Back At The Theodore Bullfrog With Bridge House Publishing

December 12, 2025Leave a comment

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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 Paula Readman and Lynn Clement for certain pictures taken at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Most of the pictures for that Chandler’s Ford Today post and screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good week. Lady has! Delighted to hear one of my festive flash pieces will be broadcast on Hannah Kate’s Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM on Saturday 13th December 2025. Will share the link to the broadcast itself next week. Equally thrilled to say three other members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group will have their work broadcast here too. Well done, all!

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Am delighted to look back at last weekend’s celebration event with my Chandler’s Ford Today post, Back At The Theodore Bullfrog with Bridge House Publishing.

The post gives a good round-up of events and shares something of the joys of getting together with other authors like this (and also being with a splendid independent publisher).

I also flag up the specific celebrations for the publication of The Best of CafeLit 14 and, more recently, Magi An Anthology.

Hope you enjoy the post.

Back At The Theodore Bullfrog with Bridge House Publishing

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Hope Thursday has gone well. All quiet in the park today so Lady had to put up with just me!

Looking forward to sharing Back at The Theodore Bullfrog with Bridge House Publishing on Chandler’s Ford Today – link up tomorrow. It was such a fun event, I was bound to write about it. See above.

In other news, I’m glad to share the following link re the Hannah Kate Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM on Saturday 13th December. I also want to add huge congratulations to the other writers taking part in this, especially three of them who are members, with me, of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. I’m very much looking forward to tuning in to hear a great range of festive flash fiction.

North Manchester FM: Hannah’s Bookshelf 3 Minute Santas Special, Saturday 13 December, 2-4pm

Hope you have had a good day. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal so all well there. Lovely sunny day too, the kind of winter day I like.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Back at the Theodore Bullfrog with Bridge House Publishing on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. Then there will be one more post after that from me (19th December) before I take a Christmas break and resume on CFT in the New Year. Just where has the year gone?!

Had a turn down from a flash competition over the weekend. Will have another look at that story in the New Year and see if I can submit it somewhere else. I have had work published doing that.

Writing Tip: Rejections and not hearing back from competitions do happen to everyone so do take some heart from that when it happens to you (and it is bound to at some point). I do try to see this as a chance to have another look at my stories and find ways of improving them. Normally I can see something and I adjust the story, which is why I think I have then gone on to have the story published somewhere else.

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It’s the last day of the Friday Flash Fiction Christmas Competition and I did manage to send in two stories, one per week, for the two weeks the event ran. It was good fun to take part in this. All of the stories in this have to be 100 words exactly (and trust me it is so easy to come in at 102 words or 98 but for this competition it had to be spot on the 100). Good luck to all taking part.

Word association is a great game. I remember playing it often when I was younger. Little did I realise then it was going to become a great tool for writing prompts for me much later on. The reason it is so useful is the game makes you think of links and those are so useful for outlining characters/potential story ideas.

For example let’s take the word festive and see what can be done with that:-
Festive = Christmas = Scrooge = Muppets = films = The Great Escape = bravery.

Now on the face of it, this is just a list of fun, loosely connected words but if I was to use this for a story, it would be the last word, bravery, I would focus on. I love working with traits. They can tell you so much about a character.

Here, I would want to know who showed bravery and why (and it could be a Christmas set story too or not as I chose). Just from this then, I have the sparks of a potential idea.

Do add word association to your prompt generating toolkit if you don’t use it already. It is useful.

Looking forward to an informal chat and sharing of news and stories with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. We usually do have this kind of session at the year end and it is a lovely way to bring our writing year to a close before we head off to our respective Christmas breaks.

Am a co-judge for a flash competition in the New Year so looking forward to working on that. Naturally I’m looking forward to Seeing The Other Side coming out next year. It is highly likely I will be on both sides of the editing fence again. It’s an interesting experience (and useful to me both as a writer and editor. The view from the other side of the fence can be enlightening to say the least).

Fairytales With Bite – The Fairytale Flip Side

There can be a flip side to much in life so why should the fairytale world be exempt? For all of those fairytale characters who have the benefit of magical help, there are so many others who do not. Mind you, the latter can be fun characters to write about and my first story in print, A Helping Hand in Alternative Renditions (Bridge House Publishing), was about Cinderella’s youngest step-sister.

I’ve long believed there are disadvantages as well as advantages to any form of power and that goes for magic too. What would happen if magical characters misuse their powers for their own ends? (I know, I know – as if that would happen here! Oh if only!). How could they be stopped?

Even when magic isn’t misused, what effects would it have on the bodies of the characters? I’ve long thought sustained use of magic must be incredibly draining. Indeed, I can’t see otherwise being the case.

So what would your characters themselves see as the flip side to their magical abilities/their world’s magical abilities? Do your characters have to cope with, say, envying other characters with greater powers than themselves? Would they find ways of developing or, worse still, stealing those powers for themselves? How would they handle powers they’re not used to handling?

Bound to be story ideas there!

This World and Others – Policing

Now given I am sure we can all think of those who misuse their powers in this world, and therefore we must have some kind of policing to try to keep things in order (and protect ourselves as much as possible), how would that work out in your magical setting?

Who would be the police force? Who created them? What are they allowed to do? What are they banned from doing? What would happen to any police authority who misused the powers given to them (and who would have bestowed those in the first place)? What extra magical powers would they need to be able to combat magical crime?

How would policing work and is it with the consent of the people generally?

I do love the Vimes stories in Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and if you haven’t checked them out, do as you’ll be in for a treat. Here, the Discworld has magic and magical practitioners in it, but it’s not in the City Watch and Vimes doesn’t like magic. So many interesting tales there.

I think for any successful fantasy world, the writer does have to work out first how things will work broadly at least, which will include who can use magic, what can they do, recognizing crime does get everywhere so there has to be something to combat that.

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🎄 … plus Keith Jones, Dorinda MacDowell, @AllisonSymes1, @jennyhsanders, Maria Cohut, Pinky Taylor, Martin Elder, @noodleBubble, Amanda Melvin, @brennanaccordio and Carmen Walton! 🎄 https://t.co/84F3B7l1QR
— Hannah Kate (@HannahKateish) December 10, 2025

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I’m glad to share the link re the Hannah Kate Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM on Saturday 13th December. Huge congratulations to the other writers taking part in this. I’m looking forward to tuning in to hear a great range of festive flash.https://t.co/UKX7cpP4oU
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 11, 2025

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It’s the last day of the Friday Flash Fiction Christmas Competition. I sent in two stories, one a week, for the two weeks it was on. All stories had to be 100 words exactly (and it is so easy to come in at 102 words or 98). Good luck to all taking part.https://t.co/4bXnFfkhuq pic.twitter.com/aiG8xyjIfX
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 12, 2025

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Back At The Theodore Bullfrog with Bridge House Publishing https://t.co/Oy7Qmcvbws
Delighted to recall last weekend’s event for CFT. The post shares the joys of getting together with other authors (and also being with a splendid independent publisher). Hope you enjoy the post.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 12, 2025

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Meeting Up With Other Authors and Broadcast News

December 9, 2025Leave a comment

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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 Paula Readman for taking the shot of me holding up From Light to Dark and Back Again at the recent Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Screenshots and photos from the recent BHP Celebration event were taken by me, Allison Symes. Hope all is well.

