Tag: author interview

“Seconds”

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Many thanks to Val Penny for supplying book and author pics for her interview with me for Chandler’s Ford Today. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes.
Brr… it has got colder this week and even the dog noticed it. Hope you have had a good week. Am looking forward to Bridge House Publishing’s annual celebration event in London tomorrow (3rd December). Always good fun and it will be so nice to catch up with folk in person once again.

Feature Image - Interview - Val Penny - Seconds

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am delighted to welcome back Scottish crime writer, Val Penny, back to Chandler’s Ford Today. In her interview called Seconds, Val celebrates the second edition of Hunter’s Revenge, which is the second book in her DI Hunter Wilson series.

“Seconds” come into a writer’s life in many ways and Val and I explore some of these too here, including the issues of secondary rights and second person point of view. Hope you enjoy it.

Good luck to Val as well with the launch of Hunter’s Revenge.

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Cold today but given the date that is no surprise – welcome to December! Author newsletter went out today. Looking forward to chatting to Val Penny once again on Chandler’s Ford Today this week – link for that up tomorrow. See above.

Feeling a little bit at a loss given Flash NANO has now ended. Had such a good time taking part in that. Will now be taking my own advice to rest my stories for a while and then come back and edit them later. Giving myself some distance from what I’ve written is the single one way I’ve found helps me judge a tale objectively enough. I think it is because you come back to the stories and read them as a reader, almost as if someone else has written them, and you want that effect to see what works and what needs strengthening or deleting.

Had a lovely time on the ACW Flash Fiction Group last night. I shared some thoughts on using the positive and negative aspects to character traits such as honesty etc. Great way into knowing your character well enough to be able to write their stories up at all.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady did – she got to play with her three favourite girl friends today – good time had by all. Nice mixture of sizes here – Lady as a collie, then her friends who were a Ridgeback, a Vizler and a Labradoodle.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting later on – always good fun. Hope to have a go at the last prompt from Flash NANO after that meeting. Where has the month gone? I’ve loved the variety of prompts here. Kept me on my toes!

I’m looking forward also to welcoming back Val Penny to Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday as she celebrates the second edition of Hunter’s Revenge coming out. Now there are a number of “seconds” which can crop up in a writer’s life and Val and I will be looking at some of those too as part of her interview. Again see above. I was surprised when putting this interview together just how many writing seconds there are. I suspect I haven’t covered all but there is useful information in the post about ALCS and secondary rights.

My next newsletter goes out tomorrow. Hard to believe the next one will be on New Year’s Day!

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It’s the end of the working week. It has been a really cold day. It’s getting dark far too early in the afternoon. At least it is in my part of the world! Time for a story then. This bit is always true regardless of where you are!

Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction which is called Time To Move On. See what you make of the Judith in this story.

The eagle-eyed among you will recognize my YouTube story out this week (on Monday) also had a character called Judith. I will often use the same topic that comes up in a random generator for two different stories – one for my YouTube channel and the other for Friday Flash Fiction. I take the two stories in different directions/moods. Here I used a random name generator for my purposes and then thought what could I do with two different Judiths!

Screenshot 2022-12-02 at 09-59-08 Time To Move On by Allison Symes

Useful tip if you’re thinking about sharing flash stories via Open Prose Mic Nights and the like (also for broadcasting) – practice reading your story to yourself and record it via Zoom. As well as having an mp4 file to play back at the end of the meeting with yourself, you can get your timings right here too.

You can also hear where the story works well, where it may seem weak, and hear it as a reader would take it in – that’s useful because it will flag up what may grip the reader, and what may not. You’ve then got time to sort things out before submitting that piece or reading it out to a live audience.

Talking of broadcasting, I was sorry to hear of the death of Ron Clark, who was the owner of Chat and Spin Radio, which is now closed. I did a couple of author interviews on there. It was great fun to do and Ron will be much missed. It was a nice way of spreading the word about books and the joy of reading and a great experience to take part in a show like that.

May be an image of 1 person and text that says "Using Zoơm to record a meeting with yourself is useful way ofbeing able to play back a story as Zoom converts file to mp4 for you. You can then hear a story as reader would take it in."

I’ve loved taking part in Flash NANO. Will happily sign up for that again. Many thanks to Denise d’Souza and Dominic Barton for telling me about this. The mixture of prompts was great. Even ones I’ve done before, such as writing a story based around a number, made me think about new ways to do that.

It is good practice to write to prompts which is why I use the random generators a lot. It makes you come up with something and once you have that you can then work on it and after the right editing you have a story ready to submit somewhere. Mixing up the type of generators you use gives you good practice in coming up with stories in different ways. Always handy when you are then set prompts by someone else!

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Fairytales with Bite – Purpose of Fairytales

One of the purposes of fairytales was to act as warnings about behaviour – e.g. don’t go off with the Big Bad Wolf. It will end in tears. And it was done in an entertaining way to ensure people remembered the message. Jesus told parables because storytelling is a great way to get a message across. People remember the story, they remember the message.

For me, one of the great joys of reading fairytales as a child was knowing that somehow right would be seen to be done. This is why Hans Christen Andersen’s The Little Mermaid where there isn’t the traditional happy ending as such did come as a surprise. But there was purpose there too – to show life isn’t all happy ever afters.

Now when I write my humorous flash pieces which are often fairytale/magical world related, I’m not looking to convey a purpose as such. I want my characters to show “their” stories and the purpose will be implied by what they say and do.

