Month: September 2026

As The Dark Draws In…

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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.
Fabulous family weekend. Good time had by all. All shattered including the dog. Now back to usual writing and editing work.

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Am delighted to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time I look at As The Dark Draws In, which I thought was a good topic as we head rapidly towards October.

I look at making the most of the darker, longer evenings by reading more and suggest using the theme of As The Dark Draws In for your characters. There will be plenty of story opportunities there. Most characters have to face their “dark” and either fight it or succumb to it. Either way there are consequences which your story will share.

I discuss how in the natural world, as with the Christian faith, we see the dark coming and then the light breaks through. That’s a good theme for stories too. Plus I look at being the light for others and stories encouraging empathy.

Hope you enjoy the post.

As The Dark Draws In by Allison Symes

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Hectic day, have run late all day (yes, it was one of those Mondays!), but Lady had a fabulous puppy party in the park today with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal, our neighbour’s gorgeous Golden Retriever and a handsome black lab called Flash. Four tired happy dogs went home.

As it is Monday, that does of course mean it’s story time. Hope you like my latest which went up on Substack yesterday – Four. It’s a thoughtful piece, I think.

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Had a fabulous family day yesterday. Lady had a wonderful time, including with another family dog, and was shattered by about 7 pm! (Mind you, so was I). Busy morning today too as a family member was taking a service in Salisbury and I am in the role of support for that. Great to see everyone at Salisbury again. I last saw them at my book event for Seeing The Other Side held outside their lovely church.

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly and then focusing on various bits and pieces I want to get done. This week, bar Wednesday when the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group happens, will be a quieter one. Oh and the next newsletter goes on Wednesday too.

Dialogue Tip: If you’re using slang terms or words associated with a particular region, make sure readers can pick up the meaning from context to allow for the fact not everyone will know what these things are. The use of these can be great for adding some “colour” to your character – you can guess where they’re from, at least originally, for one thing – but clarity is everything.

Will be a busy family day today so won’t be writing much and am posting early. Will be looking at Comedy in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today which will hopefully lead nicely into a review of The Chameleon Theatre Company’s production of Curtain Up the week after.

Looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday and the next day will see my next author newsletter going out.

Next weekend, I hope to resume drafting stories for competitions. All go here but this is good. No further news yet on events for Seeing The Other Side but will keep you posted. I am at the point where I know I have enough material for another book but hope over the later autumn and winter months to sit down with this and get another book ready to submit.

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Busy day again though Lady did get to see her Australian Shepherd “boyfriend” and later her Hungarian Vizler pal too. There will be a tired dog on our sofa tonight!

Writing wise, my next author newsletter goes out on Thursday. If you’d like to sign up for tips, story links and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Many thanks to my subscribers for your support. It is much appreciated. A lot of the writing life can be a lonely one (though I make up for that at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event and The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick every year!).

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It’s Monday, it’s storytime. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Research Purposes. Like my Substack story this week (see above), it involves the number four.

Jimmy and Gran have a disagreement on what could be construed as good research purposes. It involves chocolate. More details here.

 

Hope the weekend has gone well. Busy family one but absolutely lovely as always.
Writing wise, will be cracking on with story writing shortly and hope to get back to submitting for competitions soon too. Last couple of weeks have been especially busy. Mind you, I see this as the calm before the storm of the festive season!

Flash Fiction Tip/Prompt: Have fun inventing titles and then seeing if you can draft a flash piece around them. I often do this. Sometimes I will need to put a promising title aside to think over options but that’s fine. A promising title can make you think of characters and situations you would not otherwise have done and can be a useful way into starting another draft.

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow as always. I need to draft some more flash for competitions. There have been a couple of competitions I’ve missed this year because I’ve been busy with other things, notably Seeing The Other Side, but that has been (and continues to be) a lovely thing to be busy with!

Don’t forget to sign up for Writers’ Narrative – it is free and you receive in your inbox articles on the topic of the month from a wide range of published authors, including yours truly.

Many of my articles look at working in the shorter forms of fiction so are relevant to flash fiction and short story writers. It is a joy to write for this ezine – well worth your checking it out but don’t just take my word for it!

GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – Events Where Stories Are Told

I love taking part in Open Prose Mic Nights when I can and also relish being part of the audience for them. What can you dislike about events like these where you know stories are going to be told? Naturally this does help the authors too and they are great ways to engage directly with potential readers. They link back to the oral storytelling tradition too, a pleasing circle I’d say.

But I also love in stories where there are events the characters are going to because inevitably stories will be told at these things, even if it is just about what is going on in the area of the setting at the time. So many plots hinge around who meets at what event and what stories they exchange. Can you image Pride and Prejudice without the ballroom scenes, for example?

Potentially any time characters meet up anywhere in whatever setting you care to name, there will be opportunities for story sharing. Whether the characters are telling the truth or not, and how important that may be to the plot, is something else I love discovering.

But get the characters together – that’s when the story really takes off. And events give you the chance to create a memorable setting too.

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Reading Feeding Into 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.
Busy but fun week. Went to see Curtain Up performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company. Review to follow on Chandler’s Ford Today in due course. Lots of writing done. Plus will be having a family do at the weekend – the dog loves these so I expect a very tired Lady on the Sunday!

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Hope you have had a good day. Quiet one in the park but Lady and I had a lovely time. Gorgeous autumn weather at the moment too. We’re making the most of that.

Lovely to catch up with my editor from Chandler’s Ford Today last night when we went to see Curtain Up staged by The Chameleon Theatre Company. Review to follow in a couple of weeks.

Talking of CFT, I’m pleased to share Reading Feeding Into Writing for this week’s post. Given this combines two of my favourite things, writing and reading, you can imagine this was an especial joy to write. I look at past inspirations, love of stories (as this is the gift which keeps on giving), and analysing stories written by others so you can work out what you like and dislike and apply that to your own creations. I also suggest some useful questions to ask yourself here.

Hope you find the post a good read and useful.

Happy reading and writing!

Reading Feeding Into Writing

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady had a fabulous time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal today. Both dogs had a great run and came home tired but happy.

Writing wise I’m sharing Reading Feeding Into Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on that tomorrow. See above.

Next week I’ll be meeting again with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group and the next issue of my newsletter will be out (I know, I know, how can it be so close to October already?).

Tonight though I’m off to see The Chameleons perform Curtain Up. Looking forward to this. They always stage excellent productions and this is a comedy, which ticks all of the right boxes for me. I could do with a laugh basically!

Hope today has gone well. Quiet one in the park though a lovely autumnal day, the kind Lady and I like best.

Writing wise, hope to get various bits and pieces written tonight as I won’t be writing much tomorrow. I’m off tomorrow night to see The Chameleon Theatre Company perform Curtain Up, which looks fun. Will be nice to catch up with my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today here too as we usually see our local amateur theatre company’s productions together. It makes for a great evening out. Review to follow in due course. Watching plays is another fabulous way to take in stories too!

Talking of reviews, every author including me greatly values these. As well as the obvious validation aspect, we can use quotes from the reviews in further marketing. I hope to do this soon with some of the fabulous reviews I received during the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side though I suspect this may need to wait a week or so.

The next few days will be especially busy but I would put a call out for more reviews to go up on the usual sites because this is the second best thing you can do for any writer, other than buy their book.

The great thing is reviews don’t have to be long – a line or two is fine.