Had a fabulous weekend with other half celebrating our anniversary and then going to London for the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Lady is doing fine and getting to see most of her mates most of the time so all well there, though we consider it to be a win if we manage to duck the rain and strong winds.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to see both her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Lovely time had by all but all three dogs were told off for trying to eat the mud! Why, oh why, oh why…

Character Tip: What would your character want for Christmas (or in their setting their equivalent event) and why? What does it reveal about them? What would they never want to receive and why? What would happen if they received the unwanted present? Could be some fun stories to write (and read) there.

A wet walk with Lady this morning but did get to see her Hungarian Vizler pal and, as ever, the two chums were pleased to see each other.

Delighted to start the week with great news. My festive flash fiction story which I submitted to Hannah Kate for her Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM will be broadcast on said show this coming Saturday, 13th December. I plan to listen live but will share a catch up link as soon as I can (probably early next week). It is always a fun show to listen to so heartily recommend it.

Hope your weekend has gone well. Busy one for me being out and about but had such a lovely time in Dorset and London. Relishing a quieter Sunday though and I’ll be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly.

I will be looking back at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Looking forward to sharing that (and am enjoying reading the books I brought back with me from that event. Well, you can’t NOT do that, can you?!).

Am currently having a go at the Friday Flash Fiction Christmas competition. Can submit one more entry and I hope to do that as part of my flash fiction Sunday afternoon a little later today.

Festive Flash Tip: You can write these regardless of the time of year. If good ideas occur to me in the summer for this, I go for it and write the stories up. I must admit I prefer my festive flash fiction pieces to be 300 words or fewer. I think they work best at this word length because you’re generally looking for a lighthearted fun piece and you don’t want to dilute the sense of fun by having too many words for it!

6th December – Bridge House Publishing event
Have had a fabulous day at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event today. It was so good to catch up with friends. It was also nice to be back at the wonderfully named Theodore Bullfrog pub. Will write more about the event for next week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post though it was great to travel back with fellow Swanwicker, June Webber. Naturally we had a good natter!

Has been a busy weekend so far getting out and about. Nothing for ages, then loads of trips out. Suspect I will get something from the various journeys to inspire some flash fiction pieces.

Character Tip: I don’t usually worry too much about what my characters look like. I’m usually far more interested in their attitudes to life. But occasionally if I spot an interesting hat, say, I might wonder what character of mine might wear something like it. I have been known to wonder which character of mine wouldn’t be seen dead in a hat like that. These thoughts have given me ideas for characters and, from there, story outlines.

Images below were taken by me at the BHP event. Not long after the first shot was taken, the room was full of very happy BHP authors including me. For the second photo, it was good to be back on the BHP book table with Lynn Clement, whose The City of Stories I edited, and Rosemary Johnson, who is a dear friend from the Association of Christian Writers.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Looking forward to listening to Hannah Kate’s Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM on Saturday. Delighted to say I have a story on there. The show is great fun to listen to – I hope to share a link early next week.

Is it difficult to think of different themes for festive flash each year? Depends.

I think because I go for character first, not plot, it helps a lot. So I examine the stories we know around Christmas, the Biblical as well as the secular ones, and look for characters who perhaps are not the main star of the show (some pun intended and I expect at some point I may well write a story around the Star of Bethlehem). You can have a lot of fun with characters like this.

Also give some thought to your favourite fairytales. They come up so often for pantomimes at this time of year so you could write festive flash around characters in these too.

It’s Monday, another wet and dismal one, so definitely time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Diet Change.

What on earth did Eliza wish for to make Santa read her note twice to ensure he hadn’t misread it? Was her wish granted? Find out here.

It was wonderful celebrating flash fiction and short stories in London yesterday at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Now back to the desk to get on and write more flash fiction!

As ever at events like yesterday’s, people shared news of websites etc which take flash and I hope to look into some of those after Christmas. Know I won’t get much time to do this before then.

When it comes to writing seasonal flash, I look at one specific character or someone associated with them. For example, for some of my festive flash I’ve written about Santa, the elves, Mrs Christmas, a young shepherd who was worrying about leaving the sheep behind when they all went off to Bethlehem.

I think knowing the character for this kind of flash story is essential because you look at their links with the festive season and that in itself is usually enough to trigger story ideas.

Lovely to chat with fellow flash and short story writers at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event today. I find I get a real buzz from being with other writers like this. It was good to share the joys of short form fiction with each other. Loved hearing the stories being read out. Am not often read to so make the most of it when I am.

Flash Tip: Focus on one moment, one character for your stories. Your story will have a much better impact because of that and it will be easier to stick to your word count.

Image below taken by me is of June Webber, my dear friend and fellow Swanwicker, reading her excellent story, Marmalade, at today’s BHP event.

Goodreads Author Blog – Meeting Up With Other Authors

Meeting up with other authors at various events is one of the joys of the writing life and one I greatly appreciate. It is lovely talking about stories and writing with those who understand why you have the drive to write at all.

Other authors are also fabulously supportive given we all have to market our own books. Most of us would far rather be writing.

Naturally a huge attraction at these events are the book rooms and book tables. Always a joy to buy books from writers I know and am always pleased to add more to my shelves.

If you can support author events, please do. Every writer I know will be pleased to see you. That goes for me too!

Happy reading!

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Meeting Up With Other Authors https://t.co/jxS9zx4S6S via @goodreads I look at the joys of meeting with other authors as part of the writing life for Goodreads. If you can support authors and their events, please do. It helps more than you know. pic.twitter.com/jDPfoXKz9e
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 6, 2025

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It’s Monday, another wet and dismal one, so time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Diet Change.

What on earth did Eliza wish for to make Santa read her note twice to ensure he hadn't misread it? Was her wish granted? Find out here.https://t.co/u7wrmJVkxw
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 8, 2025

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The Darkest Hour and Themed Anthologies

December 2, 2025Leave a comment

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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good weekend. Wild weather. Lovely church service with a special presentation for a long standing member/elder. Cake followed. That went down well with all. Lady is making the most of being out and about. Am thankful she dries quickly and doesn’t mind being tried. She sees it as cuddle time with Mum, which helps. Writing going well. Hope to submit competition entries this week, the last for the year I suspect.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady had a lovely time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals today. It was so nice not getting soaked!

Writing wise, I’m sharing a fabulous interview with fellow Swanwicker, Heather Beveridge (who writes as Hetty Waite), about her new novel, Evolve. Amongst other topics, she’ll be sharing what she loves about dystopian fiction. Be sure not to miss. Plenty of tips and useful thoughts in this interview too. Link up on Friday.

Hope to submit my final story competitions for the year later this week. Hope to review and send tomorrow if I can. Busy editing at the moment too.

Writing Tip: Never be afraid to write rubbish. In all first drafts, you will find something of value and plenty to discard! This is the way of it but unless you get something written, you will never find that something of value to work on further.

Hope you have had a good day. Ghastly weather but Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler friend so that was a big plus. Mind you, we weren’t out for long! Even Lady wasn’t sorry to get home.

Writing wise, my last author newsletter of the year went out earlier today. Where has the year gone? Theme this time was on festive flash fiction.

Had a good writing weekend in that for the three story competitions I want to enter, I now have three pieces prepared. Handy that! Am just now resting them for a couple of days before I review and hopefully send in but that will be it for competitions for me for 2025.

Am so looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event on Saturday. It will be lovely catching up with everyone again. I also get to meet up with friends from Swanwick and the Association of Christian Writers here so I see that as even more of a win!

