Month: September 2024

Author Interview: Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt

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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. Many thanks to Anita D Hunt and Lynsey Adams for pictures supplied for the Chandler’s Ford Today post this week.
Hope you have had a good few days. Torrential rain and brief spells of sunshine here. Hoping it brightens up for the weekend as have a family event. Writing wise, have more superb author interviews coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today in October. Will say more nearer the time though I find it hard to believe we’re almost at the tenth month of the year already! Where has the time gone?

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

As part of her blog tour, I am delighted to welcome fellow Swanwicker, Anita D Hunt, to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain.

Anita shares many useful tips and plenty of great advice in this in depth interview, in which she also discusses how it can be painful getting inside your characters’ heads at times and what to look for in a writing group.

She looks at what she likes about creating characters and how Cornwall, her home county, plays a major part in her work. She discusses themes and shares an invaluable tip about writing blurbs. Do check out the interview and settle down for a riveting read.

Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt

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Glad to say the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom last night went well. The theme was marketing (many thanks to Rosemary Johnson for suggesting it) and I shared a few ways flash fiction can help with this.

If nothing else, sharing flash fiction stories every now and again can act as a marvellous advert for the rest of what you do. It doesn’t take long to read, it entertains potential/actual readers, and it showcases you/your work. Nothing to dislike there, I think.

And talking of marketing, it’s time for me to put in my usual end of month reminder about my author newsletter. The next one goes out on 1st October and I share stories, tips, advice (based on what I’ve found useful myself), news etc. If interested do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com where you can sign up. A huge thank you too to all of my subscribers here and on my YouTube channel.

Thought for Today: Every writer has their fair share of rejections, not doing well in competitions etc, but there’s nothing to stop you revisiting your old work, seeing if you can polish it up and get it out somewhere else. I’ve had work published that way.

Sometimes I will review a piece and with the benefit of time and that useless aid, hindsight (I would far rather have the ability to spot something wrong at the time I’m working on a piece and see my mistakes before I send anything out!), I can see why a piece failed but even that can be useful because I’ve learned from it.

So maybe hindsight isn’t so useless after all. I would still prefer foresight or at the time sight though! Suspect most of us would.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady has had a smashing one given she got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. I’ve managed to avoid most of the rain today too so will take that as a win.

Don’t forget I’ll be talking to Anita D Hunt about her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. The interview is packed full of useful tips and advice too so do look out for it. See above. Glad to say there will be more author interviews to come on CFT in October too.

Writing Tip: I know some writers dread marketing and would far rather focus on writing. I understand that but there are creative aspects to marketing your stories too. After all the challenge here is to make what you have to say here about your work interesting and appealing to readers and not switch them off. (Saying buy my book all the time does do precisely that).

I’ve found if I can make the marketing fun for me to do it is more likely to be appealing to a reader. Sharing something of interest and/or value to readers/writers as I discuss what I’m up to writing wise is also marketing. I think it is more likely I can keep this kind of marketing going too.

My aim with posts like this one then is to have a chatty informative style, while sharing useful tips and something like oh by the way my newsletter is out soon, if you want to sign up head over to etc etc. I take the view if it is something I wouldn’t mind reading if I were on the receiving end, other readers (or at least some) will take the same view.

So work out then what you like to see in marketing you receive. Figuring out what works for you as a reader will help you come up with material based on your work you won’t mind sharing with your readers (and they won’t mind it either). The focus has to be on engagement, I think. Stories about your writing life work well too.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday, end of the week time, weather iffy so definitely time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – The Old Bat and The Cookie Tin. Think I’ve found a contender for one of my all time favourite titles!

Screenshot 2024-09-27 at 10-09-12 The Old Bat and The Cookie Tin by Allison Symes - Friday Flash FictionHope you’ve had a good day. Lady didn’t get to see any of her pals today though she hopefully will tomorrow. Have a family event at the weekend. Lady loves these because (a) she loves people, (b) she loves getting extra food and getting to be an outside Hoover, and (c) she loves playing with the visiting dog, with whom she gets on brilliantly. Am expecting Lady to be shattered on Saturday night. She was last time but happily so!

Looking forward to the local Book Fair in October and literally the week before the Association of Christian Writers Autumn Gathering event. I shall be off to Rugby for that one and will be back to London in December for the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Lots going on all connected with writing and I plan to enjoy every minute! I also get to spread the word about flash fiction of course.

Prompt Idea: Events mean different things to different people so why not invent one for a character of yours and show what they make of it? Do they organise it? Do they love it? Do they dread it? What happens at this event which changes things for them?

461332721_10162283069397053_7196259478840081979_nI’ve mentioned before the importance of using the right telling details to help your readers picture your world/setting/character/any combination of those. In my The Terrified Dragon (Tripping The Flash Fantastic), I start with the line The dragon was surrounded by angry humans with weapons and realised to his dismay he was supposed to blast them all away.

Note I haven’t told you what those weapons were as that isn’t the important thing. What you need to know is the main character is a dragon who has got into trouble (which is odd in itself given dragons are usually the cause of fire-related trouble!). You need to know about the angry humans (and you don’t need telling why they’re angry given a dragon turning up is seldom good news).

But you also see something of the dragon’s attitude. He knows what he is meant to do but is strangely reluctant to do it. There is something strange about this creature. Only way to find out what is to read on. Job done.

I’ve always found it useful to figure out what a reader has to know and then decide how I am going to plant those things in the story. When I’ve outlined my character well enough, I can see how the story will develop and where those things should go. It will arise naturally, which is what you want.

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Fairytales with Bite – Flying Around

Now I know I moan about traffic in my area – I suspect most of us do – but what would this traffic look like in a magical world? How is the Eye in the Sky supposed to work when all around them are flying on broomsticks and other magical craft?

Would there be speed limits? Would there be corridors magical flying beings are supposed to stick to (if only to give the wildlife a half decent chance of being able to fly anywhere in safety? I feel sorry for birds in magical worlds. In any other kind of world the skies would be theirs. Not in this kind of environment it isn’t!).

Now we all know there are certain kinds of car driver (usually with specific brands of vehicle too) who are notorious for tailgating, jumping traffic lights, being awful at junctions etc. What would the magical equivalent of these things be in your setting? How is flying traffic controlled or is it a free for all and it is assumed the fittest/fastest/strongest survive and it’s tough luck on the others? What are the accident rates?

Are the state of the skies in your setting better than they used to be or worse? Can any magical being fly? Are the “vehicles” restricted to certain speeds?

You could have some funny stories here about the magical traffic cop and how they rein in anyone who breaks the rules here. I once wrote a festive flash piece where such a character tried to pull Santa over for speeding! Great fun to write.

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This World and Others – Policing the Skies

Linking in with Fairytales with Bite, who does police the skies? How seriously or otherwise is this role taken? Does it get the support of the general public or it is looked down on? Are there any perceptions that certain flyers (e.g. witches and wizards) get away with traffic faults and other more lowly kinds (such as the trainee fairies etc) do not?

