sarah hill wheeler

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WELCOME TO MY WEBSITE

I am a writer, lawyer and mother, in an ever-shifting order of priority. And many more things besides. Read more about me .

Fiction update

May 1, 2018 by Longhouse1 Leave a Comment

I am currently continuing to enter the Ad Hoc Weekly Flash Fiction competition. Entries are limited to 150 words and whilst this may sound like something you can dash off in a few minutes, I am finding it takes me considerably longer. A day usually, which either goes to show I am very slow, or it really is true: Less is more. It takes longer to write short.

My entry for week of 18 April was published in the ebook, and here’s a link to the piece, Fish and Chips. 

Another thing I am finding, characters sometimes take on a life of their own.

When I read through the other entries too, it is interesting to see all the different takes on the prompt word. Interesting too, how similar themes and situations reoccur and these are not always the obvious ones.

This micro story was a case in point. I had a very clear image of a young woman, battling with eating disorders (when I think of the word “fast” I think, amongst other things, of diets, the juice diet, 5/2, other fads, then for some reason, Benedictine monks). My character’s  life has moved on. In many ways, she is successful now. But she looks back, to a younger self. She is a child, standing with her mother in a City, which is not home now. It’s raining. It’s grey. I think of Manchester, then Belfast. And she is waiting, expectant for fish and chips. (Perhaps the fast theme is making me hungry). Looking back, there is regret and sadness as well as something lost. Perhaps it’s the fasting theme again, but I think of Bobby Sands and then I know, in some way (I’m not sure how) she’s been touched by the Troubles. She’s looking back to when she used to go to Frizzell’s Fish and Chip shop on the Shankill Road, where a bomb blast in 1993 killed ten people and injured 57.

In some ways, the 150 word limit is frustrating. It is certainly teaching me to write “tight.” On the other hand, it sometimes leaves me with random characters rattling around inside my head. At least, I’ve “parked” this lady toying with her food on a sunny bistro terrace somewhere in W8 or W11.

Flash Fiction

April 22, 2018 by Longhouse1 Leave a Comment

Recently, I’ve discovered Flash Fiction.

Or, perhaps, I mean rediscovered it.

(It seems like I’ve been scribbling fragments of stories on scraps of paper like forever. And, whilst I’m still trying to figure out what flash fiction actually is, this short form of fiction seems to work well with me. It seems to match where I am right now, i.e. idea rich, time short, and it gives me that all important sense of completion. But watch this space for a more technical exploration, possibly, in the weeks to come).

Three weeks ago, I discovered the Bath Flash Fiction Festival and Ad Hoc Publishing’s weekly flash fiction competition. The idea is to write a piece of flash fiction in 150 words or less based on the week’s prompt word (which must also be included in the text somewhere). The long listed ones are published the following week in an on-line ebook and then go to a public vote off. I’m hooked, mentally composing vignettes when I’m cleaning the henhouse or scouring plates.

My first entry, 11 April, Sage, owes as much to much to what was going on in the garden that week as the prompt word, Sage. (I’ve got to become more original in my titles!).

 

 

Wild Words Solstice Competition

September 15, 2017 by Longhouse1 Leave a Comment

I was delighted to win the Wild Word’s Winter Solstice Competition with my piece (a snippet of Memoir) Fox.

It seems like a lifetime ago that I met Bridget Holding when she was facilitating a writers’ workshop at Lower Shaw Farm. (It was actually about eighteen months ago, as part of the 2016 Swindon Festival of Literature). Since then I’ve been working on making my work wilder, dipping into Bridget’s Online Course, fleshing out a framework for a larger work. (And all this whilst seeing off Avian Flu and a succession of Whiskery Gentlemen.)

I do feel we’d all be happier and more productive if we let a little more wildness into our lives. And next time I need a break from work, I’m going to try something different. Instead of reaching for the biscuit barrel, I’ll head outside, walk the hedgerows and search for the shadow of fox.

You can read more at Wild Words.

Challenging the billboards of unreality

November 17, 2016 by Longhouse1 Leave a Comment

Perhaps it’s the lawyer in me, or maybe just the cynic, but whole swathes of social media have become too saccharine for my liking.

