Half-term, free writing sessions and Jane Austen.
It’s half term. In my humble opinion, I’m not doing too bad a job as a mother. The children have been outside in the garden more than they’ve watched telly.…
Author: sophiebeal
Bournemouth 19/05/17
It was dark, but this is Bournemouth, in the middle of a subway, under a roundabout: Is it just me being pretentious, or is there a metaphor here? Even if…
Explaining Michael House in 1200 words.
I don’t actually live at Michael House, though at times in the last couple of months it has felt and probably looked like it to the residents. I’m a freelance…
Productive ways to avoid your novel and Victorians at their best.
I have two articles out today. The first, ‘Productive Procrastination’, is in the June issue of Writing Magazine. I lay out twelve good excuses to avoid your novel. This didn’t require much…
Yellow Car
Other writers are often shocked by my family’s low-brow tastes. We have DVDs, not books in our sitting room, and those are more often rom-coms than foreign language films. But…
Archaeology for journalists: creating an editorial contact book.
I am slowly building up my list of editorial contacts. Slowly. I don’t like unsolicited emails, so I understand why there’s often a two-tier system for contacting magazines. Those in the…
London, school holidays and chicken pox
I’ve visited Wembley IKEA, but I last spent proper time in London 12 years ago when my eldest was eight weeks. I hadn’t thought through things like breastfeeding on a rush-hour…
Afraid of my own novel
I’m theoretically in control of what happens over the pages of my novel. My say-so is required for Zombie apocalypse, Viking invasion or any other horror. And I’m writing women’s fiction.…
sophie beal 