Who does control the skies in your setting and how do they do it? We consider keeping control of our own air space as vital to our defences (as proven by the Battle of Britain in World War Two) so I would assume your setting’s government would take the same view.

Who would they need to defend their skies against? What is the history behind that? What is the history behind how your government does police the skies? What have they found works well and what less so?

I quite like the idea of a traffic cop on a broomstick with a flashing blue light pulling over other magical beings for speeding etc. What punishments can be given? How are other magical beings stopped from avoiding these and/or giving the cop a hard time?

Story ideas here (and possibly funny ones too).

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Since marketing has come into this round up tonight, I thought I’d share the link to the September 2023 edition of the magazine given it has marketing as its theme. I have two pieces in here – Marketing Your Books and Writing For Online Magazines.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Broadcast News and Knowing Your Characters

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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 few days. Weather now stormy and wet. Delighted to have been on North Manchester FM over the weekend. Looking forward to taking part in Flash NANO again in November. Also have a fabulous interview coming up with Anita D Hunt to discuss her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do look out for it. Plenty of useful tips and advice. This is one of the great things about author interviews You learn so much from them.

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Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Drier today, thankfully. Am also thankful Lady drives off quickly and doesn’t mind my towelling her down. Not all dogs like this. Lady sees it as a chance to get another cuddle in!

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom tomorrow night. Always good fun. Theme this time is marketing. Talking of which, I’ve been busy preparing pitches, one of which I’ve just submitted, the other is almost complete ready for reviewing.

Writing Tip: Consistency helps a lot with (a) getting your writing done and (b) with your marketing. I’m not on every social media platform. I am on the ones I know I can keep posting to on a regular basis.

Being consistent helps you build up your brand

Delighted to be able to share a single link now to Hannah Kate’s Autumn Equinox show on North Manchester FM on Saturday afternoon. Do check out the stories on there – I found them to be a great mix. It was lovely listening to it on Saturday afternoon.

Don’t forget I’ll be chatting to Anita D Hunt about her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Plenty of advice and tips shared, this is one of the great strengths of author interviews, I find. You learn so much from other writers’ experiences.

Screenshot 2024-09-23 at 17-36-41 Hannah’s Bookshelf Autumn Equinox Special - 21_09_2024 by Hannah's Bookshelf Mixcloud

The storm hit Hampshire today. So much water on the road. Glad to get back home. Much as I love autumn, torrential rain does nothing for me save get me wet (and Lady dries off quicker than I do).

Writing Tip: I sometimes know what mood of story I want to write – funny, sad, scary, etc. Sometimes that mood is set by the theme of a writing competition too. What I do here is work out the kind of character who would suit that mood and as I outline them, I find myself discovering ideas for the situations they’d be likely to face. Put all that together and I have an outline for my first draft.

Knowing my character well enough for whatever length of story I write to works for me. Asking a few questions helps me to get to know that character well enough. Obviously the longer the story the more I need to know but even for flash I have to know what drives them and why.

There are often hints as I outline them as to where that drive has come from. If their drive is to make money and plenty of it, are they being greedy or are they fearful of debt because they’ve know what it is to face that?

I could write two different stories depending on how I answer that question. There is nothing to stop me either from writing two stories with two characters who answer that question differently and this is just one example of the benefit of some forward planning.

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Broadcast News: Enjoyed listening to the stories on Hannah Kate’s Autumn Equinox special show on North Manchester FM this afternoon. Lovely mix of styles. I’ve shared the links – link one above, link two below. My story, Spade Work, is on the second half of the show coming in at about the 22 minutes mark but do listen to all of the tales. You will be in for a treat. Do note I now have a single link to the whole show above and it may be easier to use that one.

Many thanks for the kind comments coming in on the Ruth Leigh interview I shared on Chandler’s Ford Today yesterday. Much appreciated. I think this interview proves a point I’ve made before about learning from author interviews. You can pick up all sorts of tips which will be useful to you.

Am pleased to say there is another super interview coming up next week with Anita D Hunt, who will be discussing her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain. Looking forward to sharing that. I’ve loved author interviews since I started writing seriously. I know I’ve picked up so much useful help and advice from them and it is a great joy and privilege to conduct them for CFT.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Anniversaries can make a useful theme to write about. Not only are there the obvious anniversaries, which you could show in relation to your characters and what they make of them, bear in mind your characters might also have specific dates they commemorate, which would be meaningless to anyone else.

So what would your character commemorate that nobody else would? How do they do this? What made them start doing this? A magical character could commemorate the day they “graduated”, for example. How do they celebrate – crate a new spell for the occasion, say?

Room for humour in stories like that, I think.

Fiction reflects on our lived experiences so certain themes are bound to occur regularlyIt’s Monday. It’s been raining heavily all day. And it’s a darker than usual Monday due to the weather. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Appreciation.

Has been a busy and soggy weekend. Hope things have been okay for you. Don’t forget my author newsletter is coming out again soon. To sign up just head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I’ll be talking about author newsletters for my More than Writers post for the Association of Christian Writers later this month too. I write a few monthly blogs and, as with my newsletter, I do plan out when in the month I will have these ready by. I’ve found this pays. Doing this frees up other writing time which I use for marketing and writing more flash stories. Win-win as far as I’m concerned.

Talking of flash, I’ve also found it useful to hit the ground running with my tales. I want to set up curiosity in the reader immediately and I can do this by setting a question you know the story has to answer or by giving an intriguing opening and you have to find out where it goes from there.

In my Enough Is Enough (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I start with the opening line of She knew she had to stop it. What I hope that line does is set up immediate questions for the reader – who is she, what has she got to stop and why, and is she successful? The story does have to answer all of that. (It does, of course!).

I’ve found it helpful to think along the lines if it intrigues me, it should intrigue someone else. It can be a useful place to start, regardless of what length of fiction you’re writing.

It was a joy this afternoon to listen to wonderful autumnal flash on Hannah Kate’s show on North Manchester FM. It was a joy to be part of the show too. Autumn is a wonderful theme to write about because you can take it in many directions. You can look at a character’s attitude to it. You can bring in the changes in nature. You can bring in the sense of things winding down.

My maternal grandmother hated the season because she saw it as the time when everything died. I’ve used that thought in my story, Spade Work, which was broadcast this afternoon. I also used my own attitude to the season where I don’t agree with my grandmother’s view. My character, Holly, shares my view autumn is the time of beautiful changes and sees this in her Virginia Creeper where its leaves change from green to a fabulous shade of red.

But thinking about what your character makes of autumn or indeed any of the seasons can give you great insight to your creation. Their attitudes will also have a direct impact on their behaviour too and there will be story ideas there.

If they hate autumn, what would they do to get out of having to go any seasonal events? How would characters around them react to their behaviour here, especially if they love the season and the events?

