Author Interview – Introducing Hannah Retallick

November 29, 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. A huge thank you to Hannah Retallick for supplying many of the images in my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week and to Wendy H Jones for creating some fabulous images for the December 2024 edition of Writers Narrative, which I’ve incorporated into a Book Brush collage below. Do check out the magazine itself – link below.

Hope you have had a good week to date. Storm Connell early in the week followed by bitterly cold days – it has been a mixed bag of a week here, weather wise. Lady has been running around so the cold doesn’t worry her. Writing wise, am thrilled to announce Writers’ Narrative is back – see more below on this. Written by writers for writers, it is well worth checking out. And it’s double blog day given my Chandler’s Ford Today and More than Writers posts are both out on the Friday.

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29th November 2024 – Post 1 – CFT

Quick bit of news just before I share double blog posts – lots going on today.. Am pleased to say I sent in a prompt for Flash NANO and Nancy Stohlman has chosen mine to be today’s one. I haven’t written up the prompt myself yet but do plan to do so later on and see what I can do with it!

Double blog day once more and this time I start with a stunning interview with Hannah Retallick on Chandler’s Ford Today. We celebrate her new (debut) short story collection, Something Very Human.

Hannah shares with me so many useful thoughts and tips any writer will find useful so do check the post out. Hope you find it useful and entertaining – I did!

Hannah and I are both short story and flash fiction writers. We’re also both published by Bridge House Publishing. We discuss the joys of writing in the short form, fiction wise, and look at marketing and writing routines amongst other topics.

Author Interview: Introducing Hannah Retallick

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29th November 2024 – Post 2 – More than Writers

Double blog day part 2! I’m delighted to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers with a timely piece called Light in the Darkness. Timely, of course, since we go into Advent at the weekend. Hope you find the piece encouraging and inspiring.

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Two pieces of great news to share tonight:-

1. Am sharing a fabulous interview with Hannah Retallick about her debut story collection, Something Very Human (Bridge House Publishing), on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. Hannah shares so much useful information, tips, and thoughts useful to writers so do check this out. See above.

2. Am thrilled to say Writers Narrative is back with the theme of cozy marketing and writing. My piece is about festive flash fiction which, given its nature is fun and lighthearted, is a very cozy read indeed! Check out the magazine below (and there’s a free to subscribe link within the magazine itself).

Brrr… a cold one today. Storm Connell has done some damage – most evident in the afternoon and evening walks I take with Lady. Flooding, parts of tracks swept away etc. Had to do a detour tonight. Having said that, she did get to have a good time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal this morning. The park just gets soggy. Think I’ll be living in my boots now until next March (if early 2025 proves to be good), next May (if it doesn’t!).

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom later this evening.

Will be sharing a fabulous interview with Hannah Retallick on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Be sure not to miss it – lots of useful and interesting thoughts for all writers. See above.

Will be a double blog day on Friday given my post on More Than Writers will also be out and I will be looking at Light in the Darkness for that one. Apt as we go into Advent. Again see above. Has been a busy week!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale here Fitting In. This one I would describe as a fairytale in reverse. Just what does happen to the Fairy Kingdom’s clumsiest fairy ever? Find out here.

Many thanks to all who came to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom last night. The theme was festive flash fiction. I talk about the same topic for Writers’ Narrative this month which I am so glad to say is back. Its focus this issue is on cozy marketing and writing. Festive flash fiction fits in perfectly here given it is the ultimate, I think, in lighthearted reads – short, often funny, and definitely light, something I think is needed at that this time of the year. Link given up above.
As well as providing an interesting varIety of prompts, taking part in Flash NANO does mean you end up drafting stories in varying moods and genres. What will I do with these later? I hope some will go into a future collection. Others I will reserve for competitions.

Word count length has varied for the month – most have come in at the 500 words or fewer count. I have had a couple at the 100 word mark or so. None of this surprises me but I do find Flash NANO invaluable for (a) getting more flash written and (b) taking me out of my comfort zone with some of the prompts. The latter is good because it makes me “up my game”. No bad thing that.

Fairytales with Bite – Mix Up by Allison Symes

Mix Up
It never pays to be in too much of a hurry.
It will only lead to trouble and worry.
As one fairy godmother, once of such great renown,
Found to her utter chagrin, it got her down.
Picking up the wrong wand by such a clumsy mistake
She turned a client into a fancy cake
Which was then scoffed by a so hungry and fast young elf
The fairy godmother was besides herself
With tremendous grief, ridicule, and later, with pain.
She became the Fairy Queen’s appointed bane.
She was then banished to Earth, speedily, just like that.
Now she can’t magic a rabbit from a hat.

Ends
Allison Symes – 27th November 2024

Hope you enjoyed that one.

This World and Others – Borrowing From Other Worlds

How advanced is your setting? Does it have technology to travel to other worlds (openly or otherwise)? If so, does it like what it sees and does it “borrow” anything? The other world may not have anything taken from it but copying is an ancient business. So is the outright theft of a good idea!

So what would your characters bring back to their home world and how would these things be put to use? Does everyone back at home welcome the new “things” or are they fearful of them? Could they have good cause to be? There is potential for a humorous story in having a character bringing back all sorts of things, which never work out properly when he/she/it gets back home again.

Also give some thought if the world they’ve pinched ideas from get to travel across universes themselves, could they ever come to your character’s home world and discover what they’ve done? Could make for interesting clashes (and even more so if both worlds are trying to improve relations. Something like this could scupper that. What would the consequences be?).

Could other worlds borrow from what your setting has to offer and how could this come about? Who discovers your character’s home world in the first place and was it something they were deliberately seeking to do or something which they stumbled on accidentally?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Am so pleased Writers’ Narrative is back. Do see the link further up the post.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Author Interview: Introducing Hannah Retallick https://t.co/EY1bWacdwa Double blog day. I start with a fab interview with Hannah Retallick on CFT. We celebrate her debut collection, Something Very Human. We discuss short form writing, marketing, and writing routines and more.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 29, 2024

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More than Writers: Light in the Darkness by Allison Symes https://t.co/KkkCPnSIE6 Double blog day part 2! I’m pleased to be back on MTW, the Association of Christian Writers blog spot, with Light in the Darkness. Hope you find the piece encouraging and inspiring. pic.twitter.com/lqydyrW77r
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 29, 2024

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Fitting In, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/gs2zQq4eat Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, Fitting In. I describe this as a fairytale in reverse. Just what does happen to the Fairy Kingdom’s clumsiest fairy ever? Find out here. pic.twitter.com/kmQl823gUG
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 29, 2024

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Top Flash Fiction Writing Tips and The Benefits

November 22, 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. Many thanks to Janet Williams for the photo of me at the Book Fair. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good few days. Weather has turned bitterly cold. Even had some snow. Not that Lady worried. Writing wise, looking forward to sharing further author interviews on Chandler’s Ford Today. Am just putting some finishing to some flash pieces I hope to send off to competitions shortly. Wish me luck!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today to talk about a topic very close and dear to my heart – Top Flash Fiction Writing Tips and the Benefits. I look at focusing on the character, using the first person, and not worrying about the word count immediately amongst other things. Hope you find the post useful.

Top Flash Fiction Writing Tips and the Benefits

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22nd November 2024 – Esther Chilton – Guest Spot
Not one but two posts from me on here tonight.

