Tag: author

The Love of Books and Why It Matters

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Hope you had a good weekend. Busy one here in that I took in a murder mystery play, cleared a load of leaves, and got on with plenty of writing. Lady hasn’t appreciated the fireworks at all but thankfully they didn’t go on for too long.

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Hope you have had a good Tuesday. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals again today and all three of them had a great time in the park.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to welcoming Penny Rogers to Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.

My Flash NANO campaign is going well so far. Looking forward to having a go at today’s prompt later on this evening.

Character Tip: What is the most important thing about your character for you? Is it how they look? Is it their attitudes? Is it something specific they’ve done (or not done) which makes life better for someone else? Bound to be story ideas there!

Hope today has gone well. Another busy Monday here though Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Good time had by all.

Have begun my Flash NANO campaign for a final year. This is the last one ever (boo hoo!) but I have used one of the stories I’ve drafted so far this year as my YouTube video for this week. Will share in separate post shortly. See further down under From Light to Dark and Back Again. It is great fun to take part in the challenge again though.

Writing Tip: I’ve found it useful, when responding to any prompt, to just get a draft down as quickly as I can. I then hone and polish it later after a break away from it but there is something about quick writing which I find helps make the ideas flow fast too. I like to try to capitalize on that.

Hope you have had a good weekend. The weather has been a mixed bag. Nice to see all of the autumn leaves around though. Am having to take the dog out earlier due to the clocks going back an hour recently. Fireworks season has also started. Lady isn’t keen on these, as you can imagine, but we have a good routine to help her though I wish folk would switch to the silent fireworks. You can get them more easily now.

Writing wise, I’ll be on to flash fiction Sunday afternoon/evening shortly and am looking forward to sharing a fabulous interview with Penny Rogers (aka Penny Dale), a fellow Bridge House Publishing author, on Chandler’s Ford Today next week.

Am also busy preparing two reviews. I like writing these though the challenge is in ensuring you give enough away to show what a good show was performed without giving away too much of the story line.

For the very famous plays, this isn’t so much of an issue because the story line is already famous. But for lesser known plays, I don’t want to spoil the story in case people can get to see it elsewhere.

Busy day. Author newsletter out again. (1st November 2025). Cant believe where the time goes.

Had a fabulous time watching a murder mystery play at the Dovetail Centre in Chandler’s Ford today. Will review in due course but firstly on Chandler’s Ford Today, there will be a fab interview with Penny Rogers (also known as Penny Dale). Link up on Friday.

Then I’ll be reviewing Ghost Train recently performed by The Chameleons. Then I’ll review the murder mystery play I saw today. This was wonderfully called The Business of Murder (written by Mike Standing – great story line).

So there’s a lot going on and all of it fun I’m glad to say!

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Hope today has gone well. Mixed bag weather wise.

Our characters are mixed bags too. Nobody is fully perfect or evil (in most kinds of fiction). So think about what you like and dislike in your characters? What can you get from that to give you ideas for some flash pieces?

It’s Monday, a hectic, dark and damp one! Time for a story then and this week’s YouTube video from me is the result of a Flash NANO prompt for this year. This is pretty good going from me as Flash NANO only started on Saturday (1st November)! Hope you enjoy my story Back In Time.


Flash is wonderful for putting a different spin on fairytales.Indeed, it is my favourite kind of flash story to write (and read). I tend to focus on a “side” character to the main story and show something of them and have found this works best when kept short. There is no time for it to be gimmicky but it can pack a punch when it needs to do so. Fairytale flash is often wonderful for humour too and I do love short sharp tales which end with a laugh.

November is a month full of memories. I know every month is to an extent but I particularly feel this for November because of Remembrance Sunday.

So how can we use memories in our flash fiction pieces when the word count is limited? Memories often take up a lot of words when written down after all.

I’ve found the best way of managing this is to focus on one particular memory for one particular character and that is their story. Sometimes that will result in a flash piece of under 500 words but more often I’ve found I have needed 750 to 1000 words here.

Having said that, these stories can be incredibly touching and are moving to write (and I hope to read too).

