Month: June 2024

Author Interview: Jennifer C Wilson – 31 Days of Writing

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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 few days. Dare I say it but summer does finally seem to have turned up in the UK. There have been some gloriously sunny days and Lady has been making the most of them with “puppy parties” with her friends. Writing wise, it’s a delight to welcome back Jennifer C Wilson to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her hot-off-the-presses book, 31 Days of Writing. If you like writing prompts, do check this one out.

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It is with great pleasure I welcome back Jennifer C Wilson to Chandler’s Ford Today on what, for her, is publication day, Her latest book, 31 Days of Writing, is out today (21st June 2024).

We discuss what inspired her to write the book, aspects of publishing (including via Amazon), favourite forms of writing prompt, and the joys of writing groups (in her case the North Tyneside Writers’ Circle which launched its first anthology last year and is planning to bring out a follow up volume).

So much to enjoy here and plenty of useful information for writers at all stages. Do enjoy and good luck with the book, Jennifer.

Author Interview: Jennifer C Wilson – 31 Days of Writing

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Hope you have had a good day. Gorgeous weather today. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler chum this morning before it became significantly hotter this afternoon. But it is good that summer seems to have turned up!

Do check out my interview with Jennifer C Wilson on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. As well as discussing her new book, 31 Days of Writing, she’ll be sharing many useful tips and thoughts on publishing. Well worth checking out. Link up tomorrow.

Writing Tip: Check out author interviews. They’re fun. You learn a lot from them. Sometimes you can learn what not to do – that can be more useful than you might think. But do look at how the authors have approached answering the questions they’ve been set.

Where relevant to your work, figure out how you would answer these questions had they been put to you. Draft some notes. See it as practice material for working out just what you will say about your books and stories. I’ve found this so useful.

 

Glorious sunshine today. Lady had a fabulous puppy party with her Hungarian Vizler, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Labradoodle pals and with a lovely Toller (Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever) called Charlie. Wonderful time had by all. Lady has a lovely habit of looking up at me as we walk home with her “happy shiny eyes” expression. She was beaming today!

Don’t forget I’ll be talking with Jennifer C Wilson, author of the Kindred Spirits series and much more besides, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.  We’ll be discussing her latest book, 31 Days of Writing, which is sure to prove useful to many writers. Looking forward to sharing that. (More author interviews to come too, more nearer the time). See above.

I use a mixture of writing prompts because they all make for interesting challenges. I use books of prompts (and have contributed to some) and will be interested to find out what Jennifer has come up with in her latest.

I also use story cubes, the various random generators, picture prompts (and sometimes use my own photos here) and all sorts. I like to think all of this keeps me on my writing toes. That’s never a bad thing! Up the game and all that…!

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It’s Friday. It’s time for flash fiction. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Break The Ice. We all know families like this one who won’t let a loved one live something down – check out what this is here.

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How about a flash fiction story in four lines plus title tonight? Up for that? Good. Here goes then..

Cookie Crisis
The mystery of how the cookie jar was now empty when, less than an hour ago, it had been full was only resolved at midnight.
Fiona heard the sounds coming from her kitchen and crept downstairs to see the culprit raiding the restocked jar.
It was news to Fiona the Tooth Fairy fancied biscuits on her nightly rounds.
It came as a shock to Fiona the Tooth Fairy was capable of vanishing quicker than her cookies.

Ends
Allison Symes – 20th June 2024

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Although my main flash fiction work is at the 100 words mark, I do regularly write at lower and higher word counts than that. Some of these I save for presentations, future collections, possible competition entries etc.

I like to write across the range because I get the benefits of writing tightly (especially at 50 words or fewer) but for the 500+ word categories, I can give more detail, show more of the character(s), all still without having anything irrelevant to the story in it.

There are many flash competitions out there and from observation I would say the 100, 300 and 500 words or fewer categories are the ones I come across most often. So if you wanted to focus on any of the flash categories, I would go for those.

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Fairytales with Bite – Magical History

What value/importance does your setting place on its history, magical or otherwise? Are what we see as classic fairytales seen as real history to the characters in your setting or have they been subverted in any way (see Shrek for more on that!)?

When it comes to the history of magic in your setting, who wrote the records? Are they accurate? Do they show how magic has developed as a power source in your setting and who wields it, past and present? Was magic always present in your world (literally in the atmosphere) or has it only come to your setting by the folk who settled there? You could also think about what drew them to your setting in the first place.