Hope the weekend has gone well. Crisp, cold, and dry here unlike yesterday which was milder, wet and soggy! Mind you, Lady goes out in all weathers and has her humans to clear up after her so she never worries about the weather.

Writing wise, I am looking forward to introducing Heather Beveridge, who writes as Hetty Waite, to Chandler’s Ford Today next week to discuss her new book, Evolve. This interview is part of a blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Book Vlog.

Heather/Hetty and I have a friend in common – Val Penny – and The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Interview is a fabulous in depth look of Hetty’s writing journey to date, the blurb for Evolve is intriguing, and I look forward to sharing the interview on Friday.

After that I will be looking back at my writing year – yes, it is almost that time again.

As ever, am looking forward to commencing flash fiction Sunday afternoon soon. Last ever Flash NANO prompt though – boo hoo! Still, I’ll enjoy the challenge of that later today.

Delighted to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with my latest post, The Darkest Hour.

I look at the topic from the viewpoint of characters facing their darkest hour. They all do. It is at that moment the pivot of change in any story usually occurs as the characters have to find a way of dealing with that darkest hour. Will it overcome them or will they overcome it? We read on to find out of course.

Hope you find the post useful.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Have three final flash stories to submit for competitions and hope to get them in tomorrow. I suspect I will end up drafting new material for competitions in the New Year. I try to get as much written as I can before Christmas, then have a few days off, then back to writing again.

But it is useful to me to have something drafted to come back to and it has also proved useful to set myself a deadline by which time I will have submitted my final competition entries for the year. I do dislike last-minute-dot-com-itis when it comes to sending any written work in. Mind you, this isn’t new. I was like this with my school and college work too!

It’s Monday. It has been a dark, windy and very wet Monday. So glad to be indoors. It’s definitely time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Toy Snowman.

Some things always have meaning. Find out what a toy snowman means to my character and what is on its scarf to give it even deeper meaning.

Flash fiction gives you a glimpse into a character and their world, shows you a moment in their time, but it should leave you feeling as if there was nothing more to be shared. The impact of any story is crucial. It shows it “lives” and is resonating with readers, whether it is to make them laugh, cry, scream, or what have you.

This is another reason for me why, in the character -v- plot debate, character always wins out because unless they make me care enough to want to read their story, I’m not going to get to the plot at all. It always pays to ask yourself honestly how does your story make you feel as it is likely to be the response a reader will have.

I can hardly believe we’re at the penultimate day of the last ever Flash NANO already. Am looking forward to having a crack at today’s prompt later on.

I’ve picked out two stories for one competition (where you are allowed to send in two entries for one fee) and another longer piece. All ready for editing and I hope to submit them maybe towards the end of next week.

Will be having an informal chat and sharing of stories at the December meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. That is always fun and it makes for a lovely way to end the year.

Pleased to say I will be a competition judge again in the New Year for a flash competition. Looking forward to that.

So there’s plenty going on I’m glad to say. Also my next author newsletter will be out very soon indeed.

Do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com if you would like to sign up for flash tips, stories and more.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Themed Anthologies

I love anthologies. Okay, I’m biased because I have short stories and/or flash fiction in many of them over many years. My latest, The Family Legend, is in the recently published Magi (Bridge House Publishing).

But I love anthologies because they’re not only great to write for, they are wonderful to read. You get to read the styles of many different authors. I always find it fascinating to read how many writers come up with so many different takes on the same theme (and practically every anthology does have a set theme).

I find anthologies useful for discovering authors new to me. If I like their short work, I’m highly likely to love their longer tomes. Also, naturally at this time of year as we think of Christmas presents, they can be great gifts for the readers in your life, especially if you don’t know what they’ve got already in terms of novels etc. They’re also superb ways of supporting many authors in one go too.

Why not give them a try? You are bound to find many with themes which appeal.

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More than Writers: The Darkest Hour by Allison Symes https://t.co/wqXCthxWGA Delighted to be on MTW, ACW's blog. I look at this topic from the viewpoint of characters facing their darkest hour. Will it overcome them or will they overcome it? Hope you find the post useful. pic.twitter.com/dES7WYQIcD
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 29, 2025

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Themed Anthologies https://t.co/P2PnN7DzfN via @goodreads I look at themed anthologies this week. I'm biased as I'm published in many (was again recently) but I look at the topic from the reader's viewpoint too. Why not check anthologies out? pic.twitter.com/8WPCU4HeQl
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 29, 2025

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It’s Monday, a dark, windy & wet day. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Toy Snowman.

Some things always have meaning. Find out what a toy snowman means to my character and what is on its scarf to give it even deeper meaning.https://t.co/ZrvPKts0bw
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 1, 2025

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Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News

December 20, 2024Leave a comment

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Image Credits:- All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good few days. I’m one of the tens of thousands affected by a water outage – has not been great. Am hoping it will be restored very soon and hopefully by the time this post goes out. Water was finally restored at 11 pm on Thursday 19th December – I so enjoyed my shower on the morning of the 20th!

Writing wise, am now winding down for the Christmas break and will resume normal posts from towards the end of next week onwards. Meantime do have a very happy Christmas and may I wish you all the best for the New Year. (Lady loves Christmas – gets spoiled rotten and she has high hopes from Santa Paws, of course).

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Joy reigns supreme here as we got our water back at 11 pm last night! I so enjoyed my shower this morning! Would like the Southern Water bosses to lose their unearned bonuses though. Can’t think how they could possibly justify those – and that’s as political as I get, folks.

Nobody around here has a good word to say for SW. We feel sorry for the engineers and the ones handing out the water bottles at the various centres (only three of them for 58,000 people – madness) but the management? Bah humbug as someone once said!

On a much happier note, I’m delighted to share this week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post on Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News. I share a round up of the recent BHP event and links to last weekend’s Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM where 23 authors, including me, had their festive flash tales put out on air. Do have a listen. The tales were lovely to listen to and cheered me up no end. My tale, Perspective, is on in the first half of the show (the first link shared in the CFT post).

Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News

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Still no water here. Hoping it will be restored tonight/tomorrow. There are tens of thousands unhappy customers of Southern Water right now including yours truly.

Looking forward to sharing a round up post on Chandler’s Ford Today about the recent Bridge House Publishing Celebration event and the Hannah Kate Three Minute Santas Show, where my story Perspective, was broadcast recently – link up tomorrow.

It was good to be in splendid company on the radio show too – I know five of the authors who were part of it and have heard of many of the others. I call this a result!

Loved the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting last night. It was good to see everyone and I look forward to catching up with everyone again in January.

Not a great day. I’m one of the tens of thousands currently without water thanks to Southern Water. Have not been able to get through to them, even online, and the earliest re-connect time will, hopefully, be tomorrow! Grrr… Turned out we didn’t get water back until Thursday – water was off for 36 hours.

On a happier note, Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. I’m looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this evening – it’s our wrap up and chat session for the year. Hopefully some festive flash pieces will be shared too.

Will be sharing Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

No story on Friday Flash Fiction from me now until after the Christmas break but I did want to say a huge congratulations to the winner of their Christmas competition plus the runners-up and all who were Highly Commended or Commended. Do check out the link to the 100 word stories section of the website and enjoy a great read, folks. (Am feeling much more cheerful than I did yesterday as our water supply was restored at 11pm last night).

Hope you have had a good day. Still waiting for Southern Water to restore “services”. (So if you are seeing posts saying it has been fixed, well not yet is the true position).