Goodreads Author Blog – The Love of Books and Why It Matters

One of my most frustrating moments as a writer and reader came at a Book Fair I had a table at some years ago. The Book Fair was wonderful, I loved being with fellow writers and joy of joys, I sold books. So what was frustrating?

Simply it was when I overhead someone go past by my table and saying very loudly “I don’t like books”. I had to bite my tongue because the obvious retort to that was “why are you here then” but I figured that retort wouldn’t help.

The comment saddened me too,. What was behind the dislike? Problems with reading? Or simply they hadn’t found a genre (ore more) of books which appealed to them? Or did they simply think reading wasn’t for them?

One challenge all writers face now is having to compete with other forms of entertainment. Now I love books, I love music, I love films, and have no problem in enjoying all of these things but is it me or do people these days feel they have to stick to one creative thing they like and no more?

I am also conscious all writers owe a huge debt to those writing for children of all ages. If you can get a child hooked on to books early in life, they are likely to keep the habit of reading for pleasure going and that is what the love of books matters.

No love of books and you miss out on so many wonderful stories because they’re not all made into films! Even when they are, why not check out the original book anyway?

I do hope the forthcoming festive season will lead to more books being bought for all ages and this Christmas someone will get to discover the love of reading for the first time.

I do think that is such a special moment.

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Author News – Allison Symes – Out and About With ACW

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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. Many thanks to Janet Williams, my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today, for the image of me at the most recent Hiltingbury Book Fair. I now use this as my Gravatar! Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Had a lovely time watching The Chameleons perform Arnold Ridley’s Ghost Train. Review to follow in due course. Am off to another amateur production soon too. It’s all go. Author newsletter out again tomorrow. How can it be almost November already?

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31st October 2025 – First Post

Am thrilled to share Author News – Allison Symes – Out and About with ACW as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week, I review last week’s Autumn Gathering run by the Association of Christian Writers. I reflect on the presentations given (with so many helpful thoughts for all writers) and celebrate what was a lovely event. Hope you enjoy the post.

Author News – Allison Symes – Getting Out and About with ACW

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31st October 2025 – second post

As an extra post to the Chandler’s Ford Today one, I am delighted to say the Association of Christian Writers now has its own YouTube channel.

One thing to come out of the Egham day was that ACW members in attendance with books out had the opportunity to share a little bit about their books on this channel. Hope you enjoy the video below.

You will spot I am in full “just come in from a walk mode” here (so apologies for the wild hair but it is the authentic me you are getting!) but do check out the other authors and books here. There will be more videos to come too. There was a fantastic range of ACW works at the book table last week.

 

Hope the day has gone well. Quiet over the park but Lady and I had a lovely time. I then got on with my autumn working out – raking up leaves. (Lady is no good at this but is excellent in running through leaves, scattering them everywhere).

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Author News – Allison Symes – Out and About with ACW for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I’ll be looking back at a fabulous event in Egham last weekend and share some of what I thought came out from the theme of the presentations, all useful for any writer. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Am off out this evening to see The Chameleons’ latest production – Ghost Train (which was written by Arnold Ridley of Dad’s Army fame, he was Godfrey in that). Will review for CFT in due course. Will say now it was an excellent story but more to come in a future review.

Pleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with my latest blog post, Memories and Fiction. I look at how memories can inspire fiction and why characters should have memories (it helps make them more believable for one thing). Hope you enjoy the post.

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I don’t celebrate Halloween as I prefer to commemorate 1st November – All Souls Day – where you remember and celebrate those who have gone to heaven.

But for this week’s Friday Flash Fiction story I have come up with an appropriately titled piece for this time of year. I hope you enjoy Pumpkins.

One thing with flash is it is suitable for almost any topic but you do have to focus on one particular moment, one particular character. The essence of flash is to hone a story down to its essence.

What can be tricky is working out what the particular moment is you have to share with readers. Often you’ll have a great idea for a story but it will take more than your allowed word count to put in everything you want so you have to hone down to get to the spirit of the piece and focus on what will serve that alone.

It is why flash is a wonderful discipline and why it will do so much for your editing skills. With time and practice, you develop skills and instincts as to what does really matter in your stories.

