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Sophie’s choice

23rd May 2010 by Helena 10 Comments  

I was ill in bed for most of the weekend so I worked on my novel. It has been renamed Love in a Warm Climate, which I like, although I did also like Lost in France. Mainly because of the Bonnie Tyler song.

The name may have changed, but the worrying is the same. Sometimes I read what I have written and think ‘that’s not half bad’ other times I think ‘who cares about this?’ or ‘why on earth do we need to know what Sophie eats, does, thinks, says, wears?’

Is this a problem all fiction writers face? Did Scott Fitzgerald worry that no one cared if Gatsby ended up with Daisy? I don’t suppose he did, he probably knew it was brilliant. I know this is not, but then you can hardly compare chick-lit with the master.

Another dilemma I have is Sophie, my main character. She has to chose between two extremely sexy, rich and gorgeous men (why write a book with a load of men no one can fantasise about was my reasoning). I have ended one chapter with Sophie telling her French friend Audrey that she has almost decided. “There’s just one more thing I need to do,” she says, mysteriously.

Well, what she needs to do really is a mystery. I have no idea. Any suggestions most welcome, before the book has to be submitted in August please….

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2010


Filed Under: Books, blog -->, writing Tagged With: choice, sophie

10 thoughts on Sophie's choice

  • Nina says:
    23rd May 2010 at 10:04 am

    Well, here are my suggestions what she needs to do:

    to find out if both men can resist other women
    to find out there aren`t impossible relatives
    she migt even think one of the men aren`t talking the truth about being single
    not having previous marriages with kids
    being enormous rich .. and so on.

    Keep up your good work, can`t wait your book to be released.

  • helena says:
    24th May 2010 at 3:42 am

    Thanks Nina, good ideas Hx

  • Antoine says:
    24th May 2010 at 1:12 pm

    Things to investigate:

    – If one of them is gay
    – If both of them is gay and, possibly, in love with one another.
    – If her divorce papers that she’s been keeping secret finally came through.

    Perhaps she was waiting for confirmation to see if she really was adopted and is really related to one of the men. If not, she can go ahead and get involved.

    Just a thought .. or two

  • elisabeth says:
    24th May 2010 at 9:38 pm

    It’s hard to make any interesting suggestion if we don’t know who Sophie is. What are her character traits? What does she like? The seaside, the mountains? What is she tolerant/intolerant to? Does she like a man with an accent, or who can woe her in a foreign language (like Wanda in A fish called Wanda)? If you know your character well, the answer to your problem will soon be answered. Keep the faith but mostly enjoy the ride.

  • helena says:
    24th May 2010 at 10:31 pm

    Thank you all….I think maybe I still need to get to know Sophie a bit better but essentially she is funny, a little overweight, loves the countryside, is seduced by the French accent (bien sur), mad about her three children and hard-working. Her husband has left her for another woman. He had an accent too, an Irish one.
    I am enjoying it, and will miss it when it’s finished, it’s like having another member of the family
    Hx
    PS I love the idea of her being related to them and /or them being gay – hysterical!

  • nfl store says:
    25th May 2010 at 4:04 am

    Maybe i willnot have a chance to read your book.
    but after reading this post,i have to say,just keep moving on,nobody konws he/she will succeed before it’s finished.
    And may you good luck.

  • Catherine says:
    26th May 2010 at 12:10 am

    1. Perhaps there is a first love she needs to revisit, the person she always thought she should have stayed with.
    2. Or maybe she is having an affair with someone else, a woman.
    3. On the other hand, she might still want to have a last-ditch attempt to woo back her Irish lothario husband (Irish accents are hard to resist!).

    Whatever Sophie ends up doing, Helena, it will be fun to find out when your book is published.

    Catherine

    P.S. 4. The children could be given the final say on who she chooses!

  • helena says:
    26th May 2010 at 12:51 am

    The children could be the key! Thank you Catherine
    Hx

  • Mieke says:
    30th May 2010 at 12:56 am

    Maybe she just isn’t sure if she not wants to go on to be her own woman for a while and and enjoy being single ,focus on herself and her kids and have men around for dating and having a good time…..

    I know I did when I was in Sophies shoes some years ago…also very suduced by foreign accents,hahaha!!!

  • helena says:
    30th May 2010 at 1:10 am

    I think that may be it, natural that she should want to be alone after what she has been through…thank you! Great idea.
    Hx

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor in chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. Helena is also working on a thriller called Thin Ice that will be published in spring 2021 as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

Her latest non-fiction work Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles came out in hardback in 2016 and in paperback in April 2018.

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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