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This World and Others – The Entertainment Scene

In your fictional setting, what would pass for entertainment? Are there such things as theatre, radio, film etc? Is there a literary culture or tourism? What would the entertainment scene be like and is it accessible to all?

How have things changed over time? I am glad my country no longer has bear baiting for example, so entertainment scene changes can be for the better. Not that everyone welcomes changes so in your stories, could you show those resistant to change, even in something like entertainment? How would they keep their old ways going?

Are there those who oppose entertainment of any kind and what would they be prepared to do to stop others enjoying it?

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Seasonal Stories, Publication News, and a Lady With a Grudge

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. It is always great fun to come up with titles for my posts here. All of the above apparently unrelated topics are covered below! Hope you enjoy.BookBrushImage-2022-11-29-20-3957

Facebook – General

It’s my turn once again on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. Aptly, now we are in Advent, I talk about Seasonal Stories. I talk about writing festive flash fiction and also the importance of planning well ahead for writing for the seasonal markets. I also look at what I love to read over the Christmas period.

Hope you enjoy your seasonal writing and reading.

 

Has been a very busy Monday. Am hoping for a less hectic Tuesday!

One nice task today though was to put in my order for my copies of Evergreen, the latest Bridge House Publishing book. More news on this below. I’m going to be picking up my copies at their celebration event in London on Saturday and am so looking forward to that. These events are always great fun. The event will also be celebrating The Best of CafeLit 11 which was out a little earlier this year.

Looking forward also to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Wednesday this week.

And on Thursday, I send out my latest author newsletter.

Writing Tip: If you use the random generators to trigger story ideas, as I often do, make sure you mix up the ones you use. Firstly it’s not so much fun if you just stick to one or two. Secondly, other generators will stretch you. I didn’t think I could get stories out of the random number generator, for example, until I gave it a go.

 

Hope you have had a lovely Sunday. It’s Advent Sunday today and it was lovely to see the Christmas tree up in our church this morning.

Many thanks for the congratulations coming in on my story Never Old – Ever Green and Good To Go (a title which in many ways is my motto!) appearing in the new Bridge House Publishing anthology, Evergreen. Much appreciated, folks. Now you know what the publication news is in the title of this post!

Also thanks for the great response to my two part interview with Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today recently.

Am glad to report I have another super author interview coming up this coming Friday, when I get to talk again to Scottish crime writer, Val Penny. Looking forward to sharing that on Friday. The theme will be “seconds” – it’s an interesting tag for this one.

Hope all who are taking part in Flash NANO are having a great time with it – I am. Can hardly believe we’re almost at the end of the month and the prompts.#

 

Am thrilled to say I am back in print again with a short story, Never Old – Ever Green and Good To Go, in the brand new anthology from Bridge House Publishing. This is called Evergreen – an Anthology and I am pleased to be between the covers again with familiar names and new authors. For more details see The Bridgetowncafe Bookshop link.

And well done, everyone, who has a story in here – the buzz of being published never diminishes. Nor should it!

Screenshot 2022-11-27 at 15-12-29 Evergreen eBook Multiple Hobbs-Wyatt Debz James Gill Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store

Screenshot 2022-11-26 at 17-10-44 Evergreen

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Many thanks for the views coming in on Judith, my latest YouTube story. It seems my lady with a grudge has some fans!

Don’t forget my author newsletter goes out on Thursday. My monthly newsletter is a great reminder of how quickly the year is flying.

Will be tackling another interesting challenge from Flash NANO later on. Am so pleased with how things have worked out here.

While my stories need further editing and polishing, to have 30 new stories in a month is great. Would I take part in this again? Oh yes.

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28th November 2022 – Second post
Almost forgot to mention my new YouTube tale is now out there. See what you make of Judith – a lady with a grudge against… well I’ll leave you to find out! Hope you enjoy it!

28th November
Have selected the pieces I hope to read from From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic for my London trip on Saturday. This is always a fun task!

Am working on a flash piece I hope to enter for a competition (deadline is the end of the year. I will aim to have it sorted and submitted in the next week or two as I always take time off any official deadline to give me time to make sure I haven’t missed anything and still get the story in on good time.

Good rule of thumb to remember here is it is okay for them to be late. It isn’t all right for you to be late! This is probably a hangover from my pre-driving days when I took the same view with buses – and rightly so too!).

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Looking forward to a trip to London on Saturday when I go to the Bridge House Publishing event. Part of the celebrations here include reading stories and I hope to read two or three of my flash pieces here. The nice thing with flash is each story doesn’t take long and I like to mix up story length and mood. Also had fun packing my book bag ready for Saturday (well, I like to be ready for these things!).

Almost at the end of Flash NANO – hard to believe where the time has gone. I’ve got something for each of the challenges set and plenty of editing to do in December but that’s fine.

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Hope you have a good day. Am so pleased to have another publication credit (Never Old – Ever Green and Good To Go is my short story in Evergreen an Anthology published by Bridge House Publishing).

I am making good progress on the Flash NANO challenges – can’t believe the month has almost gone.

And am so looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing celebration event next Saturday. Will be good to see people again. Especially since this event has had to be cancelled due to Covid in the past, it will be so nice to meet up.

I’m getting my next author newsletter ready to go out on 1st December. I share flash information and tips here as well as my news. To sign up head over to the landing page at my website – https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Have also spent time today preparing a certain wish list for a certain festive event – books are included – surprise, surprise, not!

