Thoughts from the tired
I don’t remember learning much at primary school other than reading, writing and how a mung bean grows. Today, my seven-year-old started up a conversation about the trials of finding…
Category: journalism
Clean feet, interviews and 100 years of the vote.
I have different kinds of love for each type of writing I do. Developing a novel is like parenting: you’re bringing something into being that wouldn’t otherwise exist, but there…
Index cards, school-runs and leaving an over-worked first page to rest.
Happy New Year! Two of my children went back to school yesterday, relatives left and my husband went back to work. I went straight to Office World to buy some…
The sweet spot
Three hours of undiluted housework. It doesn’t matter how many hugs I give my children, how many times they’ve been in bed within half an hour of their bedtimes, that…
Pumpkin latte, crisp air and efficiency.
I’ve said this before, but it’s so much easier to blog when you’re having a good day. It’s sunny, the air is clean, and I achieved almost unprecedented efficiency with…
Poached eggs, cultural ‘Supermarket Sweep’ and my failure to multi-task.
I should stop mulling over post ideas and just communicate. I really should. We went to London this weekend for my birthday. It was possibly my best yet (at least…
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…
When the washing machine’s a few feet away.
I met a deadline yesterday. Relaxing a little today, I had a very pleasant morning and early afternoon with my next one. I’d already done the research and produced…
sophie beal 