Something I mentioned at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting last night is, when you’ve got a topic you know will always come up, do jot down ideas for it early. Do get that first draft and polishing done early.

I know there will always be calls for festive flash so I can prepare a lot of work in advance of the actual call here. There are so many topics you can do this with too – there will always be calls for love stories for February, spring stories in March/April etc etc.

So it’s worth keeping an eye out on the calendar then and not just as we approach the year end.

One week to go to Christmas Day. Am I ready? No but am well on the way. It’s where I am usually at around this time. (Would however like my water supply back, pretty please Southern Water – grrr).

Probably won’t be submitting any further pieces to Friday Flash Fiction until the New Year as they are having a well deserved break. I know I’ll only be writing bits and pieces from the weekend onwards. One of my favourite aspects of the break is getting to spend more time on the sofa with my feet up and enjoying a good book. Always look forward to this as don’t get to do this as often as I would like.

Fairytales with Bite – Where a Wand Simply Will Not Do by Allison Symes, December 2024

Where A Wand Simply Will Not Do
Where a wand simply will not do is where a fairy needs to cheer her client up first.
Cinders needed this before the wand could be put to work.
The professional fairy will ensure all needs are met and not just by a wave of the wand.
Cinders needed reassurance, then the gown, then the coach etc.
Just a pity the girl had no sense of timing but even then magic isn’t the answer to that.
What Cinders really needed was a decent watch and the sense to check it regularly!
And the fairy godmother needed an updated spell book where poor Cinders did get fur slippers and not glass ones.
Those must’ve been hell to dance in.

Ends
Allison Symes – 18th December 2024

Hope you enjoyed that.

This World and Others – Winter/Story Festivals

Does your setting have anything like Christmas? (Discworld does – it has Hogswatch. Narnia gets Christmas back of course ). What do your characters do to pass away the time during the long winter months? What would they celebrate? What stories would they recount at these times?

Most places would have some sort of winter event – usually connected with showing the light in some way – so what would your setting have here? What special foods and drinks would there be?

Does everyone join in with the festivities or are there those who are deliberately excluded or choose to avoid the events? Why would either of these cases be?

When it comes to storytelling for festivals, are there writers who are banned? If so, who and why? Are there stories everyone expects to hear? What are these and how did they come to be part of your setting’s heritage?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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No story on Friday Flash Fiction from me now until after the Christmas break but I did want to say a huge congratulations to the winner of their Christmas competition plus the runners-up and all who were Highly Commended or Commended. https://t.co/Jvd2WGpy87 pic.twitter.com/erNztg5OqV
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 20, 2024

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Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News https://t.co/9wyteHV2fa In this week’s CFT post, I report on the BHP event and share links to last weekend’s Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM where 23 authors, including me, had festive flash tales on air.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 20, 2024

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Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event and Three Minute Santas

December 10, 2024Leave a comment

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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 had a good weekend and Storm Darragh didn’t do too much damage where you are. Has calmed a bit today (Monday 9th December) but bitterly cold. Had a fabulous time at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event on Saturday 7th December, despite the weather, and I hope to write more about that for a Chandler’s Ford Today post for 20th December. Meantime many thanks to Debz Hobbs-Wyatt and Lynn Clement for the two selfies featured below. I interviewed Debz recently for CFT and I was Lynn’s editor on her The City of Stories (Chapeltown Books).

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Wow! Am not referring to the bitterly cold wind again today (though it did make me gasp) but to the fact Hannah Kate will have 23 authors, yes 23, on her Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM on Saturday, 14th December. This has to be a record but it will give plenty of wonderful stories to listen to. I’m also delighted to say I know five of the other authors who will be on the show!

Given the weather is unlikely to be much better at the end of this week, having a Saturday afternoon in listening to stories seems like a great idea to me. The show starts from 2pm. See link for more details.

Huge congratulations to all authors whose stories have been chosen. I’m looking forward to listening to all of the tales.

North Manchester FM: Hannah’s Bookshelf 3 Minute Santas Special, Saturday 14 December, 2-4pm

Bitterly cold, though less blowy, today. Not that Lady worried. She was thrilled to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. I was glad to get back in the warm (despite being layered up to the maximum!).

Many thanks for the lovely responses to my two posts yesterday about the Bridge House event. Much appreciated. I plan to write more about it for Chandler’s Ford Today for 20th December. This week’s post will be What I Look For In a Good Story and I heard plenty of those read out on Saturday afternoon!

Writing Prompt: Whenever I go anywhere, I use Google Maps to help me plan out best routes to my destination from Tube stations etc. Saves a lot of time. What would your characters do when going somewhere new? Are they the type to “wing it” or would they want to map things out?

What facilities would they have to be able to do something like this? Something more basic than what we have here or something far more advanced? Am sure there are stories here but also in how any maps are produced and could they be “hacked” by an enemy.

Had a wonderful time in London yesterday. So good to see everyone again. Enjoyed listening to the author readings and taking part in the same. Train was held up on the way back because the one in front of us hit a tree on the track. It held us up for an hour which I didn’t think was too bad given the circumstances. Not sorry to be at home today though as it’s still very gusty here.

Ironically last year I ran late for the Bridge House event because of issues with the trains. This year, despite the storm, the trains were running reasonably well in my part of the world and I was one of the first to reach the Theodore Bullfrog pub. (And where more appropriate venue for a writers’ event than a pub, I ask you!).

Writing Prompt: A seasonal one too! Take one of your Christmas tree decorations. What meaning does it have for you? Then hold that thought and apply it to a character. Who gave them the decoration or did they inherit it from a loved one? What’s the story behind it?

And many thanks to Lynn Clement for taking the image below.

Saturday 7th December 2024: Am on my way to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Even managed to get an earlier train. Appreciate there are likely to be delays given the storm. Do take care out there.

Looking forward to catching up with friends, taking part in the author readings, and finding out the latest BHP news.

Will be sharing what I look for in a good story in next week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post. I do know I will be hearing plenty of good stories today!

Update: Now back home again and I heard many marvellous tales! Many thanks to Debz Hobbs-Wyatt for the picture.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Lady got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal unexpectedly today and a lovely time was had by both dogs in very chilly conditions.

Pleased to discover there are five authors I know, along with myself, who will have work on Hannah Kate’s Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM on Saturday 14th December.

Do listen out for it. It will showcase some fabulous festive flash fiction. There are 23 authors involved in all, yes 23, so there will be a great range of styles and stories. And all of us had a maximum of three minutes.

The great thing with flash? None of us can go on at length. It defeats the object of the format!

Less is more, indeed.

It’s Monday. It’s a cold one. It’s a Monday after Storm Darragh. Definitely time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Reassurance.

After all, it’s always good to know someone has your back when you’re in need of reassurance, regardless of who you are.

Will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly. Given the weather is still awful, I am so glad writing is something to be done indoors in the warm.

As well as catching up with longstanding Bridge House friends yesterday, including someone I’ve edited for them, I met up with one of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group at the Bridge House event and a dear friend from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick.

There is something lovely about the writing community in that we often cross paths in different ways. What united us yesterday was Bridge House and, of course, an overwhelming love for the written word. Something positive to think about on a grotty weekend weather wise I think.

Saturday 7th December 2024: I heard plenty of excellent flash fiction pieces and extracts from longer works read out at today’s Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Open mic reading is a fabulous way to celebrate the format.

Delighted four members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group including me will have stories broadcast on Hannah Kate’s Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM next Saturday, 14th December.