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Goodreads Author Blog – ‘Tis The Season To Buy Books!

The 27th November 2022 is Advent Sunday, the day the Church begins the countdown to Christmas. Certainly it is at about this time of year I get present lists up together and books are very much included here! It is a joy to select books for others as well as giving my family a wish list for books I’d like to have.

Okay, you can always tell a book-shaped present for what it is under the Christmas tree but there is joy in spotting those there too!

I like a mixture of books as presents to me. This year I’ve opted for a couple of crime novels and a humorous book which is part of a series I love. Kindle books I tend to get as and when I want them and I often try out authors new to me by downloading their ebooks first. If I really like their work, I will often to go for the next book in paperback.

One thing the pandemic has changed for me is that I haven’t been in to the big shopping centres (and therefore the big bookshops) for a while. I don’t know yet if that will change for this year but I do, whenever possible, support a variety of online retailers, including those who support the independent bookshops. Do look out for those. I also support smaller bookshops when I can. They all have a lovely ambience to them and that’s reason enough to go in and support those!

I hope you have a lovely season buying books and then the great joy of having several to unwrap on Christmas Day!

Screenshot 2022-11-26 at 19-53-57 'Tis The Season To Buy Books!

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Opening Lines, a Reading Acrostic, and a Reader Hub

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots (and photo of Lady) were taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Dawn Kentish Knox for taking the photo of me reading at a previous Bridge House Publishing event. Very much looking forward to going to the 2022 one!
Hope you have had a good few days – weather stormy and then next day gorgeous sunshine. It’s a case of looking out of the window and thinking big coat or not today then! This will be the position for the next few months – certainly till at least early March.

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Facebook – General

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady got to play with her “boyfriend”, a lovely tri-coloured Aussie Shepherd today. Both got a good run!

Am looking forward to sharing Part 2 of my interview with Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. This week we’ll be discussing short stories and flash fiction, other areas in which our paths have crossed, writing wise.

Have booked my tickets for the Bridge House Publishing event in London on 3rd December. Looking forward to that very much. Will be giving a reading at that event too. Flash is ideal for that kind of thing – you cannot go on for too long!

 

To say Lady and I got wet this morning is something of an understatement. Had Noah been passing, we’d have thumbed a lift.

Now I use Book Brush to design graphics with and I love using their tools to help me achieve great images for my blog posts. (I use them all the time for Chandler’s Ford Today, Authors Electric, Mom’s Favorite Reads, More than Writers etc). I’ve now set up my Reader Hub page on this (it is a new feature) where I can share pictures, my social media links and a bit about what I write, all in one handy place. Very pleased with this and am sure it will prove useful.
Screenshot 2022-11-21 at 20-00-26 Allison Symes - Author Reader HubProgressing well with Flash NANO. One of my pieces for this I plan to use for my YouTube tale this week so look out for that when I share the link tomorrow. See below. I’ve mentioned before about having a “stock” of stories ready for competitions, markets etc. Taking part in Flash NANO is a great way to build up a good stock!

I’ve shared a couple of my pieces on the Flash NANO Facebook group (as these stories needed little alteration) but I won’t share everything there because I know there is plenty of work to do on my other tales before I want anyone else seeing them! Having said that, I am loving reading what others are sharing here – it does to pay to read in your genre as well as outside of it. It always reminds me of why I love the flash format. And it is such a fun thing to do so win-win!

 

Hope you have had a good day. Many thanks for the lovely comments coming in on Cat Chat, my new tale (or should that be tail?) on Friday Flash Fiction. I write stories from an animal’s point of view every so often. They’re fun to do. But, as with any story, the character voice must be strong enough to be convincing.

Am looking forward to sharing Part 2 of my interview with Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today next week (and again thanks to all who have responded so well to Part 1 where the post was shared on social media yesterday. Lots of memories about schools programming from years ago!) Part 2 will look at where Jenny and I cross paths with regard to short story and flash fiction writing.

Screenshot 2022-11-18 at 16-56-02 Cat Chat by Allison Symes

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom next week. It is a lovely time to catch up with writing news, share details of competitions etc, and I usually share a short presentation.

Writing wise, I am already beginning to think about stories for a future (fourth) collection. It does take time to build these up but Flash NANO is going to be a good contributor here!

Have got a story in draft which I want to enter for a competition before the year is out. Currently resting it but hope to have another look at it over the weekend. I can’t stress enough how useful it is to have time away from a story as I find I pick up various things to put right having given myself enough distance away from the piece. It really is worth doing.

Time away

It has been the kind of Monday that makes Noah wonder if it’s time to set sail again so definitely time for a new YouTube story from me. This one, Looking and Finding, is one of my responses to the Flash NANO challenges set so far for this year. The 19 word story, all in! Hope you enjoy it. (I didn’t include the title as part of the word count for this or for the Flash NANO challenge itself but this was great fun to write and will resonate with cat owners and Tom and Jerry fans in particular).


What makes for a good opening line for me? It’s something that draws me in, sets up an interesting premise, and gives me that “I’ve got to find out what happens here” feeling. Only one way to do that – read the story – job done! But…

The job is only done if that vital closing line does its job well and delivers on the promise set by the opening one.

This is why I like to outline my flash and other stories. I don’t need to work out everything but I do need to know how I am going to get from A to B with a rough idea of the stopping points on that journey. In a flash tale, even at the 1000 words upper limit, I often only need a line (which will form the basis of Start Point A), a rough line about what happens in the middle, and another line summing up how the story finishes (my finishing point B). For a longer tale I might need a couple of lines for each of the three points of my story.