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Busy but fun family day coming up tomorrow so will get back to flash fiction writing on Sunday. I suspect I may have to have a crack at further competitions from later next week. I have a definite one in mind, which I usually have a crack at, that I definitely want to do before the end of the year, which is racing towards us. (I know!).

Flash Fiction Tip: There is lot to be said for keeping it simple. It helps with word count. Keeping it simple will mean going for two direct words rather than five, for example.

Having said that, I sometimes want to write a character who does go “around the houses” when they speak. I can show them being long winded in the first couple of lines of dialogue they say. After that I can get them to “tail off” or have another character interrupt them (because by that time the other character will get how long winded this character is and will want to interrupt them or risk being bored by them all night).

I’ve had one of those days today where I’ve not had time to do much, I’ve had lots of things on, and the front door would probably have been better as a set of revolving doors. It is, to quote my dear mum, one of those days where I’m meeting myself going backwards.

So not much time to write today either but this is where flash can come into its own because I can either write about it as I am here or get a couple of lines down which might be a promising opening to a new story. Snippets of time to write mount up so it is worth using them to write something.

Years ago, when I had some caring responsibilities, I found ten minutes writing here, another ten minutes there could often be the only writing I could do in a day. But over the course of just a week, I found I could get a story drafted, maybe two.

And I found because I knew time was limited I just got to my desk and hit the ground running so to speak. Sometimes a lack of time can do wonders for your focus.

Am looking forward to catching up with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. We’ll be looking at various ways in which to get our flash pieces “out there”.

Building up publication credits with your short form writing can also help when submitting queries for longer work to publishers and/or agents because it shows them (a) you take your writing seriously, a track record does mean something, and (b) someone else decided they liked your work enough to publish it. Well worth doing.

I’ve been pleased over recent years to see more flash competitions about and even some of the short story ones allow submissions at 1000 words so there are options. The biggest issue is picking which competitions to try because you’re unlikely to get to do them all.

But as ever always check out the background of the competition and make sure you’re happy before sending anything. It pays to do your homework there. Once you’ve found the competitions which are right for you and are “sound”, good luck! You to have to be in it to have any chance of winning it after all.

Fairytales With Bite – Guest Lists

Guest lists and who should/shouldn’t be on them are not the easiest things to handle. Even in the fairytales, this isn’t always correctly done – see Sleeping Beauty for the classic example of that. Even when right not to invite someone, as in that case, surely basic precautions should have been taken to avoid the “revenge of the uninvited” scenario! Mind you, I guess that would have meant no story…

Thinking about your characters, who would they want to have on the guest lists of their special events? Who would they never invite and why? Bound to be story thoughts there.

Also what kind of special events would your characters have or like to be able to have? If they do manage to have their events, what would they do if the uninvited turn up? There’s bound to be someone wanting to cause a scene for your character here – what is behind all of that? Is your character right to feel the way they do or not here? Could the uninvited have justified reason to be upset with your character?

For important state like events, who would be on the guest lists for those? Who would your governing authorities not want to see turn up?

Also who gets the job of compiling guest lists? It’s not an easy one. It’s too easy to upset someone without meaning to either with this. So could your character be given this job as a test for them? If they can handle this well, could they then go on to handle even more important jobs?

Plenty of story thoughts there, I think.

This World and Others – Ceremonials

In your setting, what kind of ceremonials does it have? Does this depend on the “country” in your world or is it a one world government kind of system? Are the ceremonials used to commemorate things deemed important to remember (such as our Remembrance Day events)?

Ceremonials tend to be stately and formal but could your setting have a kind which is less so? I’m thinking along the lines of a “friendly ceremonial” for, say, youngsters becoming adults, doing well in exams etc, and all done publicly deliberately to encourage others to follow the same route in life.

What is the history behind the ceremonials? Does anyone object to them? What would happen to them if they did so publicly? Would they be going against general public opinion or are they on track with the public but not with the government and they are the ones prepared to speak out, no matter what?

Again, story ideas there, happy writing!

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Storytelling

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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 the weekend went well. Quiet one here but next weekend will be a different story – family do which we all love. Writing and proofreading work going well.
Lady and I popped along to a local dog show, not to take part, but to have a nose (literally in her case) and to catch up with those we know, humans and dogs. Off to see The Chameleons perform Curtain Up later this week. Should be good.

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Hope today has gone well. Lady was delighted to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today as we saw her at the local dog show over the weekend, not that either of them took part in it!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Reading Feeding Into Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Definitely a post which was a joy to write and I’m looking forward to sharing that.

Won’t be long before my next author newsletter is due out once more. To sign up for story links, tips and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Character Tip: When you’re reading works by other authors, once you’ve enjoyed the story take a moment to think about what worked about the characters and what didn’t grip you so much. You can learn a great deal from what you come up with here which you can then apply to your own creations.

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Lady has had a fabulous day in that she had an early morning playtime with her Aussie Shepherd “boyfriend” and, later when out with me, she got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback “girlfriend” too. One tired but happy dog is curled up on the sofa as I write this.

Has been a busy day for me too, as Mondays always are, so am glad to get to my desk. For one thing, I sit down for a while!

And of course Monday means storytime. I share Stash, which I first posted on Substack yesterday. Hope you enjoy it. I see this one as a historical flash fiction piece.

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Lady and I popped in to see the local dog show going on at our park after church today. Got to see some pals there. This show had to be cancelled as it was originally going to be in June, during the first heatwave. Much better today. People – and their dogs – seemed to be enjoying it all.

Writing wise, I’ll be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. I hope to chat with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group soon about ways to get your work out there. One tip though is flash is easy to share via your website/author newsletter etc and gives something of value, an entertaining tale, to your followers. It also gives a flavour of your work, which is why I share stories on Substack and YouTube.

Talking of which, I ought to get on writing this week’s tales! Done and shared above and further down!

Hope the weekend has got off to a reasonable start. Not bad here. Have got around to doing some sorting out. Not a displacement activity for the writing, honest! It’s been something I’ve needed to do for a while and I feel better for doing it.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Reading Feeding Into Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. If you ever needed an excuse to read more (as if, I know!), this post may well be for you. If you love books at all, it definitely will be. Looking forward to sharing that one.

Am off to see The Chameleon Theatre Company perform Curtain Up next week. Will be going with my lovely editor from CFT. On the same day I’m off to the dentists! Lovely as they are, I will be much more keen to go and see our local amateur theatre company in action (can’t imagine why, eh?!). The company have staged some marvellous shows over the years. Review will follow on CFT in due course.

Character Tip: What makes a character come alive for you when you read the work of other authors? It can vary. Sometimes a line or two of dialogue will help you “hear” and then “picture” that character. Sometimes a physical description will be enough for you to picture them and then want to find out what they get up to.

For me, I want to hear the character talk or think. From there I pick up their attitudes. I don’t need to like those attitudes. Especially when I don’t like them, I want to find out what makes the character that way and there is only one way to find this out – I read on. But working out what makes other authors’ characters spring to life can be a huge help when you’re creating your own.

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Know I’m not going to be popular saying this but I have booked my Christmas food shop slot! Yes, the year is speeding by and things like this confirm it.

What do your characters make of the passing of time in their setting? Do they regret it speeding by or does it seem to drag for them? There will be stories behind why they think the way they do here.

