An Interview with Sophie Edwards

Sophie is a professional blurb writer, cover designer, and mother of six children aged eleven and under. She received a Master’s degree in writing genre fiction from Edinburgh Napier University, which presented more than the usual challenge considering she homeschools all her children. She is an avid Ben and Jerry’s eater, lover of cosiness, and holds the award for the ultimate cookie-making mama. She currently lives in the gorgeous folds of Scotland where nature abounds and no one can hear the gunshots.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I never liked school.

Actually, that’s an understatement. I hated school. I’m a fierce introvert, so being around people all day exhausted me. If we’d spent the day talking about stories, I might’ve been okay. The gruesome history of the world, however, didn’t exactly grab my attention.

I spent most of my time staring out the window, looking at the bars around the school and thinking up creative ways to escape: the arrival of assassins, the call to action when the government needed their best agent, even the occasional goblin invasion.

Needless to say, the urge to imagine has always been with me.

I fell in love with books like Fablehaven by Brandon Mull and Alex Rider by Anthony Horowitz, but the last pages never ended there. I always had more to add to them. More adventures in my mind.

Maybe it helped that I excelled at literature. Maybe it runs in my blood. Either way, it was only a matter of time before the writer in me broke free.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

I was thirteen years old when my mother suggested I write a novel. I distinctly remember looking at the bookshelf, at all those magical hardbacks, and thinking, ‘Could I have a book like that? A book that’s completely my own?’ It was a big project, but I was ready for the task.

Fast forward four years, and I finally completed the first draft of NightLock.

It sucked.

Like, majorly.

So, I moved on and wrote other stories, but this one stayed with me. I found myself revisiting it over and over and incorporating real-life experiences into it. Shooting on the gun range. Training bodyguards. Slipping a bomb into the jacket of a VIP. (Don’t worry. It wasn’t armed. Or real. It was a dummy, but let’s pretend, yeah?) Or screaming when I lost control of my skid car.

This was the book I had to write. The one I needed over all others. I was well-trained to love martial arts, to love the exciting parts of life that few got to see, so all that had a huge hand in my inspiration.

But then there was my school life. The years I spent in reserve, hiding my discomfort, fighting back when pressure mounted. So much of NightLock includes lying to survive, and I (kind of) know exactly how that feels.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

Yeah, this one took years. I started out calling it ‘Pangaea.’ Then ‘Venom.’ Nothing felt right, and there’s something to be said about trusting your gut. It was only as the story progressed and changed shape that I discovered the name.

I’d like to say there’s a deep meaning to NightLock, but really it was just a name that had the right ring to it and sounded potentially dangerous!

Describe your dream book cover.

That’s a hard one for me because I design and love so many of them! But I’d say one that distracts from what you’re supposed to be doing because you keep going back to look at it—between reading the book, of course! Maybe a red one with flourishes and an elegant touch.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I’ve been all over the place! It was only twelve years ago that I found out I could actually make a living in the writing industry, so I’d bounced around through different professions, trying to find my place in the world.

I’m a qualified hairdresser, nursery nurse, and a true proficient at booth one at McDonalds. I used to take orders on the headset and payments at the window at the same time!

On the side, I’d design book covers—something I really love—and would learn everything I could about how to write to industry standards.

And then I got married (to my manager!) and discovered I could take a BA degree in creative writing and a MA afterwards, and I’ve never looked back. This is what I was meant to do. I only wish I’d known about them earlier.

What books did you read (for research or comfort) throughout your writing process?

Goodness, I don’t think I can narrow this down to only a few! One of the best parts about studying creative writing degrees is that my research means reading the books I’d read for comfort! The Skandar series is a great lot. So is the Alex Rider series. There’s The School for Good and Evil, A Tale of Magic, and Killing November by Adriana Mather.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

Courage. Courage to know that no matter how difficult our lives, how impossible our circumstances, we have the strength to fight back. There is always something we can do to win, even if that lies in the small victory of not losing ourselves in the midst of trials. Because at the end of the day, our morals, our faith, our strength is something that no one can take from us. And I think that’s something so many forget nowadays.

My perfect reader? Those who love unpredictability, female leads, and psychological action thrillers with mystery, a sci-fi twist, and a ton of suspense! It’s a lot, I know, but it makes for a fantastic read. Trust me!

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.