Am looking forward to hearing them all. I hope to be able to share a link later including in my last CFT post before Christmas (which will be on Friday 20th December).

Many thanks to Lynn Clement, author of The City of Stories which I had the privilege of editing, for the picture below.

Goodreads Author Blog – Favourite Book Moments

I’m sure we all have favourite book moments which “make” the whole story for us. I know I have far too many to list here though sometimes, with films, you get something which adds to the original tale.

One great example of this is the song Marley and Marley from The Muppet Christmas Carol. I still think that is the finest adaptation of Charles Dicken’s wonderful novella.

But what great films can do is add something special. This can only be done when you’ve got superb stories to work with in the first place, mind you! Am sure Dickens would be pleased and it is fabulous to think A Christmas Carol has never been out of print. I don’t think it ever will be.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Favourite Book Moments https://t.co/xRLPfLQgnj via @goodreads I discuss how films like The Muppet Christmas Carol can add so much of value to the original story. Mind you, there does have to be excellent source material in the first place! pic.twitter.com/7bT1FzMLQq
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 7, 2024

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It’s Monday. It’s cold. It’s a Monday after Storm Darragh. Definitely time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Reassurance.

It's always good to know someone has your back when you're in need of reassurance, regardless of who you are.https://t.co/7BM6Oin5lr
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 9, 2024

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Dialogue, finishing Flash NANO, and Competitions

December 3, 2024Leave a comment

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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good weekend. Quiet but lovely one here. Another smashing interview coming up with Wendy H Jones about A Right Cozy Christmas Crime on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do look out for it. What I love about interviews for CFT is how much useful information is shared other writers can use.

Facebook – General

Hope Tuesday has gone well for you. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today and had a lovely time showing off her running skills in front of the dog she considers to be her “mum figure”.

Writing Tip: I’ve mentioned before about recording your stories on something like Zoom and playing them back to hear how they sound. You take in the story as a reader would doing this but I would add I think it is essential when you have plenty of dialogue.

What looks good written down doesn’t always read out well. It doesn’t always sound like natural speech either. Playing the story back will also help you pick up on those ums and ahs we do use in natural speech but which are a turn off in fiction. The odd one or two are fine but you don’t need many of them to convey a character hesitating.

The irony with fictional speech it has to be better than natural speech to keep a reader’s attention.

Hope you have had a good Monday. Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal today. Zoomies ensued! The Ridgeback’s owner and I have long experience in getting out of the way of the pair of them when they’re in full running mode like that. Why is it dogs like to play right near their humans mums just like toddlers do!

Writing wise, have had a fantastic weekend. I’d been resting some flash fiction pieces I’d earmarked for competitions. (Taking part in Flash NANO gave me an excellent time period in which to rest them). Worked on said stories, odd amendments only, and have now sent them in, well ahead of their respective deadlines. Have also drafted some blogs for later in the month.

This was all on top of what I’d usually do over the weekend so felt like I got a fair bit done. Will slow down as the month goes on – can’t imagine why!

And it was lovely to catch up with friends and family on Zoom too. Today by contrast has been chaotic but am so glad to be at my desk now. Getting to do any creative work, I find, relaxes me and I’m all for that!

Author newsletter went out earlier today. The “advantage” in producing a monthly newsletter is it makes it so easy to see just how quickly the year is flying by!

Loved Flash NANO. Enjoyed the prompt variety. My word count for this year came in at around the 8000 words mark as my story word counts were towards the shorter end this time. Having said that, it’s 8000 words I wouldn’t have written otherwise.

Am also getting ever closer to having a potential fourth flash collection in terms of word count though there is much to be done to tighten things up before submission. Have also got other pieces to submit this week (competitions) and another longer term project which I’ve completed, and where I’ve almost got the submission package up together.

So plenty going on behind the scenes, most of which involves flash fiction in some way.

Am delighted Writers’ Narrative is back and I hope you’ve had chance to check it out. Useful for all writers.

Hope you have had a good day. Quiet one here but lovely. This time next week I will be on my way back from the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event – am so looking forward to going to that and catching up with friends old and new.

Writing wise, I’m delighted to say there was a fantastic response to the Flash NANO prompt set on 29th November. It was one I set and it’s been a joy to read what people have made of it. I too had a go at it (if it hadn’t been picked, I was going to save it for something to write up later) and my tale came in at 73 words, my shortest for Flash NANO 2024.

Author newsletter out again tomorrow – where does the time go?

Last but definitely not least, I’m looking forward to sharing a wonderful interview with Wendy H Jones about A Right Cozy Christmas Crime, a recently released short story collection, featuring 13 authors, including Wendy herself. We’ll be discussing the joys of crime fiction in the short form amongst other topics. Link up on Friday.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event on Saturday. Many of the authors get to do some readings and I hope to do so too. It’s a joy to be read to – I love being told a story. I also love sharing some of mine and flash fiction is ideal for this.

Competition News: Friday Flash Fiction are running their Christmas competition at the moment.. You can enter two stories over the two weeks the competition is on. Each story to be 90-100 words and no more. And you do have to include two different words relating to the season in your stories. You use one on one week, the other on the next. You cannot use both words in either or both of your tales. For more details, see the link. Good luck if you have a go!

It’s Monday. Has been a hectic one for me (have the feeling that won’t slow down until after the 25th!). It’s definitely time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – There’s Red and Then There’s Red.

What does Santa do when Rudolph comes down with a cold with five minutes to go before flying time and the famous red nose has become an infamous one? Find out why and what here.

I know. I can hardly believe we’re into Advent and the final month of the year already. Looking back, I’ve got plenty of writing done. Would still like to do plenty more before this year is out.

Had a lovely time at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting last week. I’ve some exercises from that to tidy up and see if I can submit somewhere plus more to write up. All fun though. When I know I can do something with the character, the words fly and that is how I like it to be. I can tidy up and sharpen later. Have always found this pays off.

Will be taking time off at Christmas as usual. The break is lovely but what is nice is I am always raring to go again by the time I get back to my desk again and I like that too. I do enjoy dropping my characters right in the mire and seeing what they do to get out of it again. Whether my characters like me is a totally different matter!

Can’t believe this is the last day of Flash NANO for 2024 already (30th November). Many thanks to Nancy Stohlman for another great year of interesting prompts. Am I biased because one of mine was chosen? A bit!

But in fairness I have found all of the challenges interesting, some I thought I’m not going to do because I couldn’t see an immediate way in, and others I took to at once. I was expecting that though.

BUT I have got something out of each and every one so I see it as another successful year here. Also 30 new stories written which is always a win!. Am also grateful for feedback received on my stories. Useful and encouraging. Thanks, folks! Probably after Christmas I will go back and look through my drafts and see what can be done with them. I hope to send at least some of them out to competitions.

Goodreads Author Blog – ‘Tis the Season For Books

Couldn’t resist the title for this blog given we are about to go into Advent and then Christmas, of course as I write this on 30th November 2024.

It really is the season to be reading books of course. What is there not to like about being curled up somewhere nice with a good book and a lovely drink of choice (Options hot chocolate, mint or orange flavoured, for me usually) and have a good read?

‘Tis also the season for authors to be out and about selling their wares so if you have an event near you, do go along and support. Your local writers will appreciate it. Another way of support is to leave reviews in the usual places. These don’t have to be long and help writers with their marketing. They’re also encouraged because it is always nice to know you’re being read (and I love this aspect myself).

