SOPHIE DRAPER - AUTHOR BLOG

I recently ran an editing workshop at Derby's QUAD (part of the UK Ghost Story Festival 2026). It was lovely to see so many people in the throes of their edits (and first drafts), all interested in the process of editing. I feel this is the stage in book writing where the real work happens. Of course, you...

I'm never quite sure about where I live. The isolation, the wind. It roars across the house some days, a constant thrum, lifting the chairs on the patio, tossing plastic pots, hissing through the gaps in the windows. But it's the dark at night I hadn't expected. How dense it was. I remember my first night, standing in the lane...

Living out in the sticks (as my sons often say), and on a hill (lovely view, the estate agents said), we catch the wind. The rain sweeps over the valley, the buzzards get blown off course and I've had to give up my office chair to allow the cat to remain undisturbed. The house is quiet but for the moan...