You know, the lovely people from OTT PR, the gushing social engagement/brand ambassadors that ask you to write, publish and promote, 500 words by the day-before-yesterday. Not for free, exactly. There’ll be lots of talk about reciprocity and how you’re a perfect match for their brand. (These guys are positively evangelical about the benefits of a little old-fashioned flattery). Most likely though, they’re not talking about Caribbean cruises, or even a selection box of botanical gins, but packets of breakfast cereal, wet wipes or an aerosol spray designed specifically to target toilet farts. Proffered gifts that can leave you feeling a bit deflated, that you’re on the wrong end of an unequal exchange.

Blogfest2016#
Blogfest2016#

On the other hand, I love the internet’s ability to democratise and subvert, the way it allows connections, the proliferation of experiences, the sharing of multiple perspectives, unfiltered by marketing departments, government agencies and spell-checker.

So, I am not a natural candidate for a well-orchestrated media campaign, but at #Blogfest2016, I broke the mould. It is, after all, the exception that often proves the rule. I listened to Dove talk about the Be Real Campaign.

Dove is supporting the Be Real Body Image Pledge, a national movement to change attitudes towards body image. The Be Real Body Image Pledge encourages organisations to promote the responsible portrayal of body image in advertising, media, fashion and music. Dove want bloggers to write about how they will support the pledge. And this (coupled with the chance to win a trip to Florida) got me thinking.

According to research carried out by Dove, 70% of women think the media and advertising sets an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women can never achieve. This can have a major impact on women and girls’ self-esteem. It can make them hold back on important life activities, going-out socially, attending job interviews and even having enough confidence to voice their own opinions.

Travelling back from Blogfest on the Underground, I was reminded of that nettlesome poster which asked commuters if they were beach body ready.

Larger than life, a hyper-toned, svelte-yet-curvy, woman dons a tiny, bright yellow, bikini. She thrusts her chest out and confronts you with her anatomically impossible, small waist, and your own insecurities.

Beach body ready?

If not, she’ll supply the answer. And, guess what, it’s not a fleece-lined burkini or wet suit. (More viable options if, like us, you holiday in North Somerset rather than the Maldives).

Go, check out these weight loss products, she invites us.

Unfortunately, Dove’s competition rules prevent me from reproducing the image. Paragraph 6(a) says no profanity, and most of the offending posters have had Anglo Saxon expletives scrawled on them, or innovative suggestions on where the model can put her weight-loss pills.

As ad campaigns go, it misfired spectacularly. It provoked a media storm, 378 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority and was nominated worst advert of the year. The Mayor for London, Sadiq Khan, and Transport for London banned it.

But the story doesn’t end there.

The Advertising Standards Agency did not find the advert irresponsible, which rather begs the question, What is?

The ASA said that it “understood the claim “Are you beach body ready?” invited readers to think about their figures,” but “did not consider the image of the model would shame women who had different body shapes into believing they needed to take a slimming supplement to feel confident wearing swimwear in public.”

Fair enough, as far as it goes. Judging by the wisecracks and parodies, many women weren’t fooled. For them, the offending product was about as appealing as the intestinal tapeworm diet.

However, the ASA’s conclusion ignores an important point. The insidious pictures of airbrushed perfection, the billboards of unreality, can leave even the most robust of us feeling a little bad about ourselves. We might not rush out and buy a slimming aid to put things right, but we may just think twice before wearing a swimming costume and joining our kids on the beach.

Organisations that sign up to the Be Real Body Pledge agree to promote positively different body shapes and sizes, people with and without disabilities, and all ages, genders and ethnicities. And that, I think, has got to be a good thing.

Dove want me to tell you how I’d like to make a difference.

I could say I’m more likely to buy products from companies which show real women, and real bodies, positively. The admission has more than a trace of solicitation and the saccharine about it, But, for once, that doesn’t make the aspiration any less true.

feet on the beach

Being my best me, rather than a pale imitation of some adman’s wet dream, shows my son you don’t have to be perfect. It’s an important lesson. Feeling the sand between your toes, and the sudden shock of cool water, the taste of salt on your tongue, the crystalline crust it leaves behind as your skin dries in the sun. These are all there, pleasures for the taking, whether you’re a size zero, or 20.

Of course, I’d still like to scale the billboards, and deface them with my subversive wit. But I’ve no head for heights, and besides the Law Society and CPS take a dim view of criminal damage and public order offences.

Just don’t ask me if I’m beach body ready, not unless you want sand kicked in your face.

 

I created this post as a competition entry in support of Dove and the Be Real Body Image Pledge

 

 

 

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