So ‘tis the season for books then – to read them and to support those who write them. Books are such a fantastic invention and there is something for everyone out there of all ages. I like to mix up my books between genres, long and short form fiction books, and non-fiction.

Whatever you read, I hope you find some cracking new books this season.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

So nice to get back to sharing the latest issue of Writers’ Narrative here. Enjoy!

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: 'Tis The Season For Books https://t.co/KZQlzVpveq via @goodreads Couldn't resist the title for this week's Goodreads blog as we're about to go into Advent. I hope your reading season is an excellent one! pic.twitter.com/AFitBEwxpt
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 30, 2024

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It’s Monday. Time for a tale. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – There’s Red and Then There’s Red. What does Santa do when Rudolph comes down with a cold at five minutes to go before flying time and the famous red nose has become infamous? Find out here.https://t.co/WC3iOBY774
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 2, 2024

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Author Interview: Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt

September 27, 2024Leave a comment

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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

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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

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Allison Symes – Festive Writing and Round Up 2023

December 22, 2023Leave a comment

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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. A huge thank you to all who shared pictures from the Bridge House Publishing celebration event with me – full details in the Chandler’s Ford Today post – but thanks, all!

Hope you have had a good week. Almost there with Christmas preparations. Loving joining in with the carols when played on Classic FM. (For the record my favourite carol is In The Bleak Midwinter but it has to be the Holst setting). Lady has got to play with a few chums this week and a new terrier pal called Freddie so she has had a good week.

Am winding down now for Christmas so my next round up post after this one will be on Friday, 29th December. For some reason I’m not going to be about to do one next Tuesday, Boxing Day! So that leaves me to wish you all a most blissful and happy Christmas and hopefully catch up with you again on the 29th.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

It’s always a joy to write the pre-Christmas round up post for Chandler’s Ford Today. This week in my Festive Writing And Round Up 2023, I report on the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event, the Three Minutes Santa show hosted by Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM, and I share some festive flash with you too. Hope you enjoy the post.

Allison Symes – Festive Writing and Round Up 2023

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Making more progress on Christmas prep work so that’s good. Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal today. Two happy and tired dogs went home. Just what the doggy doctor ordered then!

Will be sharing a festive writing and events round up post for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow plus I will be sharing festive flash as part of the post. I’ll also be sharing my write up of the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event as part of this too and the links to the Three Minute Santas show which went out last weekend. See above. You can see from the pics what a good time everyone had at the BHP event!

Looking a little further ahead, I will not be posting on 25th and 26th December for reasons which now escape me (!) and timings will vary as I disappear to have fabulous times with friends and family. I very much hope you get to do the same!

Meantime more writing and Christmas prep to do so best crack on!

Advantage to flash is setting characters anywhere

Hope you’ve had a good day. More Christmas prep done today so am making progress at least. Lady got to play with her pal, Coco, and then later with a friendly terrier called Freddie. Good time was had by all.

Looking forward to sharing my festive post for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Also looking forward to the Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom tonight for the Association of Christian Writers. Will be catching up on news. Christmas jumpers are optional. Will be good fun with or without said jumper! Am so pleased a number of us had festive flash broadcast last weekend on the Three Minute Santas show hosted by Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM. Hope we can keep this going!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Will be resuming submitting stories to Friday Flash Fiction in the New Year given they are taking a well earned break after running their Christmas competition. Many congratulations to the winner and those who were listed.

I’ll probably share a flash fiction tale on my YouTube channel sometime next week but in the meantime if you would like to check out my other stories on there, you can do so at https://www.youtube.com/@allisonsymes

Screenshot 2023-12-22 at 19-10-51 Allison Symes - YouTube

Festive flash is obviously a hot topic for me at the moment but the one thing I am always keen to avoid is any sense of tweeness. I’ve never liked it in any form of writing and, so help me, will not be guilty of it myself!

What I look to do is either write something which will make people smile/laugh (always a worthy aim, that!) or to give pause for thought (time for reflection at this time of year is also a good thing I find).

Will be taking a break over Christmas but will be sharing some of my festive flash for this year in my Chandler’s Ford Today post. Link up on that tomorrow plus I’ll be talking about the recent Bridge House event and sharing the links to the Hannah Kate radio show. So if you like festive flash, as I hope you do, please look out for that post tomorrow. See above.

I do hope to create some festive flash after Christmas and before New Year but is likely to be just on my YouTube channel and on a different day. Will flag it if I get around to doing this.

Don’t forget the December issue of Writers’ Narrative is out and the theme is Finishing Strong. Well, it is an apt topic for the end of the year, is it not?

If you haven’t read it yet, you can check it out here.

Fairytales With Bite – Is Magic The Be All and End All?

The simple answer to that question is no. Magic can’t be the be all and end all, else all conflicts and problems in stories would be resolved by a quick wave of the magic wand. No drama in that!

Magic should be seen as a tool to be used wisely and where there are no alternatives. I believe that is its use in fairytales. Cinderella did need magical help to get to the ball for example. There were no alternatives.

I also like to see magic as having consequences (on the grounds any form of power has consequences if it is used for good or for ill).

So give some thought as to how your characters use magic, what they do instead of using magic, and what consequences they face when they do use it. For example, does using magic drain their mental powers (which could also have a major impact on what else they go on to do in the story).

Consequences should be something they’re aware of (or become so fast) as I would feel it a little unfair if the character didn’t know (or find out quickly). Also if they know what the consequences are it gives them the chance to go for other options and that will make for a more interesting story. A reader will also know when they do use magical power it is because they have no other choice.

This World and Others – “Usual” Magic

What would your setting consider to be “usual” magic – I.e. what most in your setting would expect to see used on a regular basis? For example, is magic used where we use engineering? What we consider ordinary household gadgets such as the washing machine, would these be seen as magical in your setting or very basic?

Who would be the usual practitioners of any kind of magic? Are any species in your setting banned from using it? If so who, why, and is that ban enforced? What would happen if someone defied it?

Within your setting, what categories of magic exist? Can all species access magic to improve lives in their communities? Is some magic considered only to be used by the more important beings? (You can guess who brought that rule in!).

Are any restrictions placed on the use of any kind of magic for the benefit of the whole setting? Generally you don’t want beings firing magic at each other all the time and causing chaos. So what restrictions exist to prevent that from happening? What magic is considered acceptable to be used all the time?

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Will resume submitting to Friday Flash Fiction in the New Year as they take a break after running their Christmas competition. Congratulations to the winner and those who were listed. If you would like to check out my stories on YouTube, you can do so at https://t.co/UABhvVRjC1
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 22, 2023

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Allison Symes – Festive Writing and Round Up 2023 https://t.co/ltOqznSqp8 It’s a joy to write the CFT pre-Christmas post. I report on the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event, Three Minutes Santa show hosted by Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM, and share festive flash.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 22, 2023

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Anniversaries, Celebrations, Nightmare Journeys!

December 5, 2023Leave a comment

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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. I also took the bookstall display photo from the Bridge House Publishing celebration event. Talking of which….

Had a fabulous time at the Bridge House Publishing celebration event over the weekend, despite a nightmare journey (details below). Was glad to have made it though! I love Zoom. It’s a great tool but there is something special about being able to meet friends and fellow writers in person.

Many thanks to Lynn Clement for the image below taken at the Bridge House Publishing event. Lovely to meet up with her again. I have been her editor. Many thanks also to Paula R.C. Readman for the image of me reading from From Light to Dark and Back Again at the event. So nice to see her again. It has been a few years since we last met in person but then this is the joy of this kind of event.