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Goodreads Author Blog – Books I Could Not Do Without

With a title like this, I know I could go on at some length but decided to limit my choices to ten but have included some collections. So what ten books could I not do without then?

  1. The Bible – I especially love the Psalms (wonderful poetry) and Jesus’s stories (especially The Good Samaritan always a challenging one that).
  2. The Lord of the Rings – THE fantasy book in my view.
  3. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – loved the story. Cried when I first read what happened to Aslan at the hands of the White Witch.
  4. The classic fairytales – I am especially fond of Cinderella.
  5. Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett. A classic whodunnit as well as a wonderful addition to the Discworld canon.
  6. Nemesis – Agatha Christie. Her best Miss Marple novel I think.
  7. The ABC Murders – Agatha Christie. Her best Hercule Poirot book (though I was torn between this and Murder on the Orient Express).
  8. Jeeves and Wooster – P.G. Wodehouse. Can’t pick any single one. They are all brilliant and never fail to make me smile.
  9. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens. The ultimate ghost/redemption story. Simply wonderful.
  10. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen. Her best book, I think. Wonderful characters and Elizabeth Bennet is ahead of her time.

Which ten books would you choose?

Screenshot 2024-09-21 at 18-00-25 Allison Symes's Blog - Books I Could Not Do Without - September 21 2024 10 00 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the October 2023 edition, which had horror as its theme. My article is on Writing Horror: The Telling Details.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Author Interview: Catching Up With Ruth Leigh – The Further Adventures of Ruth Leigh

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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. Many thanks to Ruth Leigh and Social Shapes for some of the images in my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week.
Hope you have had a good few days. Continuing to enjoy lovely autumn weather here. Lady continuing to have a riot with her pals in the park. All is well! On the writing front, I’m delighted to say my story, Spade Work, will be broadcast by Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM on 21st September (between 2 and 4 pm). Hope to share the link later.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

I’m so pleased to welcome back Ruth Leigh to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new book, The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge. Isabella is one of those unforgettable, touching, and funny characters, it was clear from the outset she would need more than one book!

In this in depth interview, Ruth and I discuss what she loves about Isabella and who Ruth would pick to play the role should Isabella ever come to the screen. Ruth also shares some wonderful tips about book launches. If you’re thinking of having a launch, do check these out.

Ruth also discusses what inspired her to write A Great Deal of Ingenuity and The Little Unexpected Book of Poetry which came out since the last CFT interview and we both celebrate being Jane Austen nerds.

Ruth also shares how her writing life has taken off in other directions with Resolute Books and the British Christian Writing Conference. There are also valuable tips on websites and the challenge of managing both writing and marketing time.

Plenty to enjoy then and lots of useful advice and tips for other writers. Do enjoy. And congratulations, Ruth, on the fourth installment centred on your wonderful heroine.

Catching Up with Ruth Leigh – The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge

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Lovely start to my day as I found out my story, Spade Work, will be broadcast on Hannah Kate’s Autumn Equinox show on North Manchester FM on Saturday, 21st September. I hope to share a link later. Many thanks to Jenny Sanders for flagging this one up.

Am looking forward to listening in as there is always a lovely mix of stories on these shows. Will be interesting to find out how the autumn theme has been taken by the other contributors.

Flash works well on radio and/or Open Prose Mic Nights precisely because you have a contained story which doesn’t take too much time to read out/listen to.

Am also looking forward to taking part in Flash NANO again in November. Hope to get thirty more draft stories out of that!

Screenshot 2024-09-19 at 17-19-48 Hannah Kate on X 🍂 Coming up on Sat at 2pm it's the Hannah's Bookshelf Autumn Equinox Special on @normanfm1066 featuring flash fiction from Jess Richards Carmen Walton @mariascohut @noodle[...]

Another lovely autumn day here and Lady had a fabulous puppy party with her chums, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, and Coco, the Labradoodle. Tired but oh so happy dogs went home. Lovely to watch them at play.

Am pleased to be back on Authors Electric with my post Directions. I look at how my writing life has been an upside down one and why I’ve learned not to worry about my writing life changing direction. I hadn’t started out writing the short form at all but when I did get around to that, it twisted again when I discovered flash fiction and from that the joys of learning to write tight and to never fear editing or being edited again. The latter alone has proved useful to me.

Wherever you are on your writing journey, I hope the “ride” is a good one and the turns you take prove to be useful to you. Hope you enjoy the post.

WORD OF WARNING:  Annoyingly there are two useless comments on my Authors Electric post, one of which is potentially dodgy. I have flagged them up to the admins of Authors Electric. These comments weren’t there when I published the post.

One is advertising how to hire a hacker. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THAT COMMENT OR CLICK ON THE PERSON’S ICON. I dread to think where that would take you.

The other is about recipes, irrelevant to a writing post. It is the bane of all website owners to have to deal with this kind of thing. Please DO enjoy my post though. I hope you find it useful.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday, the end of the working week for many. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy The Case. If there is a moral to this one, it is to take a hint seriously when you are given one. Find out what happens given my character David didn’t do that.

Screenshot 2024-09-20 at 10-06-36 The Case by Allison Symes - Friday Flash Fiction

Hope you have had a good day. Lovely autumn weather continuing here. Delighted to say I’ll be on Hannah Kate’s show on Saturday afternoon on North Manchester FM. The theme for the show in the Autumn Equinox. Will share a link when I get one. Next seasonal theme I will write something for will be, dare I say it so early, a festive one. Festive flash is so enjoyable to write. I do think the aim there is to make the stories fun. At least that’s the take I try to use for it!

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A lovely review for From Light to Dark and Back Again describes the book as From Light to Dark and Back Again is indeed, as the subtitle states, ‘a collection very short stories to suit every mood’ – be it mournful, pithy or murderous.

Many thanks to Book Reader for that one. Please note though Amazon say the book isn’t available in paperback that isn’t the case. All Chapeltown Books are print on demand so it isn’t a question of unavailability. Print on demand doesn’t have a use by date!

Also you can order directly from me. Just contact me via my website (https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com/contact/) or you can go to my publisher’s bookshop, The Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop. See link.

Screenshot 2024-09-20 at 20-31-21 The Bridgetown Café Bookshop From Light to Dark and Back Again

Fairytales with Bite – Professional Practices

Think about the professions in your magical setting. Think about the obvious ones like witch, wizard, fairy godmother etc. Behind any profession there is usually a service industry. Within the profession there is usually a set of professional practices or some sort of Code of Practice.

So what would make up the service industries here? Someone has to supply the magical equipment and test it so it is good to be used on a wider scale. Someone else would write the spell books (and those would have been tested and proved to work at some point, else why include them?).

Then there would be whoever supplied the ingredients or someone who brought out the latest model of wand etc. Also who taught those who work in the professions? What rigorous standards do they have to teach to? Do you have the magical equivalent of Ofsted here?