And if your setting is in another world where time doesn’t exist as such or there is something we’d recognise as time but which works in a different way from what we know here, again how do your characters response to this? How does it impact on their stories?

It’s another busy Monday so time to relax with a story, I think. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Family Tradition.

Gran introduces Sarah to a family tradition involving making cakes. Find out what here. I suspect we’ve all been here!

 

I suspect this is true for you too but I’m starting to get adverts etc relating to the festive season coming up in a couple of months. Now for me the timing of this too early. We haven’t had Harvest Festival, Halloween, Bonfire Night yet etc. But the thought of bad timing made me think this could be a good story prompt.

What would be a case of bad timing for your character and why? What would the consequences be (and there would be bound to be some!)? Why did your character get their timing wrong especially if it is not something they would usually do or if they were facing something or someone where they had to be punctual?

Bound to be stories to come from that thought. Now how to work out how to switch off the festive adverts for the time being…

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow and that is probably when I’m going to pick out another competition to try.

Also looking forward to catching up with writer pals on Zoom later tonight. Always good to catch up. Getting together by Zoom when other means aren’t possible is one of the few good things to come out of the pandemic, I think.

Flash Tip: When you’ve got your story down and you’re happy with the character and storyline, then and only then is the time to have a look at your word count. This ties in with your choice of phrasing because so often I’ve found I can reduce my word count a lot by simply improving my phrasing.

What matters is getting your draft down first and you will write whatever comes to mind first. It’s why I can’t stop myself writing what I know are my own wasted words but I do know I’ll get rid of them later so that’s okay.

Don’t break the flow of getting that draft down. The choice of phrasing is a fine tuning issue and that Is reason enough, I think, to treat drafting and editing as two separate things. I know I can’t combine them.

Goodreads Author Blog – Storytelling

Storytelling is one of the finest things humanity has given the world. To begin with it had to be done orally. Later came the books and serialisations in newspapers, the magazines etc. Later still came books all could access via the penny dreadfuls (it was an accurate description but they did get people reading) but, better still, via the library system.

Storytelling matters. It makes us feel human simply because it helps us empathise with others as we read what the characters get up to and wonder if, in their shoes, would we have done the same thing.

I love the way we now have so many ways to tell stories – in print, via audio and radio, on the stage (am off soon to see what I have no doubt will be another excellent production from my local amateur theatre company), on the screen (small and large. I loved the Peter Jackson adaptation of The Lord of The Rings – it brought the story to someone I know who would never read a book that size).

I like taking part in Open Prose Mic Nights when I can. It’s a great way for a writer to engage with their potential readers directly and I think it brings storytelling full circle.

I also get to “feel” (from audience reaction) to what works well, what works as I hoped, and which is okay but didn’t get such a strong reaction. That may mean the story needs more work or it just doesn’t work so well for that particular audience. Another one may react differently. You learn so much here.

And I love performing my stories here. I’d never act but performing here is the nearest I get to it and it is a fabulous way to share stories.

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Celebrating Books and Blog Tours and Book Events

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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 week. Weather changeable but Lady has caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal this week and I’m doing better with my swimming. Writing and proofing work continuing to keep me busy but that is how I like it so all well there!

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18th September 2026 

Second blog post from me tonight is my regularly Friday night Chandler’s Ford Today post. This week I look at Blog Tours and Book Events, both of which have been uppermost on my mind recently! I look at the advantages of these for writers, share tips, plus I share links to all the blogs I was on recently for my tour with Seeing The Other Side.

Again, a huge thank you to all who hosted me and to Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Book Vlog for organising things so well.

Hope you find the post useful. Even if this isn’t for you yet (and I stress the yet), it may become so later. I remain grateful for all of the writing advice I receive earlier on in my writing life which is so much a help to me now.

Blog Tours and Book Events

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18th September 2026 – Authors Electric

It’s double blog day for me today. First up tonight is my latest post on Authors Electric on Celebrating Books. As you can imagine, this one was a particular joy to write. There is never a time where you shouldn’t celebrate books either!

I look at reluctant readers, my hopes the shorter fiction forms might help draw them into reading, and there’s a word of encouragement too. It isn’t all doom and gloom on the getting the younger generation to read front, far from it. More in the post on that.

Hope you enjoy the post before then celebrating by reading more books! (Okay, okay, I’m biased here but it is a good thing to be biased about, yes?).

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Hope today has gone well. Quiet one here but lovely all the same. Sometimes you just need that, right?

It will be a double blog day from me tomorrow as, not only will I have my Chandler’s Ford Today post to share, I’ll also be sharing my Authors Electric post. Plenty of thoughts and tips from both, which I hope will prove useful. See above for both.

I’m not sure what my greatest joy from storytelling as a writer and a reader is as I think there are so many, but one which would be pretty high on my list would be the way great stories take you into others worlds (including this one funnily enough) and into characters.

Stories can be fabulous for generating empathy as you read and understand a character. Other worlds can show you what life is like on the other side (a theme I have shown in my Seeing The Other Side – there is a reason for the title!).

Reading does so much for your vocabulary and is a fabulous way to keep your brain active. Writing also does this and I know I enjoy the challenge of coming up with new creations and situations in which to put them.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady was delighted to catch up with her Hungarian Vizler pal and I was, as ever, pleased with the lovely job done on my hair by the fantastic Hannah. A good day here then and some sunshine too.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Blog Tours and Book Events for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.  See above. As well as summarising recent events for me regarding Seeing The Other Side, I’ll be sharing useful thoughts and tips on the advantages of these things for writers. I hope if they don’t prove useful for you now, they will do later. (I’ve been so grateful for advice received like this earlier in my writing life, which is paying dividends for me now).

Have signed the recent Society of Authors petition regarding AI and author rights.

Am also currently trying to set up some events local to me regarding my new flash fiction collection. Fingers crossed time.

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Hope the week has been a good one. Not bad here. Calmer after the excitement of the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side naturally but the breather is welcome too. I do hope to have other events for the book and will share when I have news (though it is unlikely to be before October now, not that this is so far away now).

Hope to pick a competition to have a go at over the weekend if I can. Next few days will be especially busy – family stuff coming up (all good!). But I do want to get back into sending things in for competition. It’s the single best way I know of practising writing to deadlines and that comes in handy in other areas of the writing life too.

The 100 word flash fiction piece, also known as the drabble, will always be my favourite form in which to write because it is what introduced me to flash fiction. It should have come with a warning those – this form is addictive! I found having discovered I could write to 100 words, could I do it again, again, again etc. Could I write to 50 words? Could I write exactly to the 1000 words upper limit?

Flash demands you’re exact so you have to consider word choice well. Have my characters shared what they needed to in the most appropriate way for their type and the story in the word count required?

Thinking about word choices has stood me in good stead for my other writing and my editing work. I find I almost automatically want to cut words which aren’t adding anything of real value – see what I did there?

With flash fiction, I find the best way in is to start with the character. Who are they? What do they want? Why must I tell their story? That is such a good foundation for any length of story.

Just as people come in all shapes and sizes, so do characters and writers can have fun with that. Indeed, you don’t even have to stick to the human race, I often don’t, but I do have to understand why my characters are the way they are. Otherwise I can’t write about them with any kind of conviction. I have to believe in my characters. I don’t necessarily have to like them or agree with them.

I’ve also found with such a wide variety of potential characters, a wide range of plots come with them. Some might say that’s handy. Some might say it’s coincidence. I don’t. I’ve long believed characters drive the plot rather than the other way around. Certainly that thought has worked, and continues to work, for me.

