Wednesday 9 August 2023

Meet author Sophie Neville at the Southampton International Boat Show this September

 



Sophie Neville has been giving talks at Southampton International Boat Show 2023.



A keynote speaker, she spoke on the Foredeck Stage about filming boats with reference to the 'Swallows and Amazons' movies and signed copies of her book on 'The Making of Swallows and Amazons' at Medina Bookshop.

Sophie had a 4-page feature article in Practical Boat Owner magazine on Amazon the dinghy she captured when playing Titty in the original film 'Swallows and Amazons' made fifty years ago.

Details are on the Southampton Boat Show website







Friday 7 July 2023

10 tips on taking photos of a book you've written

 


Writers need a huge variety to photographs of their books and publications for publicity, illustrating blog posts and social media stories.

Ten hints:

1. Always use a spotlight - a desk lamp will do - or wait for lovely outdoor light.

2. Think about who is going to read your book, where and why. Dream up your ideas accordingly.

3. Chose a minor colour used on the cover for your background, eg gold or dark grey. A pashmina scarf works well as the fabric looks good when well lit.

4. Only use 1, 3 or 5 props with a limited palette of colours. You don't want to distract from the book.

5. Chose attractive props: sunglasses and a straw hat with a few leaves suggest summer reading. Spectacles with comparison books and a steaming cup of coffee work well for winter. Wrapping paper and ribbon suggest the book would make a good present. vintage black and white photos illustrate 20th Century historical fiction. Feature an ebook on Kindle or open a magazine showing your article.

6. Focus on the most important aspect of your book such as the title or author name.

7. Frame as closely as you dare but try to feature the spine.

8. When you take portraits of people, animals or birds compose the image with one eye in the centre of the shot.

9. If you are after a comic shot, crop the subject off at a shoulder joint.

10. Play around with filers or cropping until you get it right. Discard any that aren't perfect.

Enjoy yourself. This should be quicker than using Canva or CGI. Take three aspects of each shot: square for Instagram, landscape for Facebook and Twitter, Portrait for Facebook or Instagram Stories.

Sophie Neville won the Create! prize for photography





Thursday 9 February 2023

Launching the audiobook of 'Funnily Enough'



The audiobook of Sophie Neville's award winning book 'Funnily Enough' is now out on all the usual retail platforms.

You can listen to it on audible here:


It is also available on:

Audiobooks.com 

Libro.FM 


Audiobooks Now 


BookMate 


Funnily Enough by Sophie Neville available on Kobo

Kobo 


Scribd, Inc.


Barnes & Noble


The ebook or paperback can be found for sale on all the usual online platforms including Amazon here.


Each audiobook store should also have a copy of 'The Making of Swallows and Amazons' by Sophie Neville. You can listen to a sample here on the audiobookstore, Barnes and NobleDownpour 


The paperback is also available online:




Sunday 11 December 2022

Author Sophie Neville has been shortlisted in three writing competitions and wins the Eyelands Book Award for an unpublished historical novel.

 

Author Sophie Neville

Sophie Neville currently has an unpublished novel 'in the running for the shortlist' of the Chanticleer Hemmingway Award for a wartime story in the USA. It did well in ACFW's First Impressions writing contest, reaching the semifinals in the Historical category.



The sequel has been shortlisted by Flash 500's Novel Opening Competition, by Fiction Factory, and the Virginia Prize for Fiction 2022. 




It has been highly ranked by Launch Pad in the USA, and won the Eyelands Book Awards for an unpublished historical novel on 30th December 2022, which was exciting.


For updates and more information, please see SophieNeville.net/news


Saturday 22 October 2022

An answer to prayer

But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony
Luke 21 v 30 NKJV 


I was single for a long time - which can be quite a grief. When I reached the age of about thirty-severn, I needed to decide where I should live so asked the Lord, ‘Will I have children?’ I didn’t hear a loud voice but was amazed to receive four words as if they had been spoken: ‘You will have grandchildren.' 

In 2004, at the age of forty-three, I was at an archery tournament, fed up with being single, when I prayed a really grumpy sort of prayer along the lines of, ‘Why can’t I marry that nice man over there?’ After about five seconds, he strode over, asked my father something, then put an arm around my shoulders. Four months later we walked down the aisle. I had never married or had children, but he was a widower, so I inherited his three. I now have five grandchildren. The twin boys and their parents came to live with us for nine months over Lockdown, which was wonderful.

Sophie Neville with the grandchildren