Many thanks to Esther Chilton for inviting me to be a guest writer on her blog. See link below. Great opportunity to talk about flash fiction and to share a YouTube link to one of my favourite flash pieces of mine, Calling the Doctor. I used this as the trailer for From Light to Dark and Back Again.

Hope you enjoy the post and the video.

Guest Writer Spot

Colder today than yesterday, Even had snow which lay for a while. Melted by lunchtime. Went for a swim. When the pool water feels like you’re getting into a warm bath, you know it’s perishing cold outside. It was like that today! No pals out for Lady today though she did enjoy her usual time at the park. Dogs are great believers in making the most of the simple pleasures of life.

Will be looking at Top Flash Fiction Writing Tips and The Benefits for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Cracking on with Flash NANO. Am putting finishing touches to some flash pieces I want to get out for competitions in the next couple of days.

Not long now until the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Looking forward to that and catching up with everyone. Lovely way to finish my writing event year.

Busy putting next newsletter together as well.

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Another cold one today – the gloves came out. (No – not boxing ones!). Lady didn’t care. Too busy running around and having a fabulous time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week. We’ll be looking at festive flash, which is always great fun to write. I have finally drafted some and hope to do more next week.

I do usually set exercises when I run workshops. I’ve long appreciated being on the receiving end of exercises set for me by other tutors. I’ve always got something useful out of exercises. Some pieces which started life this way ended up being published.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with Wishing Well. Tony is skeptical about Hannah’s feeling it is right to make a wish at the well but is he right to be so scathing or does Hannah have a point? Find out here.

Highlight of the day today was having an Options hot chocolate when coming in from my afternoon walk with the dog. It really is all about the simple pleasures of life.

Talking of which, what would your characters count as their simple pleasures? What would they do/how would they react if these were taken away from them? Could be some interesting stories there.

Also what would they be prepared to do to ensure nobody could ever take these simple pleasures away at all? Would these simple pleasures get in the way of them having relationships with others or could a shared simple pleasure lead to a romance story?

Hope you can make use of those thoughts. Will be giving some thought to them myself!

Hope your writing day has been a good one. Looking forward to tackling Day 20 of Flash NANO shortly. Can’t believe where the time has gone on this already. Have loved all of the challenges.

Character Tip: Motivation matters, of course, but what drives your character to have the motivations they do. Are they doing what they are to defend themselves or loved ones, out of fear, out of greed or what have you?

The drivers here will be what determines whether your characters can keep going or not. The more vital the driver is (at least to the character) the more drama and tension there will be in your story, the more readers will be gripped to discover whether your character does keep going or not.

Fairytales with Bite – Fantasy Flash

F = Flash fiction can be used for many genres including fantasy.

A = As you are following the adventures of the characters and they can be set anywhere.

N = Not a lot of world building needed, you haven’t the word count room for it, but give enough details so readers know where your characters are.

T = Telling details are what are needed here – a hint of the world your character is in, a hint of any special powers your character has and so on.

A = Always know your character well enough to know what motivates them whether you write about a fairy, an alien being or a dragon (I’ve written for all three!).

S = Story is the main focus – what is your story, what is the change, what does your character do and what are the consequences? Why does it have to be on the world you’ve created?

Y = Your character needs to grip us throughout, even in a small word count story, so how will they do that? What is it about them that appeals? No matter how alien your character, readers will still need to understand where they are coming from and what motivates them.

F = Flash has to be brief and to the point so what aspects of your character could use this as a strength?

L = Lively characters, an intriguing opening, a gripping middle, and a powerful ending – no pressure then!

A = Always focus on getting the story down worry about word count later.

S = Set your story aside for a while after those drafts and then come back after a break to evaluate it properly.

H = Have fun drafting your story. Later have fun editing it and sharpening it. Have fun creating your characters and as much of your setting as you can show us but remember you do only have 1000 words for flash.

This World and Others – Food Production

I’ve not yet come across a story where the characters don’t need to eat. (I loved the hobbits and their wish for second breakfast in The Lord of the Rings). So regardless of your setting, food has to be produced somehow. What would your world use as sources of meat? (Yes, that can be especially grim and could be a source for ideas if you want to write horror).

What would your world grow as cereals and other crops? Would we recognize their farming methods? Is their equipment the same as ours, or more or less advanced than our own? Do the main characters in your story have any involvement with food production and could their role prove pivotal to the overall plot?

Whoever controls food supply wields a great deal of power, no matter what world this is on, so that could be used to good effect in a story. Naturally climate chance could also be factored into a tale involving food production. What would the impact be on the world you’ve set up?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the October 2023 of the magazine on the theme of horror. I look at Writing Horror: The Telling Details. And yes it is possible to write horror flash fiction. I’ve written some though mine is at the less dark end of the market.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Wishing Well, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/sximYa23to Delighted to be back on FFF with Wishing Well. Tony is skeptical about Hannah’s feeling it is right to make a wish at the well but is he right to be scathing or does Hannah have a point? Find out here. pic.twitter.com/x7uMk1LqBX
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 22, 2024

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Thanks to Esther Chilton for inviting me to be a guest writer on her blog. Fab opportunity to talk about flash fiction and to share a YouTube link to my Calling the Doctor. This is the trailer for From Light to Dark and Back Again. Hope you enjoy the post.https://t.co/L7e2gK6uMK
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 22, 2024

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Top Flash Fiction Writing Tips and the Benefits https://t.co/t9Omtn4mvM Pleased to be on CFT with my favourite topic – Top Flash Fiction Writing Tips and the Benefits. I look at character, using first person, and not worrying about word count immediately amongst other things.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 22, 2024

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Author Interview Part 2 – Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk and Flash NANO 2024

November 1, 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, as is one of the photos from the Book Fair. The image of me signing books there was taken by my lovely CFT editor, Janet Williams.

Hope you have had a good few days. Looking forward to listening to Pet Classics on Classic FM soon – it does help against the noise of the fireworks. Lady isn’t so much scared, more annoyed by fireworks especially the louder ones though the pain there is it means she finds it hard to settle. I wish people would use the silent ones and have done.

Writing wise, it is a joy to welcome back Debz Hobbs-Wyatt to Chandler’s Ford Today and I’m glad to say I will have more author interviews coming up too. Plenty to look forward to then. And Flash NANO 2024 has started too!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am so pleased to welcome back Debz Hobbs-Wyatt to Chandler’s Ford Today for the second half of a superb interview re her If Crows Could Talk. As well as discussing her novel, Debz shares so much useful advice which will be of use to all writers so do have a good read!

Tonight, Debz discusses drafts, editing, marketing, her favourite aspects of storytelling and so much more. Hope you enjoy the post (and if you missed Part 1, fear not, there is a link to it at the bottom of this interview).

Separately, Flash NANO has started – hooray – and I look forward to having a crack at the first prompt later this evening. Also author newsletter went out earlier. Busy but productive day and Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal and the lovely Coco, the Labradoodle, so Lady feels her day has been a good one too.

Author Interview – Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk – Part 2

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Don’t forget I’ll be sharing the second half of a superb interview with Debs Hobbs-Wyatt on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. She’ll be discussing her If Crows Could Talk but shares so much useful advice, it doesn’t matter where you are on your writing journey you will find it useful. Be sure to check it out – link up tomorrow. See above.