Are there historical places people visit? Is history treasured or ignored? What history in your setting has been repeated over the years and could those repetitions have been avoided? What impact does your world’s history have on your characters and their stories?

We know how we can be shaped by our personal histories, our nations’ histories etc so why not take that thought and apply it to your creations? What does history mean to them and why? What would happen if someone came along to challenge their long held views? Now that would be a good source of conflict for a story or two.

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This World and Others – The Past Influencing the Future

Henry Ford is supposed to have said “history is more or less bunk”. No, Mr Ford, your view on history is more or less bunk.

While true, history is written by the winners, there is usually at least some evidence to back that history up. You normally can see why the history has been written down the way it has been.

I’m a fan of Richard III and believe he is a much maligned man. There is some (and increasing evidence) on that point. But you can see why and how Richard III has been cast as the everlasting villain. Shakespeare had a role in that!

Everyone is influenced by their own histories then, the histories of their families, their countries etc. There is no getting away from the fact the past does influence the future. For one thing, it definitely influences politics!

Now how can you make use of that thought for your characters? What from their past has influenced them? Are they trying to escape their past and are they successful?

If you have time travelling characters, what in their past is fixed and they can’t change it no matter how much they might want to do so? What would be the consequences for anyone who did try to change fixed points in time? (I think there would have to be some fixed points, otherwise your characters would get to change everything, nothing would be fixed, chaos would result).

On a more general scale, how has your setting progressed? Has it learned from its past and are things improving for your characters as a result? Or are the powers that be trying to keep things always the same, everyone in their places etc because that is how things have always been done?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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The Joys of Creative Writing

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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 weekend. Not bad here. Writing wise, I’m talking to Jennifer C Wilson on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday about her new book, 31 Days of Writing. Looking forward to sharing that.
Pleased to see numbers for my YouTube channel and author newsletter are growing steadily. Enjoying preparing a presentation at the moment for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group. Always fun to do and the presentations trigger ideas as I prepare these. I’ve followed up on many of these with work inspired by these ideas appearing on YouTube and Friday Flash Fiction in particular. Would like more of the same!

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Am pleased to be back on Authors Electric with my new post, The Joys of Creative Writing. I’d been planning to write on this topic anyway but having been burgled last month, well let’s just say it gave me extra motivation to write this one! I share why it did and why I feel the creative arts are more important than many realise. Hope you enjoy the post.

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Hope your Monday hasn’t been too hectic. Lady got to see her best friend, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, today. Lovely time had by both of them.

The writing life is full of ups and downs. You get better over time I think at coming to terms with that and just getting on with the next story, the next project etc.

Just heard today my submission for the Bridge House Publishing anthology has been turned down. Later on in the summer I will have another look at the tale and see if I can (a) improve it and (b) send it somewhere else.

Often when work has been turned down, I have found the answers to those last two points are yes and yes! I’ve then sometimes gone on to have turned down work published elsewhere. So worth another look, always, is my motto here.

For Authors Electric, my post tomorrow will be about The Joys of Creative Writing. Timely I think! Link up tomorrow. See above.

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Hope you have had a good day. Celebrated our church’s 206th anniversary today, which was lovely. A lot happened in 1818 including the publication of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. A timeless book, I think, because it asks a timeless question – just who is the monster? That’s how I see it anyway.

The one positive thing about time seemingly whizzing by at the moment is it means The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick is also rapidly approaching (August).

I’m running a two part course there, Editing as an Author, Editing as a Competition Judge. So looking forward to doing this but do check out all the other courses on offer too. Bear in mind too there are four part courses, one hour workshops and a lot more at Swanwick including the chance for 1:1s (I’m doing this too this year on the editing theme).

Hopefully see you at Swanwick in August.

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Strange old weather today. Have managed to avoid most of the downpours.

I’m delighted to say I’ll be welcoming Jennifer C Wilson back to Chandler’s Ford Today next week to discuss her forthcoming publication, 31 Days of Writing. This book comes out on the same day as the CFT post. Much to look forward to in the interview including thoughts on publishing via Amazon and much more besides. So looking forward to sharing this.

Writing Tip: For flash fiction and short story writers especially, always double check whether your title is included in the overall word count you are set for competitions. Some places do include it.

What I do with these markets and competitions is to allow five words for my title. I have to have a working title in any case which may or may not change later. But having something in place immediately means you won’t forget this aspect.