Facebook – General

Today is a special day – 36 years to the day since I tied the knot with my other half, who is a rather special gentleman. Will be off out later in the week to celebrate, meal out etc. Funnily enough, it was a sunny December day way back then. Friends who wed the following June had rain all day. One thing you say about the British weather – it is never boring nor can you assume anything.

Writing wise, I have another super author interview coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today on 15th December. This week’s post will be about Getting the Most out of Themes, which I hope proves useful regardless of what you write.

Nice job later in the week is to narrow down two or three stories I drafted for Flash NANO as there is a competition I want to have a crack at and the deadline is the end of the year. Following my own advice to always take time off an official deadline, I’d like to get my story in this side of Christmas.

Writing Tip: Every so often, just write something for fun. Yes, really. I find it a great perk me up and it often sparks off ideas for other things I do want to see “out there”.

Sometimes I come back to the fun piece and polish it up and submit later. Sometimes I just leave it. But I had fun writing it and it gave my creative writing spark a much needed boost. I think most of us need that kind of boost sometimes.

Especially if you’re tired, and I have found this is often the case at this time of year for some reason (!), just writing something for fun is….well… fun!

I plan to write in more depth about the Bridge House Publishing celebration event for a just before Christmas Chandler’s Ford Today post (and many thanks to everyone at the event for sharing photos with me and giving permission to use them for that future post!).

Meantime, I was pleased and pleasantly surprised to make a guest appearance along with Debz Brown on Paula R.C. Readman’s blog today. Thank you, Paula. The blog is a great example of the upside of the writer’s life and we all need those!

A Trip to London.

Weather has warmed up but got wetter here in the south. Does that count as a win? Who knows? Mind you, coming back into a cosy home on returning from walking the dog counts as one of those moments of bliss. Another one is the first sip from a decent cup of tea! It really is a case of the simple pleasures in life.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Getting the Most out of Themes for Chandler’s Ford Today this coming week plus there will be another super author interview the week after so do look out for these. I am also planning a just before Christmas round up post, appropriately just before the big day and I hope to include a report on the Bridge House Publishing celebration event in that.

Talking of yesterday, it was lovely seeing the selection of books available yesterday. Thought it made a good display. A huge thanks to Gill James without whom none of that would have been possible.

Many thanks for the lovely comments coming in on The Lost Coin, my story on Friday Flash Fiction. Link here in case you missed it. I side with Gran in this one.

Nightmare journey up to London for the Bridge House Publishing celebration event. Points failure (can’t be helped), overtime ban (unfortunate), and only four carriages to London Waterloo on the previous train (stupidity).

That train was packed when it got to my stop. So waited for next one an hour later. They put eight carriages on for that. Whoever thought four carriages would ever be enough for the London run needs their head examining! Then had to change at Basingstoke. Next train to London Waterloo packed to the rafters and only five carriages. So was the next one but I was able to get on that one.

It was such a relief to get to the Theodore Bullfrog and fantastic to see everyone. I was so pleased to see people in person I haven’t seen for a while and it was great to catch up with Lynn Clement, whose The City of Stories, I had the privilege of editing.

There was much convivality over lunch followed by readings and publisher news. I hope to write more about this for Chandler’s Ford Today later this month. Picture below gives a taster!

Writing Tip: Use your own experiences of delays, frustrations etc to fill in how your characters would feel, act, react. Get something positive out of this!

Oh and the journey home was much better and I got to chat to a lovely Swanwick friend as well as we travelled back together!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

As I mentioned on my author Facebook page, it is my wedding anniversary today. Anniversaries, of all sorts, are great themes for stories. You can think about whether your characters relish the anniversary in question or try to ignore it and why this is the case. There is a story there!

Also some characters will commemorate something because it holds meaning for them but what if those closest to them don’t share the same meaning? How would that play out in their relationship? Or have they come to an understanding? There are stories there too.

You can also take anniversaries to be the dates commemorating historical events and this can apply even if you’re writing sci-fi/fantasy. What important dates would your worlds expect their peoples/beings of choice (!) to commemorate and what form of celebration would take place? Stories there too.

Also there is bound to someone who does not go along with the general flow here – who are they? Why are they not joining in?

Happy writing!

Just to flag up Friday Flash Fiction are running their annual Christmas competition. You can send two 100 word pieces in over two weeks and I’ve sent my first one in. Full details in link. The idea is you send one piece in during this week and another next week (final date is 15th December). It’s good fun. Why not give it a go? They won’t be taking the longer flashes during this period because obviously they’ve got to focus on the competition entries.

And if you’re quick, you’ve still got time to submit something to the Hannah Kate Three Minute Santas show as long as your story is in by midnight tonight – 4th December 2023. Her show with the chosen selections will go out on 16th December. Again see the link but you really do only have hours left on this one. This is one problem with doing a round up post after a deadline! I have submitted a story to this show. Will let you know how it does.

Last but not least it is time for a Monday flash fiction tale on YouTube. My latest story here is Never Going Back. Hope you enjoy it.

Screenshot 2023-12-04 at 17-40-01 Christmas Contest Entries

Screenshot 2023-12-04 at 17-42-52 3 Minute Santas - Hannah Kate

Hope you have had a good day. Am looking forward to going to an Advent Carols service later this afternoon. Carols in themselves often summarise the story of the Nativity in not that many words. Flash hymn writing maybe?!

It was great to catch up with many fellow flash fiction writers in yesterday’s Bridge House Publishing celebration event. Bridge House also includes CafeLit, Red Telephone, and Chapeltown Books. Yesterday’s event saw a great crossover of writers present – from the novelists to the short story writers to the flash fiction authors (and many of us do more than one of these).

The short form of story telling is fantastic because it makes you keep coming up with interesting characters. I’ve always loved inventing people so this is a win-win for me. There are opportunities out there with competitions, online magazines, and so on to get your work out there. You do wait a long time for the “pay-off” from a novel! Having said that, the big strength of the novel is being able to show a reader a complete world. For the short forms, writers have to condense that.

Whatever kind of writing you do or love reading, it all leads to fabulous stories. Something to get right into, I think, especially at this darker, wetter time of the year! Curl up with a good book (novel, novella, collection)? Don’t mind if I do!

Loved the Flash NANO challenge. Probably after Christmas I will take a closer look at these though I’ve got a couple of possible contenders for a competition I need to enter by the year end.

So my focus will be on working out which is the strongest one here, polish that up, and submit it before Christmas. It never pays to leave things to the last minute for this sort of thing. You will miss mistakes if you rush. Have done this myself in the past. Learned from it. Not done this since!

Goodreads Author Blog – Post Christmas Reading

I know what you’re thinking. Surely it’s a bit early for this blog! Not if you’re like me and you’re already planning your post Christmas read for that lovely period after 25th December until 2nd January.

Normal life has not yet resumed and there is more time to take it a bit easier. For me that means more reading and writing.

I’ve put in my book request list and am looking forward to the nice dilemma of what to read first. It is the only time I don’t stick to my book pile in strict order. Christmas given books are bumped right up the queue!

