Glad to say I’ll be having some further stories appear on Cafelit’s Advent Calendar later this month. More details (and links) as they appear. Why not dip into the Advent Calendar to get a taster of what Cafelit authors produce? There is a nice range of styles and lengths of stories and, best of all, it’s free! Perfect for a quick read with a cup of tea I think.  (The link takes you to all of my stories on Cafelit as at the date of writing this post  on 4th December.  I would urge you to check out the other authors on here too.  Such a wonderful eclectic mix of stories).

Am currently working on an index for my next flash fiction collection. I can’t stress enough the importance of a good index for any short story collection! You’ve got to make it easy for readers to find your stories. I do know when I’ve come across ones (thankfully not many) that are either inaccurate or their cross-referencing is not what you might expect. (So let’s hear it for all hardworking indexers out there!).

Image Credit: Thanks again to Dawn Kentish Knox for taking the pic of my reading from From Light to Dark and Back Again at the recent Bridge House event. Came home feeling invigorated and inspired, which is what all good writing events should do.

A great selection of books. Image by Allison Symes

I read three stories from From Light to Dark and Back Again. Many thanks to Dawn Kentish Knox for the picture!

From Light to Dark and Back Again. Image by Allison Symes

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Love the booklet Inspiring Ideas that has come with this month’s Writing Magazine. Shall be finding this useful! It has picture prompts, tips from famous authors and sets exercises too. Will be staying by my laptop for some considerable time I think. What is nice these days I nearly always turn to the Members’ News and letter pages first in the magazine and see if I spot anyone I know from writing events in there. Glad to say I often do!

I read three stories at Saturday’s Bridge House event. I chose Serving Up a Treat (poetic justice), Making the Grade (humorous magical story) and Pressing the Flesh (horror. This one is also in the Best of Cafelit 6 as it started life on Cafelit). I think of this as a kind of “pick and mix” of my stories (and those old enough to remember Woolworths will know where that term comes from!).

Goodreads Author Programme – Blog – Getting Out and About as a Writer

I had the great joy of being at the Bridge House Publishing/Cafelit/Chapeltown Books and Red Telephone celebration event in London on 2nd December.

I’m published by Chapeltown for From Light to Dark and Back Again of course but am also on Cafelit (a lot of my flash fiction starts life there!) and have been in Baubles and Alternative Renditions, the Bridge House anthologies.

It was fabulous getting to meet fellow authors once again. I read some pieces from From Light to Dark and Back Again, which was great. (It is ALWAYS nice to know you have a sympathetic audience!).

I thoroughly enjoyed the other stories that were read out and thought the standard very high. I was at an event in Winchester the week before where I read some of my flash fiction out and one lovely comment was a lady who really enjoyed being read to as an adult.

There is something special about it because you are either reading to your children (which is also a fabulous thing to do and hopefully encourages a lifelong love for books in them) or you are reading your work out for editing purposes. To be read to for sheer entertainment is bliss and audiobooks are wonderful for this.

So read and be read to! Enjoy!

And I am already looking forward to next year’s Bridge House event!

P.S.   I forgot to add that it is wonderful getting together with other authors and encouraging one another in our current writing projects.