Author Archives: Louise Beech

After a week of book panels, I came home exhausted but bouyant. It was wonderful to mix with actual humans like it was the ‘old world’ again, to meet new readers and old, to work alongside authors and reunite with loyal bloggers, and to see some fantastic festivals full swing once more, with people millingContinue reading “On the hugely supportive #writingcommunity.”

Music was a huge part of my childhood. It was one of the first things I heard, and not from the radio or a record player, but live, in the house. My father was a musician alongside his job as an engineer. He played in local bands, and even jammed with Mick Ronson. He playedContinue reading “Thank you for the music…”

I wanted to write a little something in response to the overwhelming reaction I’ve had to my memoir, Daffodils, which came out in audiobook three weeks ago. When I sat here at the keyboard, during the first lockdown – which many will agree was the most intense, being a new experience – and started toContinue reading “An Overwhelming Response to Daffodils”

Nothing Else is what I call one of my lockdown books; lockdown literature might be a catchier phrase. I wrote three during the various lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, two novels and my memoir. What else was there for me except my writing? My theatre was shut, there were no physical book events, and weContinue reading “My lockdown books…”

I’ve been so excited this week to finally share the cover for the upcoming audiobook release of my memoir Daffodils – the image is beautiful, simple, the colours bright, and the bunch of daffodils perfect. Here it is again. I started writing the book at the end of 2019, after my private world fell apart,Continue reading “Awash with yellow…”

At the moment I barely have time to write this blog post. And yet here I am. So, shut up, Louise. Understand, I’m not complaining about my lack of time. God, no. I’m doing the thing I love, the thing I’ve waited my whole life to be able to solely do. I’m doing exactly whatContinue reading “Multi-Writing”

I saw an interesting comment the other day where a writer said that when a man produces a great many works in a short time, he’s called prolific – in essence, he is admired for it – but when a woman produces such epic volumes, she is ‘churning them out’. This likely could be referringContinue reading “So how can I not write?”

Rejections, I’ve had a few. More than a few. It’s definitely in the hundreds, possibly even in the thousands. I’m an old pro when it comes to the no, when it comes to the nothing, when it comes to the we do like it but sorry it’s still a no. I could never decide whichContinue reading “Rejections, I’ve had a few…”

The new Netflix series, Maid, which is inspired by Stephanie Land’s memoir, touched me on many levels. It’s written by and about a struggling single mum who is determined to keep a roof over her daughter’s head. She works hard to climb her way out of poverty, scrubbing the toilets of the wealthy, navigating domesticContinue reading “Maids, Mothers … and Memoirs…”

Back in the day when I was trying to get an agent, a publisher, a fishmonger, anyone who might even consider reading and publishing one of my novels, I worked tirelessly to perfect the dreaded Query Letter. Two words that strike bowel-weakening fear and dread into even the most thick-skinned writer. I wondered, what shouldContinue reading “The Query Letter That Got Me My Agent”