Author newsletter also out tomorrow and Flash NANO begins, hooray! Looking forward also to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event in December. Writers’ Narrative will be back soon too so plenty to look forward to as the year winds down. Where has the time gone?

Character Tip: I sometimes find it useful to work out a character’s negative traits. If someone is honest, my character will be so to the point of rudeness and a story idea will begin to form from that. If they tend to be pessimistic I may throw them in a situation where they have to find reasons to be more optimistic for once – that being the only way to get out of their situation. What will my character do to achieve this? I want to have fun finding that out and I would hope a reader would too.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Good time had by all. It’s their rule to always have a good time and to be fair they do stick to it!

Don’t forget Part 2 of a wonderful interview with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt about her If Crows Could Talk is on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Be sure to not miss it as Debz shares much useful advice which will benefit so many writers. See above.

The following week is when I am planning to review the recently performed I’ll Be Back Before Midnight so wonderfully staged by The Chameleon Theatre Group. One joy of going to their shows is it introduces me to a whole wealth of stories (as plays) I would not otherwise have come across.

There will be more author interviews to come before the year’s out on Chandler’s Ford Today and I am looking forward to sharing these as and when.

Writing Prompt: You can ask one of your characters one question only which they must answer truthfully (nor can they leave anything out). What would be your question? Find out what the answer reveals. I strongly suspect you’ll end up with a good story outline at the least answering this one. Happy writing!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. Somehow it is November. Time for a story then. Glad to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest Random Objects. Even magical parents have issues with their offspring human parents will understand only too well. Find out one of those issues here. Hope you enjoy it.

Hope you have had a good day. No pals out for Lady to play with today so she had to put up with me!

Author newsletter out again tomorrow and, of course, Flash NANO kicks off. Good luck if you’re taking part. Unless the prompt is to a specific word count, I don’t worry about this aspect at all. Some of my stories end up at 100 words or fewer, some at 250 words or more and most somewhere in between. All will need polishing up later. But that’s fine. I will hopefully have 30 new drafts to look at in December!

What I am hoping for will be the kinds of prompts I know and love and others which are new to me but which I find to be great fun! Will keep you posted.

Two days to go until Flash NANO starts. Yes, I am keen, fancy you noticing!

What I especially like here is not knowing what prompts will come up and then just seeing what I can do with them. I know I’ll get something from them. The polishing can happen later. I am hoping to use at least two of these prompts for competitions I’ve got in mind.

Those will be the two stories I won’t share on the supportive Flash NANO Facebook page! Some places don’t allow you to send in anything which has been published elsewhere, even on your own website, so I play safe here and ensure anything I want to submit anywhere does not go elsewhere at all. Easiest thing to do. Can’t go wrong with that.

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Fireworks

I’m not keen on fireworks, being a dog owner, but have enjoyed them when they turn up in fantasy fiction. My two favourite examples are:-

The Lord of the Rings – Gandalf has a supreme talent for fireworks, does he not? The book conjured up wonderful images in my head. The films brought those images to life spectacularly.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – I always was fond of Fred and George Weasley but my favourite scene of theirs for me has to be when they unleash their fireworks and the dragon one goes after the odious Dolores Umbridge. (Played almost too well by Imelda Staunton, I thought). And I loved that bit where Professor Flitwick shows his approval of the Weasleys’s antics and then realises he shouldn’t. Very funny. Suspect Warwick Davis enjoyed that bit, it certainly come across that way.

But there can be metaphorical fireworks of course. So what kind of magical metaphorical fireworks would your characters (a) set off or (b) do their best to avoid setting off but somehow don’t manage it? What are the consequences of these things? There would be consequences! Funny ones maybe or deadly serious? The choice is yours.

This World and Others – Intelligent Beings

I suspect if we had a group discussion on what counted as intelligent beings, there would be many who would put a question mark against humans. They would point to what we’ve done to the planet, our warlike tendencies and so on. As a dog owner, I know when dogs squabble, it is over something specific and usually easily dealt with. Dogs generally don’t hold grudges either. Hmm…

But then there would be others who would point out to our amazing creative skills ranging across a huge range of disciplines. I’ve got every sympathy here. It does take intelligence to want to create something lovely such as a painting, piece of music, or a story.

Okay, let’s move that group discussion out of our own solar system. If others from worlds way beyond us were to look down on us, would they consider we were intelligent beings or not?

And if we went exploring, what kinds of being would we come across? How would we evaluate their intelligence? What would happen if we got this wrong? We could get it wrong in two different ways here. What would the consequences be and what intelligence would we use to rectify matters?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Back to the September 2023 edition of the magazine this time with its ever timely topic – marketing. I have two pieces in this one – Marketing Your Books and Writing For Online Magazines.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Random Objects, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/h5wGWeye5E It’s Friday. Somehow it's November. Time for a story. Glad to be on FFF with Random Objects. Even magical parents have issues with their offspring humans understand. Find out one such issue here. pic.twitter.com/P9nPFYzyD4
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 1, 2024

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Author Interview – Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk – Part 2 https://t.co/c19jR3rRp3 Thrilled to welcome back Debz Hobbs-Wyatt to CFT for Part 2 of a fab interview. She discusses editing, marketing, storytelling and more. There's a link to Part 1 in this interview too.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 1, 2024

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Author Interview: Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk Part 1

October 25, 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, as were the photos from the Book Fair at The Hilt. Many thanks go to Debz Hobbs-Wyatt for supplying book and author shots for her Chandler’s Ford Today post with me this week. Also in that is a lovely shot of Debz, myself and Paula Readman, which was taken on Paula’s phone. Lovely to see that one again.

Hope the week has been a good one. Mixed bag here between fun things such as going to see The Chameleons, feeling unwell and perking up again, and getting to do more writing than I normally would, thanks to having to be at home for a bit rather than be out and about. Lady has had a smashing week, including a proper puppy party on Wednesday. It was a sight for sore eyes!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to share Part 1 of a a super interview with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt who joins me on Chandler‘s Ford Today to discuss her new novel, If Crows Could Talk (Walela Books). She also shares wonderful thoughts on writing short stories to hone your craft and about writing for joy. This makes a huge amount of sense given nobody can know for sure how things will turn out with their works. You do have to enjoy the process and what you write. You are your own first reader.

She also shares what inspired her to write If Crows Could Talk and the need to outline so you know your story arc. Do check out the interview. Link below and congratulations, Debz, on the new book!

Part 2 next week (and after that a review of The Chameleons’ I’ll Be Back Before Midnight. Lots going on at CFT at the moment with more to come too).

Author Interview: Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk – Part 1

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Off to the theatre later to see The Chameleons perform I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, a thriller. Plan to review later. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today. Has had a good week – it’ll only be tomorrow when she won’t see any chums.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again soon. If you want to sign up to receive tips, news, story links etc , do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Had a lovely session at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group yesterday. We were looking at tips on how to make the best of Flash NANO and writing prompts generally. If you’re taking part in Flash NANO or NaNoWriMo, both of which start on 1st November, good luck and I hope you get a lot done. What I love most about Flash NANO is having 30 new stories to edit and polish after the month is up. I can take my time doing that.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady had a smashing one at the park – a real puppy party, She played with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals but the lovely Coco, the Labradoodle, came out as well. The dogs were so pleased to see each other and a good run around was had by all.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting this evening. Will be looking at tips on Flash NANO and writing prompts generally. Always a useful topic.

