CYBERLAUNCH NEWS:  FROM LIGHT TO DARK AND BACK AGAIN/FACEBOOK PAGE

On 1st April 2017, a long held dream of mine came true.  Chapeltown Books and Cafelit (with me as co-host) launched From Light to Dark and Back Again online.  The event was huge fun and I must say a big thank you to my lovely publishers and to all who came and supported the event.  I shared writing tips, how I got into writing flash fiction at all, and I loved the virtual food and drink aspect to this.  (It’s just as well pixels don’t contain calories!).   I share here the link to the book’s page on Fairytales With Bite where I share interview links and other information, which I hope you enjoy.

What I do know is persistence, learning how to improve your work (by submitting it, getting feedback and reacting to that in the right way), as well as being open to publishing possibilities you might not have initially considered are all key.  I learned a lot from today’s event and hope to write a future Chandler’s Ford Today post about it.  But today was lovely and I am looking forward to sending out the prizes to the winners of my quiz and raffle.  That really is one of the loveliest things about the writing life:  getting to do things like this.  The launch was special for another reason too:  it marked my first ever full day spent as a professional writer!  I usually only get to do this when I go to conferences and so on.  Aside from becoming periodically annoyed when my internet connection slowed down for no obvious reason, the launch went perfectly.

Can I also add, on behalf of all writers, please write reviews, good, bad or indifferent ones but above all honest ones, for Amazon, Goodreads, writing blogs etc?  It really does help. Many thanks.

FAIRYTALES WITH BITE

In When Fairytales Come True, naturally I talk about my launch (my big news for ages!) but I also go on to discuss the importance of persistence, having beta readers have a look at your work and my thoughts on so often hearing the advice not to give up when all that was coming through the door were rejections.  Hope you find my thoughts here of use.  It is easy to think that publishing success won’t ever come to you but that can only happen if you stop writing or refuse to improve on your work where it needs it.

THIS WORLD AND OTHERS

In Cyberlaunch:  From Light to Dark and Back Again by Allison Symes, well no prizes for guessing the topic of conversation BUT I take the chance to publicly thank my publishers and to put the word out for the small independent presses in general.  They do increase the opportunities for writers to get their work out there and improve the variety of what is available in the book market.  But they need support and that is where we come in – as readers and buyers of books.