I’ve found outlining doesn’t take too long and has saved me a lot of grief. I no longer box myself into a corner with my story. I’ve only scrapped two stories in my time because I hadn’t outlined and I did box myself in as a result of that.

Don’t forget my author newsletter goes out on the first of the month and I do share tips here, especially those pertinent to flash story writing. Last time I shared a pdf I’d created for a flash fiction group I run on Zoom (the ACW one). If you’d like to sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com – you would be most welcome! A big thanks to all who are already subscribers too.

One of the Flash NANO challenges is in the form of an exercise I’ve done before – to cut a story in half word count wise. It’s a great exercise to work on your editing skills as the story still has to make sense and to not lose anything important to its meaning. This kind of exercise though is not the type you can do in five minutes. What I’m hoping to do with mine is have it done by the end of Flash NANO at the end of the month.

Goodreads Author Blog – READING ACROSTIC

R= Reading is wonderful and inspires further stories to be written.
E = Educational and entertaining – what is there not to like?
A = Animals, aliens, all sorts of characters end up being the heroes and villains in the stories.
D = Dialogue in books and stories is like overhearing an intriguing conversation where you have to find out what happens.
I = Imagination – reading fires this up considerably even if you don’t write yourself.
N = Novels, novellas, short stories, flash fiction, non-fiction, articles, books, magazines – there is something to suit you somewhere!
G = Great reading can cross centuries – there is no time limit on how long a book or story can be good for.

Screenshot 2022-11-19 at 18-01-56 Reading Acrostic

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Crossing Paths with Jenny Sanders, Autumnal Matters, and Cat Chat

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. A huge thank you to Jenny Sanders for supplying author, book, and other pictures for Part 1 of a great interview with her on Chandler’s Ford Today. I also share my latest Author Electric post about autumn and a fun tale (or should that be tail?) which is my latest offering on Friday Flash Fiction. Hope you have had a good week. Have had some nice autumn days here after a right wash-out earlier this week.

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Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today – and Authors Electric

18th November 2022 – 1st Post – CFT
Not one but two blogs to share tonight. First up is Chandler’s Ford Today and I am delighted to welcome Jenny Sanders to the interviewee’s “chair” for Part 1 of a fabulous conversation. This week Jenny shares her lifelong love of books and stories and her earlier career in television (which in itself showed her a lot about putting stories together, a fabulous learning experience for any writer).

Jenny and I cross paths, writing wise, in a number of ways and that is shared here too. Next week she’ll be sharing more about her short story, devotional, and flash fiction writing (just one of many of those “crossed paths” for Jenny and I!).

Crossing Paths with Jenny Sanders – Part 1

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18th November – 2nd post – Authors Electric

My second blog to share tonight is my monthly post on Authors Electric. Aptly, I talk about Autumnal Reading and Writing. I share my love of autumn, ask if you choose books according to season, and celebrate the one positive about the longer, darker evenings (in my part of the world at least). I find I get more writing and reading done! Do share your thoughts on the season and how it affects you reading and writing wise over on the AE comments box.

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Now today was the kind of autumn day I love – dry, not too cold, sunny, and dry. (I mention that again as on Tuesday Lady and I were anything but dry for a lot of the day!).

Looking forward to sharing Part 1 of a fabulous interview with Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up tomorrow. See above.

I’ll be interviewing other authors well into December too so do keep an eye out for these. I always learn a lot from author interviews I read and listen to so hope you do with these great posts coming up. (Many thanks to everyone taking part in them too).

I’ll also be sharing a lovely autumnal post on Authors Electric tomorrow so double bubble for Friday!

Am looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing event on 3rd December. (Hope to report back on that for CFT in due course and my January 2023 newsletter).

Writing Tip: People often talk abut focusing on the senses in fiction writing and it is a great idea but why not just pick one and focus your strory on that? If you decide to focus on hearing, for example, you can focus on what sounds mean the most to your lead character and why these matter. A piece of music could remind them of their lost love etc.

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Lady was delighted to have a good old run-around with her best friend, the Rhodesian Ridgeback today. All before the weather closed in later so win-win there. I knew her pal was out because Lady tugged me most of the way to the park and she doesn’t do that for anyone else!

On Chandler’s Ford Today this week, I’ll be sharing Part 1 of an interview called Crossing Paths with Jenny Sanders. Jenny and I do cross writing paths a lot. More on that on Friday when the post goes live. She’ll also be talking about her writing life and her previous life in television. Looking forward to sharing that. See above (and Part 2 next week is also fab so stay tuned).

Friday is one of those days when I will have a second blog post up so I will have two Facebook posts up then. The other blog coming up is for Authors Electric and I’ll be talking about Autumnal Reading and Writing which is definitely topical in my part of the world! Again, see above. Every so often my various blogs “collide” and end up on one day!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I’m delighted to share my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction though maybe I should’ve written that as tail! Why? Because my new story is called Cat Chat. Hope you enjoy it, whether you own a cat (or any other pet) or not.