Fairytales With Bite – Secrets

Secrets are fun to write stories around. I’ve written many flash pieces and short tales where a secret is revealed or someone is covering up something they don’t want anyone else to know.

But it doesn’t have to be a great dramatic secret. A wish to avoid embarrassment can be enough of a motive to keep something secret, even if it is harmless or would seem to be to most. It would be the fact is isn’t unimportant to the secret keeper here which matters and which will drive the story – will they be found out? If so, what are the consequences? If they get away with it, how do they do so and what are the consequences from that?

In the fairytale world, secrets can revolved around someone’s magical abilities. Would someone try to keep quiet just how magical they are and what are their motivations here? Is it to surprise someone else (in a good way or not) or are they worried if the full extent of their powers are known, they might be pressurized to use them (and if so for whom and how)? Good story ideas would come from those thoughts.

The magical setting you’ve created may well have secrets of its own. Are there areas where magic can’t be performed because of something that happened there centuries ago? How would that be found out and, once this secret was discovered, how would it challenge your characters? I could see this discovery coming at an awkward moment and not being especially good news for your characters.

Secrets can be deadly, especially so in a magical setting. Again, plenty to write about there, I think.

This World and Others – Surveillance

Hand in hand with secrets can come the need for surveillance. In a magical setting, how could this be done effectively by the authorities given most, if not all, characters will have magical powers which could well include at least some element of mind reading?

Would your authorities have to resort to what we know as technology to get around that? Equally can they limit how much mind reading powers your characters can have to try to prevent any rebellions against them?

Which characters would your authorities want to keep under surveillance and why? Are the reasons justified? Have mistakes been made in the past thanks to surveillance not being carried out?

Do the “ordinary” characters in your setting know they are under surveillance – the government makes it clear they watch everyone – or are they unaware? How would this affect daily lives in your setting?

Food for thought there!

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Blog Tours and The Final Blog Tour Reviews for Seeing The Other Side

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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’ve had a good weekend. The blog tour for Seeing The Other Side ended on Sunday but it was a fabulous experience. Final blog links below plus I will be sharing soon a Chandler’s Ford Today post which looks at the advantages of these things for writers and will share all of my links in one handy place. Lady is doing well. The autumnal temperatures suit her well.

Facebook – General

Hope today has gone well. So enjoyed my swim today. Good to chat with friends there too. I once thought I’d use my swimming time to think of story ideas etc. Not a bit of it – I find my mind just empties and I focus on the swimming. Mind you, that emptying of the mind is incredibly useful, as well as the physical exercise. Writer’s bottom (it spreads!) is real, folks!

Writing wise, I’m ploughing on with enjoyable proofreading work, blogging, and I hope to get back to story competitions from the weekend. Am also putting finishing touches to a presentation I hope to share at an online group next month. Went to their meeting last night for a thoroughly enjoyable talk about an aspect of World War One history I didn’t know much about. History is a vast subject and perfect for fiction and non-fiction writers alike to write about.

Also it won’t be too long before my next author newsletter will be out again so will be working on that later this week. I’ve found adding to it as the month goes on makes it an enjoyable and less pressured way to get the newsletter written. It also gives me the option of adding in late items of news as has been the case for me lately.

To sign up for story links, tips and more, do head over to https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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Hope you have had a good start to the week. Quiet one in the park for Lady though hopefully we’ll catch up with pals, human and doggy, later in the week.

Meantime, it’s Monday, always a hectic day for many of us, and it’s time for a story. I share my latest on Substack, which went up on that platform yesterday.

Hope you enjoy On The Late Side. Look out for my YouTube story too this week as it follows on from this one (see further down) but both stand alone.

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13th September – last blog tour post Melanie Robertson- King – Celtic Connexions

The last blog post for the Seeing The Other Side tour comes from Melanie Robertson-King/ Celtic Connexions. Many thanks, Melanie.

I’ve had a wonderful time on this blog tour. A huge thanks go to Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Book Vlog for organising everything so well.

I’ll be celebrating good blog tours and book events for my Chandler’s Ford Today post next week so do look out for that. As well as sharing the blog links for my tour in one handy post here, I’ll also look at the advantages of such things for writers. It may not be relevant for where your writing is at right now but it may well become relevant. I’ve often found this to be the case for me as my writing has developed. Link up on Friday.

13th September –  Kaz Warrent

The week has whizzed by once again and now it is time to share the final two posts from the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. First up is Kaz Warrent whose review is on Instagram though I share a screenshot of the review below. Many thanks, Kaz.

12th September – Val Penny Review
Hope the weekend has got off to a good start. All well here and I’m delighted with the latest review for Seeing The Other Side, which has come in from Val Penny. Just a quick extract here:-

This third book of flash fiction stories, Seeing the Other Side, by author Allison Symes is a long-awaited treasure and I was thrilled to be invited to join the tour organised by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines.

I write novels and in which an extra word or two is not an issue. Therefore, I am always in awe of poets and flash fiction writers who choose their words so carefully and can portray ideas and stories with delightful brevity.

Seeing the Other Side is a larger collection of stories that either of her previous books, From Light to Dark and Back Again, and, Tripping the Flash Fantastic. However the increased quantity has not diluted the sparkling quality. Each of the stories is a gem with an unexpected twist in the tale.

Many thanks, Val. Do see the link for more details.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Was delighted to receive my second order of Seeing The Other Side. It is a joyous moment when you receive your first lot of books. It’s an even better joyous moment when you receive a second lot through because you’ve had to reorder. So much a nice “problem” to have and I hope to have to put in more orders in due course, naturally.

Am so thrilled with the lovely reviews which came in for the book during the blog tour. I hope to have fun creating some graphics via Book Brush with some quotes from these to use later. I find Book Brush easier to use than Canva to be honest and like BB’s templates – there is a good range of these. But I need time to do that and I hope to have a look at this at the weekend.

Another busy Monday and so it’s time for another YouTube story from me. This one follows on from my story, On The Late Side, which was on Substack yesterday (see above) but both stories stand alone.

Hope you enjoy Blind To The Obvious.

Despite past history, will Dora finally believe Tom when he says he is trying to do the right thing by her? What will happen if she doesn’t? Find out here.

 

This week has been a thrill in terms of celebrating flash fiction generally via the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. With that now ended, I hope to resume having a go at various flash fiction competitions. I know there is at least two I would like to try for before the end of the year and may well come across others before that.

I haven’t written so much for competitions this year, which I will try and rectify for 2027, but I think having a new book out, my first in six years, would count as a valid excuse!

One of the joys of flash fiction is there are so many more competitions available now and these can be a great way of getting your name and work out there. I’ve found competitions useful practice for writing to deadlines too, which also comes in useful for longer works!

Thrilled with the latest review for Seeing The Other Side which came in today from Val Penny. The blog tour concludes tomorrow but it has been a fabulous experience. See above.

I’ll be talking about Blog Tours and Book Events for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. As well as sharing the links to my blog tour in one handy post, I’ll be looking at the advantages of these things, especially the blog tours, from a writer’s viewpoint. I hope that will prove useful.

Often I decide on a topic for CFT based on what I know I would have found useful had it been around earlier in my writing career and this is one of those themes.

And, of course, I’m spreading the word about flash fiction in all of this too. Nothing to dislike there!

