Every month, our TGIF event gives the TLR Family a chance to gather, listen, learn, and celebrate whatever one of our members is brave enough to share. This time, the spotlight was on our dear Marta, whose debut memoir, Unfinished, brought us into a conversation about writing, health, heartbreak, travel, community, and what it means to choose yourself.
Some TGIFs teach us a skill. Some introduce us to a new idea. And some remind us that the people we see every day, smiling at events, organising plans, connecting others, and keeping the energy high, often carry far more than we realise.
This TGIF was one of those.
Our dear Marta, Events Manager at TLR, joined Carmen, our Community Manager, for a moderated conversation to celebrate the launch of her debut memoir, Unfinished, a book spanning 13 years of life, travel, health challenges, relationships, endings, beginnings… and the messy middle bits that rarely fit neatly into a caption.
As Carmen beautifully said at the start of the evening: since Marta arrived at TLR, she has always been “smiling, talking to everyone, helping, listening, connecting people, sharing ideas, joining every event with a great attitude and now even creating and organising events herself.”
But this night gave us a chance to see another side of Marta too.
One for the Books
Marta began by reading from the opening of Unfinished, setting the tone for a book that does not hide from difficult truths.
“I picked up this manuscript again in November 2025, two weeks after my husband told me he’d been having an emotional affair with someone I’d welcomed into my life,” she read.
“I was sitting in a sterile white hotel room. My marriage imploding, my life unraveling, and all I could think was, ‘How did I get here?’”
The answer, she explained, required going back 13 years.
The book traces her story from moving to Miami at 22, to travelling across continents, to health crises, major life changes, and eventually to Málaga. It began partly as a way to process what was happening in her life.
“The book was not to publish at the beginning,” Marta said.
“It was for me. I actually started writing just to not go crazy. And it helped a lot.”
From Manuscript to Memoir
Although Unfinished is deeply personal, Marta was clear that she did not create the book alone.
The evening also gave space to two key people behind the finished work: fellow TLR Family member Agustina, who edited the book, and TLR’s graphic designer, Carlos, who designed it.
Agustina explained that her role was mainly developmental editing, helping give the manuscript structure and clarity.
“It was more thorough work,” she said, describing the process of organising the book into chapters and sections, reviewing the style, and helping keep the narrative consistent.
“My first question was, what do you want to transmit to readers? What do you want to tell?”
Marta said the collaboration changed the book completely.
“I just write and drop everything there on paper,” she said.
“But she was the one coming to me and making sense of everything, organising it, changing, helping me actually that my words had the meaning that they needed to have.”
The Design of a Journey
Carlos, who designed the book, described the process with typical TLR honesty and humour. He had one week to design it, despite explaining that a book design would normally take much longer.
“I love books,” he said.
“Books are the perfect objects because they’re something you want to keep… if you like it.”
For Carlos, the design needed to reflect the story inside. After reading the manuscript, he created a cover that speaks to life as an unfinished journey.
“Life is not always straight,” he said. “It is curves, problems, challenges, everything.”
The design, he explained, reflects a road, a trip, and three key events in Marta’s life. No spoilers, of course. You will have to read the book for that.
Writing Through Health and Survival
One of the most powerful parts of the conversation came when Carmen asked Marta about the health challenges described in the book.
Marta read from a section about being told she had a tumour in the frontal lobe of her brain. The room went quiet.
When asked where she found the strength to continue, Marta answered with honesty rather than easy inspiration.
“I think that when you go through something that hard, life doesn’t give you a choice,” she said.
“There’s a lot of survival mechanisms. You go into fight or flight mode and then you fight. You fight for your life, for survival… and just to keep moving.”
She also spoke about the importance of support systems.
“I had an amazing support system through different parts of my life. Right now, I have this amazing TLR community. I wouldn’t be here without them.”
Listening to the Body
The book also explores the connection between emotional pain, mental health, and the body.
Marta shared that writing and rereading her story helped her notice patterns in her life, especially around illness.
“I started realising a pattern,” she said. “How many times I got sick in my life, especially head, stomach, immune system diseases… probably not coincidental.”
She spoke about learning to ask for help, something that has not always come naturally to her.