If you find later you only need three words for your title, then you will have a couple of “spare” words to put into your story which is especially useful for those places where you have to write to an exact word count. Think of your working title as a kind of place holder. I find this helps a lot.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today. Both dogs so pleased to see each other.

Thought for you: which of your characters would be pleased to see each other and why? What has kept them apart? Which would be horrified to see the other and why? What brought them back together again?

I’m sure there would be some flash fiction stories to be written up based on those thoughts – have fun!

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It’s Monday. It may just be me but it’s been more hectic than normal. It’s still Monday. Time for my latest on YouTube then. Hope you enjoy Forward Thinking. Just what do you do when a silly bet has gone wrong and you now have to pay up… find out here.

 

Wow, halfway through June already. Author newsletter is out again on 1st July. If you’d like flash fiction/short story news, tips, story links etc., do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I enjoy reading author newsletters as well as writing my own. I like to find out what the news is from my favourite authors and tips etc are always useful. If you’re thinking of starting a newsletter of your own, you might like to check out a post I wrote about this for Chandler’s Ford Today called, surprisingly not (!), Author Newsletters.

Author Newsletters

Have fun mixing up what you do with the writing prompt generators. If you use a word based one, as I often do, change where you put the word you’ve been given. Put it at the beginning, at the end, somewhere in the middle and ring the changes.

There’s nothing to stop you either writing one story with that word at the beginning, another in the middle and so on. What I would do there is change the characters and situations – the common thread would just be the word you’re placing and where you’re placing it. But you would have two or three stories here based on one prompt – I like that idea.

Could you also change the mood of the stories you write here? Could one with your chosen word be a feel good story? Could another with that same word in it somewhere be a tragedy?

Have fun!

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Goodreads Author Blog – Short Form Collections

I read a number of short form collections because (a) I love them and (b) I’ve contributed to many of them in my time and still do, the most recent being the hot-off-the-presses The Best of CafeLit 13. Also my flash fiction collections, From Light To Dark and Back Again and Tripping The Flash Fantastic, come into this category too.

Short stories are fantastic for dipping into. They’re also great for helping me make up my mind what longer form work I want to read next. I also like to ensure I have a good reading diet by reading novels, short stories, flash, magazines, ebooks etc. I’ve never seen the point of limiting yourself to just reading in one category!

But the advantage of the short form, flash or standard length short story, is in giving a reader an impact that much more quickly. For twist in the tail stories, you get to the twist more quickly too. I like that.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Having A Superpower

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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 back to being all over the place though – sun, strong winds, rain etc. Looking forward to sharing further author interviews soon on Chandler’s Ford Today so do keep an eye out for these. Meantime, I reveal in this week’s CFT post what I would choose if I could have a superpower. Well, what would you choose? Comments are welcome on the CFT page.

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Hope you have had a good day.

Glad to share Having a Superpower for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I share what I would pick and why. I also discuss why it pays, even in fantasy, not to allow your characters to have unlimited powers. If everything could be solved by the wave of a magic wand, where is the story? I also look at the problems of superpowers. Hope you enjoy the post.

Having a Superpower

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You can find out what I would choose as a superpower in my Having a Superpower post for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. The idea for this post came from a prompt I set as an exercise for the recent Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting. Lovely to get a non-fiction post from the idea.

Writing Tip: The random generators (words, numbers, pictures, themes etc) are great fun to use to trigger ideas but do bear in mind (a) these things are a starting point and (b) there’s nothing to stop you taking what has been generated and you then put your own twist on it. I’ve done this a lot.

It’s also a good idea to make yourself write to the prompts that emerge because they will come up with things you would not otherwise have thought of and I’ve found it great fun to find out just what can I do with this idea. They are great ways to encourage you to think outside of your usual creative thinking box.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady got to see her two best girlfriends again today – three days in a row. All three dogs very happy about this.

As well as my author newsletter, I do have a YouTube channel where I post flash fiction videos. (I usually post here once a week). New subscribers are always welcome.

Just go to https://www.youtube.com/@allisonsymes

I use BookBrush to help me create the videos and then I upload them to my channel. Easy and fun to do and I am grateful Dawn Kentish Knox flagged up to me how to add audio to these. Nice selection of tracks available, some of which you have to give accreditation to, but you are given the form of words to use for this when you’re putting a description of what your video is about in the relevant box. You just copy and paste this form of words in – easy peasy. I’ve only used the odd one or two of these. I mainly stick to the ones I can just use without that.