Hope today has gone well. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal on what has been a murky day here.
I don’t tend to use the weather much in my flash and other stories. It can be open to cliche but you could use weather to influence your character’s mood and, as a result, what their attitude and behaviour might be. This will be especially effective if other characters in your story know your lead person isn’t normally like this.

Also the weather can be used to put another obstacle (or several) in your character’s way. What will they do/can they do to overcome that?

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Events

What kind of events are commemorated in your magical setting? I am thinking along the lines of historical events for your world but it could also include “scientific” discoveries in the field of magic being commemorated, especially if they have brought great benefits to your setting.

For example, if a particular spell helped boost your world’s equivalent of medicine, how would that be commemorated? Would your characters be encouraged to look at how life was before it was discovered and compare it with how things are now?

Naturally such events could be manipulated to keep folk under control so who would be behind that and why did they feel the need to have the Roman equivalent of “bread and circuses” to contain their magical world?

Who set up magical events in the first place and, even where there is a good reason for having these things, what did they have to do to persuade others to have these things?

I’ve always imagined that organising magical beings to do anything would be like herding cats – technically possible, of course, but nigh on impossible to actually do, so how did your person get these things set up?

Could be some funny stories here. Also there could be good stories to be had with the magical event concerned as the backdrop.

This World and Others – Commemorations and Sombre Events

Now for Fairytales with Bite above, I was assuming the magical events in question would be jolly ones. But there are other types of events of course, including formal commemorations and more sombre events.

For example, what would your world’s equivalent be of Remembrance Sunday? All worlds would have some history behind them. If there is one thing I do know about history, it is that it is so often grim. And while that may not come into play for your story directly, a world setting would hint at its past in some way, including things like this. It would help a reader picture your world more. It would make it seem more real.

Also your characters would refer to events of any kind going on, especially if you did use them as a backdrop. Also it could form part of their conversation – e.g. “did you get to Event X last week? Did you hear what happened?” etc. That kind of chatter would have a direct impact on your story. There would be consequences from the chatter as well as from readers finding out what did happen.

In the development of magic, there would be good developments and bad ones. So could your more sombre events remember those times when things went badly wrong? How did your world come to terms with this? What impact does it have on your setting now? Were your characters involved in these things in any way or are they the descendants of those behind what may well have been a tragedy? How do they come to terms with the past here?


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Writers and Stationery – A Match Made In Heaven

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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. Images of me with CafeLit 13 and Creativity Matters were taken by Adrian Symes. Many thanks to Wendy H Jones for the other Creativity Matter shot with the rosette on it (love that rosette!). Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week., Pleased to announce I will be changing newsletter service provider from 1st May. I have put in the link to the new one where you can subscribe now. This link is on other pages of my website too now. Lady has had a lovely week with her friends int he park – as have I!

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Hope you have had a good day Lady had a lovely time in the sunshine with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal this morning. Great time had by both dogs.

Delighted to share my latest Chandler’s Ford Today post. This week, I talk about Writers and Stationery – A Match Made In Heaven. I don’t know of any writer who has enough notebooks and pens!

Fun post to write. Just to prove that, here’s the opening line.

With apologies to the late Jane Austen, I will start by saying it is a truth universally acknowledged that writers have two obsessions, okay three if you count chocolate, but what are the other two?

Hope you enjoy a cheerful post written in a cheerful spirit!

Writers and Stationery – A Match Made In Heaven

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Lady and I made the most of a lovely sunny day again today. Didn’t get to see any of her pals today unfortunately. Lady had to put up with me but she made do well enough!

Will be sharing Writers and Stationery – A Match Made in Heaven on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. Such fun to write. Hope you will enjoy the post too.

Newsletter News: Just to say I am changing my newsletter email service provider. Sadly, my current one is stopping the free plan (as from June), which is more than enough for my needs as things stand at the moment so have found another leading service provider instead. I didn’t want to leave this until the last minute so have made the switch now.

For new subscribers, I do have the link set up so you can sign up both my via website and I will also be sharing the link again on my website/blog round up post tomorrow. I’m also sharing it here. See screenshot below for what the new sign up form looks like.