Goodreads Author Blog – Blog Tours

I’ve recently been on a blog tour for my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side. It has been a fabulous experience and generated some great reviews. It also spreads the word about flash fiction as a fabulous format to read too.

I write non-fiction too and often interview authors as part of their blog tours. I find it fascinating to find out what inspires them and their books. Blog tours are so useful in promotion, of course. I also feel such things also promote the joy of reading and enable more people to find out about more books and in genres they’d not considered before. All useful stuff.

So if you can support other authors on their blog tours, I’d do so. You will find you will end up reading more. This has happened to me. And it’s not as if reading more can ever be a bad thing, right?

Certainly checking out the reviews the blog tours generate has led to me discovering books new to me. Win-win here for the readers, I’d say.

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Using Autumn In Your Writing and More Blog Tour News

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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 week. Lady has caught up with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal twice. The blog tour for Seeing The Other Side has gone so well so far, even inspiring some fan art. There’s a first! More below.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

It has been another busy day on the blog front but more on that in other posts. I’ll start this evening with my usual Friday evening link to this week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post.

This time I look at Using Autumn In Your Writing and I share plenty of ideas for how you can do that, including using the senses with the season in mind. I also look at using autumn as a setting and autumn memories and little details. The latter can have such a powerful impact on a tale. It is often what readers remember. I discuss how time changes everything in this season and there are story ideas to be had from that thought alone.

I hope the thoughts here prompt many story ideas for you. It was an especial joy creating the pictures in Book Brush for this one. Autumn is a lovely season and the images reflect that.

Using Autumn In Your Writing

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11th September – latest on blog tour – Anita D Hunt

Next up on the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side is fellow Swanwicker, Anita D Hunt, with a smashing review. Will just share a short extract here. Naturally I’m very pleased about it!

Seeing The Other Side is a varied collection of short fiction that demonstrates just how many directions a story can take when the author has only a limited space in which to tell it.

There is plenty of variety here, both in subject matter and tone. Some stories are light-hearted and amusing, while others take a darker turn, and there are plenty of opportunities for the reader to see situations and characters from a different perspective — very much in keeping with the title.

Many thanks, Anita.

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10th September – Donna Morfett

Today’s review for the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side comes from Donna Morfett via Instagram. Sadly I’m not on that platform but I have two links to share including to a Facebook link. It is a great review and I was especially pleased with the following extract from it.

This is quite the eclectic collection of flash fiction…. A wide range of topics covered including fairytales and seemingly ordinary encounters… I dipped in and out of it over time and always came away smiling. What better review could I give?

Many thanks, Donna.

In other news, don’t forget my Chandler’s Ford Today post is up tomorrow. I will be discussing Using Autumn In Your Writing. My posts are timely! I’ll be sharing thoughts as to how you can use the season for your writing and I hope you do end up writing many stories as a result. I hope to as well! See above.

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9th September – Vanessa Knipe blog for me and the fan art!

Second blog post for Seeing The Other Side comes from Vanessa Knipe via her The Grass Is Greener blog and I can claim a first here. For the first time I’ve inspired some fan art! Am thrilled by that but to find out what it is and why Vanessa did it, you will have to click on the link.

Meantime here is an extract with which, naturally, I’m very pleased!

Review of Seeing the Other Side

What is it about?
In a book with no overarching theme, there’s something for everyone and for every mood. This is a book of Flash Fiction. Each piece is very short and yet still contains a complete story. I admire people who can write Flash Fiction. To me, it’s one of the hardest formats. Each word has to carry the weight of the story. There can be no redundancy. No having an off day in word choice.
So, it’s all very short?

Allison Symes in Seeing the Other Side is a master of the format. Every story has all a reader could want to reach a satisfying end.

Are stories this short worth the effort?
Very much so. They can be a quick mood booster…. The collection is an eclectic mix of fantasy and science fiction that works well together.

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9th September – Sheena McLeod
Day 3 of the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side has two wonderful reviews from Sheena McLeod and Vanessa Knipe. First up this evening is the link to the review from Sheena via her blog called All About Books.

To say I’m delighted with the review is an understatement! Do check it out via the link. Meantime, I’m especially fond of this extract from the review. No prizes for guessing why!

Allison is a master of the short story – each one feels complete, with a beginning, a middle, and often a surprise ending, spanning a range of moods.

I grew up on Roald Dahl’s short story collections and have loved short stories ever since. Though in a shorter-form flash fiction format, Allison Symes delivers everything I look for.

Allison Symes knows her craft. She writes in vivid prose that makes every word count. I recommend this collection to anyone who wants to read or write flash fiction. I now eagerly await her next collection.

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11th September 2026
Another busy day but a good one. More on the blog tour (see my author page on that) with more to come on the weekend. The tour finishes on Sunday and I am so pleased with how it has gone. Also it is a fabulous way to flag up flash fiction generally, I think. The tour has been another way to bring it to people’s attention.

Flash is made up of moments in character lives. I have a soft spot for the funnier side of that but there is room for the thoughtful and darker too. I write all of that. Flash stories can have so much impact because they are so short. There can be no dilution of any emotional impact.

Sometimes I will write a story based around a character’s memories. Naturally those have to be gripping enough to keep folk reading but this kind of story does wonders for encouraging empathy.

And can’t we all do with much more of that in this world?

Hope today has gone well. Lady had a smashing time in the park with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback chums. Hopefully there’ll be more of the same tomorrow. All three dogs missed each other during the heatwave.

So thrilled to have another smashing review in for Seeing The Other Side. See my Facebook author page for more on that. (Or just see above!). I hope to write a Chandler’s Ford Today post soon about the advantages of a good blog tour from an author’s viewpoint and to have a one stop shop with the links where my book has been featured.

Am so pleased flash fiction is being celebrated in this way. It is a great format and does wonders for your writing.

Flash Tip: Focus on the story first (and for me that always means leading with the character). Once you know what the story is, you can then work out how to improve phrasing etc which will also help with your word count.

Lovely day in the park today with Lady. She had a fabulous play session with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal. Both went home tired and happy. Job done there then.

Delighted to share two smashing reviews for Seeing The Other Side on my Facebook author page here. (See above). Looking forward to seeing what comes next. Would I do a blog tour like this again? You bet.

In other news, I’ll be sharing Using Autumn In Your Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I’ll share tips and thoughts here. I expect I’ll end up using some of these for some flash pieces in due course! Again, see above.

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Touring

I’m currently having a wonderful “magical” book blog tour with my Seeing The Other Side and that inspired this topic, which I hope will trigger story ideas.

In your magical setting, are your characters expected to stay within certain areas or is magical touring encouraged? If generally your characters do stay put, can they tour other parts of your world when they have the equivalent of our holidays? Where would they usually be and which places would they like to tour? Is transportation magical and/or accessible to all? Are there places your characters would never wish to tour and why? There will be stories behind that!

Would your setting have the equivalent of a magical tourist board or a company who arranges tours for others? I could see there being stories here, especially if things went wrong. Those could be tragic or humorous depending on your character and set up. There could be stories set around the employees here as well as around those who use the services provided.

I must admit when I’m on my holidays I do like to have a good look around at the area in which I’m staying. Do your characters do the same? Have they developed favourite places to go over the years? Have they got to know some of the characters who live in the places they visit?

Again, there could be good stories here.

