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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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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The Joy of Responding To and Setting Writing Exercises

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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. Have resumed gentle swimming after my fall. Seems to be helping. Lady has caught up with one of her friends this week and I’m looking forward to my book signing in Salisbury next week. All go but I like it that way.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am delighted to share The Joy of Setting and Responding to Writing Exercises for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Naturally I put this into practice for this week’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group!

I list my favourite writing exercises, what I have got out of giving them a go (published work in many cases for one), and share plenty of useful tips for getting the most of any exercises you’re set.

I also look at life on the other side of the fence here in that setting writing exercises is a great way to make you think outside of your usual “comfort box”. You want something you know people can do but will also be a challenge (and they’re a challenge to me too because I ensure I do them too, it’s a great way to get more flash written).

Hope you find the post useful, whichever side of the writing exercise fence you are on. I regularly switch sides here!

The Joy of Responding to and Setting Writing Exercises

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Nice day. Another gentle swim today went well.

Writing wise, I’m pleased to share a link to Hannah Ruth Retallick’s Substack post about If You Keep Missing Writing Errors, Try This. All sound, sensible stuff and something every writer needs. Many thanks to her for a shout out to me for a tip I share here. It’s one I’ve often shared here but it bears repeating.

One thing I was chatting about last night with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group was to write first, edit later, and to see the two things as separate, different creative tasks. This ties in nicely with Hannah’s post because if you do give yourself the time away from a piece before coming back to edit it, you are much more likely to pick up on the mistakes. Time away does help and while you’re resting a piece, you can of course be drafting another one!

As for draft writing, the group and I drafted some flash fiction pieces last night. Naturally I’m resting mine for the moment!

Talking of writing exercises, which I love, my Chandler’s Ford Today post tomorrow will focus on The Joy of Setting and Responding To Writing Exercises. I’ll be sharing plenty of useful thoughts here so watch out for it. See above.

Hope the day has gone well. Lady was delighted to catch up with her Hungarian Vizler pal today. The dogs haven’t seen much of each other recently thanks to the summer holidays and the heatwave so this was nice to see.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing The Joy of Setting And Responding To Writing Exercises for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on Friday. See above.

Talking of writing exercises, I have set some for tonight’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group and yes I plan to have a go too.

And I’m getting lots of spam emails regarding Seeing The Other Side. Am deleting the lot. Only thing to do. Talking of the new book, I hope to share news about the blog tour for it before too long so watch this space.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope your day has gone well. Had some proper rain earlier. I got caught in it on the way back from an appointment. Was torn between wishing it had held off for ten more minutes or delighted it had come down at all! I suspect I might get a flash fiction story from a character caught in the rain at some point…!

Want to draft a flash piece over the weekend to submit to Hannah Kate’s show on North Manchester FM in due course. As the weather has started to turn autumnal, it is timely her call for stories for her Autumn Equinox show is timely.

Looking forward to being in Salisbury next weekend for my book event for Seeing The Other Side and not long after that there will be the blog tour. Plenty going on.

Had a lovely evening with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group yesterday. Many thanks, folks. Yes, we did draft some flash pieces. I hope to return to mine in a few days or so. One nice thing about groups like this is we all share news which is amazingly handy at times.

One such bit of news came from Jenny Sanders who highlighted the fact Hannah Kate of North Manchester FM is looking for flash stories for her Autumn Equinox show. See the link for more details but I’ll be looking at having a go at this later this week. The show itself goes out on Saturday 19th September but the deadline is by midnight on Monday 14th September.

Top Tip: When I submit stories to Hannah Kate’s show and I’ve polished them up as much as I can, I record them on Zoom. I hear how they sound. I can make sure I’m not speaking too fast or too slow. And Zoom gives you the timing of your recording so you can’t get that wrong. I’ve also found a word count of about 150 words or thereabouts works well here.

Autumn Equinox Stories Wanted for Hannah’s Bookshelf on North Manchester FM

 

Flash is remarkably flexible given its restricted word count. I think a major factor in this is it has to be character led (as you have little room for much in the way of description so the characters have to show everything).

Characters can be put into any situation and time. I have a lot of fun here which is why I’ll always recommend flash for all writers even if it’s never your main work. I think it is a no-brainer for anyone who loves creating characters.

The discipline of writing to a tight word count pays off for other forms of writing. I’ve found this to be the case for my blogging, for example. It is much tighter now than it used to be.

Fairytales With Bite – Pride Before A Fall

We all know the saying. It’s a great theme for a story. Sadly it proved to be true literally for me last week when I took a tumble. Thankfully only painful bruising but my ego took a bit of a tumble too. (I tripped over a service cover in the pavement – these things are never level and I just didn’t lift my foot high enough).

In the magical world, how could pride come before a fall? I’ve written flash pieces on this where an arrogant younger magical being is shown she is not the be all and end all by a much older, wiser magical being. Good fun to do.

But you could show pride in a magical development by the society as a whole only for the thing to go horribly wrong. What would the consequences be? Would your society be honest, admit to it and clear up the mess or would they try and cover up the fact anything went wrong at all?

Good story possibilities there, especially since I think if they went for the cover up route, there would be bound to be a whistleblower somewhere, concerned about public safety perhaps?

Happy writing!

This World and Others – Necessity is the Mother of Invention

You may have noticed I’ve got a bit of a thing about old sayings this week. But they do make great themes for stories and, in many cases, can be used for titles too. These sayings are timeless so your story ideas shouldn’t date either.

In a magical world, you could have fun writing about what needs to be invented and why, whether the thing is invented or not and who by and what problems they had to overcome, and whether anyone else tries to stop the invention. Plenty of story ideas there.

I must admit I have a soft spot for stories when the most unlikely being comes up with something useful. I guess that is a hangover from my love of the fairytales where the most unlikely character often turns out to be the hero.

So what would your world need to invent? Would it invent something to stop it having to copy something from a planet they despised such as our own dear home? How well or otherwise do things work out?

As for the creative minds behind all of this, are they respected, feared, mocked or what have you? Not everyone appreciates geniuses and even they do it’s often after someone’s life time. Could that happen in your setting?