The first newsletter to go out with the new service provider will be the May one. Any queries, do contact me via my contact form via my website.

Hope you had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Lovely time had by all.

Had a lovely Zoom meeting re editing at lunchtime and am looking forward to another webinar this evening on storytelling. Zoom has made a lot of things possible including learning more about your craft without having to travel anywhere. It means I can take part in more things than I would otherwise have done and I’ve made the most of this, especially over the last couple of weeks or so.

Zoom Tip: I prepare presentations on PowerPoint when I run groups on Zoom but it pays to have a practice run on this ahead of your meeting. I do rehearse short stories and flash (especially for Open Prose Mic Nights) via Zoom but you can do the same with presentations. 

I do find on the run though I will think of other ideas to add in to make the presentation more useful. I think this is because I am putting myself in the audience seat when doing such run throughs and I can spot any gaps or something which would be additionally useful that much more easily.

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No Friday Flash Fiction story from me this week as the submissions window isn’t open again after the Andrew Siderius competition. The window will be reopen again soon and I will flag it up when I know it is.

Writing for FFF has got me back to the joy of writing the 100 word tales, which was my introduction to flash fiction in the first place. Also bear in mind the 100 words limit is a popular competitions one so it is worth practicing writing to this flash category.

You still need a proper beginning , middle and end but it is often at these lower word counts, I work out the ending first and then plan backwards to get to the start. It gives me a structure and I can confirm it works. No danger of running out of word count for the ending because I have already sorted that out. Helps keep me on track for a tight beginning and middle too. No waffle room at all! That is a great thing.


Just to confirm the news I’ve shared over on my author page, I am changing my newsletter email service provider. Link here. First newsletter out on the new provider on 1st May where I will continue to share news, tips, story links, and celebrate all things flash fiction related in particular. Any queries, do contact me via the contact form on my website.

Looking forward to getting on with more flash fiction writing over the weekend. This kind of admin is rarely fun!

Another glorious day. I don’t usually use the weather at all in my stories which is for two reasons.

Firstly, I want to avoid cliche (yes, like the proverbial plague!).

Secondly, I am usually focusing on what my character is saying, thinking, or doing. To me that has always been more interesting.

But there is no reason why you can’t use the weather to reflect or contrast with your character’s moods. You could use the weather conditions to make those moods better or worse (and readers will then want to find out what the outcome will be). Moods will have a direct impact on actions and attitudes – they do for us after all!

Fairytales with Bite – New Starts

How easy would it be for your character to make a new start in their magical setting? Fairy godmothers and their ilk aren’t exactly going to be able to pretend they’re not magical so if someone has had enough, or retires, what happens? Can they hang up the old magic wand and have a new start? Do they find they can’t give magic up altogether or is it a case magic won’t let them go?

For non-magical characters, where do they fit into your society? Are they prized for special skills not available to those who are magical? (You could also look at the reasons they they’re not available There could be some interesting stories here). Are they looked down on? Are they expected to be in certain stations in life? Can anyone break the mould here?

What would a new start mean for your character in terms of how they would break the news to whom they are closest to – or do they just get on with the new start anyway and deal with the consequences later on?

This World and Others – Career Changes

Linking in with Fairytales with Bite, new starts can often led to career changes. Why would your characters want to change careers, how easy or otherwise do they find this, and does it work out for them? Good story possibilities there.

Are certain characters encouraged to change careers and what is the motivation behind that? Could be good – no not! (Someone wanting to get a certain character out of the way for a job they want perhaps?).
Is there such a thing as a Careers Advisory Service in your setting? (There could be humorous possibilities here).

When a career change has happened, how does your character adjust? What inevitable mistakes do they make? How would this impact on the story as a whole?

Good possibilities for serious and humorous stories here, I think. This is where we can write about what we know of the working world but put it in a different magical setting and adjust accordingly. There would be careers in the magical world we wouldn’t have obviously but it could work the other way around. Your setting needs skills only the non-magical have. (Could this be behind alien abduction stories, they need someone do do the cleaning! Just a thought!).