Screenshot 2022-11-18 at 16-56-02 Cat Chat by Allison Symes

Have recently submitted a festive flash fiction piece – will report back it if gets anywhere. When I write flash, my starting point can be:-

1. Respond to a prompt (Flash NANO is brilliant here).

2. I know the mood of the story I want to write – humour, serious, crime etc.

3. I have a promising opening line (something I brainstormed previously) I now want to write up.

4. I have a promising closing line (again brainstormed ages ago) I now want to write up.

5. I want a stock of stories I can use for various competitions, including open theme ones so I will write something that could fit the categories I know interest me. I also write up stories I know could fit an open theme.

6. I can “hear” a character’s voice in my head and know I’ve got to write their story up.

7. Am responding to a challenge set by something I’ve used a random generator to create. Bear in mind I have no way of knowing in advance what will come up. What I can do is set parameters (and I have found generating a couple of things at a time works best for me).

8. Occasionally a writer friend will set a challenge and I respond to that. I have written a story called The Inside of a Ping Pong Ball based on that challenge. (Hello #WendyHJones!).

9. I have a promising title (again brainstormed earlier) I now want to do something with – and so I do.

10. Something catches my eye or ear when I’m out and about and I will think I’ve got to do something with that. I have used snippets of overheard conversation as a starting point for a story but done in such a way that the original speaker would never know.

11. Books of prompts (some of which I’ve contributed to in my time) are also handy.

12. Something I’ve read inspires me and triggers other ideas so I have to find out what my characters would do with them. I love the classic fairytales and they often inspire me to come up with humorous flash pieces.

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Hope you have had a good day. Looking forward to having a go at today’s Flash NANO challenge later on this evening. Yesterday’s challenge was to cut a story in half and I’ve picked an old 2000 worder tale of mine. My goal will be to get that down to 1000, the top end of flash fiction. Can’t do that quickly though.

What I hope I will do is have it done by the end of the Flash NANO challenge on 30th November. I have done this kind of exercise before. It gets harder the more you have to cut down! Its advantage is it does make you get to the core of the story and focus on that.

May be an image of text that says "goe Ludwig Mie more es is Less Less Mies an Rohe Less is more could be THE anthem for all flash fiction writers."

Fairytales with Bite – Stories and Songs

Stories and songs have massive roles to play in most cultures so how would this work out in your fictional setting? What stories and songs would your characters enjoy? Equally which do they have to endure because it’s more than their life’s worth not to do so (and possibly literally there too)?

Are storytellers and bards etc respected? Are your society’s current generation of writers respected for what they do? Have modern stories and songs gone into popular culture and are expected to live on for other generations or are these “of the moment”?

Are there any restrictions on which stories and songs your characters are allowed to enjoy? If so, why are these restrictions in palce and who brought them in? Is there any kind of underground movement where people/beings of choice can enjoy these forbidden stories and songs?

Do you use the influence of the stories and songs you love to influence what your characters are likely to enjoy or do you go for the complete opposite here? Either could work!

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This World and Others – Culture

Culture is a huge topic but how does your fictional world react to it? Is it proud of its culture or embarrassed by it? Does it look down on the cultures of others or use the best ideas from those other worlds to improve its own? History can often come into play in responses to culture. There can be elements of culture that are “covered up” or deliberately forgotten especially if it makes a country look dreadful. Is there anything your own world’s setting would deliberately not bring out in the open?

Also within the arts, are certain things appreciated more than others? For example, is anything audio-related more appreciated than visual media because your fictional species hear better than they see? What factors have led to your world having the culture it does? How has your world’s culture changed over time and what history has led to that happening? If you think about our own world, we can all think of, say, humour, that would have worked thirty years ago but definitely wouldn’t now.

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Ruth Leigh Interview Part 2 – and Another Zebra Story

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Many thanks to Ruth Leigh for providing author and book cover photos for the second part of her fabulous interview for Chandler’s Ford Today. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Not bad here. Went to see The Chameleons’ latest production (more on that next week) and I’ve written another zebra story, this time for Friday Flash Fiction. The writing life can throw up some strange but fun things at times given I never expected to write about zebras at all, yet alone twice in one week.

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Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am delighted to welcome back Ruth Leigh to Chandler’s Ford Today for the concluding part of her two-part interview. Having recently released The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge, Ruth and I discuss marketing, interviewing characters, and look at characters loved and loathed. Hope you enjoy the interview and good luck, Ruth, with your third book.

PART 2 – Ruth Leigh and The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge

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Posting early today as I’m off to watch The Chameleon Theatre Group perform The Mystery of Mallen Hall later on this evening. Should be good fun. Review to follow in due course. It WAS good fun. Looking forward to writing the review.

And don’t forget the second part of my interview with Ruth Leigh is up on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. As Ruth now launches her third book, The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge, it is a good time to talk to her about her thoughts on marketing! Link up above (and you’ve got to do a hat salute or something for Ruth who wanted Jane Austen to be name checked. There is always time for that in my universe!).

Talking of which, my author newsletter goes out on the first of each month so if you’d like to sign up for tips, news, story links etc., do head over to the landing page of my website at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com – you would be most welcome! And many thanks to those who have signed up. Next edition our next week. Having a monthly author newsletter is another way of realising just how quickly time flies!

 

Many thanks to the lovely Val Penny for her shout out to yours truly in her latest blog. See link and screenshot. This conversation came about when Val and I were chatting about marketing a while back.

You do have to like your first book because one thing you can guarantee will come out in interviews etc will be questions about how you got into print. So it is far easier on you if your first book is something you love because you’ll then never mind talking about it (as well as plug the latest one of course).

Nor do you want people wondering why you seemingly won’t talk about your first one. Having said that, you can go on to talk about how your writing has moved on from your first book and that can open up an interesting vein of conversation too).

