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.
Spent a lovely weekend singing a lot of carols at various church services. Almost there on my Christmas prep. Also looking forward to a few days off. My next post here will be a week away – on New Year’s Eve. I hope you have a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Facebook – General
24th December 2024 – Christmas Eve
Have a very happy Christmas, everyone. After my website round up which I will share later tonight, the next one will be next Tuesday, New Year’s Eve. I’ll share a Chandler’s Ford Today round up post on Friday but that will be about it for a while as am taking a few days off and looking forward to them! Have a lovely time.

Glad to say I now have a single Mixcloud link to the Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM hosted by Hannah Kate on 14th December. One easy link to check out 23 great stories. My tale, Perspective, is on in the first half of the show but do enjoy a good listen. There was a great range of tales here. Perfect to listen to as you finish your present wrapping, maybe?

22nd December
Am making up for posting late yesterday by posting early today! Many apologies for forgetting to share my Authors Electric post on 18th December. I blame being caught up in Christmas prep and Southern Water for cutting off my water supply on 18th December for 36 hours, bless them (not!). Anyway, I am only too glad to share the post now and it is on a topic close to my heart – Festive Writing and Reading. Hope you enjoy the post.
Hope you have had a lovely day. Christmas can now start for me. Have just got back from a candlelit Festival of Carols and Readings which was lovely. I read out a great poem about the wise men which was new to me. (It’s called Star of Wonder by Abigail Blessing – worth checking out, made me think again about a story I know well).
Writing wise, I probably will write a short Chandler’s Ford Today post for next Friday (I love being able to schedule in advance!) and one round up post on my website probably on Christmas Eve but not much more until after Christmas. Will be catching up with friends and family and am looking forward to that.
And, yes, Lady will be spoiled rotten and has got her wish list into Santa Paws in good time.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
24th December 2024 – Christmas Eve
Good to sit down after the usual Christmas Eve prep work. Will be doing a little writing later on but then will be off for a few days. To friends, past, present and future, Happy Christmas!

It may be Christmas Eve Eve but it is still a Monday and therefore still time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Time Off. Everyone needs some down time, especially at Christmas.
Hope you have had a good day. Had my church’s carols by candlelight today (yes two lots of singing in two days as I took part in another one yesterday – great fun). Our minister’s Christmas cracker jokes made us laugh and groan in equal measure. But I guess that’s the purpose of a Christmas cracker joke!
I guess you could argue it is a form of flash writing given these jokes are generally under 50 words or so but you’ll be pleased to know, for humanity’s sake, I’m not preparing to write any myself!
Am wrapping up my flash tales for this year. There will be one, maybe two, to come on my YouTube channel but that will be about it for now. I shall look forward to the break but also resuming work after Christmas. Flash is a lovely way to get back into writing again after a break given it is short. A gentle way to get back into the writing life, I think.

Hope your Christmas prep is going well. Am almost there on mine though the early part of next week will be busy with cooking etc.
As part of my flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow, I hope to write a flash fiction piece for YouTube (to go out on Monday) but won’t be doing much more flash work now until after Christmas. I’ll be looking for competitions to enter from the New Year (but think Writing Magazine should be issuing their competitions guide again before too long . I hope so anyway. It is useful).

Goodreads Author Blog – Happy Christmas and Lots of Lovely New Year Reading
I do hope you have had a good reading year. I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas. I hope you end up having lots of lovely New Year reading to get on with thanks to gifts under the tree! Okay you can’t disguise a book shaped present – why would you want to anyway even if you could? – but it is such fun unwrapping such lovely gifts! Naturally I got my wish list in early here!
Not sure whether I’ll be posting again here before the New Year as am looking forward to catching up with friend and family over the Christmas break but I did want to finish by saying a book isn’t just for Christmas, it’s forever.
I also wanted to say books make the perfect Christmas presents and authors and readers are the easiest people in the world to buy for!
Happy Christmas!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK
AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsliked Allison Symes's blog post: Happy Christmas and Lots of Lovely New Year Reading https://t.co/wZ55szSYKu via @goodreads The title says it all for my Goodreads post this week! And I do hope you receive lots of lovely books for Christmas. pic.twitter.com/6LPLIH3r2v
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 21, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAuthors Electric: Festive Writing and Reading by Allison Symes https://t.co/bSs1ab8bGJ
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 22, 2024
Many apologies for forgetting to share my Authors Electric post on 18th December. I'm glad to share the post now though and it is on a topic close to my heart – Festive Writing and Reading. pic.twitter.com/O3jj2WPdDW
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsDid you miss this year's 3 Minute Santas festive special on Hannah's Bookshelf (featuring bite-sized festive tales from 23 amazing writers)? You can #ListenAgain here: https://t.co/eVAWqckihk
— Hannah Kate (@HannahKateish) December 23, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsGlad to say I now have a single Mixcloud link to the Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM hosted by Hannah Kate on 14th December. One easy link to check out 23 great stories. Perfect to listen to as you finish your present wrapping, maybe? https://t.co/nnn7QF3LIo
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 23, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsIt may be Christmas Eve Eve but it is still a Monday and therefore still time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Time Off. Everyone needs some down time, especially at Christmas.https://t.co/9lDNFq2cV5
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 23, 2024
