
A Christmas taleA young girl moves to the Middle East with her dad. This Christmas, she asks for three seemingly impossible wishes. Her new friends from all around the world set out to prove that hope can arrive in the most unexpected ways.
And what follows
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2027
Shield
Privacy for children -
In development
The Choice
Dystopian thriller -
In development
Venus Jones
Dramedy
MoSaic Book Club
The book. Why it resonated. Our mosaic.
So, here’s the question: what book comes into your head right now, and why does it resonate?
Here’s how it works
- Post your book and a line on why. Just one. Whatever rose up, and the reason it did.
- The first week of every month, we announce the Book of the Month.
Tell us yours. One book. A line on why. That’s all.
Join the Book Club
Open to all. No account needed. Your details stay with me.
Book of the Month
Already in? Post your book on Substack →
One of my favourite books. I remember reading this on the commuter train into London and literally crying laughing at eight in the morning. With a line like this, it’s comedic gold:
“The Answer to the Great Question… of Life, the Universe and Everything… is… Forty-two.”
Of course it’s Forty-Two. Why not? It’s as good an answer as any. Deep Thought, the supercomputer, spends seven and a half million years calculating that answer, and when it finally delivers, nobody can remember what the actual question was.
It never fails to make me laugh, and I think it’s a commentary on looking outside for answers when really the truth is within you — and it means something different to each of us, celebrating our uniqueness.
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From the club — what resonated, and why
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Educated
Beth B. -
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Lil M.“I’ve been the person who won’t name the cat. Watching her put him out in the rain was the first time I understood what I’d been protecting myself from.”
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Flowers in the Attic
Marc T.“I read it far too young, hid it from my mother, and finished it in three days. It was the first time a book felt dangerous, and I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.”
Endorsements
What others say about Marea O
Adam Hamdy Bestselling author, screenwriter and producerA remarkable storyteller. There’s a range and diversity to her ideas that you don’t often see. Her talent and determination for storytelling are rare.
Richard Chudzynski Lawyer and children’s authorA corporate mind and creative voice. Marea O sharpens one against the other. That’s what makes her storytelling land: pragmatism with flair.