And I’ll be sharing Part 1 of a super interview with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt about her book, If Crows Could Talk, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above.

Meantime, talking of CFT, many thanks to my lovely editor, Janet Willams, for taking the snaps of me at the Book Fair at The Hilt last weekend. Always tricky trying to get his kind of shot yourself!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to share my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Awkward Questions. You should be able to spot the influences in this one! It was great fun to write. Hope you enjoy it.

I’m a huge fan of writing prompts and like to mix up the types I use. It means I don’t stick to my favourites all of the time. It would be easy to do that. As I write a lot of flash, I need ideas all of the time so am always looking for ways in to finding said ideas. Prompts are enormously helpful here, I use them as a way in to creating characters and situations I can put them in, and they give you practice in writing to a topic set by someone else. That’s handy if you enter competitions.

While it is still a little way of yet, I am pleased I’ve booked my train tickets for the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event in London in December. Always good fun and it is lovely hearing people read their stories Hope to read some of mine too. Always good to have something to look forward to at the close of the year!

I also need to start drafting some festive flash but I hope to make a start on that from next week. Also looking forward to Flash NANO which starts on 1st November. Had 30 new draft pieces from it last year and hope to achieve the same again this time.

Fairytales With Bite – Nights Out

What would count as a good night out in your setting? Which of your characters would love that kind of thing? Which would dread it? What would they be prepared to do to get out of having a night out? Could be some humorous tales there.

What would your average fairy godmother or wizard do when they want a night off from the magic?

What would be the equivalent of the cinema? What would they listen to if they went to a concert? Do they visit other worlds, including ours, when they want an evening of entertainment and what do they do to ensure they’re not spotted by said inhabitants of those worlds? (You just know there’d be fallout, though it might be easier for them to blend in better around Halloween!).

Does your world have celebrations everyone is expected to take part in and, if so, what forms would these take? What similarities would they have to our national events? Where would these be alien to what we know here? And if visitors from other worlds, including ours, could see these things, what would they make of them?

Story ideas there!

This World and Others -The Entertainment Business

Our entertainment business is vast taking in film to music to writing and much more besides. What would it look like in your setting? Are there similarities with ours? Are there things which could only exist on the world you’ve set up? Is the entertainment business regulated and who does the regulating? Did anything happen to make these regulations necessary?

Who works in the business? Is it considered an honourable profession or is it only for those who couldn’t make their magical abilities work properly and they’ve had to fall back on show business?

What would your fantasy setting make or our pantomimes and things like that? Would they see them as insulting the magical world or a humorous spoof?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the September 2023 edition, which looked at marketing. I had two articles in here – Marketing Your Books and Writing For Online Magazines.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Awkward Questions, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/TrtArRPAm4 Delighted to share my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Awkward Questions. You should be able to spot the influences in this one! It was great fun to write. Hope you enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/x4Xz853sku
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 25, 2024

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Author Interview: Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk – Part 1 https://t.co/lPMHJ2zpor Delighted to share Part 1 of a fab interview with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt about her If Crows Could Talk (Walela Books). She discusses writing short stories to hone craft and what inspired her.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 25, 2024

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Double Blog Day: ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups and Writing Prompts

October 18, 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, as were the photos for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. Many thanks to Paula Readman for taking the image of me reading at another book event – the Bridge House Publishing one back in December 2023. (Looking forward to going to this year’s one too. Am hoping for much better luck with the trains this time!).

Hope the week to date has been a good one for you. Am looking forward to taking part in the Book Fair on Saturday 19th October. It made its debut last year and I am so pleased it has come back again. Will look forward to meeting the other authors taking part too. Lady has spent most of the week playing with her two closest pals so she’s had a good week too.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

18th October 2024 – Chandler’s Ford Today

Every so often I have a double blog day and today is one of them. I will shortly share the link to my Authors Electric post on Writing Prompts but first and foremost, it’s time to share my latest on Chandler’s Ford Today. This week I talk about the ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups.

I share some of the experience of last Saturday’s ACW writing day but also useful tips if you’re thinking of joining a writing group. Hope you find the post useful here.

Oh and if you are in the Chandler’s Ford area tomorrow, do come along to The Hilt at the Hiltingbury Recreation Ground. The Book Fair is back and is from 1 pm to 5pm, it is free entry, and there is a wide range of authors taking part, including yours truly. Hope to see you there.

ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups

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18th October 2024 – Authors Electric

Second post tonight as it is double blog today for me today! I’m back on Authors Electric today talking about Writing Prompts, a favourite topic of mine. I use a wide variety of prompts and find them invaluable. I discuss some of the prompt types I use as well as how to make the most of the random generators. Hope you find the post useful.

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One happy Lady today as she got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals once again. All of us happy as it stayed dry today, unlike yesterday when it poured down. Managed to avoid a lot of it but not all – it is amazing how wet you can get in a three minutes shower!

Will be discussing the ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I’ll be sharing tips and thoughts on what to look for if you’re thinking of joining a writing group, as well as celebrating a marvellous ACW event last Saturday in Rugby. Link up tomorrow. See above.

It will be double blog day tomorrow incidentally as my Authors Electric post on Writing Prompts is also out on 18th October. Plenty to look forward to reading and I hope you will find both blogs useful and entertaining. Again see above.

16th October – bonus CFT post

Delighted to share a bonus post on Chandler’s Ford Today advertising the Book Fair at The Hilt on Saturday, 19th October between 1 pm and 5 pm. All welcome. Entry is free. Come and support your local authors (and get some book buying done early for You Know What coming up in December!).
Am so pleased to be taking part in this again – hope to see you there!

BOOK FAIR AT THE HILT – SATURDAY 19TH OCTOBER 2024

In separate news, I’m delighted to say I will have a super duper two part interview with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt about her new novel, If Crows Could Talk, coming up on CFT at the end of the month/early November. More details nearer the time.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s good to wrap up the week with a story and I hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Getting There. See how my character coped with her unfaithful Ron, but is all as she would wish it to be now? Find out here.

Hope you have had a good day. I’ve now sent in the results to the flash fiction competition I was judging. Good fun to do. Looking forward to the Book Fair on Saturday too, It will be nice to catch up with the other authors too, some of whom I met for the first time last year. This time I’m on the list to give a short talk about who I am, what I write, and naturally I will share some flash fiction as part of that.

A busy week coming up next week too with the next Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom on Wednesday and I’m off to our wonderful local theatre on Thursday too. As the year starts to wind down, the writing life winds up! But it gives me more opportunities to spread the word about flash and I’m always happy to do that.

Looking forward to spreading the word about flash fiction at the Book Fair at The Hilt on Saturday. See link to bonus Chandler’s Ford Today post which shares more info.

I’ve often found at events like this demonstrating what flash fiction (a) entertains, (b) shows what flash is so effectively and (c) can lead to sales! Nothing to dislike there! Hope to see you there if you’re in the area. And there will be plenty of other authors represented too. Last year, there was a good selection ranging from YA fantasy, flash (of course), non-fiction, women’s fiction and much else, and that should be the case again this time.