Food for thought there.

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The Joys of Book Rooms/Stalls

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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. Much cooler, almost feeling autumnal now but this is most welcome. Am looking forward to the book blog tour for Seeing The Other Side in September, along with my signing event at Salisbury. I hope there will be more things to come here – more news as I have it. Glad that writing and my new editing job is going well. Like to keep busy and Lady can always help me fill my time too, I guess she sees it as her job!
Also, late news coming in, am so very sorry to hear of the death of Dolly Parton. A great singer and an even greater person. Her literacy work was amazing. Favourite songs? Hard to tell but I love Jolene, 9 to 5, her own version of I Will Always Love You (and I like Whitney Houston’s cover too), Islands in The Stream and so many more. She will be much missed.

Facebook – General

Hope the day has gone well. Had a gentle swim today. It was nice. Good to see some chums too. Still feeling bruised from my fall but am considerably better so hope another gentle week will put the rest to right. Thankfully, writing can be done sitting down, which helps a lot. Standing desks definitely wouldn’t be for me right now.

Writing wise, I’m getting back into my pre-Swanwick routine. Have prepared some non-fiction pieces and scheduled those ready to appear later this month/early September. Have almost finished drafting my September newsletter. Would like to have a crack at a flash competition this weekend I think. It’s been a while since I last had a go at one. Always good to keep your hand in!

Want to resume working on my long term non-fiction project later on in the autumn. Picked up some useful thoughts for it while at Swanwick and want to put them into practice but know I need to clear my diary a bit for that and October is likely to be the earliest for that.

Mind you, that will be here before we know it. It’s a matter of time before we see the adverts for the festive chocolates and it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re already out, says she, sighing heavily!

Hope you’ve had a good start to the working week. Not bad here. Cooler and pleasanter, both Lady and I appreciated that.

But it is Monday so it’s time for my story which I first shared on Substack yesterday. Hope you enjoy First Home. If you think to do lists are a good idea but struggle to stick with them, this one may resonate.

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Hope the weekend has been a good one. Much easier walking the dog now the temperature has gone down a few notches!

Will be working on flash fiction Sunday shortly. Good to be back to that again. Had a lovely chat on Zoom with fellow writers last night. Great way to spend a Saturday evening.

Don’t forget it won’t be long before my next author newsletter is out. To sign up for news, tips, stories and more do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter Tip: I make a point of sharing tips which will be of use to other writers in mine (and even more so when I have lots of news to share about what I’m up to, as is the case at the moment). I want readers to find the newsletters useful as I know the majority of my subscribers are fellow writers.

I will sometimes share links to articles I’ve written elsewhere given these can be a good summary of the topic for the month for the newsletter. And I do this because I subscribe to a number of author newsletters myself. Love them and these kind of “useful bits” for readers is what drew me into them in the first place and keeps me subscribed to them.

I’ve found it pays to draft the newsletter a bit at a time as the month goes on so there is no rush to get it out on your chosen date. I draft a lot of things as I go during the month as it is so it made sense to do this for the newsletter too.

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Will be nice to have a quiet weekend. August has been pretty hectic though the combination of a family wedding and The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick is a smashing one!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at The Joy of Responding To and Setting Writing Exercises for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Plenty of tips as you’d expect. Link up on Friday.

Writing exercises are great for stretching the creative mind. Many of mine end up as finished work, published in print or online or both. Others I know I won’t take further but I am never sorry to have had a go at the challenge in question.

Sometimes it is a case of this particular exercise not being the best for me but until I gave it a go, I wouldn’t know. Sometimes even there the spark of the idea I had I can use in another story. Little is wasted in writing. It might take a while for you to use it but the prospect is there.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Nice time in the park with Lady earlier though I suspect we’ll catch up with human and doggy friends once the new school term starts. Holiday times can be a bit odd like this. You don’t see your usual crowd. You do see people you wouldn’t normally come across.

And a bell in the back of my head is telling me there are flash fiction stories to be written about that thought!

Fancy a go?

Meantime I’m looking forward to taking part in some writing exercises I’ve set with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group tomorrow. I sometimes draft an exercise response in advance to give an example but I don’t always do this. Sometimes I write live on the night with the others which I hope to be doing again tomorrow. It’s good fun!

It’s Monday but at least it isn’t as hot and sticky as it was a couple of weeks back. Still time for a story though. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Perfect Recipe.

Mum has found the perfect recipe for a cherished family dish but will a certain blonde brat agree? Find out here.

 

One of the joys of having fun with what Vistaprint has to offer writers is getting to update my business card. It is one of the most useful things a writer can have on their book event table. People do take them and I attribute spikes in my Kindle sales to people taking these and looking up my books later on.

I’ve taken the chance to have thumbnails of all three flash collections of mine on my updated card, plus my latest author photo, plus my website details on the front. On the back I’ve gone for a simplified version of where you can find me online.

As well as sharing them at my recent book launch at Swanwick, I’ve had opportunities to give them out elsewhere since then including on the train home from Derbyshire. I do usually keep some on me on the “just in case” principle. It has been nice to act on that principle recently!

Looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group this coming week too. Have set some fun exercises and plan to do them myself on the night.

It’s a great way to get more flash written and I love “live” writing exercises. Always an enjoyable challenge.

Am looking forward to joining the good folk at Salisbury URC for my book signing event there on Saturday 5th September from 10.00 am to 12.30. See the link for more info.

Am pleased to say September will be a busy month as the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side also happens then from 7th to 13th September. More details to come on that.

I hope to set up some local (to me) events but will come back on that as and when I have something set up. Having my own card reader now is going to make life easier here.

Looking forward, as always, to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. Am so glad I responded to the CafeLit 100 words challenge all those years ago. Three books later…

Saturday September 5th, 10am-12.30 Meet the author

Goodreads Author Blog – The Joys of Book Rooms/Stalls

I’ve not long returned from one of the highlights of my writing year – The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. This year was even more special as I had my book launch for my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side, there. It was a huge success. I sold two-thirds of my stock at the event.