So all sorts of things then go on behind any job in our world and the same would apply in a magical one.

Fairies may be born but they would have to be trained. They will need to know how to use their equipment and so on, They will be expected to stick to what most accept as a reasonable code of conduct (noting there would always be some who defy these things).

As for the professional practices/Code, who wrote these? Who approved them? What led to there being a need for them in the first place? What would happen to anyone who went against these things?

Story ideas there for sure!

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This World and Others – Unions/Guilds

Given the need for professions in any world, who cares for the workers in those professions? Would there be the magical equivalent of trade unions? Are there guilds ensuring professional practices, as referred to in Fairytales with Bite, are adhered to? Who runs these things and how did they get into those roles?

Who would they answer to and do the workers have the right to hold their union officials, as well as their bosses, to account where necessary? How does the employment world work in your setting? Story ideas there too!

On a lighter note, as for possible magical trade unions how about the following:-

The FGTU – The Fairy Godmother Trade Union. Motto: Clocking off is always at midnight, not a moment sooner or later.

NRG – Nursery Rhyme Guild. Motto: There for the talking bears to ensure they always get their furniture and porridge replaced.

MCWU – Mouse Clock Winders’ Union. Motto: Ensuring the clocks always read 1 am or 1 pm – nothing else. Members here cannot be a member of the FGTU as well due to an obvious conflict of interests.

COBBLERS Guild – Collective of Brave Blue-collar Leather-working Elves Restoring Shoes Guild – Motto: Always proud to help the small businessman who is kind but has fallen on hard times.

Hope you enjoyed those. For story purposes though the world of employment (on both sides of the fence) could be a good source for ideas.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the April 2024 edition of the magazine which is on a theme close to my heart, editing. I ask the big question – Editing:  Do You Love It or Loathe It?

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Author Interview Questions and Ghost Stories

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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. Many thanks to my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today, Janet Williams, for taking the image of me at the 2023 Hiltingbury Book Fair.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Glad to see some wonderful autumn weather with plenty of sun and a nice temperature. Lady off to a great start this week having a riotous time with her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback.
Writing wise, am looking forward to sharing a wonderful interview with Ruth Leigh on Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. There will be another great interview with Anita D Hunt the week after. Plenty to look forward to and lots of useful information for any writer.
And I can confirm I will be going to the Hiltingbury Book Fair next month.

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Facebook – General

Lady was delighted to see her Hungarian Vizler pal this morning. Lovely time had by both dogs. Another lovely autumn day too here.

Don’t forget I’ll be talking with Ruth Leigh about her new book, The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge, on Friday on Chandler’s Ford Today. There will be plenty of useful tips too – so be sure not to miss it.

Looking forward also to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. Always good fun and it has been wonderful to hear how group members have had work published and/or broadcast on North Manchester FM when Hannah Kate puts out the call for theme related flash fiction to be sent in.

Well done, everyone, and keep up the good work!

 

Lady has had a fabulous start to her week having a wonderful time with her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback. As well as running around and play fighting like the overgrown pups they are, they gave each other cuddles too. Very sweet to see.

Writing wise, I’m busy preparing various interviews for Chandler’s Ford Today and there will be more to come in October, I’m glad to say. There is always plenty to learn from these, I find, and they’re great fun to conduct.

Writing Tip: Whether you’re published singly or a number of times, or even if you’re not published yet, look at the questions posted in author interviews and work out how you would answer them if someone posed them to you. It will make you think in more depth about what you write and get you used to talking about what you do.

I did this early on in my career and worked out what I would say. I found that enormously helpful especially in overcoming nerves. I knew I had something I could say and that helped a lot. Plus you learn a lot from the tips and advice writers share in these things. I always ask authors to name three top marketing tips as we can all learn from that and no one writer can know them all.

460226249_10162248915762053_570811761049776159_nHope the weekend has gone well. Lovely autumnal weather here. I enjoy days like these. Lady does too. Pleasant, not too hot etc.

Many thanks for the lovely responses to my post the other day about my taking part in the Hiltingbury Book Fair. Much appreciated. More on the event nearer the time.

My author newsletter will be out again before you know it. If you’d like to sign up for news, tips, story links etc, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Writing Tip: Know your character. Know them well enough for whatever length of story you write. For flash, I need to know less than, say, a novelist would need to know but I still need to know enough. Above all, I do need to know what drives them and makes them tick. That underpins their attitudes and actions/reactions.

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Hope you have had a good start to your weekend. Not bad here. Got the lawn cut. Always looks good for it.

Am delighted to say I’ll be interviewing the lovely Ruth Leigh for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. My post, Catching Up with Ruth Leigh: The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge, goes out on Friday.
Since we last talked on CFT, Ruth has had two other books out (A Great Deal of Ingenuity and The Unexpected Book of Poetry) and we’ll be discussing how those came about, as well as celebrating Ruth’s new Isabella book. Isabella is one of those characters for whom it is true once you’ve met them you don’t forget them. That’s always a sign of a great character in my view. More to come nearer the time and I’m looking forward to sharing the interview.

And if you love author interviews, as I do, I’ll have another fabulous chat the week after, this time with Anita D Hunt where we’ll talk about her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain. Much to look forward to in both interviews.

Last but not least, I’m delighted to say I’ll be taking part in the Hiltingbury Book Fair again. The date is 19th October and I will share more news on this as and when I get it. It was a huge success last year and naturally everyone will hope it is again this time.

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Facebook – From Light To Dark and Back Again

Many thanks to all who have subscribed to my YouTube channel. I create flash fiction videos (using Book Brush for the video element and my imagination for the rest!) and usually put a new tale up every Monday. New subscribers are always welcome.

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It’s that day of the week again. The day Garfield the cat hates with a passion – Monday. I’ve not yet met anyone who is especially keen on it. By my reckoning, it’s time for a story then.

Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – First Trip Out. If there’s a moral to this one it is to be wary of Granny’s recipes especially when she can’t recall where she got them! But does my character, Bill, follow that advice? Umm… no. Find out what happens here.

 

One of the joys of being published with Chapeltown Books was having some input into the covers for From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic. All of the flash fiction books published by Chapeltown are square books (ideal for gifts!) but there is a central image to the front cover.

For my first book, I deliberately went for a ripples picture. I think this apt for flash fiction as a whole given flash infers so much and there are ripples coming out from the stories as a result. It is one of the aspects to flash I adore because I like to work things out when I am reading stories by other authors. I just need the right clues to be able to do that.

With flash, I don’t have a lot of time and space in which to plant said clues (often I only get to plant one but it is key as you would expect). Readers don’t get much time in which to work things out but I love the challenge of that myself when I am reading flash by other writers. It is a good challenge!

 

I’m going to be taking part in the Hiltingbury Book Fair again next month as I mentioned over on my author page. This time I’ve opted to give a short talk and a reading or two from my books as part of this event. I have found before demonstrating what flash fiction is by reading some out is a great way to encourage sales. Naturally I hope it will do that again this time!