If you’re not in my area, do support your local author events. There will be plenty coming up in the next couple of months (can’t imagine why!).We always appreciate the support, regardless of what we write.

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Fairytales with Bite – Special Books

I still have two very special books – The Reader’s Digest Collection of Fairytales, a two volume set given to me by my late father. The fairytales are the originals collected and written by Hans Christen Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Perrault and so on. One of those books has its spine bound up by tape, I read it so much!

But recalling these led me to wondering what books would your magical creations consider special to them?

Would it be their study books? Would it be what we call fairytales but which they would see as their history, maybe? Would it be a book which was especially helpful to them in developing their craft?

Do any of your magical creations write their own books? Have they contributed to your world’s literature, magical arts etc?

Just what would be their special books and how have they helped your characters develop? There are story ideas there.

This World and Others – Ways of Researching

Often when I’m drafting a story, I may need to do a quick bit of research to check something. I once needed to find out what poisonous plants I could reasonably expect to find in a garden. Honest, guv, it was for a story and nothing else. I suspect most crime and horror writers internet search histories would not beat too much scrutiny!

Where would your characters go when they needed to research something to help with their work, quest etc? Do they find materials easy to access? Are there libraries and archives as we understand the terms or, if not, what would be the nearest equivalent to these things? Records are kept everywhere after all!

How would they research? As well as books and scrolls, could they interview people/beings? Would there be something along the lines of the web so all could easily research? Are there areas they would be stopped from researching and, if so, what and why and who does the stopping? All ideas there.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the October 2023 edition of the magazine. The focus was on horror. My article is Writing Horror: The Telling Details. Often it is specific details which will give your readers “the chill factor”. Select them well!

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Delighted to share a bonus post on Chandler’s Ford Today advertising the Book Fair at The Hilt on Saturday, 19th October between 1 pm and 5 pm. Entry is free. Come and support your local authors. Am pleased to be taking part in this again – see you there!https://t.co/OHxkf42rua
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 16, 2024

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It’s good to wrap up the week with a story and I hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Getting There. See how my character coped with her unfaithful Ron, but is all as she would wish it to be now? Find out here.https://t.co/1WkBnpJzSc pic.twitter.com/P2Wa6RomQk
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 18, 2024

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Authors Electric: Writing Prompts by Allison Symes https://t.co/rzoCxjehvL I’m back on AE discussing Writing Prompts. I use a variety of prompts and find them invaluable. I discuss some types I use and how to make the most of the random generators. Hope you find this useful. pic.twitter.com/fTfwl48PfN
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 18, 2024

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ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups https://t.co/fY3FsiBe8e Pleased to share my latest on CFT – ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups. I share some of the experience of the recent ACW writing day AND tips if you’re thinking of joining a writing group.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 18, 2024

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Author Interview: Miriam Drori – Loyalty and the Learner

October 11, 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. A big thank you to Miriam Drori and Lynsey Adams (Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog) for photos supplied for my interview with Miriam on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Miriam also sent pictures of her setting with captions so do check those out. Settings add so much to a story.

Hope you have had a good week. Lady has seen her friends most of the time so she’s happy. Am off to Rugby on 12th October to go to the Association of Christian Writers Autumn Gathering event. Looking forward to catching up with friends, making new ones, and enjoying the workshops. Also looking forward to Flash NANO which starts soon too. Hope I can get another 30 draft stories out of it this year! (Have also been playing with Book Brush for my flash fiction collections – see below!).

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to welcome Miriam Drori to Chandler’s Ford Today this week to discuss her new novel, Loyalty and the Learner. She also shares her views on titles (especially as she has used alliterative titles for her other book in the Jerusalem Murder Mystery series, Style and the Solitary) and what led her into creative writing at all, given her career was in a very different direction. Even her other writing has been in a different direction as Miriam has also written on social anxiety.

Miriam also discusses writing blurbs and writing guides with me. Plenty to enjoy here and lots of useful thoughts. Do enjoy!

Many thanks for joining me on CFT, Miriam, and good luck with the book.

Meeting Miriam Drori: Loyalty and the Learner

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Don’t forget to check out a superb interview with Miriam Drori on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Miriam discusses her new book, Loyalty and the Learner. The interview is part of a blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog. See above.

It was lovely to meet Miriam in person at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick back in August and both of us took part in the Open Prose Mic Night there.

Miriam shares wonderful tips on book launches and her approach to marketing. She shares what led her into writing crime at all and her favourite aspect of storytelling. She also discusses how she handles the inevitable ups and downs of the writing life and there is much more besides. Do look out for it. Looking forward to sharing this tomorrow. Do look out for the link.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady did. She got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals – all three so pleased to see each other. Off to have my flu jab later.

More author interviews coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today in the run up to that famous event in December (it is too early to mention it by name yet, though I note that thought clearly hasn’t occurred to the supermarkets). Am looking forward to sharing those.

Am a fair way through a first draft of a fourth flash fiction collection and am preparing a submission for something else which I hope to get out in the next few weeks. I’m at that stage where I’m resting it as I want to judge it again before I send it off. Time away from any piece of work is the only way I know to be able to judge a piece objectively enough.

Am also happily judging a flash fiction competition at the moment too. Love doing this kind of thing and I always critique. I’ve been on the receiving end of critiques myself and have always found them useful. They do have to be constructive though.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, Put That Light Out. Fans of Dad’s Army should recognise that phrase and who said it in the series. It directly inspires this story. Hope you enjoy it.

Have another train trip over the weekend so hope to use some of that travelling time in drafting blog posts, flash fiction etc. Am delighted the notes app on my relatively new phone replaces Evernote for me. I didn’t need a paid for subscription with them given I use this kind of note program only when travelling like this and Evernote have been pushing towards subscriptions, which I think is a shame. Never used to do that but I understand they were taken over by someone else a while back so that probably explains the change of viewpoint!

Paid for subscriptions are not for everyone. I only ever pay for something I know I will use. I use graphics a lot so having a paid for plan with Book Brush makes a great deal of sense for me. Likewise I have a paid subscription for my website and I am always keen to renew my subs with the Society of Authors as I have long found their advice useful. There is a huge business in services fur authors. Just know what you’re getting into and always check things out before committing to anything.

I am looking forward to getting on with some drafts on the train on Saturday though. It’s amazing how much I can get done and I like making good use of time like that.

So looking forward to taking part in Flash NANO again. Not long to go now. Have enjoyed taking part over the last couple of years and some of those pieces have gone on to be published. If you want to take a look at what it is all about, do follow the link below.

A huge thanks to those members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group who put me on to this. I just love the whole idea of having something for the short form writers while the novelists crack on with NaNoWriMo (and if you are taking part in that, good luck!).

Fairytales With Bite – How Do You Know When Your Wand Needs Servicing?

Time for some lighthearted nonsense I think.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when fur slippers become glass ones.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when the three bears have to call in carpenters to sort out the ruined furniture because your wand decides it doesn’t “do wood”. The one comfort you have here is in knowing a certain time travelling alien with two hearts has s sonic screwdriver which also doesn’t “do wood”. On the plus side again, you are unlikely to upset the Ents from The Lord of the Rings precisely because your wand doesn’t “do wood”.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when it misfires and what would normally emerge as sweet little tweeting birds turn out to be huge vultures who don’t look that pleased to see you. They’re even less pleased when you aim your wand again and they become those sweet little tweeting birds with feathers missing. Somewhere in their brains they will recall they had been much bigger and more threatening and they liked that role. They also begrudge the missing feathers.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when, despite all magical attempts to get spinning wheels out of the magical kingdom, one still manages to turn up.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when despite using it for help with your baking, your cake still has a soggy bottom and despite using fabulous ingredients it still tastes like fairy dust (which is dry and bitter).