Am so looking forward to this and I hope your post Christmas read is a joy too.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

liked Allison Symes's blog post: Post Christmas Reading https://t.co/478kG1vZI9 via @goodreads

Hang on a minute, Allison, is it not a bit early for this kind of post? We haven't even got to Christmas yet. True but see my Goodreads post for why I am posting this now. pic.twitter.com/r1s92rEax2
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 2, 2023

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There are books of all genres for all the family in our members’ bookshop… https://t.co/RqLgIi2He6 pic.twitter.com/lOEmMICtbN
— ACW (@ACW1971) December 2, 2023

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It is that time of the week again. Time for a Monday flash fiction tale on YouTube. My latest story here is Never Going Back. Hope you enjoy it.https://t.co/ofTNzA87Fi
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 4, 2023

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Remember, Remember – Author Interview: Richard Hardie

December 1, 2023Leave a comment

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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 Richard Hardie for logo, author, and book cover pics for a marvellous interview on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

It has been a very cold week here, with some snow and sleet showers. Not that Lady worried as she got to run around with her best friends all week. I just put on extra layers and my big coat! Looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing celebration event on 2nd December. Will be lovely to see everyone again. (And it’s indoors out of the cold!).

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to interview Richard Hardie for Chandler’s Ford Today again. He is the author of the Temporal Detective Agency series (aimed at YA though I must admit despite not qualifying on that score for some considerable time, I find the books a great read too!). Today he launches his third book in the series, Remember Remember. This follows Leap of Faith and Trouble With Swords.

Richard discusses with me the challenges and joys of writing series fiction, his publishing company, Authors Reach, and what they have been up to since our last interview, and how Richard manages to keep details for his characters correct from book to book. This is a major consideration for anyone writing series. Plus there is much more useful information and great insights into the writing life here.

Many thanks, Richard, for a great interview. Link below.

Remember, Remember: Author Interview – Richard Hardie

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I am so pleased to welcome back Richard Hardie to Chandler’s Ford Today this week to talk about his new book, Remember Remember. This is the third in his Temporal Detective Agency series. The series is aimed at Young Adults but there are many who no longer qualify as such who also enjoy these books! Richard and I will also be chatting about marketing and other topics as part of this interview. Link up tomorrow (and Richard’s Facebook launch starts at 1 pm UK time tomorrow too). Interview above.

Two days to go to the Bridge House Publishing celebration event. So looking forward to seeing everyone.

I cannot believe today is the last day of Flash NANO 2023. I will be having a go at today’s challenge (aptly a thirty word story one) later on this evening. Have so enjoyed taking part in this again and the feedback and support on the Facebook page has been wonderful. Thanks, all, and also to Nancy Stohlman for setting all of this up.

Pleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This month I talk about Story Formats. What would be your favourite – the hardback, paperback, ebook, audio book? I welcome different formats and see them as ways of getting people into reading at all. Comments welcome over on the MTW page. (Let’s take the opportunity to celebrate the written word in all its formats!).

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Author newsletter out earlier today. I know it’s early to wish everyone a Happy Christmas but my next one isn’t until 1st January which would be a tad late, I think!

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with The Lost Coin. Hope you enjoy it. See what you make of my Gran character in this. Is she harsh or does her grandchild deserves what happens in this one because they ….. Well, no spoilers here. Link here for you to check it out! And many thanks to those who have already commented on this one.

Had a fun time at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom last night. We drafted some stories based on the festive theme. Glad to see some of our group taking part in the Flash NANO challenge too. Hard to believe we’ve reached the end of that already.

Once I’ve completed tonight’s challenge – a 30 words only story – I will have written 46, 586 words over the month. This is not far short of the 50,000 set for NaNoWriMo writers. Am pleased with this.

I didn’t have an overall target in mind when I began this. I just wanted to respond to each day’s challenge. Some of my stories were towards the upper end of the flash range but most were in the category I most write to – the 100 to 500 words count.

Am NOT surprised at that but what Flash NANO proves is all those “little” bits of writing do add up! So don’t worry about only having short times in which to write. Have fun. Get something written. Edit later. You can get more achieved than you think by using pockets of time like this.

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out again on Friday, 1st December. (Just where does the time go?!). If you would like to sign up for tips, news, story links etc, please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Meantime, I am looking forward to tonight’s ACW Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom. There will be more than a hint of a festive flavour about our flash writing this evening! It was great fun too!

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No acrostics are ages so here are two in one go! Hope you enjoy them. The second one sets some interesting questions for potential stories.

Fairytales with Bite – Festivities

F = Fairies, including godmothers, need to let their hair down every so often, you know.
E = Energy is drained by the continual use of magic.
S = Slippers, glass or otherwise, take a great deal of creativity energy – it’s not just a quick spell and away you go.
T = Time to have a party then for friends and colleagues so what does your average fairy do here?
I = Innovation is key – they invent spells to conjure up delicious food and drink without them having to lift a finger to do it.
V = Variety matters too – there will be spells for music, brightly coloured lights and so on.
I = Invitations are treasured for a fairy’s party – you know you’ve made it when you get one.
T = Timings of said parties are flexible but all start at midnight, it’s a traditional and a nod to Cinderella.
I = Imaginative dress is expected of the guests but this isn’t an issue – just don’t turn up as a wicked stepmother and you’ll be fine.
E = Expect to have a good time and an even better sleep when you eventually go home.
S = Strictly RVSP and no red apples whatsoever to be seen anywhere at a fairy’s festive do – it spoils the tone, you know.

This World and Others – Traditions

T = Traditions are a bedrock of any society so what would your setting have?
R = Revere the traditions or do your characters ignore or despise them?
A = Are there traditions based on religious or other festivals and does everyone take part?
D = Dancing – is this allowed in your setting and, if so, what form does it take?
I = Invented traditions – who invented them and why; what were they seeking to replace and why?
T = Timings of traditions – are these celebrated/commemorated all year or just in certain seasons?
I = In your world’s traditions, what would people do, eat, drink, and why these things in particular?
O = Ongoing traditions – why have people wanted these to continue?
N = New traditions – have your characters taken well to these and what purpose do they fill the old ones couldn’t?
S = Solemnity in traditions or super fun or a mixture of both? Which would your characters prefer and why?

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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There are so many ways to experience stories these days (eg paperbacks, e-books, audiobooks, films) as @AllisonSymes1 explains in today's More than Writers post. Which are your favourites and why? https://t.co/Z4kD0hdcXV
— ACW (@ACW1971) November 29, 2023

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More than Writers: Story Formats by Allison Symes https://t.co/pOR0CQsqvm What is your favourite format – hardback/paperback/ebook/audio book? I see them as ways of getting people into reading. Comments welcome on the MTW page. Let’s celebrate the written word in all formats! pic.twitter.com/XMGvv8hlCC
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 29, 2023

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Author newsletter out today. To sign up to receive it every month, please go to my landing page at https://t.co/4PWkpgevt3
For December's newsletter see https://t.co/6TEyIoWZJq pic.twitter.com/r6qPhFATjx
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 1, 2023

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Pleased to be on Friday Flash Fiction with The Lost Coin. See what you make of my Gran character. Is she harsh or does her grandchild deserves what happens in this because they ….. no spoilers. Many thanks to those who have already commented on this one.https://t.co/ppb2PpFyl9 pic.twitter.com/bWdzSgcBkq
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 1, 2023

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Remember, Remember: Author Interview – Richard Hardie https://t.co/kzo9hjdVa1 Today Richard launches his third book in his Temporal Detective Agency series, Remember Remember. Richard shares with me the challenges/joys of writing series fiction, and much more useful information.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 1, 2023

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