Screenshot 2022-10-26 at 16-11-58 Drafting a Novel before Submission

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Thrilled to say the “other story” I referred to yesterday (see below) is up on Friday Flash Fiction. Hope you enjoy The Caterpillar and the Zebra. Great fun to write and again this story came from another title idea I brainstormed during a session of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group which meets online once a month.

With a title like that, I just had to do something with it and this is the result. I hadn’t expected to write one story about zebras yet alone two (the other is on my YouTube channel). Writing really can take you in unexpected directions at times!

Screenshot 2022-10-28 at 09-38-08 The Caterpillar and the Zebra by Allison Symes

Posting early as off to the local theatre tonight which is always a fabulous experience. I’m hoping my other story which I wrote thanks to coming up with the title via the ACW Flash Fiction Group will be online tomorrow. (It was – see above!). Will keep you posted. This tale also involves animals!

Brainstorming title ideas has led (and continues to lead) to my coming up with stories I would not have thought off in any other way. I don’t usually write about zebras for example! But I’ve found brainstorming title ideas (and they can work for non-fiction too) is a great way to use those pockets of time where you can write something but not a lot. Well worth doing.

If you have a little more time, then one of those titles can be the beginning of a new flash story for you as well. When I have, say, 15 minutes, that’s enough time to look up one of my brainstormed titles, pick one, and then start to work out ideas for it.

 

You can never know for sure which of your flash pieces will really catch people. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised that The Zebra Who Lost Its Stripes has done so well on YouTube. Thank you, everyone.

What matters is writing a story you really care about. I could hear the voice of my little zebra and his gran immediately and knew this would work best in (mainly) dialogue format. Dialogue also has the advantage of giving the story a good pace which was ideal for this one.

But it does boil down to knowing the characters and knowing what it is about them that will appeal to potential readers. You can work out who the Ideal Reader is likely to be then and ensure you are pitching your work to appeal to them.

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Fairytales with Bite – Sources of Power

Where does your fantasy setting get its sources of power? Does it use what we would know as electricity, say, as well as magic? Or is it an all magic environment only? How does the magic develop?

Can characters increase what they have naturally through study? Are they reliant on specific equipment to make their magic work and, if so, who controls the access to that equipment? You can bet someone will! If that equipment has to be bought, how do your characters pay for what they need or are they forced into doing nefarious deeds to get the equipment they need?

How is magic seen in your world – as a source of “green” energy or something darker? If you have non-magical characters, how can they survive in a magical world? What do the magical beings need them for?

Does your world as a whole look to improve and/or increase its sources of power, especially if it if dependent on supplies from somewhere else? The politics (including geopolitics) on our world can help you come up with story ideas for your settings. Where there is power, there is someone who wants to control it. That alone can be a source of story ideas!

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This World and Others – Ten Thoughts on Making a World Realistic

  1. Basic needs are the same everywhere so think about how your world would grow its food, ensure there was enough water etc.
  2. Think about human flaws and virtues – could your “alien“ characters have the same ones? How would these translate in your setting?
  3. Motivations have to be understandable so know why your characters are the way they are. Your world will be realistic with realistically drawn characters in it, no matter how alien they are in appearance etc.
  4. Think power sources (see Fairytales with Bite above). This can include everything from political power to the power needed to be able to grow food, light homes etc. Who runs all of this? Who are they answerable to?
  5. Think geography. Is your setting at odds with a neighbouring world? Are countries within the world at loggerheads with each other and, if so, why?
  6. Think history. What are the major stories your characters know? What are the important turning points in your setting’s history and how do these impact on the stories you want to tell? A world has to have some history behind it. That in turn will feed into politics. All of that will trigger ideas.
  7. Think culture. Is your setting a monoculture or are there several cultures? If the former, how would that be challenged (visitors from other worlds disturbing the peace etc)? If the latter, are there clashes between cultures? What triggers those and does anyone seek to exploit them? (Someone usually does!).
  8. Is magic part of your setting and is your society divided between the haves and the have nots? People understand the tensions that causes – using what we know here and reflecting it into your setting can give readers an instant short cut into your world. They’ll hit the ground running with your story as a result.
  9. Be consistent with rules – if certain characters can’t use magic, you’ll need to show why. There should be advantages as well as disadvantages to that. Magic can cause problems of its own so how does that play out in your setting?
  10. What fears exist in your setting/your characters? Do they, for example, fear monsters because they know they exist? How do characters cope with those fears? Are they expected to not show how they feel? How are the monsters dealt with if they are still an issue? What issues does you world have to deal with?

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The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge – Ruth Leigh Interview Part 1

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Many thanks to Ruth Leigh for providing author and book cover photos. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Why is it that the first week back after a holiday is frenetic? Am not sorry to have got to Friday! As well as Part 1 of Ruth’s interview, I share my latest Friday Flash Fiction tale, a belated Authors Electric post from me, and look at magical shopping, as you do. It won’t be the kind of shopping Ruth’s fabulous character, Isabella M Smugge, would go in for though!

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Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am thrilled to welcome Ruth Leigh back to Chandler’s Ford Today for the first part of a two-part interview. Ruth launches the third of her Isabella M Smugge series tomorrow with The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge.

In tonight‘s post, Ruth and I discuss her launch, how easy or otherwise does Ruth find coming up with stories for her leading lady, and about keeping track on what a writer needs to know about their recurring characters. Readers do pick up on discrepancies.