“When you just keep going and don’t do the work to process everything that happens in your life, at some point your body starts manifesting things,” she said.
Her advice was simple and important: do not go through it alone.
“Sometimes we think that we are alone, but that’s not true. There’s always someone, maybe people you didn’t expect, that are there just to give you a hand and to listen.”
Brazil, Travel, and Coming Back to Life
Of course, Unfinished is not only about difficult moments. Travel is a major part of Marta’s story, and Brazil holds a particularly special place in the book.
After surgeries and years of health uncertainty, Brazil became a turning point.
Marta read from a section that captured what the country gave back to her:
“Brazil taught me that multiple realities could exist in the same space. That you could be broken and whole at the same time. That joy and trauma were not opposites. They could live side by side in the same body, the same moment, the same life.”
She spoke of dancing, laughing, diving into the ocean, and beginning to recognise herself again.
“When I left Brazil, I knew I wasn’t the same person who arrived there weeks earlier,” she read. “Something had shifted. I might not have been healed entirely yet, but something had changed.”
And yes, when asked if she would go back to Brazil, the answer was very much yes.
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
Another powerful theme of the evening was identity, especially the kind that does not follow the expected route.
Marta spoke about the quote tattooed on her arm: “Not all those who wander are lost.”
For her, it became a reminder that a life does not have to look traditional to be meaningful.
“It doesn’t matter if your life doesn’t look like other people’s,” she said. “Sometimes you’re wandering around. That doesn’t mean that you’re lost.”
Choosing Yourself
One of the most resonant parts of the conversation was Marta’s reflection on relationships, especially the difference between being needed and being wanted.
She spoke about choosing people who needed her because it felt safer.
“At some point, you give and give, and you feel that you become indispensable for that person,” she said. “That feels safer than just someone who just wants you. You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to win that person over and over again.”
But now, things have changed.
“You shouldn’t have to be convincing anyone to be with you,” she said. “I started prioritising myself and actually asking myself what I want.”
Later, she read from the closing section of the book:
“The most important choice has never been about being chosen by someone else. It’s been about choosing myself.”
A Story Still Being Lived
The title Unfinished could not be more fitting.
Marta ended with a final reading that captured the spirit of the book, and perhaps the spirit of the night too.
“This story is unfinished and it may always be,” she read. “That’s the thing about life. It doesn’t wrap up neatly. There’s no final chapter where everything resolves. There’s just the next day and the day after that.”
She finished the section with one of the most beautiful lines of the evening:
“Some stories don’t get finished. They just get lived.”
When Carmen asked whether there might be another book, Marta laughed and said maybe in 15 years.
“Ask me when I’m 50.”
Fair enough, Marta. We will.
What Community Really Means
During the Q&A, several members stood up to thank Marta, not only for writing the book, but for having the courage to share it.
One member reminded her: “Anybody who writes is a writer.”
Another said that what felt most inspirational was not just putting the story on paper, but sharing it publicly in the hope that it might resonate with someone else.
Marta responded by speaking about vulnerability.
“I’ve always been very open, but never in my life have I been this vulnerable,” she said. “I’ve never felt stronger than what I feel right now, just showing, just being more real, more transparent.”
And that might be the heart of it. The courage to be seen, not just when life looks polished, but when the story is still unfolding.
Thank You, Marta
This TGIF felt like a celebration, but also like something softer. A pause. A room full of people listening to one person tell the truth about becoming herself.
Marta spoke about wanting to slow down, work less, take care of her health, reconnect with her body, and focus on projects that genuinely excite her.
And when she spoke about Málaga and the people around her, it was clear why this night belonged at TLR.
“The dream is just to keep living my life with all of you,” she said. “I feel so grateful that so many people showed up here to support me today. That for me is already like a dream.”
Huge congratulations, Marta. We are very, very proud of you.
If you would like to support Marta by purchasing either a physical or digital copy of her book, ‘Unfinished’, it is available on Amazon here.
If you would like to join TLR, check out our various subscription offerings here: https://tlr-coworking.com/subscriptions/. Our ‘Friend’ subscription, for example, is only €50/month and includes access to all TLR events and social gatherings, including the monthly TGIF! If you’d like a subscription with more office hours, you’re welcome to book a free trial day!