This World and Others – Equipment – Servicing and Manufacturing

Hope you enjoyed Fairytales with Bite. Now for story ideas.

Fairy godmothers and the like will need to have somewhere to go to get their wands etc serviced, replaced (if damaged in the call of duty or because they simply fancy the latest model). The Harry Potter series famously had Diagon Alley for this.

What would your world have or does your setting import this kind of service and manufacturing from other places? If so, why? What set the tradition for importing skills and services? Does that have a downside? There is one obvious one – they better not be at war ever with the world which supplies them!

Story ideas could also come from following the tale of a craftsman here. What do they produce? How did they get into the trade? Is their reputation a good one? What would they do if made to make equipment for someone they really don’t want having it? Good tension raising drama there!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the November 2023 edition of the magazine which was on the theme of novels. Timely too given November each year sees both NaNoWriMo and Flash NANO. My piece in here looked at writing novels and shares what I learned from writing my, as yet, unpublished one.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Meeting Miriam Drori: Loyalty and the Learner https://t.co/wZDMSV6YPQ Delighted to welcome Miriam Drori to CFT to discuss her novel, Loyalty and the Learner. She discusses titles, what led her into creative writing, blurbs and writing guides amongst other topics. Do enjoy!
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 11, 2024

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Put That Light Out, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/k32DYbeaGK Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my new tale, Put That Light Out. Fans of Dad’s Army should recognise that phrase and who said it! It directly inspires this tale. Hope you like it. pic.twitter.com/AJqJ5nhXMa
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 11, 2024

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Story Inspiring TV and Its Music

October 4, 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. Many thanks to my lovely CFT editor, Janet Williams, for the shot of me at the 2023 Book Fair. Looking forward to the 2024 one coming up soon! Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good few days. The autumn evenings are drawing in rapidly and, yes, the heating has come on. Lady had a great start to her week, getting to play with her two best doggie girlfriends. After recovering from a cold, I was pleased to be back in the swimming pool on Thursday and Friday. Just felt so good to be back in there again.

Writing wise, do look out for a super interview with crime author Miriam Drori next week on Chander’s Ford Today. Later in the month I’m off to see the latest production from The Chameleon Theatre Group so a review will follow in due course. And I’ll also be interviewing Debz Hobbs-Wyatt about her new novel so October is going to be busy but fun, just how I like things to be.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to share Story Inspiring TV and Its Music on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at how books have led to many fabulous TV series with equally wonderful themes for them. So if you enjoy books, TV series, and TV themes, this post is for you!

I look at classic detective series (think about a certain crime Dame’s greatest characters), take a trip to Oxford, and look at how a certain renowned time traveling alien (clue: has two hearts) has inspired so many novels to be written. I also take a peek at sagas and famous children’s TV series based on books.

Much to enjoy here and I hope you enjoy the post. I loved writing it.

Story Inspiring TV and Its Music

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My recent post on Books, Movies, and Music on Chandler’s Ford Today was a joy to write and inspired me to write another in a similar vein. Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing Story Inspiring TV and Its Music. It is amazing how many books have led to super television series. There has also been some wonderful themes to go with them. I’ll be discussing and sharing some of these. If you fancy a trip down Memory Lane, tomorrow’s CFT post is especially for you. See above.

My only regret here was not being able to include one of my all time favourite TV tunes, The Thunderbirds March, given it isn’t based on a book! Lady Penelope was an early heroine of mine and I was sorry to hear recently of the death of David Graham who voiced her sidekick, Parker, amongst many other characters.

However, I have found the following gem on YouTube. Do enjoy. I thought it was wonderful.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady has had a smashing one. She got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. All three dogs went home tired but happy. They do enjoy seeing each other. It is lovely to see.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Story Inspiring TV and Its Music for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. More writer interviews to come later in the month too.

Many thanks for the congratulations on my competition news yesterday (re my third place award). Much appreciated.

Character Creation Tip: I often start with major traits and then work out what could come from those for my creations. For example, courage could lead to recklessness. I could have two different characters from that thought alone and two different stories.

I find traits useful as they are a powerful source of motivation for a character too and readers understand this. My underlying belief is for any story to work readers must get where a character is coming from. Doesn’t mean the reader has to like the character necessarily.

Confession time: I don’t like all of mine. Indeed, I can think of some I wouldn’t want to meet on a dark night! But that’s fine. For the purpose of the stories they’re in, all I needed was to understand why they are the way they are and then I took things from there.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s the end of the working week for many. Its getting darker earlier on in the evenings. It’s time for a story and I hope this one puts a smile on your face.

See what happens in my latest on Friday Flash Fiction, The Birthday Cake, when a mum, finally decides she is going to fix her lack of food presentational skills, no matter what she has to do to achieve this.

I occasionally write what I call “two-handers” for my flash fiction. This is where I get my narrator specifically addressing another unseen character who is “off stage”.

One of these is my You Never Know (From Light to Dark and Back Again) where I have an irate magical tour guide pointing out the downside of her job to someone who clearly thinks she has an easy, cushy life. Not so! Great fun to write.

The secret with these stories, I think, is to have a strong central character who has a strong premise or idea to share with the unseen character which should lead to a change of attitude on the part of the latter. So even in this kind of story there has to be a point of change or something where it is likely there would be one after the story ends. Readers should be able to see that coming, so to speak.

Here I outlined what my main character would have cause to whinge about at the other character but I wanted them to do it with humour so it didn’t just come across as a rant. My favourite lines from this read, “One further tip to the wise – never eat anything glowing red as it’s unlikely to be healthy. I must thank Snow White for telling me that.”.

Well, in a magical world, that’s wise advice, yes?

But for this story working out my characters first helped me to write the tale. I saw it as laying my foundations here but sometimes it does work best for me when I know the characters first, then I figure out the storyline. Sometimes when I know the storyline, that will give me the characters best placed so suit it. But it helps being open to both approaches here.

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From Light to Dark and Back Again - by night

Flash fiction has a powerful impact because the form is so short. Knowing this, I can decide what impact I want my stories to have, whether it is to make readers laugh, cry, scream, or what have you.

Depending on what I choose here (and sometimes that choice is confirmed quickly if a competition I’m entering has a set theme which is likely to lead to certain types of character being needed), I can then work out what my character needs to be to be able to produce that impact.

This is where knowing the major traits helps. If I know my character is judgemental, say, I can set them up in situations where that attribute will backfire on them. I could write that as a tragedy or as a humorous story. I like having the choice!

I’ve found with flash it has paid to play to its strengths and having a more powerful impact due to its precision is one of them.

Fairytales with Bite – The Tooth Fairy’s Lament

Hope you enjoy the following. Time and changing attitudes can lead to redundancies in the most unexpected places!

The Tooth Fairy’s Lament
That poet lady who said “I wish I’d looked after me teeth”,
Should see life from the other side of the white enamelled fence.
I’ve no problem with her but I want you all to know my beef.
I’ve no training for other work and it’s not as if I’m dense.