Next week we’ll be looking at marketing amongst other topics. And if you haven’t checked out Isabella’s adventures to date, you are in for a treat when you do.

Ruth Leigh and The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge – Part 1

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Many apologies, folks, but I forgot to share my latest Authors Electric post which came out on 18th October. This time I talked about Writing Exercises and Why I Love Them. (It’s as well many blogs have a limited word count. I could give chapter and verse on this topic as I have had, and continue to have, a lot of fun with various writing exercises. Several of my published stories started life as a writing exercise challenge).

Screenshot 2022-10-21 at 09-25-08 Writing Exercises and Why I Love Them by Allison Symes

Writing Tip 4,007 or thereabouts: Deliberately mix up the type of book you read as well as the genre. I mix up reading novels (across genres), flash and short collections, and non-fiction. I also ensure I read magazines (especially writing related ones). Ideas for flash stories have sparked for me by reading non-fiction and other genres of books. I see it as feeding the creative mind. Give it a good banquet! You don’t have to worry about calories here!

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Am pleased to see some familiar names on Friday Flash Fiction this week.

Am also pleased to have my latest story, Hope, on there. The opening line here is something I adapted from a random line generator (and one used for poetry as a rule too).

This is another bonus to using these things. You can use exactly what comes up or tweak it as you see fit and you still get new story ideas. Hope you like this week’s tale. Find out what happens when a vicar and one of her grumpy parishioners discover there is hope out there.

Screenshot 2022-10-21 at 09-23-17 Hope by Allison Symes

It was great to see everyone at last night’s Flash Fiction group meeting (ACW). Much fun was had as we looked at titles and I hope people to get to write up stories to one or two of the ideas generated.

I jotted down ideas for myself too here. I often don’t prepare answers to homework I set in advance. I want to do do “live writing” too! It’s fun and really gets the cogs whirring! Where I do prepare homework in advance, it is because I want to use how I did it as an illustration. I’ve learned so much myself from when authors break their stories down like that.

Am busy getting next author newsletter ready to go out on the 1st. I share flash fiction tips here as well as links to my stories online. If you would like to sign up please head over to the landing page of my website at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com – would be good to have you “aboard”.

Newsletter advert - share tips etc

Will be looking at titles as part of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting tonight. Titles are your first advert whether you’re writing an epic fantasy for a 100-word drabble. I find I have to have a working title to get started on my pieces but it often change. It often happens a better title idea will occur as I’m drafting a piece. I just make a note of the new idea and compare it with my original one. I change it if it is better. Only the Ten Commandments were set in stone, folks!

Fairytales With Bite – Magical Shopping

Where does your average magical character go to get their shopping and what would they shop for? I can see potential for some humorous fantasy stories here. Meanwhile here are some thoughts to be going on with

Fairy Godmother – Almost certainly going to head to the grocers to get anything but pumpkin.

Dwarves – The DIY store for reinforced shovels and picks. Well, that gold won’t get itself dug, will it?

Wizard – The employment agency for a “proper” apprentice (and possibly the DIY store for bigger buckets).

Witch – Again the grocers probably fotr the shiniest red apples she can find. Also the arts and crafts shop for needles and sewing equipment (and tips for where to get a spinning wheel in this modern day and age).

Dragon – The bank. All the gold in there is simply going to waste. Said dragon will liberate it to sit on it. Also if there was anywhere that sold dwarf repellent the dragon would consider shopping for it. Saves flaming the perishers every time they try to raid the dragon’s gold. Dragons have a simple concept of ownership. A bit like cats really.

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This World and Others – Business and Commerce

In your fictional setting, what does the world of business and commerce look like? What is traded? What is imported? What does your world have to import and what does it consider luxuries?

Also, are there certain things only the elite can have and what would happen if the “ordinary people/beings” found out about that? Could they be in a position to protest/rebel, especially if what was considered a luxury was something we would rightly consider to be a basic necessity?

Is there a trading sector in your setting? How is it made up? What, if any, regulation is it subject to and how is any regulation enforced? Would your world trade in magical skills? If so which would they be happy to trade and which would they keep strictly to themselves?

What kind of business would the “ordinary” folk in your setting do? Are there ways to improve on what they can do? Is magic valued more highly than working with your hands or in trading as we would on Earth? What do the ordinary folk make of their business sectors?

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Helen Matthews Part 2 and Publication News

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Image Credit:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Screenshot of my latest story on Friday Flash Fiction taken by me, Allison Symes.

A huge thanks, once again, to #HelenMatthews for supplying author and book pictures for her fabulous interview with me for Chandler’s Ford Today. Our conversation has led to an idea for next week’s CFT post too.

Book cover images from Chapeltown Books (CafeLit 10 especially this week – screenshots of cover taken by me, Allison Symes) and Bridge House Publishing. It has been a busy but overall a great week with further publication news too. Like weeks like this!

 

 

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today


Am pleased to share Part 2 of a wonderful interview with #HelenMatthews on Chandler’s Ford Today. In this half of this two part series, Helen explains what drew her into writing domestic noir and shares her top three tips for writers amongst other things. Many thanks, Helen, for being my guest here and good luck with the writing.

Good news too – Helen has news of a special offer for one day only on Sunday, 11th July. See my CFT post for two useful links – one is to her author newsletter accessed through her website (which will also tell you about her books) and the other is to her Amazon Author Central Page. But save the date for the chance to pick up a bargain – it is for one day only.