But it is lovely being able to have a form of story sharing which is both visual and audio. I like this a lot. Works well for flash tales.

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It’s Friday. It’s the end of the working week (for many if not all). It’s time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Regrets. Billy may be a bestselling author but he has regrets too – find out what and why here.

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Good to see the first review has come in for The Best of CafeLit 13. If you’ve read the book, please do leave reviews. They help all of the authors in the anthology. Thank you.

I do review books myself. I try to keep my reviews short (writing flash fiction a lot helps with that!). They don’t take long to do and, other than buying the book itself, reviewing is one of the other most important things someone can do to support authors.

When I review I like to give an idea of what I liked without revealing spoilers. I’m always intrigued by characters so if they grip me in a story (as they should do), I will mention that and why they did this.


Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting in a couple of weeks. Am working on a presentation for it. I like to work to a theme (same as with my newsletters funnily enough) as these make useful “pegs” to hang relevant material from. It also means we cover different aspects of flash fiction writing.

A writing exercise in three stages for you to try:-

1. Using a random name generator, pick the fifth name which comes up and write a character outline up for that name.

2. Using a random theme generator, pick the fifth theme which comes up and then get your named character to meet that theme in some way.

3. Using a random sentence generator, pick the fifth sentence which comes up and use it to either start or finish your story with.

Have fun!

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Fairytales with Bite – How Characters Handle the Unexpected

How characters handle the unexpected reveals a great deal about them no matter what the story genre might be. In a fantasy setting though you can have even more fun here because just what would count as unexpected in a magical world, for example?

Would that be something like a sudden shortage of magical powers (the equivalent of us having major power cuts basically)? Could a character find they can no longer perform certain magical tasks they always used to be able to do (and could this be related to their aging process perhaps)?

Can the unexpected situation be reversed or dealt with in other ways? Or do your characters have to find new ways of handling matters and how easy or otherwise do they find this? How do they cope with the stress of having to find new ways of handling things, especially if they are under any kind of time pressure? (Good way of raising the drama that one!).

What could the unexpected lead to? Does your world setting have to change its ways? Has the unexpected shown them something of themselves that really should be put right? (You need the equivalent of the kid in The Emperor’s New Clothes here to call out what is wrong here, I think).

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This World and Others – How Things Get Done

How do things get done in your setting? Does your world have the equivalent of engineers, inventors, scientists etc? When they come up with useful ideas for your world, how do they get these out into the public domain so all can benefit from them? Are there safety procedures in place, proper testing done first etc before anything new does get unleashed more widely?

When things go wrong, as does happen when anything new is being developed, how is that handled? Does this have an impact on the general population or is it contained because nothing gets unleashed until this kind of testing is done and done thoroughly enough?

Who controls the way things are done? I’ve often mentioned in this blog the powers that be. This matters. Nothing exists in a vacuum. So your characters will be in a world setting. There will be governments, politicians, and so on. Someone has to over see things. For the inventive side of things, there has to be some organisation which will test things, ensure they are safe for general use etc. So how would this work out in your world?

Could you tell stories about the characters who do this kind of thing and show the problems and stresses they face?

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Stories To Remember

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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, as was the classic author photo of author’s books in the box they came in (The Best of CafeLit 13)! Image of me at Swanwick 2019 reading at the Open Prose Mic Night was taken by a Swanwick colleague. We all help each other out this way. Swanwick is a lovely writing community.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Had lovely time with family on Sunday – Lady loved it too. Have since had manic Monday to follow! Am hoping the rest of the week calms down a bit… Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Having a Superpower for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I love writing all my posts here but this one was especially fun to write. More on that a little later on in the week.

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Lady got to play with her two best friends again today so again three happy dogs went home! What was sweet yesterday was, having come in to the park and knowing her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal was a little way behind Lady turned around, sat down and wouldn’t move until said chum joined her!

I’ll be sharing Having a Superpower on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Am glad to say I’ll be welcoming back Jennifer C Wilson to CFT to talk about her new book, 31 Days of Writing, the week after that. More on that nearer the time. Always a pleasure to share author interviews here.

Author newsletter out again on 1st July. If you’d like to sign up to hear news, tips, enjoy stories etc., do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter Tip: I’ve found it useful to have a loose theme to base my monthly newsletter on. As well as sharing useful tips on that theme, I can share links to where I’ve written on the topic in more depth on Chandler’s Ford Today. I aim to keep the newsletter “cheery and chatty” but useful and not going on for too long – all those things are key ingredients I think!