Later the same day, I took part in an Open Prose Mic Night, read from my new book, and then discovered the next day in the Swanwick Book Room, the rest of my stock had been sold. I’d also sold copies of my earlier flash collections, From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping The Flash Fantastic. To say I was thrilled would be a considerable understatement.

I make a point, when at events, of always going to their book room/stalls etc. As well as contributing to what is on offer, such things give me a good chance to browse the works of other authors. I nearly always come away with purchases and love getting them signed for me by the authors in question.

Much as I find the ebook useful, this is where I think the paperback will always win. There is something special about getting a signed copy of a book from its author (and even more special when you’re doing the signing on one of your books – I wish I could bottle that feeling!).

I’ll be having a signing event at Salisbury URC on Saturday 5th September to celebrate my new book. They have a regular book stall there and it will be good to support that (and their coffee shop) as well as have my signing event.

Books and book rooms bring people together and, as an author, I relish the chance to chat with potential readers too. Books and stories are special. Chatting to readers directly is also very special and I hope promotes the written word more too.

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Swanwick 2026 and Book Launch 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.
Many thanks to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, Gemma Owen-Kendall, Liz Pacey and Babs Trevitt for images from Swanwick which feature in my Chandler’s Ford Post this week.
Hope you’ve had a good week. I’ve spent some of it thinking back to what I was doing at Swanwick the previous week! Been lovely to get out and about with the dog and to go swimmimg again. Also, hooray, we’ve had some rain here and it is a lot cooler.
Next big event for me will be the book signing for Seeing The Other Side in Salisbury on 5th September and not long after that there will be a blog tour for the book. All good!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Now this was a post I’ve been looking forward to sharing. My post on Chandler’s Ford Today this week is Swanwick 2026 and Book Launch for Seeing The Other Side.

I celebrate both events in this post and I share a mini diary of what courses I went to on which day. That alone will show the wide variety of topics on offer and there were many more I could easily have chosen.

Plus I celebrate the thought of catching up with writing friends, which is the focus for many a Swanwicker when we get back to The Hayes again.

I look at the launch, the benefits of it being held at the school, and how taking part in Open Prose Mic Nights can help with book sales too, as well as being great fun to take part in and listen to.

Hope you enjoy the post.

Swanwick 2026 and Book Launch for Seeing The Other Side

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Hope today has gone well. Was on the final leg of my journey home from Swanwick this time last week. (Thursday 13th August – one of the hottest days ever for travelling!).

Delighted to say Seeing The Other Side is now available through Waterstones. Just spotted it on there. Am also looking forward to my signing event at Salisbury URC on Saturday 5th September.

Writing wise, I’m also busy with editing work, as well as the writing. I may well try to draft something for a competition over the weekend. It’s time I put my hat in the ring for one of those again.

Writing Tip: Schedule as much as you can, it takes the pressure off. I use quieter periods during the week to draft future articles etc and, once done, get them scheduled. I put a note in my diary a week or so before it is due to go out to just run though the posts again. There are always little things to pick up and correct.

For fiction, use the quieter times to draft flash and short stories. The time away from them will help you see them again with fresh eyes and again should help you pick up errors. While you can’t schedule stories as such, you can do a lot of prep work which then frees up time for a thorough edit (rather than a rushed one) later.

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Hope your day has gone well. Not bad here. Gentle swim earlier.

Will be sharing Swanwick 2026 and Book Launch for Seeing The Other Side on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that as it is a celebratory post for both sides of that equation! See above.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. It was good there was a contingent from ACW at Swanwick.

Don’t forget it won’t be that long before my next author newsletter is out. Writing one of these is a sure fire way of spotting how quickly the year passes! To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I share tips, news, story links and more here.

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Having a quiet end to the week, which is proving soothing. Mind you, not that I allow my characters to have a soothing time of it, far from it. As well as loving creating characters, I do enjoy dropping them right in the mire and then finding out what they do to get out of it again. The best characters will find a way out.

Having said that, I don’t drop my characters in it for the sake of it. The situation they face is something well within the bounds of likelihood given who they are, where they are and so on. Everything should seem as if it could be true even if it is set in a galaxy or other world far far away etc.

It is the characters who have to be believable in terms of their attitudes, behaviours and their reactions.

Such fun to create, mind you!

Pleasant day and a quiet one. Was an idiot earlier in the week and had a fall. All okay but am feeling somewhat (a) bruised and (b) sorry for myself so am focusing on writing. It takes the mind off other matters. Writing is useful like that at times. It’s also nice not to have to go anywhere but I do wish there’d been a better reason behind it! I hope to resume things like swimming next week.

Plodding on (literally in my case!), am pleased to be resuming my normal writing routine. Sometimes after a break it can be hard to get back to normal again, but not this time. It’s like putting on the perfect pair of gloves – am straight back into what I’d usually do again. And a break can be useful to help recharge the batteries, inspire you (as was the case for me with Swanwick) and more. All of that can be used to help your writing for the longer term.

It helps a lot to think about your writing in the longer term. I’ve found it easier to cope with rejections by taking the longer term view, for one thing, because I know now something which is rejected today may, with work, be accepted by someone else later. That has happened to me a fair bit. It helps to know often rejections aren’t due to what’s wrong with your work but because the market has recently accepted something similar or they’ve gone off a certain theme for a while.

Mind you, after a break, it still pays you to look at the piece again. What can be done to improve it? What alternative markets could there be?

Good luck!

I have various ways into starting a piece of flash fiction. Sometimes I know the character first and therefore the kind of situation which would suit them best. Sometimes I know the theme and then work out what kind of character would best suit it.

Sometimes, of course, I’m giving a topic to write to so I list what could come from that and then go with the one which makes me really want to write the tale up. I use prompts of all kinds.

My focus though is on the character. For me they make or break a story. If I’m gripped by them, I’ll read on no matter who or what they are, where they are based, how many claws they have etc.

Creating characters has always been a great love of mine and in short form fiction, you get to do this a lot. Match made in heaven I’d say.

Fairytales With Bite – A Fairytale Event

What would characters in your magical setting consider to be a fairytale event? What would the fairies themselves consider to be worthy of note, given the magical business is their daily bread and butter, so to speak?