Meanwhile and looking ahead to next week, an idea Helen “seeded” while we were talking is going to be the theme for next week’s post on CFT. I’ll share more about that later on in the week but hope it will prove to be useful to people.

Small World Syndrome – Part 2 – Helen Matthews

Hope you have had a good day. Changeable weather again here. Hard to believe it’s July. (Lady also not that impressed).

Delighted to see a fantastic review in for The Best of CafeLit 10. See screenshot below – just too good not to share. Well done to all my fellow authors in this lovely collection of stories, who I know will appreciate this review as much as I do. It is also good to see the book break through into the top 1000 of Fiction Anthologies (Kindle Store) – currently at 741 as I type this – would love to see it break into the top 500 – how about it, folks?

When I write a review myself I look for things to highlight and I will also point out excellent characterisation whenever I come across it as this is one of my great storytelling loves. Therefore it is always lovely to flag that up. I keep my reviews short, appropriately for a flash fiction writer I guess. I don’t review books I know, due to personal taste, I am unlikely to enjoy as, to me, that is not fair on the writer. We all have differing tastes after all.

But on behalf of all writers with books out there, I would put in appeal to write reviews. They don’t take long and they do help authors. It is one of the best ways people can support writers they know.

And talking of CafeLit 10, see what arrived late this afternoon. Always nice to open boxes like this one.

 

Looking forward to sharing Part 2 of my interview with the lovely #HelenMatthews for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. And something Helen mentioned is going to be the topic for my CFT post for the following week – more details nearer the time. Just to say when writers get together and start chatting inevitably ideas will bounce around and let’s just say I know a good cue for a CFT post or a flash fiction story when I hear them!

Currently working on some edits (and a potential further interview for CFT) at the moment so there is plenty going on with the non-fiction side of things.

Glad to say The Best of CafeLit 10 is now up on my Amazon Author Central page and also on Goodreads. As ever, folks, please review when you get the chance!
Screenshot 2021-07-06 at 20-36-15 Author DashboardScreenshot 2021-07-06 at 20-35-17 Allison Symes

 

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It has been a busy week but I was so pleased when my copies of The Best of CafeLit 10 turned up yesterday, a good ten days earlier than expected. I have two flash pieces in here – Breaking Out and Taking Time Out of the Day Job.

And to finish the week, please see the link for my latest story on #FridayFlashFiction called No More Miss Mousy. Hope you enjoy it.


Screenshot 2021-07-09 at 18-40-02 No More Miss Mousy, by Allison Symes

 

I talked yesterday about using dates or days of the week as a frame for your story. But there are other types of frame of course. A good one is a journey as you know that has to start and end somewhere. Basic story structure in place from the word go, there.

A frame I use a lot is where I know the ending in advance and I then work backwards to get to a logical starting point. Story frames are a bit like finding the corner pieces of a jigsaw – they give you something to work with and then you fill in the middle.

Ways in to a story are vital. I like frames and knowing my characters well enough. Once I feel I can get cracking on a story, that is precisely what I do but I have found taking a little time to work out how I am going to “do” this one pays off.

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Hope you have had a good Wednesday. Do you use days of the week in your storytelling and, if so, how? I have used dates before (but not tied these up to the actual days of the week) in my Losing Myself in Tripping the Flash Fantastic, which is a story told in diary format. For that the time of the year etc was more important than knowing whether a certain day fell on a Monday. But the calendar (and time generally) can be a useful framework for a story.

For flash, it would be pay to use a limited time frame given you’re not going to have the word count room to go on for too long. But you could have a story set over a week, say, and show what happens to your character on each day of the week without going over the 1000 words maximum allowed for flash. It would encourage a tight pace.

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Fairytales with Bite – Fairytale Acrostic

F= Fantasy setting maybe but reflects aspects of our nature, brutally at times.
A = Animals can often be smarter than the humanoids in a fairytale.
I = Imagination encouraged – what would you do with a magic wand if you could use one?
R = Real conflicts between good and evil reflect on our world too.
Y = Youngest will often turn out to be the hero or heroine, maybe because they’re more willing to listen to sage advice than their elder siblings.
T = Terrific tales, usually happy ever after endings (which we know we don’t get in life so perhaps these act as a comfort even for adults).
A = Action, reaction, cause and consequence make fairytales a gripping read and always fascination with worlds not like our own.
L = Lessons often learned as most fairytales do have a morality to them but get this across without preaching.
E = Expect magic, expect adventure, expect wrongs to be put right, except right to triumph, and expect those being cruel to not get away with it.
S = Splendid and timeless stories – it is amazing how, for example, the Cinderella story crosses cultures too.

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This World and Others – Communications

What are communications like in your created world? Is technology the same as ours, far more advanced, or does it not exist at all? How do your characters communicate with one another? Are there forms of communication only available to the elite and why do they keep these for themselves?

I can’t imagine a world without some sort of communication but the methods vary. Looking back at our own history, the invention of the phone and radio, for me, stand out as landmarks (given how far they can reach people. Radio, for me, had to be the precursor to television being invented. When you stop and think about it being able to talk to those thousands of miles away from you is pretty amazing so imagine how people reacted when they could first do this. We tend to take it for granted now).

So in your fictional world are there inventions which transform your society and how do your characters react to it? Are there any characters who loathe the inventions so much they want to destroy them because it threatens them in some way?

All interesting story ideas to explore there.

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