 

Manic day today though Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback chums and they all had a lovely time.

Thought for you: I’ve run late all day today. These things happen to us all. Frustrating, some of it beyond my control etc., but you soldier on right? But what about making this happen to a character of yours? How would they handle it?

You could get a story or two directly from that but also you could use this as an exercise to find out more about your character before deciding what story to put them in. If you knew they tended to panic when things went wrong like this, you could show that in your story. You could also get another character to play on this if they knew what buttons to press here.

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On my wall I have various pictures, all of which have connections to family and/or friends/my past. Writing thought for you: what picture would mean the most to your lead character and why? What does this tell you about your character? If your character has no pictures, why is that? Is that a deliberate choice? Are they trying to get away from a past they don’t want to revisit?

Plenty of story ideas there I hope! If you want some more ideas, do check out the random picture generators. I find the landscapes especially useful as I work out who might live in them or who might want to go there for some reason. Story ideas there too!

448092151_907891608017368_3200174101329249721_nHope you have had a good day. It was great to welcome back Jenny Sanders to Chandler’s Ford Today for the last couple of weeks and I hope to have further author interviews later in the month. Next week’s post though is called Having a Superpower. Those who went to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting recently will recognise this as I used it as a prompt for two exercises, one of which was to write a non-fiction piece on the topic. I’ve done so and it will be on CFT on Friday!

I was delighted to receive my order of The Best of CafeLit 13 yesterday. The joy of opening boxes full of books with your work in them doesn’t go away! It was a joy to add the book to my Amazon Author Central and ALCS pages too.

Writing Tip: Every so often look back at some of your older stories, the ones which were turned down, and see if there is something you could do to improve them now. I’ve done this and have had, sometimes, work published this way. But it is worth reviewing your older stories. Even if you can’t use the stories themselves, you may well see now, after time apart from them, why they might have been turned down and you can learn from that. I have.

Close up of my copies of CafeLit 13

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Flash fiction is a joy to share for things like Open Prose Mic Nights. The stories don’t go on for too long and you can mix up the moods of the tales you pick to read out. These nights are great opportunities to show what flash fiction is and can be. I use Zoom to help me rehearse whatever I’m reading. It is handy being able to play a recoding back and hear the stories as an audience would.

Prior to sending any story anywhere it pays to read your work out loud. I’ve mentioned before that what looks good written down doesn’t always read out loud well. So out comes the editing pen! I’ve also discovered character names can sometimes be more tricky to read out loud than I’d thought so again I change them.

I don’t want readers stumbling over anything like that. This kind of thing can put people off when of course I want to draw them into the world of my story and character. So it really does pay to take a bit of extra time here and read your work out loud. The advantage of Zoom is in being able to play your work back again but it the reading out loud bit which really matters here.

448319348_10161947262462053_7757431296356457753_nIt’s Monday. It’s been manic for me. It’s still Monday. Time for my latest on YouTube then. Hope you enjoy A New Start but does Jemma actually get to have the new start she wants? Find out here.

 

Had a lovely time with family today (a 60th birthday do). Lady came with us and loved it but she always does love family events. So many to make a fuss of her of course!

Prepared a lot of my flash writing yesterday. Another advantage to flash writing is I can still get something written and completed (at least as a first draft) when I don’t have a lot of writing time. I’ve learned over time how to use small pockets of time, such as I have tonight, to make my writing life reasonably efficient. I’ve found I have got more written learning to use ten minutes here, ten minutes there etc. It all mounts up.

Writing Tip: Look at what time you have over the course of a week. I do this. It means I know what I’m doing when. It ensures I meet my deadlines for Chandler’s Ford Today etc. I use a desk diary to plan out what I do when. It helps a lot.

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Good to see the sun back out. One of the fun things about flash fiction writing is, due to its restricted word count, it has to be character led. But you can set those characters in whatever setting you want. I’ve written crime flash, ghost flash, fantasy flash and other kinds of story besides those. I’ve also set flash pieces in the past, in the present day, and well into the future or on an alternative world. All good fun!

What matters for me is finding good ways to create characters. As long as I have ways into creating them, I will have ways into creating stories.

Unless writing for competitions or for sites like Friday Flash Fiction, where I know I am writing to 100 words, I worry about the word count later on. I get the story down first, then edit it later. Sometimes a story simply does work better at 250 words rather than 100 so it just means I may have to find another market for the longer tale.

