Welcome 🌊

Hi, I’m Amy—a nonfiction and historical fiction author, former travel advisor, and lifelong traveler with more than 30 countries (and counting!) under my belt.

As a subscriber, you can expect:

📖 Thursday Historical Fiction
Get a new episode of serial novel, When the Sea Was Still each week, following Nora Osterly’s journey from the RMS Olympic to 1914 Paris as she fights to save her father’s legacy on the eve of World War I.

🌿 From the Archives
Explore my collection of articles inspired by my first book You Don’t Have to Stay: Leave the Job That Drains You for a Career That Lights You Up.

About the Novel

When the Sea Was Still is a historical novel inspired by Titanic survivor Helen Ostby. While the heroine of the story, Nora Osterly, is entirely fictional, her journey draws on the incredible life of Helen Ostby. After surviving the Titanic disaster and losing her father, Helen went on to help run the family jewelry business, Ostby & Barton, which required her to face the sea again for business in Europe.

The novel begins two years after the sinking of the Titanic, when Nora Osterly is forced to cross the Atlantic again—this time aboard Titanic’s nearly identical sister ship, the Olympic. To save her father’s legacy, Nora must do the one thing she swore she never would: return to the sea that nearly killed her.

Read Episode One

Subscribe free to receive a new episode every Thursday.


About the Writer:

For more than a decade, I owned and ran my own travel business, helping people see the world. After the pandemic, I stepped back into the corporate world in search of stability. Four miserable years later that ended in a layoff, I wrote my debut nonfiction book, You Don’t Have to Stay. Drawing on my own experience of leaving corporate exhaustion for a life that lights me up, its a book that offers hope and help to anyone who is where I was.

Today, I have stepped into my new identity as “Traveling Author Amy” combining my love of writing with my love of travel. My travel adventures fuel my writing, both my historical fiction and other writing I do.​

Beyond the Writing

When I’m not at my desk I’m usually planning my next trip to Europe, hiking the trails of Arizona, or spending time with my family—including my two beloved cats who have strong opinions about when it’s time to stop writing for the day.

Find me also on:

📸 Instagram

The Wave is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

To learn more about the tech platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.

User's avatar

Subscribe to The Wave

A historical serial novel, When the Sea Was Still is inspired by true stories surrounding the Titanic and WWI.

People