What one character would consider to be a fairytale event would be thought of in opposite terms for another character. So why the opposing views and which one would be right given they can’t both be?

Now I’ve just returned from what I consider to be a fairytale event, The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick which was made even more special this year given I had the launch there for my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side. These moments stand out in a writing life because you know they happen every so often. They cannot by their nature be everyday things.

So what would be magical moments for your characters and why do they feel this way? Was it something they’ve had to work for or has someone else helped them? (In my case it was both. I wrote the book obviously but the school organising launches was a real blessing for me and the other eleven authors who had launches there this year).

How often could these magical moments happen for your characters or are they always one-offs? Also, is there someone who wants to crash the party here? There’s always a jealous one somewhere in the fairytales. Good source for story ideas though.

This World and Others – Events in the Magical Realms

What events would your magical realm hold? Are they similar to events held elsewhere – on magical worlds or not – or are the events you share in your setting unique to that setting? What do your characters make of the events? Is it compulsory for all to go to these things and, if so, how is that enforced, given there is bound to be a rebel or two somewhere?

Are there historical connections to the events your world holds? We have things like Remembrance Sunday. What would your world want to commemorate? What would it definitely want to forget?

Would your characters take part in your world’s equivalent of re-enactments? The best ones of those are spectacularly good and do bring history home to people so what would your world do to ensure the “right message” got through here.

And when the events are over, and folk are returning to their normal life, do they ever consider what the events meant to them or are they just glad the whole thing is over?

Not everybody likes a show and there are story ideas there too.

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Book Launches and Associated Activities

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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. A huge thank you to Keith Hinchy for taking and giving permission to use shots he took from the Swanwick Prom. More below.Many thanks also to Babs Trevitt for the image of me taking part in the Swanwick Open Prose Mic Night.
Talking of Swanwick, I had a fabulous time at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. The launch for Seeing The Other Side went brilliantly. Sold two-thirds of my stock at the launch and the rest a day or so later. First time I’ve had a sell out. So thrilled. Pleased I also sold copies of From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping The Flash Fantastic.
It was a joy catching up with friends and chatting to new people to Swanwick. Hope to see them again there next year. Resuming normal home life – and the dog did mug me on my return!

Facebook – General

Pleased to be back on Authors Electric with Book Launches and Associated Activities. This one was a particular joy to write up given my recent launch for Seeing The Other Side at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick.

I also talk in this post about what I learn from other launches I go to, what authors hope will happen at them (and onwards – I often note a rise in my Kindle sales a few days after an event), and share some tips I think will help any writer prepare for their book launch.

Hope you find this useful. My last launch was in 2020 as, aside from anything else, I’m thrilled to bits to be able to get out and about for book events in person.

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Well, it is my first full day back at the helm after a fantastic few days away at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Am I shattered? You bet. It was nice Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today though.

Writing wise, it’s Monday so it’s time for my Substack story for the week after my break. Hope you enjoy Stuck on Q. This one isn’t just for Scrabble players, honest!

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Lovely to be back at church this morning and taking the dog out again afterwards. The latter is probably the most exercise I’ve had this week! Nice to be back at my desk “properly” and am looking forward to cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. Also nice to bring back some lovely books of prompts from Swanwick. Know they will be a great help.

I use prompts from a wide range of sources, including books, and will take something I like and put my own spin on it. Sometimes I will splice prompts and get a new one from two put together like that.

Story cubes are brilliant too. So many combinations available, depending on how many cubes you have. You won’t run out of the random generators any time soon either and with almost all of them you can set your own parameters, which again increases their usefulness to you and the ideas available.

Prompt Tip: If you use the generators, don’t generate too many in one go. You’ll feel swamped and that stifles creativity. Limits are so useful. They make you think more deeply and yes I know I’m biased here being a flash fiction writer but it is true nonetheless.

For books of prompts, pick out a few you think you’d like, say three or four. By the time you’ve done that, you should find there is one which is “grabbing” you so that’s the one to go for.

It takes a few days to recover from a fabulous time at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick but am slowly getting there. It was nice for Lady and I to get back to walking together and we even caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal. It’s the first time we’ve seen them in a good couple of weeks as everyone is getting out earlier than normal for dog walking and we all have different ideas of what early is!

Talking of Swanwick, my Chandler’s Ford Today post next week will be Swanwick 2026 and Book Launch For Seeing The Other Side. Am looking forward to sharing that one next Friday.
Will be resuming flash fiction Sunday tomorrow and it will be lovely to get back to that again.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

One of the joys of The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick is the end of school party. Many thanks to Keith Hinchy who took these (and many other) fab shots.

June Webber and I had a great time at the disco. We often get together online the rest of the year with other Swanwickers (it is one of those things where people drop in as and when) but it is special to be able to get together in person.

Fabulous way to wrap up another year’s school. Writers spend so much time at their desks.

Just sometimes we get up on the dance floor too!

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It’s Monday, it’s marginally cooler than last week, I stress the marginally, but it does mean it’s story time.

Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Scrabbling Around. The eagle eyed amongst you may spot a connection to my Substack story this week in terms of theme.

Is Linda really cheating at Scrabble, as Mark suspects, or is there something else going on? Find out here.

Looking forward to resuming sharing my Substack and YouTube stories. Now just to get on and write them which I’ll do shortly.

Sometimes when deciding where to start, I will think about the mood of the stories I want to tell. Funny, dark, or somewhere in between? Sometimes I’ll think about the character type I want – someone who is overdue their comeuppance or someone worthy of support getting that in an unexpected way?

It pays to ask yourself a few questions as to what you want your stories to be and what impact you’d like them to have on readers. From there, you can start to outline situations and/or characters and off you go with your first draft.

Happy writing!

The highlight for me at Swanwick this year was of course the book launch for Seeing The Other Side, but it was closely followed by the Open Prose Mic Night.

I love these. I get to hear a marvellous range of stories and, when I take part as I did again this year, I can highlight something about what flash fiction is and can be simply by performing some of my stories. I hope I get to introduce some folk to the form this way.