What matters is getting the character and their story right first.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Stories to Remember

I write this blog during the week where we remembered the 80th anniversary of D-Day. There are stories we really should remember, whether they are in book form, or are in the form of personal testimonies, many of which were heard/seen on the media this week from surviving veterans.

I’ve recently read Double Cross by Ben Macintyre. This tells the true stories of the D-Day spies who were used to deceive Hitler. A great read and one I’m happy to recommend. I also recommend the same author’s Operation Mincemeat, which is the true story of “the man who never was”.

The depth of research in books like these is incredible, rightly so, but the purpose of these books is to show the background to the history we know and to shed light on things which, at the time, rightly had to be kept quiet.

I’ve developed a real love for non-fiction books like these in recent years. My only regret is not discovering them sooner! I do like the development in non-fiction using some of the techniques of fiction to get wonderful information across to readers in an entertaining way. History, and factual books generally, do not have to be boring!

Screenshot 2024-06-08 at 17-57-15 Stories to Remember

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Author Interview: Jenny Sanders Part 2 and Remembering D-Day 80 Years On

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Hope you have had a good week so far. Have had some lovely weather, hope it continues. Pleased to share Part 2 of a fabulous interview with Jenny Sanders for Chandler’s Ford Today – this time we’re looking at launches, marketing etc. Plenty of tips and useful thoughts. Lady’s thoughts this week, however, have revolved around how much of a good time can she have with her chums. Useful to her but nobody else!

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Am delighted to welcome Jenny Sanders back to Chandler’s Ford Today for the second part of her interview which forms part of her blog tour for Polished Arrows, her latest devotional book, which is now out.

This week we discuss marketing, launches, tips on reaching potential readers, the value of supportive writing groups (Jenny and I are both members of the Association of Christian Writers), and much else besides.

Hope you enjoy the interview – plenty of tips and useful thoughts for all writers here. Good luck, Jenny, with Polished Arrows.

Author Interview: Jenny Sanders – The Polished Arrows of Non-Fiction Writing – Part 2

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6th June 2024 – 80 Years Ago…

Today of course is the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Will be listening to a special programme Classic FM are putting on later this evening featuring suitable music, clips from veterans etc. (It was wonderful). Am sure it will be so moving. (It really was).

I tend to think back to my grandfathers for D-Day and Remembrance in November. One fought. One was in a reserved occupation (and was forever being bombed out).

It is a sobering thought to consider I am only two generations away from this history and only one if you count my parents, both of whom were evacuated from London as children. My father was too young to go for the first batch of evacuees but did go later on in the war when the threat of the V1 and V2 occurred.

We have much to be thankful for including the freedom to have an education, to read, and to write. Too easy to take those things for granted.

Have read Double Cross by Ben Macintyre recently. It is the true story of the D-Day spies who made such a difference. Highly recommend along with his Operation Mincemeat. Stories are so important in preserving what happened for others to learn from, including us.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady has had an excellent one in that she saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback chums again today. Lady and the latter had a good zoomie session too. It is a sight worth seeing but you stand well back! Both of them can put in a terrific pace. You don’t want to be mown down by a combined weight of 58 kilos of dogs!

I’ve mentioned before I interview my characters to find out more about them before I decide if they’re worth writing up or not. I try to ask in depth questions because, as in a “real” interview, such as the one I’ll be conducting with Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday, you want the one answering the questions to open up. You don’t want the simple yes/no answers. That kind of response doesn’t tell you much.

But questions such as what do you fear most and why can trigger some interesting responses. I have to think about what my characters would fear and then figure out what they would do if they had to face up to that fear. The fear doesn’t have to be a complicated one either. Looking at the reason why can be fascinating too.

If my character feared black curtains, I would then be delving into their past history to come up with a reasonable explanation for that. This means I have to flesh them out more and it is that process which helps me to get to know them well enough to create situations I can put them in.

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Hope you enjoy my latest story on Friday Flash Fiction – Litter. What will Rosie do when confronted by litter louts? Who gets the upper hand and how? Find out here!
Screenshot 2024-06-07 at 10-00-24 Litter by Allison Symes

6th June 2024 – 80 Years Ago…

To all who fought on the beaches 80 years ago on D-Day, thank you.
To all who worked behind the scenes to make D-Day a reality, thank you.
To those who came back, thank you.
To those who did not, thank you.
The least we can do is remember.
Allison Symes
6th June 2024

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Writing flash fiction has led to me writing more in the first person and it does have its advantages. It is immediate. I take you straight into my characters’ heads. You literally see their world through their eyes.

