Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Weather all over the place again here. Lady not worried as she has been seeing her pals most of the week. Glad to share Part 1 of a fabulous two part interview with Jenny Sanders for Chandler’s Ford Today. Jenny discusses her new devotional book, Polished Arrows. Devotional works are in themselves a specialised (almost technical) form of writing so it is lovely to have it represented on CFT.
Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today
Second post from me today and it’s time to share Part 1 of a fabulous two-part interview with Jenny Sanders for Chandler’s Ford Today.
She discusses her new devotional book, Polished Arrows, with me and shares how she faced the challenge of switching from her children’s story work to what is a specialised form of non-fiction writing. She also shares how she went into devotional writing in the first place and how Robben Island, South Africa (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for so long) played a major part in this work.
Part 2 will be up next week. Meantime do enjoy Part 1 and good luck to Jenny on both her launch and book blog tour (this interview and next week’s forms part of that tour).
Author Interview: Jenny Sanders The Polished Arrows of Non-Fiction Writing – Part 1
31st May 2024 – More than Writers
Double blog post from me today. First blog post is due to me forgetting I should’ve shared something a couple of days ago! Apologies, folks, but my latest post for More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, should have been shared by yours truly on the 29th. Oops! Still better late than never!
This month I talked about Flash Fiction – Advantages for All Writers. Well, they do say write about what you know! Hope you enjoy the post and a huge thank you to all who have already commented on it (bar the one who is doing an advert for something not writing related at all. Grrr…).
Will be so pleased to welcome Jenny Sanders back to Chandler’s Ford Today for the first part of a wonderful in-depth interview concerning her new devotional book, Polished Arrows.
Amongst other things, we will be discussing the joys and challenges of this kind of specialist writing and how Jenny began writing devotionals in the first place. Her other work is in short stories for children. So quite a contrast there. Link up tomorrow. See above.
Good luck to Jenny too for the launch of her new book. It is always exciting to have a new publication out there.
Many thanks to Jenny Sanders for the author shot below.
Lady had a lovely time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback friend today so all is right in her world.
Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting tonight on Zoom. Always good fun. Theme is questions and answers this time. (They are an excellent structure for all forms of writing for one thing).
A question for you though. Have you thought about making your characters answer questions they would rather not face in the course of your story? There could be some interesting ideas emerging from what it is they don’t want to face here and from what happens when they do have to face those questions and deal with them in some way.
Have fun (though I concede your characters almost certainly won’t but then isn’t that one of the joys of writing – to dump your characters right in it and see how they manage? I refuse to believe that is just me).
Facebook – From LIght to Dark and Back Again
It’s the end of the working week. It’s time for a story. Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my Unwelcome News. Just how will Melissa take her “Dear John” letter from Stefan, who has cleared out her bank account, and which of them has the biggest secret? Find out here! 
Had a lovely time at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting last night on Zoom. The questions and answers topic generated plenty of ideas for stories for all of us and I am looking forward to working on some of my ideas from this session in due course. That’s the joy of joining in with the exercises on the night – I too get ideas triggered for me to work on later.
The Bridport Prize competition deadline is 31st May, so you just have time to submit something. Having said that, I would call this last minute.com submitting given I’m writing this on 30th May! There are other competitions out there though.
If you have got a copy of the competition guide Writing Magazine issued earlier this year, it would pay you to have a look through that and mark up the competitions which catch your eye. If you haven’t do check out their website though bear in mind some of their competitions are for subscribers only. Still worth taking a look though especially if you are a subscriber.
Hope you have had a good day. Am running the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting tonight. Will be nice to see everyone. I do set exercises for these meetings and often I will join in with these on the night myself. I love live writing exercises. I’ve recently used some of the ideas I came up with for a previous session here to then write stories which have since ended up on Friday Flash Fiction and on my YouTube channel. Win-win I think there!
I do sometimes prepare an answer in advance for an exercise I’ve set to give an example and I know I’ve learned a great deal from workshops I’ve attended as a delegate where that has happened. But I do love the adrenalin rush when you’re set an exercise and you think now what can I do with this? I’ve learned to not worry about how rough the result is – this is only going to be a first draft and only I will see it – but the thrill of knowing I’ve got something down in answer to the brief is wonderful.
Fairytales with Bite – Nasty Surprises
Thought this was an apt topic given I had a nasty surprise recently, having been burgled. Give some thought as to the kind of surprises your characters could well do without. Think about how they would handle these (with or without help) when forced to face up to them. Just what would count as a nasty surprise in a magical setting? Could magical powers fail at a crucial moment (and what would trigger that failure)?
Who would be behind the nasty surprises and why are they doing this? What are they hoping to gain (as there has to be something here to make it worthwhile for them to go to the bother of doing this)? Can those nasty surprises be overturned or softened (as in Sleeping Beauty)?
One nasty surprise, of course, could be a formerly reliable character turning to evil ways. What would be behind that? Are they motivated by money, power, or fear of what would happen if they don’t “turn”? Do they end up regretting changing ways here or is it something they wished they’d done years ago? Are there any indications a character like this might turn bad to the other characters in your story? Could early intervention prevent what could be a very nasty surprise indeed?
This World and Others – Crime and Punishment
In any society in any setting, there will be those who break the accepted rules. There will have to be ways of dealing with that so society doesn’t break down. (Well, not unless that is the point of your story and you are showing how it breaks down etc but even then think about how you would end your story. No resolution to the problem would, to me, seem depressing. There is a place for dystopian fiction but must admit it isn’t my reading choice).
So how would your fantasy settings handle the idea of crime and punishment? Would these be akin to what we have here or something only your world could do because….?
Does your society have the equivalent of a police force (or the wonderful Watch from the Discworld novels)? How effective are they? Are they held in regard by the rest of your society?
What would be considered reasonable punishment for crimes? Indeed, what would be recognized as crimes? Is there a crime, say, of misusing magical power and how could that be proven and what would be done here (especially if the idea is to stop others doing this?).
WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK
AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsUnwelcome News, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/PLPLtjduNu Pleased to be back on FFF with Unwelcome News. How will Melissa take her “Dear John” letter from Stefan, who has cleared out her bank account, and which of them has the biggest secret? Find out here! pic.twitter.com/fDUjsDtkzw
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 31, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsMore than Writers: Flash Fiction – Advantages to All Writers by Allis… https://t.co/Hv8bF4zMFE Apologies. My latest post for MTW, the ACW blog spot, should've been shared by me on the 29th. I talk about Flash Fiction – Advantages for All Writers. They say write what you know! pic.twitter.com/33GTQn8T5Q
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 31, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAuthor Interview: Jenny Sanders The Polished Arrows of Non-Fiction Writing – Part 1 https://t.co/SGJFc0QcPt In Part 1 of my interview, Jenny Sanders discusses her new book, Polished Arrows. She shares how she got into devotional writing and why Robben Island played a major role.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 31, 2024
Allison Symes: Collected Works 