Both of my website posts tonight were inspired by my cyber launch of From Light to Dark and Back Again from yesterday. Had a wonderful time, thanks to all who supported it in any way and also thanks to my publishers, Chapeltown Books and Cafelit, for hosting the event (with me as co-host) and for guiding me through this. A fun and interesting day and I know I’ve learned from it. I hope to write about this for a future Chandler’s Ford Today post but in the meantime:-
SPECIAL OFFER
The Kindle version of From Light to Dark and Back Again is currently on offer at 99 pence (UK). Many thanks to all who have reviewed so far.
FAIRYTALES WITH BITE
In Celebrations I refer to the launch (naturally!) but I also discuss what kind of celebrations your fictional world would have. Are there compulsory celebrations everyone must attend on pain of death? Who organises and pays for celebrations? Is there a literary world in your setting and so do “your authors” have their launches? Are there celebrations which are banned and how do people find ways round that to keep their traditions going?
THIS WORLD AND OTHERS
Learning asks if your characters keep on doing so (they should – the characters that appeal most are the ones who develop and they must learn from their mistakes, or those they know about, to be able to develop at all). I also refer to learning a lot from my launch and I hope to write about that later. I also discuss one great thing about writing – writers have to learn all the time to develop the craft and hopefully improve our chances of being published.
FACEBOOK PAGE
I loved picking music to go with my launch yesterday (all You Tube based). I am really fond of stories in song and one of my favourite album tracks comes from Dave Edmunds and is a classic example of this. It is also a great example of a twist in the tale in song. The perspective taken in it is not the usual one!
Two FB posts tonight! My main post looks at the launch, I talk about my writing prompt challenge and share my thoughts on bringing out a book. You have got to go into this with your eyes wide open and for the love of writing. Nothing else will steer you through the rejections and bad reviews etc.
A huge thank you to all who supported this and took part in the discussions. It was great fun and simply would not have been the same without you! Maybe same time next year, who knows?!
Allison Symes: Collected Works 