Last week was the first full week of the younger kid being back at school (the older one is off to uni/college next week), with my husband and me back at work at our sustainability consultancy. I got in a little bit of writing on Wednesday morning and then a fantastic 4-hour session on Saturday, so I’m all fired up now.
Author interview with Sophie Thomas
Sophie Thomas is a Londoner, writer, and reader. She breaks the rules of grammar far too often for someone with an English degree. When she's not coming up with ideas on her hot girl walks or sitting in a theatre watching a musical, she enjoys getting people to fall in love and kiss each other (and get secret tattoos for one another).
What inspires you?
Anything can if I am in the right mindset. Typically there is something magical that happens when I hear a certain song lyric when I am mid-walk and an idea sort of spools from there. Sometimes my ideas come to me when I am not quite asleep but not quite fully awake. When I am reading a book I can come across something that I can use as a springboard for something in the piece that I am working on. Recently just watching sports has inspired a couple of ideas that I've had to add to the burner.
Do you have a writing routine?
For the most part I write in 50-minute bursts during Writers’ Hour hosted by London Writers’ Salon four days a week a minimum at 4pm. If I am in the flow then I will write for longer, or I will pick up my laptop and write at different times, but it's mostly in those 50 minutes that have allowed me to write and edit two novels, draft this third novel, write all my Substack posts, create content for marketing purposes, and so much more.
Writing’s biggest secret is…
…there is no magic way to do it. You really do just have to sit there and put words on the page. Be that in large chunks of time or in stolen moments throughout the day in your Notes app. Then you have to delete those words and write them again. And again. And again. And it will somehow never feel “done” but it will feel “done enough.” Eventually.
My worst writing moment
I hate when you can feel yourself writing your way into a corner. You know where you have to go but you haven't quite made the journey to that end point clear and as you try to figure it out the words do weird things that kind of make sense but aren't actually getting you any closer to the destination you are trying to reach. So you keep going in the hope that the right path reveals itself but you actually just end up stuck. I hate having to sit in that corner and try and figure out if any of what I've written is salvagable or if I’m going to have delete it all and start again.
My best writing moment
Writing “The End” on my first book. I had attempted to write a book so many times over the years but had always run out of steam around 15-20,000 words. I could never make anything stick. I had a lot of beginnings and a lot of endings but the first time I managed to stick both the beginning and the end together with a mostly well-constructed middle felt almost euphoric. It unlocked something in me and gave me the confidence to know that I can do it again. And again. Writing the middle is still always a little bit terrible, but I have belief that I can navigate my way through it and that would not have been possible if it wasn't for what I am still lovingly calling Thing 2 (I do have the title and it is currently due to be released next year, I've just not made the title official yet).
What are you reading right now?
I am basically incapable of only reading one book at a time so at the moment I have What A Way to Go by Bella Mackie, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, and Funny Feelings by Tarah DeWitt.
Book recommendation
I will keep telling people to read Savor It by Tarah DeWitt until I have achieved the goal of getting everyone to read this book (the second venture to her Spunes, Oregon via her Left of Forever out next year is just as delicious). How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang is also a gorgeous novel. And for a trio of romance book recs I close it off with Kennedy Ryan’s Before I Let Go.
Where can we find you?
The Giraffe Files on Substack and @ashakespearenerd on Instagram.
Book recommendations for ravenous readers
In The House of Doors, Tan Twan Eng transports us to Penang, Malaysia in 1910 and 1921. Think of a framed narrative, add a couple more frames, including spinning doorframes, and then you’ll grasp the nested structure of this work that fills all the senses. It could have been a response to, “What would it be like to invite Willie Somerset Maugham and Dr. Sun Yat-sen to a dinner party?”
Speaking of transporting people through time, Kaliane Bradley’s debut, The Ministry of Time, is shockingly stunning. The plot, characters, and particularly the figurative language is outstanding: every simile and metaphor is perfectly on point. I recommend the audio book, narrated (mostly) by Katie Leung.
Adela shrugged. "We have time-travel," she said, like someone describing the coffee machine. "Welcome to the Ministry."
And again speaking of time (see what I did there?), I consumed Ocean Vuong’s poetry collection Time Is a Mother like chocolate truffles, savoring it, reading and re-reading one poem per day or even less frequently. He packs entire, often heart-breaking, worlds into few words. I received this book in the mail a couple of years ago and it took me a few weeks to figure out that it was a gift from my brother. Thank you, Anthony.
Resources for wonderful writers
Who understood the reference from this month’s header photo? If you’ve read Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott, you’ll remember her advice: if you’re feeling overwhelmed about what to write, start with what you can see through a 1-inch-square frame. I was looking for a 1-inch frame in wood and then found a necklace which Chriscelle, based in Bristol, made to the exact size for my bestie Kate Hammer and me.
Remember last month’s guest, Iqbal Hussain? He’s interviewing Fighting Fantasy author Ian Livingstone on Monday October 7, from 7-8pm BST (2-3pm ET, 11am-noon PT). Tickets are free for the online "YOU are the hero!" Meet Fighting Fantasy author Sir Ian Livingstone.
I regularly listen to Sacha Black’s The Rebel Author Podcast, and on practically every episode she mentions the Strengths (listeners can do a shot every time she says it). I DMed her to ask what the heck she was talking about, and she pointed me toward The Better-Faster Academy with Becca Syme. I now have all 34 of my Gallup CliftonStrengths and through the BFA, I’m learning how to apply them to my writing. It’s mind-blowing and I’m really immersing myself in it (hello, Learner and Activator!).
Updates on my moseying
On September 3, freshly arrived home after a week away at a family wedding in the U.S., I attended a talk at the University of West London by Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China and Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China. I had been to her reading at Conway Hall in 2019, when she signed my book. It was fascinating and entertaining to hear her anecdotes of being a student at UWL and later, the first person from the People's Republic of China to be awarded a PhD from a British university—namely, linguistics from York. I haven’t actually read her Sisters book yet, so at least it’s off the shelf and on my coffee table now.
Whenever I listen to The Creative Penn podcast, I get excited about self-publishing. My plans for my short story collection change almost daily. Today’s idea is to complete chapters 8 (my Poa-Poa Corri) and 9 (my brother’s and my trip to China in 2015) and then submit it to small presses. I read that 40,000 words is the minimum for a short story collection, and that would be right around where my word count for the 9 stories would land. I’m sure my vision will be different by the time The Spark comes out in October. By the way, I’m aiming for the 15th of each month for The Spark’s publication.
Submissions stats — tracked on Chill Subs
5 accepted
14 pending
4 withdrawn (accepted elsewhere)
35 rejected (with a record 3 in one day )
02 In full flow