It is another reason why I include reading work out loud as part of my editing process. I know a story has got to read well on the page and out loud for Mic Nights and the like.

It is amazing what errors you can pick up simply by reading your story out loud and if you record it on Zoom and play it back, you can (a) get your timings right which always goes down well with a Mic host and (b) you will take in the story as the audience would.

That in turn helps you spot what might be missing, what doesn’t flow as well as you might like and so on. Gives you a chance to put all of that right before you do perform the pieces. Can’t recommend doing this highly enough.

GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – Reading Time

I suspect most of us would like far more reading time than we have got. I think it’s part of the territory of so many books, not enough time, and having other wonderful responsibilities. Time doesn’t stretch that much.

The irony for me as I write this is I’m off to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick where there will be so much love and appreciation shown for the written word in all its forms.

Yet most of us will be busy catching up with friends, learning from the writing courses and so on to get much actual reading done while here!

I expect most of us will bring home new delights from the Book Room though! The To Be Read pile never goes down much, does it?! But then maybe that is as it should be.

I find it encouraging there will never be a shortage of good reading material.

And now I’m back from Swanwick, I can confirm I have brought more good reading material home with me! Sorry, couldn’t get to post this last week while away but will now resume weekly posts.

Ironically it was due to being at a place where every writer loves books, their own and others, and we spent a lot of time celebrating the fact, as well as learning more about our craft.

Now back home again, we can resume our usual reading with more material to add to the mix but then that’s never a problem, is it?

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Writing Events and How To Make The Most of Them

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as were most of the photos from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Many thanks to the School and Gemma Owen-Kendall for the shot of me at my launch.
Super duper bumper post from me this time as it was easier to write daily Facebook posts and collATE them here while I was away in Derbyshire. There was little time to do much else. Back to normal next week.
Talking of Derbyshire, I had a fabulous time at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. So good to catch up with friends again and chat to new people too and, as ever, I learned so much from the courses. Creative writing is good for you here – it keeps you learning and developing and that is so good for us in many ways.
Delighted my launch for Seeing The Other Side was a resounding success. More news on that below. And, yes, I was mugged by the dog when I returned home!

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Am delighted to share Writing Events and How To Make The Most of Them for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Could I think of the title for this one when on the train home from Swanwick yesterday? No! Still, I hope you enjoy the post.

I’ll talk more specifically about The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick and my book launch there for next week’s post but this one looks at what you can get in terms of helping you to develop as a writer when going to events.

My only regret here is I didn’t start going to them sooner than I did. I’ve made so many friends, especially at Swanwick, and have learned so much which has helped me in my writing journey. I continue to learn for that journey. The lovely thing about creative writing is it is an ongoing challenge. It’s very good for the old brain just due to that.

I discuss some of the advantages of going to good creative writing events (and have no doubt you’ll find more yourself). I look at how to make the most going to these things. Now this includes what may seem like basic advice but I remember being a newbie writer and you don’t always think of things like this. You’re going to the event. You’re beginning to think do I know what I’m doing here as I don’t know any other writers etc etc. How I do know? Guess what I thought when I was preparing to go to my first event.

I also discuss having a one line “statement” ready to share with folks who ask you what you are writing. It helps to have that to hand. You should then find you ask them about their work and before you know it a good conversation has got going.

But having something to hand in the back of your mind so you know what you will say when asked is such a confidence booster.

Hope you find the post useful.

Writing Events and How to Make the Most of Them

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13th August 2026

Am on way home as I write this. Had a fabulous time at Swanwick. Many thanks to the Committee and all of the volunteers. Already looking forward to being back next year.

A huge thanks to all who supported my launch for Seeing The Other Side. Having launches at the Summer School is a great opportunity for all those having them. It would be harder to find a more sympathetic audience than at Swanwick.

Looking forward to seeing the family later. It will be back to business almost immediately on getting home. My Chandler’s Ford Today post will be up tomorrow – more details then. Did I draft and schedule ahead of Swanwick? You bet. Am I trying to recall the title right now and failing? You bet! Ah the delights of the writing life!

Nightmare journey home. Just missed train I was meant to be on. East Midlands Railway had to run slower due to the heat so I reached London later than planned. Want to give a shout out to Kofi at the Waterloo ticket office as when I explained, he just stamped my ticket and said I could get the next. No fee either. It always pays to ask rather than assume and he was lovely. Need more like that. Thankfully delay should only be about 30 minutes but it does mean I’ll see Lady later than planned. On the plus side the air con on the train is bliss!

12th August

So many who come to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick will say or think along the lines of where has the time gone? How come we are at our last full day here already? I’m not an exception here.

Found Simon Whaley’s The Business of Writing session informative and useful. Likewise, the two part course run by Bettina von Cossell on writing non-fiction books. Will be heading off to the second part of that this afternoon.

A huge thank you to the School. I’ve had a wonderful time. Many thanks to all who supported my Seeing The Other Side launch. I’m thrilled to say I sold out here. Being able to launch here is a fab opportunity.

Looking forward to seeing the family again tomorrow but not relishing so much resuming the domestic duties! I do expect to be mugged by my dog though on my return.

11th August

Enjoyed a great session before and after tea break time about submitting non-fiction work to traditional publishers. This was led by Dr Jacqueline Jeynes. I do have a non-fiction project on the go so this course was timely too.

Am looking forward to Liz Pacey’s session on Reading, Writing and Absolutely No ‘Rithmetic. Sounds fun. Liz l, like me, is a member of the Association of Christian Writers.

Have enjoyed signing copies of Seeing The Other Side for people since the launch. It is always a special moment when you’re asked about this. You also learn to treasure special moments in the writing life.

Also spotted the cute moorhen youngsters yesterday. No pictures alas as they move fast when they want to but the grounds here are lovely. They’re in remarkably good condition given the heatwave.

10th August

For once it’s a .Monday I don’t mind because I’m at Swanwick. Will resume sharing stories on Substack and YouTube next week.

The Simon Hall course on AI For Authors was intriguing and insightful. Found it cleared misconceptions for one thing. So glad I went to this one. This afternoon I’ll be back at Viv Brown’s course on Writing for UK Magazines.