There was a good range of authors and genres at last year’s event. I hope that will be the case again. Certainly I happily enjoyed representing the short story and flash fiction forms last time and am looking forward to doing so again.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Ghost Stories

Earlier this week, I was sorry to hear about the death of Kenneth Cope who famously played the role of the ghost detective, Marty Hopkirk, in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). It was known as My Partner The Ghost in the USA. It was a great series.

This led me to thinking about ghost stories generally. Now I know next month (October) would probably be a more appropriate time for this post but I would like this one to be a kind of tribute to a great show. It was quirky, it was different, and I loved it. I still love quirky and different stories and shows. I write quirky fiction too.

For me the ultimate ghost story does have to the classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. What I love most of all I think about this is the ghosts, while scary (especially the Ghost of Christmas Still To Come), have a positive role. They are on a redemption mission and I feel it is appropriate to be reminded of that at Christmas. As a Christian I see the link to the redemption story of Jesus whose birthday I celebrate then. But I like the fact the ghosts aren’t just there to scare. They do have something to do. The story wouldn’t work without them.

For any story to work well, the characters have to be believable. One way of doing that, of course, is to ensure they have every reason to be in the story and no reason NOT to be in it. Dickens does this brilliantly here. (I’d also argue the hardhearted Scrooge is far scarier than the ghosts by the way).

So, yes, even ghosts have to have a reason to be in a story and I like the fact it isn’t always about scaring people. Sometimes it is to help them. I’ve written the odd short story on this theme myself and loved doing so.

Screenshot 2024-09-14 at 17-55-23 Allison Symes's Blog - Ghost Stories - September 14 2024 09 55 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the June 2024 edition of the magazine which had poetry as its theme. My article here looked at The Links Between Poetry and Flash Fiction Writing.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Books, Movies, and Music

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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 few days. Nice to see some autumn sunshine emerge. Lady has continued to have riotous times with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal so she is is having a cracking week. Writing wise, am happily busy editing and preparing author interviews to share. Also looking forward to judging flash fiction again soon and the Association of of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later in the month. Plenty going on and with more to come. On a sadder note, another link with my childhood passed away this week.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Books, Movies, and Music for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. This post was inspired by the recent Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame. I look at the links between movie music and books/plays (there were SO many on the chart). Where there wasn’t a link with a book or play, there sometimes was with an author (e.g. Wilde by Debbie Wiseman).

I also look at earworms and suggest a couple of them. You may or may not thank me for that! I also ask if strong stories automatically means strong films.

Hope you enjoy the post and do share your favourite movie themes based on books in the comments box on CFT. There are fewer pictures in the slideshow below because I did share a few YouTube clips in the CFT post itself. Go on. Check out the Pink Panther YouTube clip in the post. The orchestra is having a fabulous time playing this. And it remains the only film series I know of which inspired an equally wonderful cartoon series.

Books, Movies, and Music

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I was sorry to hear of the death of Kenneth Cope today. Had a good innings (he was 93) but I remember him well from that fabulous show, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). Entertaining show with a wonderful theme tune. Have shared the link to the latter. See below.

There are certain shows where the theme tune so matches the characters and stories. This was one. Doctor Who is another. (I recall Kenneth Cope from Carry On At Your Convenience too).

My Books, Movies, and Music will be on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. This was a joy to write given it combines several of my favourite things. If I could’ve found a way to mention chocolate in this, I would have had a set of favourite things but alas the chocolate will have to wait for another more suitable post.

11th September
To all who mourn today, I send my deepest condolences.

 

Lady saw her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal again today and the pair of them had a lovely time. Dogs, unlike humans, keep it simple.

Will be discussing Books, Movies, and Music for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that. See above. After that will come the first of two super author interviews. Those will be a great way to wrap up the month.

I love putting questions together for my guests on CFT. It’s a good challenge for me and I hope proves to be so for them! What I aim to do is to ask questions which encourage the author to “open up” with the result being seen as a written, in depth conversation. I think it makes for a good read. More to come on both author interviews nearer the time.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Appearances. This will ring a bell for fans of certain cartoons. See the story for more.
Screenshot 2024-09-13 at 10-02-06 Appearances by Allison Symes - Friday Flash Fiction

There are many advantages to writing flash fiction but two of the major ones, at least for me, are the way it shows up your wasted words and it encourages you to write tighter, leaner prose. It has led to me asking myself whether I do need a certain phrase or, even if so, can I express it better? Most of the time the answer to that question is yes and so I rewrite.

It also encourages you to think of the right detail to include so your readers can get a good picture of your character and situation in a few words. The right image can add depth to a story.

I ask myself what detail would help do that. What is it a reader would find helpful here? Answering that helps me with focus. Sometimes I use colours, one of the senses, an item of clothing etc. Using those details flags up they matter to the character in some way but it also helps “fix” a picture of the character in a reader’s mind better, I think.

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11th September
To all who find today difficult, I send my deepest sympathies.

 

Flash by its nature has to capture a moment in time but it has to be a significant one for your character. What is it about them and their situation we have to know? What is the point of change by the end of the flash piece?

Less is more could be said to be the flash fiction writer’s anthem but the right telling detail can add depth to even the shortest of stories. So think about what would make your character stand out. Would it be something they wear? Is it their attitude as shown in their thoughts and dialogue?

Why is it this character who is facing Situation X? What do they seek to gain or lose by dealing with that situation? Answer those questions and you’ve got a good outline and be well on the way to a first draft.

Fairytales with Bite – Time

When time crops up in fairytales, it usually is midnight. No other time. Just that one. See Cinderella for more on that.

I’m also very fond of the quote from Terry Pratchett’s magnificent Reaper Man (which I must re-read soon given it does have a harvest theme and it is September as I write this) – The kind of Death who poses against the skyline and gets lit up by lightning flashes doesn’t turn up at five-and-twenty past eleven if he can possibly turn up at midnight.

That wonderful quote shows a great deal about the character of the “real” Discworld Death and the one who was meant to replace him all in just one line. Brilliantly done.

Midnight then has a great deal of resonance but for your own characters why not pick a time which has meaning to them? If your character has a reason for loathing or loving a particular time, show that in your story. You can then get them to face having to do something at your chosen time and their attitude towards the time in question will have a bearing on how well or otherwise they do handle that situation. It should increase tension nicely!

There is also the possibility of using Time as a character. Would you show Time as cruel or kind? (Bear in mind the answer to that could depend on the attitude of your other characters. Time might be kind but the characters may have good reason not to see it that way).

What would you get Time to do? Can magic challenge Time or is there always a payback for trying to chat Time? (Someone usually does try as they try to cheat Death in Discworld. Never works but there can be fun stories as we, as readers, watch the characters try and fail!).