This World and Others – Exploring Other Worlds

Does your setting have relationships with other worlds at all or does it keep itself to itself? Would other worlds want to develop relationships with them and how welcome or otherwise would that be?

If your setting is an open one, can any of your characters explore other worlds on their own account or do they have to do so via “official means”? Are there worlds their home planet bans them from visiting?

What good or otherwise comes out of your characters exploring other worlds? There could be plenty of potential for diplomatic incidents. There could be plenty of potential for bridge building between worlds and species here.

How would your characters get to explore other worlds? Would they use spacecraft, whether similar to our own or not? Would they use portals or a combination of these things?

Plenty of thoughts to unpack there which could lead to stories.

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Blog Tour for Seeing The Other Side – Days 1 & 2 – and Meeting Readers

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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. Busy one here. Lovely time at the book event for Seeing The Other Side at Salisbury URC on Saturday, new CafeLit story out on Sunday, and my blog tour starts this week too. So plenty going on. Lady has been catching up with friends she hasn’t seen much of over the holiday so all well there too.

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8th September 2026 – second post

Delighted to share another blog tour post today. I was interviewed by Wendy H Jones on The Nuts and Bolts of Flash Fiction as part of the tour for Seeing The Other Side.

It was wonderful answering the in-depth questions and I had great fun here. Amongst topics discussed are what drew me to flash fiction writing, why I think flash is growing in popularity as a genre (and long may that continue), and I share thoughts on first steps in writing flash too. There is much more in the interview so do check it out.

There is also another fabulous review for my new flash fiction collection so many thanks to Wendy for that and the interview.

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8th September 2026 – 1st post

Day 2 of the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side sees my book reviewed by Maressa Mortimer on her Vicarious Living website. Many thanks, Maressa, for a fabulous review.

To check the full review out and a great summary of what flash fiction is and can be do see the link. Meantime one happy author will share a snippet of that review here.

Seeing the Other Side is a great collection of Flash Fiction stories, the third in the series. Allison Symes, the author, has done a brilliant job with this third book. Although each of her books are slightly different, this new collection is varied and attractive. Seeing the Other Side is another great looking book, and as the stories are so short, it makes an ideal present or coffee table book.

Seeing the Other Side ~ Allison Symes

 

7th September – Writers’ Narrative – 1st post

Busy day today. More posts from me today too. First up is my latest article on Writers’ Narrative, where I look at The Business of Writing In The Short Fiction Forms.

I discuss why networking with other authors, as well as being great fun, can do so much with your getting to know the writing industry. You do need to know that which is relevant to your writing.

Part of the problem can be in not knowing what you need to know or knowing you need advice but have no idea where to turn for that. This is where supportive fellow authors are a real blessing. I’ve learned so much over the years from talking with other writers which has been so beneficial.

It was another author who told me about The Society of Authors and someone else mentioned The Association of Christian Writers, both of which have given me so much help and support over the years.

I also look at knowing what to expect for submissions and I share useful tips too, all of which I’ve made good use of and continue to do so.

Hope you find the post useful.

7th September – 2nd post – start of my blog tour for Seeing The Other Side

Second post tonight is to celebrate the start of my blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. Many thanks to Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog for organising everything.
It is apt she starts the tour by interviewing me about what inspired me to write my new flash fiction collection and by also sharing a splendid review. Do see the link and screenshot for more.

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7th September – 3rd post – Substack story
Third post tonight and just in case you thought I’d forgotten, given it’s Monday, it’s story time. I share The Advert which I first shared on my Substack platform yesterday. Do look out for my YouTube story which I’ll be sharing on my From Light to Dark and Back Again Facebook page because the two stories are linked.

Hope you enjoy both but first up for your delectation is The Advert.

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6th September – CafeLit story
Hope the weekend has gone well. Good to have a quieter day after being out and about yesterday. I hope to join Salisbury URC again later in the year for their Christmas Fayre. More details nearer the time.

Blog tour for Seeing The Other Side starts tomorrow, 7th September. Looking forward to that.
Meantime, I’m delighted to have another story up on CafeLit – Truth Hurts. Doesn’t it just at times? Hope you enjoy it. And now to crack on with writing more flash fiction.

5th September

Many thanks to the lovely people at Salisbury URC for enabling me to have a book event as part of their regular book stall sales. It was great to catch up with people I know from the church and, as well as making sales, it was good to chat to people passing by. It was especially encouraging seeing and chatting with folk about encouraging the love of reading as early as possible. The children’s book stall did especially well which was fantastic to see. It was encouraging too. Children do read.

I had a fantastic time and the train journey is especially nice. It goes through some beautiful scenery. I hope to join Salisbury URC again later in the year to have a table at their Christmas Fayre. Yes, I know, but it will be with us before we know it. The event happens in November and I’ll share further details nearer the time. Always nice to come home with another “gig” booked up too!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Using Autumn In Your Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I share plenty of tips and suggestions here and hope you’ll find it useful. It’s certainly timely! Link up on Friday.

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

One of the joys of creative writing as a whole is you never stop learning. You always want to improve on what you do and you do with good advice and practice find the ways which work for you. This is especially true for flash fiction, I think, given you have a restricted word count to work with but that limitation can and does inspire creativity.

Flash fiction has shown me what my wasted words are, how to tighten phrases and express things in a clearer, tighter way, all with the objective of saving on the word count, but it does also have the benefit of improving your writing. I’ve found those techniques have also helped with my article and blog writing.

Flash fiction writing has made me think along the lines of what images do I want to plant in a reader’s head, how do I want to make them feel by the end of the story, and all of that means I am always writing with my audience in mind.

No bad thing that!

It has been an especially busy Monday for me given my new Writers’ Narrative article is out and the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side has also begun today. See above for all here.

But it is still Monday and around here that means it’s time for my latest story on YouTube. Hope you enjoy The Summoning. It links to my Substack tale, The Advert, which I’ve shared on my author page on Facebook. Both are inspired by one word from a prompt set by writing friend, Jennifer C Wilson. At some point I will do the prompt itself!

Meantime I hope you enjoy The Summoning.

Can there ever be a time when an advert in a paper is more effective than using some magic to bring someone back to where they need to be? Find out here.

 

Nice quiet Sunday. Lovely autumnal weather too. Will be looking at ways to use autumn in writing for my Chandler’s Ford Today post next week. Plenty of tips and prompt ideas to come from that. Have used some of these thoughts already but all of them are timeless and you can return to them again and again. Do look out for the post on Friday.

About to start flash fiction Sunday. I did get to share some stories from Seeing The Other Side at my event in Salisbury yesterday. It remains the best way to show what flash fiction is. I’m all for showing what a great format it is.

Flash Tip: I often start a flash story with dialogue but do get your character to hit the ground running with whatever it is they say. You want to create intrigue in the reader so they have to find out what follows on. The dialogue doesn’t have to be overly dramatic either.

I’d be intrigued to read on if I was to read something like ‘Jane, what have I told you about pegging your washing out properly? Your underwear is halfway to Portsmouth by now. Look outside.’

I would have to find out what Jane did or tried to do next, wouldn’t you?

Had a fantastic time at Salisbury with the URC for my book event today. I hope to write more about that for a future Chandler’s Ford Today post in a couple of weeks time.

