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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Anita D Hunt and Lynsey Adams for pictures supplied for the Chandler’s Ford Today post this week.

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

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

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

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

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

Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

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

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady didn’t get to see any of her pals today though she hopefully will tomorrow. Have a family event at the weekend. Lady loves these because (a) she loves people, (b) she loves getting extra food and getting to be an outside Hoover, and (c) she loves playing with the visiting dog, with whom she gets on brilliantly. Am expecting Lady to be shattered on Saturday night. She was last time but happily so!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fairytales with Bite – Flying Around

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

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

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

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

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

This World and Others – Policing the Skies

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

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

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

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

Story ideas here (and possibly funny ones too).

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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It’s Friday, end of the week time, weather iffy so definitely time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – The Old Bat and The Cookie Tin. Think I’ve found a contender for one of my all time favourite titles!https://t.co/SoNEdSo8GF pic.twitter.com/nDyb07y3CB

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 27, 2024

Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt https://t.co/kiOYshPN53 As part of her blog tour, I'm delighted to welcome fellow Swanwicker, Anita D Hunt, to CFT to discuss her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain. She shares useful tips and great advice in this in depth interview.

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 27, 2024