Many thanks to Babs Trevitt for the image of me reading from Seeing The Other Side at the Open Prose Mic Night yesterday. Good fun to do. My three pieces went down well. And I loved listening to all of the other tales. Well done, all. Great entertainment.

9th August

Well, Swanwick has got off to a cracking start. Plenty of ideas sparking from Julia Pattison’s Lift Up Your Pens session first thing. After breakfast, I loved Viv Brown’s writing for print magazine course today. More to come on that course too later in the week. I plan to immerse myself in world building with Francesca Tyer this afternoon and later to look at real life humour in stories with Ian Fisermanis.

But the big news is I’m thrilled my launch of Seeing The Other Side went so well. Have sold two-thirds of what I brought up here. A huge thank you to Gemma Owen-Kendall for being launch coordinator and to all who are running/assisting with the Book Shop. Other than the bar, I suspect the Book Room is the favourite place for Swanwickers to be! Guess why I think that!

8th August

Am writing this on the first leg of my journey to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. I change at Waterloo, get to St. Pancras and then get another train to Derby. From there, the school lays on a coach to take delegates to the lovely Hayes country house. That will be my home for the next few days.

I’m so looking forward to catching up with writer friends I only see I person here. Am looking forward to the courses, workshops, after dinner speakers and entertainment. I really will be immersed in the writing world.

I’ll be leading a short devotional session called Lift Up Your Hearts on Monday. It’s a lovely peaceful start to busy creative days. I’m only sorry I can’t get to the short service on Sunday lunchtime as that is when my book launch for Seeing The Other Side will be.

Saddest thing? Realising my dog knew something was up this morning as she was more clingy than usual. I do know she’ll be spoiled rotten while I’m away though. She always is.

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Had a lovely surprise yesterday on returning from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. I’ve received my first review for Seeing The Other Side and so pleased it is a good one. Many thanks to my reviewer. Also pleased Amazon are now giving sensible delivery dates on the paperback.

It was lovely seeing flash represented more in the Swanwick Book Room. Every writer has their own style which is one reason why stories in general are fascinating to read. No two writers will go about a creative writing task in exactly the same way. When the Waterloo Prize was run some years ago, all writers had to stick to the same theme and word count. There were fifteen winners for each book which came out on the theme of transform/transforming. I was one of them. Yet all of us came up with such different stories.

It is what you bring to the mix which makes a story stand out and never more so than for flash fiction. The limited word count means you do have to be more creative with your word usage and it so strengthens a story when done well.

13th August

Am on way home from Derby. This will be the last post I write on a train for a bit. I hope to do this again when I go to Salisbury on 5th September for a signing event for Seeing The Other Side.

I’ll be at the United Reformed Church for this. They have a monthly book stall event which also supports their coffee shop. Books and tea/coffee are always a winning combo! If you’re in Salisbury then, I’d be delighted to see you.

And it can be amazing how much writing you can do while on the train!

12th August

So good to wave the flash fiction flag this week at Swanwick. It even got a mention on the Lingo Bingo cards some of us played on the Saturday night. It was a good icebreaker.

I also read three pieces from Seeing The Other Side at the Open Prose Mic Night. Flash works brilliantly for Mic nights. It’s a great advert for the form too.

What I think has been so special this week is how we all celebrate writing in all of its forms. Long may that continue well after we get home from Swanwick.

11th August

Have enjoyed chatting to people who’ve asked me about flash fiction. It’s always good to wave the flag for a great writing format.

You learn to cut words again and again and to not be sentimental about what has to come out of your work when it is not doing something for it. It’s a crucial skill and one which applies to all writing forms.

10th August

Ernest Hemingway’s classic six word story, For sale, baby shoes, never worn, formed part of my Lift Up Your Hearts session this morning and was referred to in Simon Hall’s course too. Less is more, indeed! We were set a six word exercise by Simon too.

Why not give the following a try:-

Six word stories
Twenty-five word stories
Seventy-five tales (useful for Paragraph Planet)
And the good old drabble, the classic 100 worder.

All fun to do.

Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

9th August

So thrilled the launch for Seeing The Other Side went so well. I hope to write more about that and Swanwick for a future Chandler’s Ford Today post.

Was so pleased to see flash fiction represented so well in the Swanwick Book Room too. Flash is a fabulous format, especially if you enjoy creating characters. That has long been my favourite form of storytelling.

8th August

I hope to wave the flag for flash fiction (and short stories) while I’m at Swanwick. I hope to catch up with fellow Bridge House Publishing/CafeLit/Chapeltown authors at Swanwick too. I may even get some draft flash pieces written.

One such draft began life as a writing exercise set by Simon Hall at Swanwick a few years back. It has been polished and edited and is now in Seeing The Other Side. Just because something is “just” an exercise, it doesn’t mean it has to stay that way!

Fairytales With Bite – Travelling

I’ve not long come back from my annual wonderful world of writing week spent at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick at The Hayes Christian Conference Centre. A fabulous time is had by all and writers come from all over the country, and sometimes further afield as was the case this year, to get here. So a lot of travelling is done! Sometimes travelling is a pleasure and at other times it isn’t. Travelling in a heatwave has its issues.

So let’s think about your magical characters and their setting. How is travelling done in your world? Are there magical transportation systems or is magic kept out of that? What do your characters think about travelling? What places would they love to go to and why? Which would they rather avoid and why? Story ideas there for sure.

If your world has magical and non-magical transportation systems, why were two systems developed? One obvious answer would be to keep the non-magical firmly in their place. But could there be advantages to the non-magical variant the magical one cannot copy or access? Did not having that power mean non-magical characters had to be more inventive and creative in the things they use for travel (and you could extend that idea out to other areas of life too).

Definitely story ideas there!

This World and Others – Professional Gatherings

I see The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick as a chance to “continually professionally develop” (not an easy thing to say quickly, at least not for me!). It is the ethos behind the school.

Writers learn, improve their skills, develop new areas of writing interest or enhance the ones they’re already interested in. A great deal of fun is had too at the school. Why should professional gatherings always be deadly dull? It doesn’t encourage learning for one thing. And the really nice thing here is all of this is for writers who are starting out, who are developing their craft, who are published or not and so on.