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Making The Most of An Author Interview

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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 so far. Lady has seen plenty of her friends so she definitely has! Writing wise, I enjoyed an online book launch for a Bridge House Publishing colleague and am happily busy editing and writing. Have also spotted first crocuses out and that has cheered me up immensely. Spring is on its way, honestly! Oh and to finish the working week nicely my story on Friday Flash Fiction this week is the Editor’s Choice. More below on that.

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Lady had a fabulous start to her Friday by getting to play with Coco, the lovely Labradoodle, and her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal. All three went home tired and happy and well managed to beat the rain.

Delighted to share Making The Most of An Author Interview for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Hope you find it useful. I share thoughts and tips on preparing for text interviews and appearing on podcasts/radio. I also look at how preparation is key and sharing your story amongst other things here.

Making the Most of an Author Interview

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Damp and murky day again today but it didn’t stop Lady from having a good run around this morning and a good long walk this afternoon.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Making the Most of an Author Interview on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. I share thoughts and tips and hope you will find it useful. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Received some lovely writing news which I can’t say too much about now but hope to do so later in the year. Cheered up a wet Thursday for me I can tell you.

When you get moments like this (and note I say when!), cherish them. They help a lot. Doesn’t matter if they seem “small”, they’re not to you! And these things can mount up over time. It is often the case one thing will lead to another. I found flash fiction thanks to writing short stories. And a lot has come from just that discovery!

 
Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal and, separately, got to play with Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Lady is having a smashing week so far!

Looking forward to supporting a Bridge House Publishing online book launch later. Also next week will be when the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meets again.

Will be discussing Making the Most of an Author Interview for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on Friday. And I hope there will be more author interviews here before too long. Plenty going on.

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Delighted to be on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest story, Best Advice. Also thrilled to be the Editors’ Choice this week. Nice way to end the working week! Find out what happens when Kate asks Mel for advice and is Kate pleased with the outcome?
I’ve used objects before as prompts for flash fiction. Sometimes I’ve used a random object generator to come out with those.

The great thing about using that is I have no idea what can come up until I’ve actually generated it and then there’s the challenge of well, what can I do with this?

I find this a great way to challenge myself and highly recommend it. You can change the parameters on generators like this so there’s nothing to stop you having two or more objects to put into a story.

The advantage of using objects like that is (a) you’re not going to run out of things to choose to use here and (b) you can then think about who owns/has owned the object and great stories can just come from answering that.

When I enter competitions, I assume if I haven’t heard back within two months, its a no. I will then review the story, see if I can make any improvements, and, often sent it back out somewhere else. I’ve had work published that way.

I must admit this is where I find joining in with Flash NANO especially helpful as I know by the end of November each year, I will have thirty new draft flash stories to look through and polish up. I hope to get at least some of them out into the open market.

Fairytales with Bite – Over the Rainbow

Naturally in coming up with this topic my first thoughts turned to The Wizard of Oz but how would it be if you had characters who were so “over the rainbow” when it came to magical powers etc? 

Could any of them willingly give these up to make a new life for themselves elsewhere without magic and, if so, how would they get on? Would they be tempted to resume using magic to make their new lives easier to cope with and could there be consequences from that? Potential for humour here I think.

As for those who live “over the rainbow” what are their lives and settings like? Would we want to visit or be only too keen to stay away? Story ideas there too I think, especially if you take the views rainbows are lovely to look at (as they indeed are) but what is behind them?

Could there be something less pleasant lurking and the residents of beyond the rainbow know this only too well? Could they even envy humans because we do not face the things they do?

This World and Others – What is Fantastical Anyway?

Just how would you define fantastical? If we look back in time it is not too hard a stretch of the imagination to visualise our ancestors seeing the things we do and have (especially in technological terms) as fantastical.

When we look at what we know the word could do with and doesn’t yet have which would benefit humanity (and indeed the whole of creation ideally as well), we could consider inventions to sort these things out as fantastical precisely because we don’t have them now.

A magical world would not consider magic to be particularly special unless there are new developments in the field, so to speak. A scientifically based one would take the same vie on science. And when you have visitors to other worlds, what would they consider to be fantastical but the residents do not?

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