Also give some thought as to how time works in your setting. Would it be the same as here or does your setting have a 48 hour day or, come to that, a 4.8 hour day? How would this work? How would your characters manage it (given for them it would be normal)?

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This World and Others – Sense of Place

In your setting is there a sense of place? Can people conjure up what your setting looks like? Can they visualise your characters living in that setting? Do you focus on one place or a whole world?

What can be useful here is deciding on your focus. If you are having stories set in one place, think about whether that place is a city, a village, or what have you. You can then research cities and villages here (and ideally visit some) to get a feel for what would be in these places and then have the fun of inventing the equivalent for your world.

Give some thought as to what your characters would hear, smell, see etc (and what they would consider as “normal” noises, smells etc so they barely notice them but an outsider would do).

If you are using a whole world setting, focus on what a reader needs to know and experience. If your story is mainly set in and around a desert, the reader won’t need to know about riverside villages etc. They will need to know how your characters manage in that desert setting.

But there is plenty of research you can do here which will help to bring a sense of place to your fantastical settings. We do have to base the latter on what we know here and then change things but you know what you are changing and why. You will write from a position of strength/background knowledge then.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the September 2023 edition of the magazine which focuses on the topic of marketing. Always useful that one! I have two articles in here – Marketing Your Books and Writing for Online Magazines. And remember the magazine will be back soon!

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Writing News and Books For Life

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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. It was soggy with me. Time for some autumn sunshine I think. I do love the changing leaf colours at this time of year. Lady doesn’t care much what the weather is as long as she goes out and has a great time (ideally with friends too). Hope to have some news of another book event I’ll be involved in before long too.

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Facebook – General

Hope you’ve had a good Tuesday. Weather still damp and dreary here. I do prefer the crisper, drier autumn days!

Had a turn down for one of my stories come in today. Will have another look at the tale and see if I can polish it further and sent it out elsewhere. Have done this before and had work accepted on the second or third attempt. Worth a go.

On the other side of the fence here, I will be putting on my judge’s hat for a flash fiction competition soon. Looking forward to that.

Am also preparing some other submissions as well as editing at the moment so plenty to keep me occupied. I like it that way. I also like the mixture of writing fiction and non-fiction. Both are interesting challenges. I like the variety too.

459114764_10162228394567053_3916676174138914329_nLady has had a marvellous start to her week in that she caught up with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal, whom she hasn’t seen for a few days, today. The dogs had a great run, a playfight (I know – Lady’s 7 and the Ridgeback is 6 but they still love doing this, overgrown pups that they are), and a massive run around together. Both went home tired but very happy.

Pleased to say there will be further author interviews to come for Chandler’s Ford Today. I have two lined up for the end of September on successive weeks and I will be preparing another one very shortly which will eventually appear in October.

I love author interviews whether I read them, listen to them, or conduct them. I always learn something interesting and I find it endlessly fascinating finding out how other writers find their inspiration, what marketing tips they’ve found most useful etc. We can and should all learn from each other, I think.
I have a page over on CFT and you can find it at the link.

Screenshot 2024-09-10 at 18-44-26 Allison Symes Author at Chandler's Ford Today

So far today there has been thunder, heavy rain, and sunshine. Wonder what the rest of the afternoon and evening will bring!

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this month. We’ll be looking at marketing, which is always a useful topic.

Flash fiction is good to share as part of an overall marketing campaign. It doesn’t take up much reading time. It gives readers something entertaining and different too. It shows something of your style and work. It makes it more likely they’ll check out what else you do.

What I’ve never found appealing as a reader is the buy, buy, buy approach (it comes across as nagging!) so my own take here is to share something of value such as a flash story, mention my books, and then share tips etc. I think it makes marketing more palatable to me as the writer and I hope to others as potential/actual readers.

458982584_10162220083877053_1374665248102102331_nAnother soggy day. Glad to be in!

Will be looking at Books, Movies, and Music for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. When you’re writing on three wonderful things, the post can’t help but be a joy to write. Am looking forward to sharing it on Friday. It was inspired by the recent Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame.

Writing Tip: I find it useful to prepare bits and pieces for my newsletter throughout the month so towards the end of the four or five week period, I can just edit what I’ve got, put it any final story links and then said newsletter is good to go. Find this useful and jotting down things for my newsletter as and when is another good use of those pockets of time we all get.

Newsletter advert - share tips etc

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I’ve signed up to take part in Flash NANO once more. It won’t be that long before this starts (1st November). For the last couple of years, I’ve managed to produce something to all thirty prompts. Some have since been published, others I’m saving for a further flash collection, and others I know won’t make the cut. It happens.

What I got from those tales was having a go at the prompt set (some of which were types I’d not tried before) and being able to produce something to it. That cheered me up at the time especially when I was tempted to think I haven’t written a story like this before, I’m not going to do this, but yes, I found I could.

Whether I’ll come back to these later and see if I can do something more with them, I don’t know. I do find with all writing prompts though they are a great way in to my writing work for the day. They almost act like a “warm up” and that is useful in and of itself.

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It’s Monday. It’s been as hectic as ever, albeit the weather at least was drier than over a soggy weekend. But given it is still Monday (and I agree with Garfield the cat about Mondays), it is time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Another Time.

 

It doesn’t seem like two years since we lost the Queen. Where does the time go?

Time and anniversaries (including the happier ones naturally) are great topics for flash fiction. What does an anniversary mean to your character especially if they’re in a situation where they face it alone? Which anniversaries would they welcome? Which do they go out of their way to avoid?

Also wedding anniversaries have associations – the 40th anniversary being a ruby one, for example. You could take something like the object here and weave a story around that. I did so a little while ago with Ruby on my YouTube channel. See link.

 

Have submitted an autumn themed story this week. Am looking forward to flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow. And I hope to soon have news of a book event where I hope to spread the word about flash fiction – more news when I have it. Plenty going on then and I’m editing too.

Many thanks for the comments coming in on my latest story on Friday Flash Fiction – The Clock. Also thanks for the comments on it on my Facebook page. Much appreciated. I’ve been talking recently about using numbers in stories and one way to do so is to use the number as a time. Here I went a step further and used the time measuring device instead.
Screenshot 2024-09-06 at 09-03-25 The Clock by Allison Symes - Friday Flash Fiction
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Goodreads Author Blog – Books for Life Acrostic

B = Brilliant “device” for education and entertainment.
O = Original stories coming out all the time plus the classics to enjoy.
O = Other formats suit the book too – ebook, audio, hardback, paperback – something for all.
K = Kindle reading has led me to finding authors new to me and I often go on to buy their paperbacks later.
S = Stories, single or series, set in all worlds and this one – what’s not to like about that?

 

F = Fairytales, fantasy, and flash fiction – these are three of my favourite book things to misquote The Sound of Music.
O= Originality in the sharing of non-fiction has led to creative non-fiction, which I adore.
R = Reviews – I give them and, like all authors, would like some for my works – reviews do help authors.