I want pity for a Tooth Fairy with a P45.
In the old days, her well honoured role was a job for her life.
Not now so it seems, I now need to work out how to survive.
I don’t need my life’s work being dumped; I so don’t need the strife.

So why has my respected job gone? Why have I got the sack?
I could say it was due to belief but I wouldn’t be right.
Belief isn’t the problem far from it but it is the lack
Of it which has made my work vanish, my finances so tight.

And don’t get me wrong either, I am all for healthy eating.
Better dental health, not before time, is a great idea too.
But when these things come together, my work takes such a beating.
Now where do I find myself? I’m in the magical dole queue.

Ends
Allison Symes – written 2nd October 2024

This World and Others – The Magical Jobs Nobody Wants to Do

It doesn’t matter which universe you’re in (as a resident or a visitor or someone who does a bit of both), but there will be magical jobs nobody wants to do.

Clearing up after a trainee wizard for instance – goodness knows what you’ll find from what they’ve been experimenting with in their bid to create the best spell ever. All you know is you’re the cleaner and you’re not paid enough but hey there was nothing else and it is a secure post. Oh and you’ve been warned time and again not to use magic to help with the cleaning. Some apprentice did it years ago and there was no end of trouble and you don’t want to happen to you, do you?

Likewise, would you want to be the one who sources ingredients for a witch? You wouldn’t dare get it wrong, would you? It might not be kids in the oven next time.

How about being a proofreader for a new spell book? You know these things have been tested in the field but they are not yet established in your lore. What if you make a mistake here? What if you don’t pick up on mistakes on the manuscript? What would the consequences be?

Scope for humorous stories I think here.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Back to the first issue of Writers’ Narrative this time – the August 2023 edition. In this one I write about Boost Your Writing with Flash Fiction. Talk about write what you know!

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Story Inspiring TV and Its Music https://t.co/AEnihTZycV Delighted to share this on CFT this week. I look at how books have led to great TV series with wonderful themes. I look at classic detective and children's shows and more. Hope you enjoy the post. I loved writing it.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 4, 2024

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The Birthday Cake, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/FvzP5IGYf1 It’s Friday. Tale time. See what happens in my latest on Friday Flash Fiction, The Birthday Cake, when a mum decides to fix her lack of food presentational skills, no matter what she has to do. pic.twitter.com/TVNeYeFLAE
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 4, 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.

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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!

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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Story Judging

September 6, 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. Autumn coming in rapidly here and Lady and I have had our first soakings of the month! Looking forward to sharing two fabulous author interviews on Chandler’s Ford Today towards the end of the month plus I hope to have news of another writing event in October before long. Meantime, keeping busy writing and editing here. Huge advantage to this is I keep dry!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Lady and I had another soaking this morning. We may have been marginally less wet than yesterday but there wasn’t much in it!

On a much happier note, I’m pleased to share Story Judging for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at where competition judges can tell how much (or little) editing has been done on the pieces they get to read and I share what I think story judges are looking for. I also share handy tips.

Hope you find the post useful and good luck if you are entering competitions. I find they’re a great discipline for helping you to get used to writing to deadlines.

Story Judging

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Lady and I had a real soaking this morning! Hope it wasn’t too bad where you are. Only time I was pleased to get wet today was when I went swimming!

Don’t forget Story Judging is up on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. Will be back to see The Chameleon Theatre Group’s latest production in October so will review that in due course for CFT too.

I’ve mentioned before I often use Zoom to record stories and play them back. Well, I was glad I did last night. A story I’ve got in mind for submission has to come in at under the three minutes mark. Discovered mine was over four! Have already edited the piece so hope it will now be to the right time length but I will re-record later and make sure. I’ve found it is the only sure way to make sure my timings are right.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady had a cracking time in the park with her pal, Coco, and then got to see two other rescue dog pals she sees every now and then. Grand time had by all. Rain held off too so will count that as a win.

I’ve been thinking of music and books a lot recently, partly inspired by the recent Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame chart which they played on Bank Holiday Monday. Wonderful music and many of the pieces relate to books or plays. Shakespeare turned up a few times for that chart. Would like to think he would be pleased about that. (Jane Austen and Charles Dickens were represented in there too).

Character Tip: Why not see what your character’s musical tastes are and why they have them? This could reveal something about their background and/or personality. Also think about a piece of music which would suit your character and think about why it would be that one. (If you pick Jaws, you are either writing about a shark or your character is of the kind I am likely to avoid!).

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It’s Friday. It’s the end of the working week for many of us. Weather here has been frightful too. So definitely time for a story then and I hope you like my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – The Clock.

Names can reveal a lot about characters such as age and social status. Sometimes I know the character’s job before I know the name but sometimes that occupation inspires my name choice. In Being Yourself (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I knew my character was a librarian and then worked out a name to suit (I came up with Jane Stephens for this one).

Sometimes I don’t need to worry about names at all as I know the story will work best in the first person but even there I can show a character referring to or talking to someone else by name. What they call someone can be enlightening too. Do they use the full name? Do they use a contraction? When they speak the name is it with affection or contempt?

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I’ve mentioned before you can have a lot of fun writing flash because, despite the limited word count, there is much you can do with it.

For example, I write across the whole spectrum from 50 words to the full 1000 and pretty much everything in between. I also mix up the genres I write in here and also the moods of the stories. I mix up writing in first and third person. I’ve occasionally used second person too.

But I also mix up the formats I use so sometimes I use acrostics (especially on Facebook and my blog round up). I have also written flash pieces in diary format, as letters, and in poetic form too. At some point I may have a go at flash in tweets because that is do-able.

The important thing in all of this? Having fun with it! You have to enjoy what you write/the process of writing and accept you are in for the long haul.

But the joy of creating something you hope others will enjoy I think is a great thing and feedback from sites like Friday Flash Fiction is enormously encouraging too. You can’t assume anything in the writing life but you can give it your best shot and have fun as you do that.

Being open to improving your craft matters too but that is fun in itself when you have the support of fellow writers. It is my experience the writing community is a tremendously supportive one and it is lovely being part of that.

Fairytales with Bite – Rough Justice

Justice can be very rough indeed in the fairytale world. The prince didn’t expect to be turned into a beast in Beauty and the Beast, did he?

But for a wider fantasy setting, what would count as rough justice? Would it be the misuse of magic for aggressive purposes or would it be the withholding of magic when it could be used to help a character?

Who determines the usage of magic and when that usage spills over into abuse of power? Someone has to set the rules. There would have to be some rules given the lack of them would lead to anarchy, though you could give some thought to who would want to stir that up in your setting.

If someone is after power, which is what characters so often want (just so like us, eh?), how would they stir up that anarchy and then bring it under control again so they could rule?

Often when there is a power struggle, justice and truth are trampled on. Who would bring these things back and how would they do it? Who would ensure justice was just that only without any rough bits?

Story ideas there I think!

This World and Others – Good -v- Evil

One of the things I love about fairytales is they call out evil for what it is. There is a clear divide between good and evil.

It doesn’t mean good characters are flawless – they’re not, any more than we are. It does mean they know what is right and wrong at least at the basic levels and the heroes here, to my mind, are those who are prepared to stand up for what is right, regardless. (See The Lord of the Rings, the Narnia series and so much more for more on that).