So in your magical setting, what would your characters do to “continually professionally develop”? Where would they go? What could they learn? What kind of exams would they face? Are the opportunities available for all? Are standards high? Who monitors that?

How has your character benefited from the professional development they have already had? What would they like to develop further? Could anything or anyone get in the way?

Again, definite story ideas there.

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Author Interview – Val Penny – Murder in Gilmerton

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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. So looking forward to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Will be writing one big blog post on Friday 14th August and will do daily Facebook posts but there won’t be much time to write more while away.
Will be too busy (a) learning from the courses, (b) catching up with friends I only see online the rest of the year, (c) socialising with said friends, (d) enjoying my book launch for Seeing The Other Side and (e) knowing my fellas will be fine, wondering how the dog is doing!

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Am delighted to share a fabulous interview with Val Penny on Chandler’s Ford Today this week called Author Interview – Val Penny – Murder at Gilmerton.

I’m a great believer in having titles which “do as they say on the tin”. It’s a reference to the old Ronseal advert which always claimed “it does what it says on the tin”. Keep it clear and to the point!

Anyway, in this in depth conversation, Val brings us up to date with what has been going on in her writing life since she was last on CFT, not least of which is her move to Joffe Books. We also discuss back story (for series characters and one-off characters, who in Val’s books are often the victims), whether Val can read crime while she is writing her own or not, the advantages of using an area you know well as your setting and much, much more.

Plenty to enjoy here and, as ever, there are useful tips too.

Hope you enjoy the post and good luck with Murder in Gilmerton, Val.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lovely swim, my last one this side of Swanwick.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Author Interview – Val Penny – Murder at Gilmerton on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

Val shares the changes in her writing and publishing life since she was last on CFT and there are plenty of useful thoughts and tips too. Be sure not to miss it, especially if you love crime fiction. Val’s books are a tremendous read but don’t just take my word for it. Check them out after seeing what she has to say about her new release on CFT. Link up tomorrow.

Now I hope to post daily from Swanwick but I will be having a big round up blog via my website after I get back. It will be easier as I mentioned yesterday. I’ll also resume my Substack and YouTube stories after Swanwick but hope to get some drafts down while there.

I do hope to come back buzzing with inspiration, mind you!

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Hope today has gone well. Lady was overjoyed to run around with Coco, the lovely Labradoodle, this morning. Must be a good month since we last met up.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing a smashing interview with Val Penny about Murder in Gilmerton for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do look out for that. Again, see above.

Have packed for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. As I go up by train, I can’t leave this until the last minute but it is good to have it done. Will be posting as and when next week and certain things I will probably leave until I get home again such as my Sunday stories and WordPress round up. Will resume those on my return. To be honest by the time you’ve been to the courses and workshops, caught up with pals, made new pals, enjoyed the evening entertainment, there’s not a lot of energy left for writing!

Naturally am so looking forward to my launch for Seeing The Other Side on Sunday too. Will be a busy and fun few days in the run up to Swanwick, while I am there, and catching up with everything on my return. It is a joy though! (I also anticipate being mugged by the dog on my return too – it’s what she usually does).

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It’s a busy Friday on the article front as my latest post on Writers’ Narrative, Is It Time For Your Characters To Get Away From It All, is also out today.

I look at the advantages of sending your characters away from their usual setting and share some favourite books of mine which have done just that.

Yes, for individual short stories and flash fiction, it is still possible to send a character away on vacation. You simply make it clear somewhere in the narrative they’re not in their usual location.

I look at using holidays as backdrops (which is why they can work so well in any length of tale), I share tips on how to best make use of holiday settings, and I set you a couple of questions which I hope will prove to be a good starting point for your own stories.

Hope you enjoy the post and you and your characters enjoy your holidays!

I’ve mentioned before I like to mix up the moods of the stories I write. Now this isn’t just down to how I’m feeling. I will often write a cheery piece when I feel anything but cheery. It can help and it does take my mind off things for a bit. Writing can be therapeutic like that at times. But I also think this is a reflection of life in general. It is a mix of moods. So how about this for some story ideas?

Theme Tip: Pick a well known proverb or saying and write two stories on it – one to be cheery, one to be anything but cheery (though that still leaves you a good range to choose from). This also makes for a great writing exercise. And if you’re stuck for the proverbs, use the random generators – the phrase one would be good for this.

Hope to draft some flash fiction pieces while I’m at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick shortly but will probably not get to share any on Substack or YouTube until after what is one of the major highlights of my writing year. Mind you, Swanwick is also a great opportunity to wave the flag for flash fiction, which I’m always glad to do.

Am also looking forward to the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side which will be from 7th to 13th September. More news later on that but it is the first time I’m having an “official” blog tour. It also makes a lovely change for me to be on the other side of the fence here as I do often support such tours for other authors so it’s nice to be able to join in myself!

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Get Togethers

I’m shortly going to head off to what I consider to be a magical get together – The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. It is one of the major highlights of my writing year and there is something magical about being able to spend time with writing friends, learning more about the industry, and just being immersed totally in the writing life for a few days.

For your magical characters/setting, what would count as a magical get together when magic, for them, is such an everyday thing? What would it take to make something stand out as special to them? Could it be an event where magic is specifically not allowed and everything is done “manually”?

What could happen against the backdrop of a magical get together which could not happen in ordinary life and who would want to take advantage of such a thing to cause that happening? What are they hoping to achieve? I could see some magical crime stories going on there!

Also, what one character would consider magical, another may think was humdrum. Why the difference in opinion? Who is right? Again there could be story ideas to explore from fleshing this out more – I could see there being clashes between the characters here.

This World and Others – Leaving The World Behind For a While

When I go to my big annual writing event in Derbyshire, which I will be heading to shortly, I get to leave the world behind for a while. For a few days I am immersed in the wonderful world of writing and I love it.

Am I glad to get back to reality again? Yes. Aside from being back with the family again, I am also keen to get to my desk again to write up those ideas I had while I was away. There are various ways to get away from it all for a bit and we are in holiday season as I write this.