 

L = Libraries are fantastic and encourage a life long love of reading.
I = Imagination fired and not just for fiction – what ideas from the past, as shared in books, have led to new inventions or developments?
F = Frankly, my dear, I think the book is one of humanity’s best inventions to misquote Gone With The Wind.
E = Enjoy your books and I think it is no coincidence some of the best films are based on books (because it has been proven the stories already work!).

Screenshot 2024-09-07 at 17-43-58 Allison Symes's Blog - Books For Life Acrostic - September 07 2024 09 43 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the May 2024 edition which had memoir as its theme. My article talked about Using Memoir Techniques for Character Creation.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Story Judging

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Image Credits:-
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Hope you have had a good few days. Autumn coming in rapidly here and Lady and I have had our first soakings of the month! Looking forward to sharing two fabulous author interviews on Chandler’s Ford Today towards the end of the month plus I hope to have news of another writing event in October before long. Meantime, keeping busy writing and editing here. Huge advantage to this is I keep dry!

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Lady and I had another soaking this morning. We may have been marginally less wet than yesterday but there wasn’t much in it!

On a much happier note, I’m pleased to share Story Judging for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at where competition judges can tell how much (or little) editing has been done on the pieces they get to read and I share what I think story judges are looking for. I also share handy tips.

Hope you find the post useful and good luck if you are entering competitions. I find they’re a great discipline for helping you to get used to writing to deadlines.

Story Judging

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Lady and I had a real soaking this morning! Hope it wasn’t too bad where you are. Only time I was pleased to get wet today was when I went swimming!

Don’t forget Story Judging is up on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. Will be back to see The Chameleon Theatre Group’s latest production in October so will review that in due course for CFT too.

I’ve mentioned before I often use Zoom to record stories and play them back. Well, I was glad I did last night. A story I’ve got in mind for submission has to come in at under the three minutes mark. Discovered mine was over four! Have already edited the piece so hope it will now be to the right time length but I will re-record later and make sure. I’ve found it is the only sure way to make sure my timings are right.

 

Hope you have had a good day. Lady had a cracking time in the park with her pal, Coco, and then got to see two other rescue dog pals she sees every now and then. Grand time had by all. Rain held off too so will count that as a win.

I’ve been thinking of music and books a lot recently, partly inspired by the recent Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame chart which they played on Bank Holiday Monday. Wonderful music and many of the pieces relate to books or plays. Shakespeare turned up a few times for that chart. Would like to think he would be pleased about that. (Jane Austen and Charles Dickens were represented in there too).

Character Tip: Why not see what your character’s musical tastes are and why they have them? This could reveal something about their background and/or personality. Also think about a piece of music which would suit your character and think about why it would be that one. (If you pick Jaws, you are either writing about a shark or your character is of the kind I am likely to avoid!).

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s the end of the working week for many of us. Weather here has been frightful too. So definitely time for a story then and I hope you like my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – The Clock.

Screenshot 2024-09-06 at 09-03-25 The Clock by Allison Symes - Friday Flash Fiction

Names can reveal a lot about characters such as age and social status. Sometimes I know the character’s job before I know the name but sometimes that occupation inspires my name choice. In Being Yourself (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I knew my character was a librarian and then worked out a name to suit (I came up with Jane Stephens for this one).

Sometimes I don’t need to worry about names at all as I know the story will work best in the first person but even there I can show a character referring to or talking to someone else by name. What they call someone can be enlightening too. Do they use the full name? Do they use a contraction? When they speak the name is it with affection or contempt?

 

I’ve mentioned before you can have a lot of fun writing flash because, despite the limited word count, there is much you can do with it.

For example, I write across the whole spectrum from 50 words to the full 1000 and pretty much everything in between. I also mix up the genres I write in here and also the moods of the stories. I mix up writing in first and third person. I’ve occasionally used second person too.

But I also mix up the formats I use so sometimes I use acrostics (especially on Facebook and my blog round up). I have also written flash pieces in diary format, as letters, and in poetic form too. At some point I may have a go at flash in tweets because that is do-able.

The important thing in all of this? Having fun with it! You have to enjoy what you write/the process of writing and accept you are in for the long haul.

But the joy of creating something you hope others will enjoy I think is a great thing and feedback from sites like Friday Flash Fiction is enormously encouraging too. You can’t assume anything in the writing life but you can give it your best shot and have fun as you do that.

Being open to improving your craft matters too but that is fun in itself when you have the support of fellow writers. It is my experience the writing community is a tremendously supportive one and it is lovely being part of that.

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Fairytales with Bite – Rough Justice

Justice can be very rough indeed in the fairytale world. The prince didn’t expect to be turned into a beast in Beauty and the Beast, did he?

But for a wider fantasy setting, what would count as rough justice? Would it be the misuse of magic for aggressive purposes or would it be the withholding of magic when it could be used to help a character?

Who determines the usage of magic and when that usage spills over into abuse of power? Someone has to set the rules. There would have to be some rules given the lack of them would lead to anarchy, though you could give some thought to who would want to stir that up in your setting.

If someone is after power, which is what characters so often want (just so like us, eh?), how would they stir up that anarchy and then bring it under control again so they could rule?

Often when there is a power struggle, justice and truth are trampled on. Who would bring these things back and how would they do it? Who would ensure justice was just that only without any rough bits?

Story ideas there I think!

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This World and Others – Good -v- Evil

One of the things I love about fairytales is they call out evil for what it is. There is a clear divide between good and evil.

It doesn’t mean good characters are flawless – they’re not, any more than we are. It does mean they know what is right and wrong at least at the basic levels and the heroes here, to my mind, are those who are prepared to stand up for what is right, regardless. (See The Lord of the Rings, the Narnia series and so much more for more on that).

In your setting, is the divide clear? Would your readers know who they should be rooting for to succeed? Yes, sometimes you can have a “good villain”. The Sheriff of Nottingham, as played by the much missed Alan Rickman, in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves is one such but it was still right he did not succeed in the end.

The problem with evil winning is it is so depressing. The brute forces win, characters are oppressed, where is the hope in that kind of story? Indeed, where is the story? Frankly, we also see enough of all of that in the news!

So we need characters then who are prepared to stand up against evil. They’re not always going to get it right. Many of them will die. (To paraphrase Lord Farquaad in Shrek, that is a sacrifice the bad guys are prepared to make!).

But the interesting story is when those on the side of good do take up a stand against evil. We want to see what they do and whether it succeeds or not. If they face setbacks, which I would expect, do they overcome those? How do they overcome them? Is the cause of good upheld successfully?

One of the joys of fantasy and fairytales is when good is upheld. It gives hope. Yes, it may be escapism but I’ve never seen the problem with that. I want characters in conflict with each other and the right ones succeeding in the end. I guess I have wanted that ever since I first read the classic fairytales. I’ve seen no reason to change that view!