But I do like a good balance so when I’m thinking of stories, one of the first questions I ask myself is whether this would work best in first or third person. When I’ve got more than one character in a story, then I’m going straight for third person (though I may get one of the characters to show you some of their thoughts if it is appropriate to do so).

For individual characters, first person is inevitable though I often get them to refer to other characters who mean something to them. Doesn’t necessarily need to be a good meaning either!

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Fairytales with Bite – The Establishment

Who or what makes up the establishment in your setting? How did it become the establishment? Is it based on long standing traditions, rights of inheritance, or have your characters had to fight their way to the top? Or is it a mixture?

What do the”ordinary” characters make of the establishment? Are they generally in support or are they oppressed by it? Does magic underpin the way the establishment works and could that be broken by anyone?

Give some thought as to how your establishment issues laws. Is it rule by diktat or is there some semblance of democracy? What did your current establishment replace? Is the replacement an improvement or not? Are all species in your world setting represented in this body or are some deliberately excluded?

What role has the history of your setting placed in getting an establishment established in the first place?
Does it have any role to play in the lives of most of your characters or is a remote establishment in that local governments etc do the day-to-day running of things and most characters are more affected by what they do instead?

Every society has an establishment of some sort though the make up of these differs. You could use what we have here – monarchies, republics (democratic or otherwise) – to give interesting backdrops to your stories.

Also could your establishments hinder your characters in what they are trying to achieve in your stories? If so, how? Hiw do your characters overcome that, assuming they do?

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This World and Others – The Hospitality Industry

One of the sectors to be affected the worst by Covid was the hospitality industry. It didn’t matter what country you were in – this applied worldwide. In your setting, what does the hospitality industry comprise of and what disaster could hit them badly? How is that disaster resolved?

Every so often I like to go out for a pub meal with family but have noticed, though the pubs are recovering from the pandemic, they are still not fully back to how they had been. Hopefully time will rectify that. But in the event of a disaster in your setting, how long would it take your hospitality industry to recover? What support would they have?

Separately, think about who works in this industry. They meet people all the time. They probably get to hear and see interesting things while serving drinks, meals etc. This was certainly true of The Prancing Pony in The Lord of the Rings!

So who could you get to be in a pub like environment? What would they say which might be of interest to someone else (and why is it of interest)? What pivotal role could your hospitality settings play here?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Publication News and The Perfect Ending

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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 weekend. Week has got off to a great start with the news The Best of CafeLit 13 is now out. I have three stories in there. More below on that. Also the June issue of Writers’ Narrative is out now too. Can’t believe we’re in June already but at least the weather is stating to play along with the idea we’re due some sunshine now!

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Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Three very happy dogs went home again after a lovely time in the park. Dogs know what matters!

Writing wise, I’m talking to Jenny Sanders again for Part 2 of a fabulous interview on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Her devotional book, Polished Arrows, was published recently and this week we’ll be talking about marketing, launches, the value of good supportive writing groups, and much more besides. Don’t miss! Lots of tips and useful thoughts here.

Now to give Amazon their due. I contacted them on Sunday to ask them to add The Best of CafeLit 13 to my Amazon Author Central page. I’ve found, from past experience, I need to give them the details and they add anthologies (because I’m not the publisher but am a contributing author). Anyway, it was done yesterday, well within 24 hours.

Have just added the book to my ALCS records too. I’ve found it pays to add new publications (books or articles where there is an ISSN number) as soon as I can to make sure I get it done. Will make a difference to my ALCS payment next year, which is the best incentive to get it done!

 

My three stories in The Best of CafeLit 13 are Cinnamon Comforts, Untaken, and Sweet Dreams. It’s good to be back between the covers with old friends in this anthology and I’m looking forward to catching up with their works here, as well as checking out those authors new to me. I often do read anthologies as you might expect and find them to be a fabulous way to try out works by authors new to me. If I like their work, I will often then try their longer works. This is a great way to discover new writers.

I also like to read collections of short form works in between reading novels. I like to ensure I have a good reading diet of longer works and shorter ones. Anthologies make it so much more convenient to catch up with the latter!