Meantime, I look forward to having another story on CafeLit tomorrow, 6th September. It has been a while since the last one. Will try and rectify that. Hope tomorrow, as well as getting on with my usual Sunday flash fiction afternoon, to record a story for submission. Don’t want to leave it until last minute but I must admit I can’t believe where this week has gone. Did get the recording done and the story sent off. Now to wait to hear back.

And Monday sees the start of my blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. So all go on that front which is great.

Will be nice to write some more flash tomorrow though. I find it a hugely enjoyable way to finish my writing week. And you should love what you do generally because if you don’t enjoy it, why should anyone else?

Goodreads Author Blog – Meeting Readers

I was at a book event for my Seeing The Other Side recently which formed part of a wider bookstall selling good quality second hand books which raises funds for a church I know. It was great fun to take part in this and I had some wonderful conversations with people who did buy from me and others who didn’t.

What was fabulous was seeing so many still have the love of books and reading. I suppose that shouldn’t come as any surprise given we’re all on Goodreads after all but sometimes all you see in the media is depressing news about people, especially children, not reading for pleasure as much.

All I can say from my observations at the event was take this with a pinch of salt. Books and stories are still very much valued and I found that so encouraging as a writer with a love of reading I owe to my late mother.

Ebooks are appreciated – they do have their uses – but people still love the paperbacks. I hope to go back to this venue later in the year for a Christmas event and hope to meet even more readers, and maybe other authors, then.

I’ve also put in a pitch for a library talk locally to me and hope it comes off as that is also a fabulous way to meet readers and supports the library.

I think the hardest thing any lover of books and stories has, whether you write them as well or not, is trying to convey something of that joy to those who are not convinced. Always worth a go though!

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Out and About in Salisbury

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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. IMAGES OF ME AT A LOCAL BOOK FAIR WERE TAKEN BY MY LOVELY EDITOR AT CHANDLER’S FORD TODAY, JANET WILLIAMS.
Hope all is well. Am slowly resuming normal swimming in terms of distance – am about 80% there. Lady has seen her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal this week so is well pleased with that, as was the Ridgeback.
Looking forward to my book event for Seeing The Other Side at Salisbury URC tomorrow, 5th September. Hope to report back on that later.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope the day has gone well. Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler chum and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Hasn’t seen either in ages. All three dogs had a super time.

Writing wise, I’m pleased to share Out and About In Salisbury for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It flags up my writing event at Salisbury URC tomorrow, Saturday 5th September, and celebrates Salisbury itself to an extent. It is a lovely city to visit.

Hope to report back at a later date on how the event tomorrow goes though I hope the Salisbury URC, their book stall and coffee shop and I all do well! I do know it will be fun! And if you are in the city, do pop by and say hello.

Out and About in Salisbury

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Am thrilled to be able to share the following Facebook reel created by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog ahead of my blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. That kicks off from next week from 7th September.

Meantime I have also just sent in a pitch to give a talk at my local library after an interesting chat with them yesterday. Fingers crossed time! Would so love to do something here.

I’ll be sharing Out and About in Salisbury for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow, giving details of my book event at the URC on Saturday. It is all go but in a good way. See above.

Hope the day has gone well. Popped up to my local library. Hope to pitch an author talk to them – they were interested so fingers crossed. Blog tour for Seeing The Other Side starts next week too.

Will be hosting an online group for the Association of Christian Writers later this evening. Was delighted to see in the latest Christian Writer a friend of mine has joined them and got his book in there. Mine has gone out via the ACW newsletter. Hope it gets into the magazine too in due course. It’s a useful membership perk!

Writing wise, am busy blogging and drafting and proofreading, as well as marketing, so not sure of things to be getting on with but I like this. I love the variety. Keeps me on my creative toes and that’s never a bad thing. Filled in the feedback form for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick today too. Did appreciate being able to have my book launch there. It was useful.

Marketing Tip: Start small, build up. Find things you know you’ll enjoy doing. I like sharing stories so will always find ways to do that, for example. Carve out marketing time away from your writing time. I say that because you want to enjoy your writing. Without that you would have nothing to market anyway. You also don’t want to resent marketing eating up your writing time either.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Looking forward to tomorrow’s event (5th September) at Salisbury URC for Seeing The Other Side. Next week will be blog tour week for the book and I look forward to sharing the various links. Have now got my pitch into my local library for a talk there but have no idea how long it will be before I hear back but as the saying goes, if you don’t ask etc etc.

I hope over the weekend to submit my story for potential broadcast and on Sunday 6th September I’ll have another story up on CafeLit, which will be lovely.

Flash Tip: Know your character. Know what makes them stand out for you. That aspect of them will resonate with your readers too. You want to feel as if I’ve got to write this character’s story up. If they grip you like that, they will grip others. It’s why I swear by jotting down a few thoughts as to a potential character. I’ve mentioned before I like traits because they are a good way in to likely attitudes and behaviours. You can do a lot with that.

Lady has had a great day, having had a wonderful playtime in the park with her Rhodesian Ridgeback chum. The grass is also coming back! It’s much nicer to walk on and it’s fabulous seeing some green reappear.

Writing wise, as well as various things connected to Seeing The Other Side going on right now, I hope to submit a story for potential broadcast over the weekend. Happy with the piece. Just need to send it in.

I always record stories for this kind of thing on Zoom and play them back but doing this also means I know I can’t go over the allotted time span. I know what the time allowed is (three to five minutes usually) and I know what Zoom is telling me I’ve come in at! I also hear how the story sounds and whether I stumble or not. All useful stuff.

There’s also a story I need to edit considerably but hope to work on this over the weekend as well.

Always pleased to have plenty to do.

Flash fiction was something I found by accident.
But it made me a published author with books to my name.
Not every writing accident is a bad one!
The writing life should be seen, I think, as a long term game.
Allison Symes – 2nd September 2026

I’ve learned over time to be open to trying new forms of writing which is how I got into short stories and flash fiction at all. But I had to be willing to give it a go and take the view what did I have to lose?

I take the same view with competitions. Give it my best shot and send something suitable in. If I am shortlisted or win, brilliant. If not, at least I knew I tried. And, as I’ve mentioned before, when I’ve looked at work again, I’ve had another edit on it and gone on to have it published second time around.

There are no shortcuts in writing but there is plenty of support on the way. It’s the biggest thing I love about the writing community. With rare exceptions, it is supportive.

Fairytales With Bite – Musical Magic

Had a fabulous time earlier this week listening to the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame. I suspect many take in classical music without realising it. Enjoy a Spielberg film? Composer will almost certainly be John Williams. I’ve always understood classical to be music which uses all of the sections of the orchestra and most film music does and to great effect too.

I love a wide range of music and think it is truly magical but would this apply in your setting and to your characters? Good music can take you out of yourself but would your characters ever want that? If not, why not?

What would the music be like in your magical setting? Similar to ours or literally like nothing on Earth? Would your setting/characters copy musical styles from Earth once they became aware of them? Could our music be one thing which might make them think better of us and could change a course of action they’d been planning to follow?

Story ideas there for sure.

This World and Others – Appreciation of The Arts

I love music, especially classical. I love poetry especially when it is read to me at Poetry Open Mic Nights. I love writing and reading, especially flash fiction and short stories. I love wonderful paintings (but am of the school of thought I know what I like when I see it). Generally, I appreciate the arts for what they can give us and those who practice the arts. I’ve got a lot of sympathy for the behind the scenes work and practice over years which must happen here.

