Facebook – General
Delighted to say I received my copies of The Best of Cafelit 6 today. My flash fiction tale, Pressing the Flesh, is in there but there is a lovely range of short and long stories in the anthology. Highly recommend even if I wasn’t in it (though I admit that does give me an incentive!). Am also looking forward to the Bridge House/Cafelit celebration event in December. It is always good fun and it will be nice to meet other authors in the collections given we usually only get to meet on Facebook. Great and useful though that is, there is something nice about actually meeting the writer though.
The link takes you to the Amazon page for the book. There’s a nice range of stories from flash fiction to standard length short stories and a good mix of styles. Go on, have a look!
Looking forward to the Chandler’s Ford Book Fair in the Age Concern Centre in Brownhill Road on 28th October from 10 am to 12 noon. There is a nice range of authors taking part with different genres represented including YA, short stories, romantic comedy, my own flash fiction and many more besides. So there should be something to suit the book lovers in your life (which I hope would include you too!).
My CFT post this week will be an update from Anne Wan about her book launch went for Secrets of the Snow Globe – Shooting Star. This is the second book in her Snow Globe series and these will also be at the Book Fair. Book launches are vital not just for the author but often for the bookshop or other venue in which they are held. Events do get people through the doors.
Many thanks to Catherine Griffin for supplying the Book Fair poster, to Anne Wan for her poster and the last image shows Anne and I at Bay Leaves Larder in Chandler’s Ford. I had just interviewed Anne for a CFT post when this image was taken.
Anne and I enjoyed a lovely chat at Bay Leaves Larder when I interviewed her for Chandler’s Ford Today.
Facebook – General – Part 2
I thought I’d share a quick post I put up yesterday which looked at why we write.
What is the real reason you write? To express yourself through story? Because you absolutely have to write and could no more stop yourself doing so than hold the sea in a sieve? (I think you’re allowed one bit of colourful description and that’s mine for tonight!).
Deep down for me, there is a feeling I need to give back to the world of story for the great joy it has (and continues) to give me. The way to give back is to create stories of my own and to put them out there.
There is also the sheer love of the written word and a desire to preserve the printed word. (I don’t see the Kindle etc as a threat. It is merely another format for story. I also don’t think anything can ever stop the appeal of a paperback. It is a question of getting stories out there in different formats and leaving it to your audience as to which format they prefer).
Sometimes, especially when feeling bogged down, it can pay to take a little time out to focus on why you write. It can help re-invigorate the old creative spark. Going to see stories performed (by live reading, theatre productions etc) is also good for the literary soul.
The important thing is to love stories and to love writing them. I couldn’t tell you how many rejections I’ve had (I definitely could wallpaper the room of my house with them!) but onwards and upwards has to be the motto. Else you make no progress. It is also true the more you write the more you improve and increase your chances of being accepted.
What a place in which to read! Image via Pixabay
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
I was thrilled to be part of Jennifer C Wilson’s blog last Sunday with a piece called Falling into Flash Fiction. I talked about how I came into writing flash (it was a happy accident!) and shared two new stories, which I hope will make it into the follow-up to From Light to Dark and Back Again. (Many thanks to Jennifer for not only hosting me but for also linking to her lovely review of my book. Both are much appreciated!).
The real trigger point was my willingness to have a go at writing flash to see if I could meet Cafelit’s 100 Word Challenge. So do be prepared to try new forms of writing. You never know where it may lead you. I had never anticipated being published in flash format yet here I am!
What is also nice about flash fiction’s growing popularity is that a fair number of well respected competitions are now adding it as a category. For example, The Bridport Prize and the Winchester Writers’ Festival now have flash as specific competitions. There are several online competitions too and then there are the websites such as Cafelit where there is a standing invitation to submit stories.
I very much hope the growth in flash fiction continues. I would love it if people, perhaps reluctant to read, become avid readers, because they loved reading flash and then decided they wanted to read longer works of fiction.
Allison Symes: Collected Works 