What you'll find here

Writing about awe, joy, wisdom, balance, with notes on wine&food, gardens, hikes, books, world travels, widowhood, aging, Alpha-Gal, reluctant quasi-vegan, nature, colours&art. Also: photos that dance with words. Love might slip in.

What this is not: self-help, how-to, writer tips, wine or foody blog, a journal.

What this is: notes along the way, a writer's journey as I explore life via creative work. I hope that sharing this will inspire and encourage you to seek and learn, too, because "there'll never be another you", so why not make yourself the best possible version of you, however you define this.

Contributing factors. I live in the Swiss Alps, but I’ve also called Paris, western Ireland and various places in the US home. Traversed - no idea how many countries I’ve traveled to, roads I’ve hiked or biked, or the number of fine wines I’ve poured. Place is much more than setting.

I publish a monthly newsletter on Substack. Subscribers receive the newsletter and, via the chat, occasional photo art. Paying subscribers get nothing extra but a digital hug from me because I would like to keep the newsletter free for all to enjoy. Take a look, please. The greatest encouragement comes from having readers. Also: random notes that you'll find on Substack if you search for me, no need to subscribe.

New in 2026

A 10-week short literary fiction workshop with Granta, where I'm working with an excellent small group of other writers to whom I'm very grateful for the quality of their work. We share, critique and working together closely we're explore literature and how to refine our writing skills. You'll see more short stories here as a result.

Projects for this year: finish revising my novel and find an agent for it once that's done, keep up with my goal to write one short story a week and one essay a month, write the second and maybe third parts of a literary crime trilogy, develop two short story collections, start work on a memoir (possibly doing a Granta months-long deep dive memoir workshop, budget permitting). A new, pleasing to me and odd little project, called Emblem Attic, which you'll see here in bits and pieces.

That's the work side and to keep life in balance I'm hiking again as I build my strength back up after an unhealthy 2025, finding new trails throughout Switzerland, expanding and enriching my permaculture garden and learning more about birds and clouds and soil as part of that. Reading, reading, reading, both literature and journalism in depth.

And friends: staying in touch, renewing some old friendships, picking up old threads which will always remain some of the richest relationships because we can laugh at who we were as well as who we are, together.

For my 75th birthday? Maybe a mostly solitary retreat on a Greek island, to renew my friendship with myself, remembering to laugh, humbled anew by the grandeur of nature.

New in 2025

I made a tough decision to stop writing about the landscape of Swiss wine, because most of the year has been marked by health struggles that are the fallout of a 2022 tick bite and the resulting alpha-gal allergy to meat and dairy. 2025 has been a year of ocular shingles with Covid at the same time, allergic conjunctivitis, pulled muscles, etc. You get the picture. Time to re-write my daily menu and finally focus on writing fiction full-time after decades of sandwiching it in between full-time paid journalism and a complicated family life. At age 74 this is a challenge, but I'm up to it. Your moral support and encouragement will be greatly appreciated, in part because giving up wine work is a financial but also emotional loss because I invested years in doing it well. Warning: my fiction may include good wine.

Works in progress: completed literary novel, historical crime (setting: USA), in revision; collection of short stories partially completed (setting: countries galore), in writing; trilogy, historical crime (setting: Swiss Alps), first part completed, parts two and three marinating. Also: a magnificent permaculture garden in an increasingly natural "garden", defined in the British sense of the complete space that surrounds my home. I am not so much owner as steward and curator.

New in 2024

Learning to live with Alpha-Gal, an allergy to all dairy and most meat, thanks to a nasty little tick bite. Also in 2024: I'll gradually be moving the archives from my blog Ellen's Wine World to their new home here on Medium. I've nearly completed a novel and I'm working on a collection of short stories, so expect to see a bit of fiction writing here now and again, too.

Previously, the work stuff

Swiss news publisher 2006-2016. Long-time news reporter for Time, People, Business Week, with feature writing for more than 200 US and British news and travel publications. A corporate stint as head of communications for an education group.

Defining non-work moments: wanderlust and heartbreak that thrust me on a bicycle for a 3-month ride across China in 1985; the birth of a severely mentally handicapped child in 1992; the sit-down news in 2006 that my older, independent wild child won a Leader of Tomorrow full 4-year scholarship to a major, large university; the death of my remarkable husband following an accident while out walking in 2020 (a tribute to him). Thus we grow and grow again.

Wine press credentials

For more than 10 years an invited journalist member of the International Circle of Wine Writers and the Mémoire des Vins Suisses. Judge at several international wine competitions. Member of AOC and regional wine certification commissions in Switzerland until 2025.

Books (20,000 sold)

Wine Hiking Switzerland, 2022, continues to be a Helvetiq bestseller. Also published in German, French. Vineglorious! Switzerland's Wondrous World of Wine, 2004. Out of print: China, on the Ground, 2004 (failed e-book/print experiment) and The Fine Line, a style guide to English in an international setting, 2000. The 2002 third and last print run helped me decide I'd had enough grammar for a lifetime. Let the words roll!

Photos: top to bottom, luscious garden cherries, pitted and ready for freezing. Cozy writing space during major winter snowstorm. Abstracted Alpine meadow. The majestic Rhone river valley, early summer morning.

All photos copyright Ellen Wallace 2025, may not be reproduced without permission.