So what would your magical/sci-fi characters do when they want to leave their worlds behind for a while (as we all do from time to time)? How easy or otherwise do they find shrugging off their responsibilities for a while? Does the break refresh them or do they come back, wanting to get away from it all on a more permanent basis? Plenty of story ideas there.

Even if the break is a normal holiday one, where would your characters go? How would it differ from their normal environment and is is the differences which draw them here? Do they try to introduce those differences to their home worlds? What kind of outcome/fall out would there be from this as there would be reactions!

Again, story ideas there.

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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.
Had a fabulous weekend. Wonderful family wedding on the Saturday. I took our church service on Sunday and it was a time of peace and quiet reflection, which I appreciated.
Have to watch the hot temperatures again this week for Lady but she’s doing well. Am so looking forward to being at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick very soon. I will be posting as and when I can while there but may do one round up post next week and that on my return.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Cooler but still not quite as cool as Lady and I would like. Still, we’re getting there.

Writing wise, I’m working out what I’d like to be going to at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick later this week. I do have basic ideas but know I will probably change my mind on at least some of them when I get there. It is almost a ritual for many of us! Good to have plenty of choice though!

Will be hosting an ACW group tomorrow night and am looking forward to that. We’ll be discussing all things science fiction/fantasy related though we often spin off into talking about writing issues too.

Character Tip: Know what makes your creations tick. Motivation really is everything. It is such a powerful driver and one readers will get behind even if they don’t approve of what the character is doing. It is, for me, what makes characters come to life almost more than anything else.

The countdown to Swanwick week begins! And that thought has cheered me up considerably given it has been another busy and very hot Monday.

Talking of Monday, it is time to share the story I put up on my Substack platform yesterday. This is one of my moving tales. Hope you enjoy The Newsletter.

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Yesterday’s family wedding was all you’d hope it would be – lovely, fun, and moving and a joy to be at. Managed to get some writing done on the way up to it and then posted the results on the way home! Writing on the move with someone else driving is great!

Pleased to say my author newsletter went out okay yesterday.

Have already packed quite a bit for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. There will a few bits and pieces to do later in the week but that’s it. Anyone would think I was keen!

Talking of this fabulous week, I will be posting at various times and some regular posts I may defer to when I am back home again. For example, my twice weekly blog round up over on my website may become once a week while I’m at Swanwick and then when I’m home. I’ll see how things go and how tired I am!

You get such a buzz from Swanwick in terms of being with other writers, as well as what you learn from the courses and workshops, by the time you get back to your room again, you’re usually just wanting to get some kip. (This is how it should be, of course!).

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Am on my way to a family wedding as I write this though whether I’ll get to post this today remains to be seen. I do love the notes app on my phone. Always use it when out and about. Have drafted plenty of useful material with it.

Writing wise, I’ll be welcoming Scottish crime writer, Val Penny, back to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her Murder in Gilmerton, which is part of her DI Hunter Wilson series.

Much has happened since I last interviewed Val, not least of which is her move to Joffe Books. We discuss that and more in an in-depth interview. Do look out for it next Friday.

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Have got a potential 250 word flash competition to have a go at, news of which landed in my inbox earlier this week. If I get any time at Swanwick, I will draft some thoughts, else it will be something I may have a go at on the train journeys up there and/or home again.

Love getting some writing done on the train and flash is wonderful for this. I can get a draft down in about half an hour or so, depending on word count.

Flash Tip: If you’re wondering what to write about, think about the themes which intrigue you the most and start from there. Look at why they intrigue you. Ideas may well start to spring up just by doing that. Guess how I know!

It’s Monday. It’s hot. It’s busy. It’s still hot. It’s still Monday. Time for another story from my YouTube channel then.

Hope you enjoy Spreading The News. Both this tale and my Substack one focus on a newsletter this time. Hope you enjoy both of them but now for the YouTube tale.

There are always consequences for critics of the fairy government. Find out what happens to Jasminda here.

 

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly after a busy weekend. Family wedding yesterday and I took a church service this morning. Part of my theme for that was the importance of keeping themes simple and to the point. They’re easier to remember that way. Oh and stories are a fantastic way of getting themes across to folk (and without preaching, which I know sounds ironic, but you really do want people to remember the theme).

None of this is new to any fiction writer, of course. For those of us focusing on the short forms, I think it is even more important for your theme to stand out. It will do a lot of the “heavy lifting” for you in terms of your word count if you get your characters to show the theme in “action”.

Readers will pick up on the inferences. Inference plays a huge role in short fiction, especially flash. And I must admit it is an aspect to flash I adore. I like to work things out. I just need the right clues from the author to do so.

Also delighted news of Seeing The Other Side went out on the Association of Christian Writers newsletter – again it’s a perk of membership. What’s nice about ACW is you have such a wide range of writers here – those, like me, who are Christians working in the secular market and others who do write direct devotional items. A broad church indeed.

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Inspiration for flash stories can come from practically anywhere but when you get to do some general observations, you can be spoiled for choice.

Am at a family wedding today so suspect ideas might strike if colours, clothing etc catch my eye. Will also have great observational opportunities when I head up to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick soon.

I always change something about what catches my eye and do likewise with prompts of any kind. I like to put my own spin on these things.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Events

Now that my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side, is now out, I’m thinking about book events. There will be a launch at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick and my publisher is planning an online event. I’ll also be having an event in Salisbury in early September (5th). I hope there will be more to come too.

Book events are obviously great for writers but how about for readers?

I think events are great opportunities for readers to discover writers whose work is new to them and you get the chance to quiz the authors. We love being asked about what we write! So if you can support author events, it would be much appreciated.

Events can also be fabulous parts of stories, of course. Given events of all kinds have an impact on us, it would be odd for this not to be reflected in fiction. Where would Pride and Prejudice be without the ball at Netherfield or The Lord of The Rings without Gandalf turning up in The Shire? That was seen as a big event especially by Frodo who had no idea then just how big a turning point it would be for him.

So let’s celebrate the events, whether we hold them, go to them, or read about them.

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