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I’m sharing the November 2023 edition of the magazine which focused on novels. My article is on Writing Novels and I shared what I learned from writing my (as yet) unpublished novel.

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Seasons and Scheduling

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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. Many thanks to Jen Wilson and Penny Blackburn for the Swanwick shots used above.
Hope you had a good weekend. I managed to get plenty of writing done and mow my lawn which did look as it if was turning into a wilderness, thanks to the rain we’ve had recently. Lady and I are disliking the humid weather at the moment but so far no storms. Hope I don’t end up regretting typing that! Lady isn’t scared of thunder but doesn’t particularly like it either. She doesn’t mind getting a good soaking though. Thankfully she dries far quicker than I do.

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Facebook – General

Lovely to be back to the normal timetable for the swimming pool. Enjoyed that. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend again today and has had some long walks so all is right with her world, as it should be.

Am looking at Story Judging for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Will be sharing thoughts and tips so hope it will prove useful.

Will have two fabulous author interviews coming up for CFT towards the end of the month too and am looking forward to sharing those. I always learn so much from author interviews.

Fun thought: if you could interview any author from the past, who would it be and why? I’d be torn between interviewing Jane Austen and P.G. Wodehouse, I think. I know I’d want to chat to either/both of them with regard to humour in fiction. I would hope both would be delighted their works are still so treasured too.

 

Hope you have had a good start to your week. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend today and it was sweet to see them both showing affection towards each other.

I prepare blog posts in advance and schedule them. I then come back to them with about a week to go before publication so I can double check them, add in anything further if appropriate (this can often be the case for my Chandler’s Ford Today posts), and then I know they’re “put to bed”, so to speak. I am a great believer in scheduling!

I use odd pockets of time, as I’ve mentioned before, to jot down story ideas but I also do this for non-fiction. On picking an idea from the pile I like, I will then start drafting a non-fiction post. Five minutes here, another short session there (and I get several of these during the week), and I am well on my way to getting my first draft done.

Those pockets of time do mount up and are worth using in this way. I’ve found they’ve helped me be far more productive.

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I know it’s hard to believe we’re at September already but I think it is one of the loveliest months of the year. I love the changing colours of the leaves and the decent workout I get when I clear up the fallen oak leaves. (Not kidding there. It really does help with my keep fit!).

Author newsletter went out earlier today. Many thanks to all of my subscribers for your support.
Delighted to say I’ll be sharing fabulous author interviews later this month on Chandler’s Ford Today. More details nearer the time.

Writing Tip: Do write what you yourself would love to read. If you accept the writing journey is a long one, you do need to care deeply about what you write. It helps to keep you going.

If later, after publication say, you still need to care about what you have written/are currently writing, as you will always be promoting your work in some way.

Also given marketing is part of the writing life, it pays to find forms you enjoy doing and can therefore keep going for the long term. I only started my newsletter when I knew I could do that. I also have in mind what is it it for the reader but I try to have this in mind for all I write. It encourages me to ensure there is no purple prose, only what a reader needs/will enjoy.

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Am surprised we’ve got to the end of August already but there you go. Author newsletter out again tomorrow of course.

Will be discussing Story Judging for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Link up on Friday.

Delighted to receive a shout out as part of a lovely review for The Best of CafeLit 13 on Amazon. Well done to all of the authors in this book. It is a great collection and perfect for dipping into and/or for those times when reading time isn’t as long as you’d like. Short stories and flash fiction fill that gap nicely I find!.

I often read collections and have discovered authors new to me this way so yet another benefit to reading the short forms. Why not try this out with CafeLit 13? Link below.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Busy preparing an autumn themed story for submission later this week, I need to record it to get my timings right before sending it in. Autumn as a topic though is a great one. My gran hated the season as she saw it as the season when everything died. She too did die in the autumn.

Me? I love the season. I love the changing colours. I see autumn as paving the way for new life to come in the following spring (especially for trees). Before long I will have a good workout clearing up my oak leaves too!

But if you’re thinking of using autumn as a topic, one way in would be to consider what your character makes of it and why. Equally you could look at this from the view of something important happening to your character in the season (and why it has to be autumn rather than the others).

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It’s Monday again. Having said that, it is the first one in what I think is my favourite month of the year. There is something charming about September I think. I love the changing colours of the leaves etc. But it is still Monday when all is said and done. I’ve yet to meet anyone for whom it is their favourite day of the week.

So with that in mind it is story time then! Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Moving On.

 

Hope you have had a good weekend. Have enjoyed my usual Flash Fiction Sunday Afternoon Session!
I like to mix up the moods of the stories I write, as well as their word counts and styles. It keeps things interesting for me and I hope readers too.

Am especially keen on lighter stories given the news is so grim. I do believe there is a place for the humorous, the feel good, and the lighthearted stories. I think escapism of that nature is appreciated. I know it is by me! One of the functions of stories is to take a reader away into other worlds for a while. They don’t all have to be grim ones!

Yes, I do write darker flash pieces too. I know the world (and therefore the fiction which reflects it) is not all sweetness and light but I do like a good balance. If you can’t have unremitting good cheer, I think it follows you can’t have unremitting grim too.

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Dialogue is a great way to start any story but for flash fiction I think it has even more impact. Given there is less room for description and narrative. dialogue has to work harder in a flash story as it needs to convey information the reader needs to know, give some sort of hook to keep the reader interested, as well as move the story forwards. Not much to ask then!

This is one reason why I often use questions in dialogue. A reader instinctively knows the story will have to reveal the answers to those questions by the end of the story. From the writer’s viewpoint that gives a useful framework for your story.

And I must admit if a character came up with the line ‘How have I ended up on this alien planet and what is that being pointed at me?’, I know I would want to read on! Okay dialogue doesn’t have to be so “in your face” intriguing as that but something as simple as ‘You do know Katie got it wrong, don’t you?’ would equally intrigue me enough to read further.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Music to Suit The Written Word

I had a lovely bank holiday recently listening to the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame. I voted for The Lord of the Rings soundtrack, which to me has everything – classical, choral, opera, and Enya! I was delighted it was voted the favourite again.

What I love about the soundtrack is each track brings the film (and therefore the book) to mind at different stages of Frodo’s quest. It just works. That’s what I think an excellent soundtrack should do for a film and, given so many movies are based on original novels, the books too.

Often when listening to classical, I can see a piece working well for a book I’ve read (or for a particular character) and this is even the case when the music hasn’t been written specifically for this. Many of the classical pieces are based on well known works – there are a few pieces relating to Romeo and Juliet for example.

So there is a link between music and the written word. Given I love both of these things, I like this a lot.

For my own stories and characters, I can sometimes picture what would make a good soundtrack for them or I hear something and think this would suit Character A etc.. I like this too. For me, it brings those stories and characters to life even more.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the March 2024 edition of the magazine which had the theme of writing for children. My two articles in this one were about writing for children and also for writing for anthologies.

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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