Also if you are writing in the short form, reading books like this can count as part of your market research. It is always good to know what is already out there and from that you can work out where you would fit in. A publisher needs to know where you’d fit in with their lists and you need to be able to show them that you can.

Publication News (as you may have gathered from the above!)

Thrilled to say The Best of CafeLit 13 is now out. I have three stories in here. Will say more about this during the next few days but just wanted to (a) share the news and (b) congratulate the other authors with work in here. Nice to see names and old friends here. Well done, all. (What is especially nice here is the stories are voted for by other CafeLit people so nobody can know their story is going to make the cut).

Will be sharing Part 2 of an in-depth conversation with Jenny Sanders for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Next time we’ll be looking at launches, marketing, and more. Link up on Friday.

Many thanks for the comments coming in on my Unwelcome News, my latest Friday Flash Fiction tale. Just who is the worst here – Melissa or Stefan? Read the tale and see what you think. Link here. (Great fun to write).

 

Delighted to say the June edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. The theme is poetry this time and my article looks at The Links Between Flash Fiction and Poetry. There are more than you might think. I also include a flash fiction piece told in poetic form as I sometimes write stories this way and it can work well. I share some tips for doing this too.

My article is on Pages 14/15 but do check out the excellent pieces throughout. For one thing, you can find out if you know who your padawan is! Go on, you know you want to find out!

 

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Hope you have had a good day.

Something I mention to members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group is to look out for the short story competitions. Many of them either have a lower word count limit of 1000 words (making it the top end of the range for flash fiction writers but still do-able) or have a range of word counts for you to write to.

The Bridport Prize, for example, has a flash fiction category but also has a short story one. No reason why you couldn’t enter both with different tales should you wish.

Another one is the HISSAC Annual Open Short Story competition where they want short stories up to 2000 words and flash fiction up to 500. There will be other competitions out there who will do something similar. Worth watching for.

Competitions are great for making up face up to working to a deadline and if you get listed or win, even better!

447551831_10161932010872053_7782713995846695559_nIt’s Monday. It has been a sunny one too. Still Monday though. Still time for a YouTube story from me. Hope you like my Life Changing Moments. Those who came to the recent Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting will recognise this as my response to a prompt I set.

Usually when I put my YouTube videos here, they are inserted into the page  and you click and play. Not happening tonight. Please use the link above. Screenshot to just give you an idea but there is more to this story so do check the link out! Thanks.

Screenshot 2024-06-04 at 20-27-49 Life Changing Moments - YouTube

The buzz of being in print never diminishes! The Best of CafeLit 13 is now out and I have three stories included. I also enjoy getting to update my records over on the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and on Amazon. This will be a lovely job to do later this week! Done. See above but most enjoyable tasks to do!

Will be getting on with some flash fiction writing today. Nice way to spend Sunday afternoons! I do more later in the week too but there is something about Sunday afternoons which helps with focus. Well, I know it helps me.

Favourite thing about creating a character? I think it is that moment when I think “yes, I know you, I’ve got where you’re coming from” because then I know I can write from their viewpoint effectively. I understand what drives them and what mistakes they’re likely to make. Once I’ve “got” this, I can’t wait to write their stories up and that is always a good sign.

 

It’s that time of the month again – time for the author newsletter. A huge hello to those who have subscribed since last time and an enormous thanks to all who support me here. All much appreciated. The theme this time is questioning your characters, something I do all the time. It pays especially when you’re writing a lot of stories and need ways into coming up with characters all the time.

Screenshot 2024-06-01 at 11-39-23 Allison Symes - June 2024 - Questioning Your Characters

Goodreads Author Blog – The Perfect Ending

Is there such a thing as the perfect ending to any story? The only reason I’m not sure about this is because all writers are human and we’re all fallible. No perfect writer = no perfect writing.

I know, looking back on my older stories, I can see ways of improving them thanks to things I’ve learned about writing craft and technique since that time. BUT you can improve on what you do. I can look back at those stories and know they were the best I could do at that time. So am reasonably pleased with them but am more pleased with improvements I have made since that time. Writing is always a case of developing your craft, I think.

For stories by other writers, what I look for is an appropriate ending for their characters’ stories. Yes, sometimes that ending can be ambiguous. (After all, tomorrow is another day from Gone With The Wind is a good example of that kind of ending). But it should be appropriate to all that has come before and as long as it has done that, I’m happy.

Screenshot 2024-06-01 at 20-03-53 The Perfect Ending

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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