In your setting, is the divide clear? Would your readers know who they should be rooting for to succeed? Yes, sometimes you can have a “good villain”. The Sheriff of Nottingham, as played by the much missed Alan Rickman, in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves is one such but it was still right he did not succeed in the end.

The problem with evil winning is it is so depressing. The brute forces win, characters are oppressed, where is the hope in that kind of story? Indeed, where is the story? Frankly, we also see enough of all of that in the news!

So we need characters then who are prepared to stand up against evil. They’re not always going to get it right. Many of them will die. (To paraphrase Lord Farquaad in Shrek, that is a sacrifice the bad guys are prepared to make!).

But the interesting story is when those on the side of good do take up a stand against evil. We want to see what they do and whether it succeeds or not. If they face setbacks, which I would expect, do they overcome those? How do they overcome them? Is the cause of good upheld successfully?

One of the joys of fantasy and fairytales is when good is upheld. It gives hope. Yes, it may be escapism but I’ve never seen the problem with that. I want characters in conflict with each other and the right ones succeeding in the end. I guess I have wanted that ever since I first read the classic fairytales. I’ve seen no reason to change that view!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I’m sharing the November 2023 edition of the magazine which focused on novels. My article is on Writing Novels and I shared what I learned from writing my (as yet) unpublished novel.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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The Clock, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/X4oqRkh6Xr It’s Friday. It’s the end of the working week for many of us. Weather here has been frightful too. So definitely time for a story then and I hope you like my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – The Clock. pic.twitter.com/FSWmYPUyV9
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 6, 2024

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Story Judging https://t.co/vpIwNFOxMp Pleased to share Story Judging on CFT this week. I ask if competition judges can tell how much (or little) editing has been done on what they read. I share what I think judges are looking for and handy tips. Hope you find the post useful.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 6, 2024

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Random Generators

August 30, 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 week. Lady had a wonderful puppy party with not one, not two, but three of her best buddies earlier this week. All of the dogs went home shattered but happy! Writing wise, I have two blogs to share this week with one on competitions (More than Writers) and the other on Random Generators (Chandler’s Ford Today). Hope you find both useful.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to share Random Generators as my post on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. This is a topic close to my writing heart given I use a wide range of these and find them so useful for triggering story ideas. I share reasons why these things are so useful to writers and tips for making the best of them. Hope you find the post useful.

Random Generators

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Pleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time I talk about Competitions and share hints and tips I’ve found useful. Hope you find them useful too.

I also look at what I think judges are looking for in competition entries. Am looking forward to putting my judge’s hat back on in September for a writing group, which is why this topic sprung to mind.

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Lady had a fabulous puppy party this morning with her best pals, the Hungarian Vizler, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, and Coco the Labradoodle. Very tired but happy dogs went home (and before it became so humid this afternoon too so win-win there).

Will be discussing Random Generators on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. I use a wide variety of these and find them all useful. Many of my tales created this way end up on Friday Flash Fiction or on my YouTube channel.

Writing Tip: If you have brainstorming sessions every so often (and I do for titles and opening/closing lines), do put them away for a while afterwards. As with resting a story before being able to edit it effectively, I find I have to rest the ideas I’ve come up with here and it is only with time away from them, I can then work out whether they are “goers” or not. Pleased to say most are and I get on with drafts but inevitably I do have to discard some ideas – this is the way of it.

Sometimes an idea which seemed good at the time was only good enough for that time. The cool light of day, and switching my brain from creative to objective judging mode can be illuminating to say the least. I used to worry when I discarded ideas but have learned over time other, better ideas do occur to you so I no longer worry about this aspect.

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Glad to say my story Fifteen is now up on Friday Flash Fiction. The idea for this one came from my Lift Up Your Pens session at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick recently.

I was discussing using numbers in fiction and one of the ideas I shared was that of writing a story based around a character having a fear of a certain number. Find out why my character Shelley chose this one rather than the more usual thirteen.

I use names in my flash pieces for various purposes. Sometimes I use them to indicate likely age. Sometimes I use them to indicate likely social class. Sometimes a name can combine those two factors. I don’t always use surnames because I often find just the first name gives the detail I want readers to pick up on. But I do ensure the name suits the character.

Occasionally I do use the random name generators (especially those where I can select fantasy names. Many of these generators have different settings and it is worth having a look at them to find which would suit you best). Funnily enough I often don’t use the name generated but what it does do is trigger off an idea of my own from it and I then go with that. As ever with me, it is the getting started which matters!

With the exception of Friday Flash Fiction who want up to 100 words, most of the flash competitions I try have a word count of 250 or 300 words. If you wanted to practice writing to specific word counts, I would recommend the 100, the 250 and the 300. I’d also check out the competition guide Writing Magazine issue as these detail flash competitions as well as standard short story ones.

Don’t forget to check out their website as well for other competitions. Some are subscriber only. Others are open to all. And I will flag up now they are running the Grand Flash Prize again, deadline is the end of the year for that one.

Fairytales with Bite – Favourite Books

Do your fantasy characters have favourite books? Are there tales which are considered classics and which everyone is supposed to read/have read? Would any of these be the same or similar to our fairytales? Indeed, what would they have as fairytales and are ours a poor imitation?

What is the attitude towards reading in your world? Is it encouraged or looked down on? Can anyone access books? What would be the equivalent of libraries/book shops in your setting? Would information found out from books (or something of interest in stories) be of crucial importance to your characters as they deal with their situations?

If your setting has multi species, which would be the favourite books of each and is there any crossover happening here? Is there something with unites the different species? It is one of the things I love about books – they can be a great way to bring people together. So could this happen in your story and what would the outcome be?

This World and Others – Access to Books

Linking in with Fairytales with Bite, access to books is governed by whether there are such things as libraries in your settings. If not, how else would people access books? Do your characters ever earn enough to buy their own? Are certain books reserved for select species and why is this, if so?

What would those in authority worry about people finding out from books? Are they right to worry? Has there been any historical precedent for trouble being caused by folk accessing books they should not have done?

Or have books been suppressed in the past, they’re not now, but someone is looking to suppress them again? Who would this be? What are they trying to cover up? Do they succeed? Story ideas there I think!
Meantime I’ll continue to appreciate my own access to books! They are wonderful things.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I’m sharing the April 2024 edition on editing. My article here asks the always pertinent question – Editing: Do You Love It or Loathe It?

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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More than Writers: Competitions by Allison Symes https://t.co/6gZdbzmFIh Pleased to be back on MTW, ACW's blog spot. I share tips about competitions I’ve found useful and look at what I think judges look for. Am looking forward to putting my judge’s hat back on in September too. pic.twitter.com/mFi8RA0WM6
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 29, 2024

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Fifteen, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/SAkaZ48yyl The idea for Fifteen came from my Lift Up Your Pens at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. I discussed using numbers in fiction. One idea I shared was writing a tale based on a fear of a certain number. pic.twitter.com/zBQVX3QNZT
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 30, 2024

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Random Generators https://t.co/NU11gdsocS Pleased to share Random Generators on CFT this week. This topic is close to my writing heart as I use a wide range of these. I share reasons why these are so useful to writers and tips for making the best of them.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 30, 2024

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