But how do your characters appreciate the arts? Do they appreciate them at all or think they’re just for the “snobs”? What art forms are there in your setting? Could comparisons be made with what we have here or would they be far beyond us here in terms of scale, technical ability etc?

Do they have art forms which can only be on their setting due to its nature/your characters’ natures? What would humans make of these if they discovered your setting?

Can art help improve relationships between species? Could an appreciation of the arts change behaviours, attitudes, promote understanding etc?

Again there are story ideas there.

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New Season, New Books and Blog Tour News

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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. BLOG TOUR POSTER FOR SEEING THE OTHER SIDE FROM LYNSEY ADAMS OF READING BETWEEN THE LINES BOOK VLOG. TOUR STARTS NEXT WEEK, 7TH SEPTEMBER 2026. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Finally had some proper rain. Already the grass and plants are looking better. Looking forward to my book event for Seeing The Other Side at Salisbury URC on 5th September. Am hoping the weather stays dry for that one because while I’ll be indoors, footfall is better when it isn’t wet!

Facebook – General

Hope you’ve had a good day. Not bad here. Had the best swim in terms of distance since my fall. Really enjoyable. Okay, I’m not going to break any speed records right now but that wasn’t the idea and recovery continues to go well, I’m relieved to say. Being in the water has helped too.

Am delighted to share the poster for the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. Many thanks to Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Book Vlog for this and to the lovely folks who will be hosting me soon. Am so looking forward to sharing the links.

Meantime I’ve a book event to prepare for on Saturday at Salisbury URC. Am looking forward to that too.

Also author newsletter out this morning. It’s a good reminder of how fast the year is going!
Hope to submit a story for potential broadcast later this week too.

Have enjoyed a bank holiday Monday (most of the UK bar Scotland has had one today, scary thought is the next one is Christmas!) enjoying the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame.

Delighted to hear The Lord of the Rings soundtrack came in at No. 1 again. I voted for it but do feel it has everything – classical, choral, opera, Enya and Annie Lennox. What more could you want?!

Today has been a treat for the ears and Lady had a treat too – she played with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal for the first time in a while today. Both dogs so excited to see each other. It is so sweet to see.

Author newsletter out again tomorrow. Will share some details about my blog tour for Seeing The Other Side tomorrow. Lots going on. See above.

Meantime, and as it is Monday, it’s time to share the story I put on my Substack platform yesterday. Hope you enjoy my Menace.

Who will you sympathise with – Mrs Wilkins, Mrs Lake or my narrator?

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Hope the weekend has been a good one. Good to see some rain. Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly.

Am making good progress on some proofreading work too. So looking forward to next Saturday’s book event for Seeing The Other Side at Salisbury URC. Will be writing about that for Chandler’s Ford Today this week too.

Have also got a couple of places where I’d like to submit some flash fiction so hope to start some drafts later today.

Character Tip: What makes you want to write about the character you’ve got in mind for a story? What is it about them that intrigues you? Are they “strong” enough to deliver the impact you’d like your story to have on potential readers?

I’ve mentioned before the first person the characters have to grip is you, their creator, but it is worth repeating. Usually with me I can hear a character’s voice in my head and something about their attitude/what they say is enough to make me think yes, this character has got sparkle, this one is definitely worth writing up.

Am delighted to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with my latest post, Summer Writing. Do you find your writing winds down during the summer months? I find it is a season of peaks and troughs.

I find I need to take some time out to calm the buzz I have on returning from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. A day or two later and I’m raring to go again. I don’t think the heatwave this year has helped either despite my following all the advice on hydration. There are times you need to step back and be kind to yourself. For me, summer is one of them.

I’ve always found lots of “little bits” of writing keep my creative mind “ticking over” until I’m ready for the full writing work schedule again. Writing flash helps here. I know I can get something written in, say, fifteen minutes. I feel better for having written something.

My post goes on to share ways in which you can use summer in your writing. I also associate summer with “light” so want “light” reading. Light reading I think is misnamed. Lighter reads can still look at issues but they are primarily there to entertain and I’ve never seen anything wrong with that.

Hope you enjoy the post.

Summer Writing

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Had some late news come in yesterday but am thrilled to say my Truth Hurts will be on CafeLit on Sunday, 6th September. It has been a while since I last had something on there so am pleased about this. Will share the link later this week.

Meantime why not check out the CafeLit website? Link here takes you to the Read Our Stories page. There is a great mixture here of flash fiction and short stories, across a wealth of genres, from newbie to more experienced writers. A new story appears at 4pm just in time to enjoy with tea/coffee and cake of course!

Had a lovely productive weekend writing. Have a draft ready for some polishing and then submitting later this week. Also received some good news about a CafeLit submission of mine – more on that tomorrow.

But as it is Monday, a busy one as always, it is time for my latest YouTube story. Hope you enjoy Plausible Deniability.

To be told you should master plausible deniability is one thing but does my character manage it? What cause could they have to want to do so? Find out here.

 

Have selected a competition to have a go at for some flash fiction. It’s the first time in a while I’m getting some stories out there but it has been so lovely to be focused on having a new book out and all that needs to be done around that. Thankfully, there is no use by date here though I hope to set up events relating to Seeing The Other Side later on.

Sometimes the competition theme will indicate a likely mood of a story, sometimes it is wide open, as is the case for the one I’m shortly going to be trying. So I will take a little time out to think about the mood of the story I want to write for that theme. I like to mix up writing lighter and darker stories. Suits my style and reflects my reading tastes too.

Flash Tip: It’s fun to mix up using first, second and third person for flash. I use all three, though the second is the one I use the least often. It can be highly effective though. Depends on how well your narrator comes across here so you do want a strong, interesting character to stand out here.

I found when I was writing more and more flash, I was falling into the habit of using the first person so have deliberately rebalanced to make sure I get plenty of the third person in too. Now when I’m thinking of a story, I will also convince what “voice” the story would work best in – first, second, or third. Some ideas naturally lend themselves to one so I will go with that.

How can it be almost September already? Well, that reminds me my next author newsletter will be out again next week. To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I hope to report back on how my Salisbury event goes for the October issue but plenty going on for the September one, along with my usual story links etc. The newsletter is always a joy to put together and if I have one top tip for marketing it is to enjoy what you do. It makes it more sustainable for you in the longer run. It also means it doesn’t feel like a chore.

Flash is wonderful for sharing as part of an overall marketing schedule which is why I put stories regularly on Substack and YouTube. More to come on both of those platforms tomorrow and Monday.

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GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – New Season, New Books

September is just around the corner as I write this and is very much the start of a new season. I have a soft spot for autumn. I love the changing colours of the leaves and the one good thing about the darker, longer evenings is they do give you the perfect excuse to read and/or write more! (And if you can do that while drinking scrumptious hot chocolate even better!).

September in many ways is the kick off point for new books coming out. There will be lots of events in the run up to Christmas (and I’ll be holding some too for Seeing The Other Side, which is lovely. My last launch for Tripping The Flash Fantastic was in 2020 when everything had to be online. I’ve been enjoying getting out and about in person again and hope to do more of this over the next few months).

I also can’t think of a better way to welcome in a new season than to do so with new books or with books new to you, whether you buy them or borrow them. I’ve sometimes done the latter and then loved the borrowed book so much then went on to buy my own copy.

There is never a wrong time for new books and to treasurer the older ones.

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