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. Cooler here but still too hot for Lady to be out after lunchtime unfortunately but getting there. Big news is Seeing The Other Side is now out, I have news of a signing to share, and I am happily posting books out. All go but in a good way. See below for more.
Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today
A huge thank you for the wonderful support on my posts yesterday regarding the publication of Seeing The Other Side. All much appreciated.
For Chandler’s Ford Today this week, I share Update – Local Author News – Allison Symes – Seeing The Other Side – Publication News which is a good summary of the most recent happenings.
I also share more of what the book is about and discuss linked flash fiction, which I’ve written more of for my third collection.
I also share a marketing video which some of you may have seen on Facebook recently. Well, opening your box of books is pretty special! I also share news about my book launch at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick as part of this round up post.
What I hope is some of the things I share here, including the need to update certain things due to having a new book out, will also help other authors as it can act as a kind of checklist. It is easy to forget to do some of this stuff.
Again, a huge thanks for your support so far.
Update – Local Author News – Allison Symes – Seeing The Other Side – Publication News
16th July – Publication Day!
And at last the great day is here – publication day for Seeing The Other Side. Link to the ebook on Amazon below but you will see the button taking you to the paperback from here too.
It has been six years since I last had a book out and I am so thrilled to now have a trilogy of flash fiction collections out there.
Am also thrilled to say I posted out my first book order today too. I never mind going to the Post Office for things like that! Do remember if you want to buy from me, you can. Just contact me via my website contact form at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com/contact
You can also find the link to sign up to my newsletter here.
Now to crack on with various admin tasks such as adding my lovely new book to my website and so on. Fun things to do for a fun event!
And a huge thank you to Gill James and her team at Chapeltown Books for their support here.
Hope you’ve had a good day. Fine this morning but again so hot in the afternoon so Lady taking it quietly and doing fine.
Writing wise, it’s publication day for me tomorrow. So looking forward to that. Will be sharing an update on news to date on Seeing The Other Side on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above.
In other news, writing is going well. I am a lot of the way to a fourth book but will need to focus on that more later this year. I also hope to return to another project I currently have on the back burner. I think most writers have at least one back burner!
Am also busy preparing interview questions for something coming up in CFT in August. And, of course, a major highlight of my year, The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick is getting nearer too. Always look forward to this but even more so with a new book out and due to be launched there.
Flash/Character Creation Tip: Now I write a lot of flash fiction. I’ve not counted how many I’ve written over the years but suspect I am well into four figures by now. So that means creating a lot of characters and situations.
As I’ve mentioned before, my focus is on the character. They’ve got to interest me to want to write their stories up so what does interest me enough about a character to trigger this? Some thoughts below which I hope inspire you too:-
1. The character has an urgent problem and must resolve it. There can be no sitting on the fence here.
2. The character is different in some way. This is one reason why I do write many tales involving grumpy fairy godmothers or dragons. Am interested in what makes them the way they are and what they do about it. Can lead to some great, fun tales.
3. I’ve come up with an interesting opening line and want to find out more about the character who “came out with it”.
There are many other ways to work out if a character is “strong enough” to be written up but I do find the three points above great ways into to creating stories and situations.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Another hot day though it is not quite so bad as it has been. Still being careful with Lady though. She’s doing fine but she, like us, won’t be that sorry when rain does come and brings the temperature down a bit. I will say she is missing her friends though and I am sure they are missing her. Bonding between dogs is such a sweet thing.
Writing wise, naturally I’m busy now Seeing The Other Side is out and I was glad to hear my first postal order reached its destination safely. Looking forward to my book events at Swanwick and Salisbury and online ones too. Hope to organise more events before too long.
Flash fiction is a great form of writing. It teaches you to write concisely, to think about meaning (and choosing words with extra care to get the most impact in the fewest number of words possible to convey that meaning), and to think about what it is the readers need to know and what you can allow them to infer.
All of those skills are transferrable to other forms of writing and if you’ve ever taken part in a writing exercise anywhere, you have written flash, given you only have so much time for the exercise. In that time you’re only going to come up with a hundred words or so, depending on how much time you have been allotted.
One of my stories in my new book started life as a writing exercise set at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. I polished it up later and lo and behold it is now a published story so it can be done.
I can’t recommend trying flash fiction (and yes flash non-fiction too) highly enough.
It’s publication day! Seeing The Other Side is finally out there. And I’ve set up a signing at Salisbury URC (who support the city’s Art Festival) for Saturday 5th September. Do see the link. Am so looking forward to this. My family and I have connections to the church here and it was so good of them to offer their church as a venue for a book launch. It’s an offer I am only too happy to take up.
I will post a reminder about this much nearer the time but if you happen to be in Salisbury, which is a lovely city, on that day, do pop by and say hello. I also hope to share details about my publisher launch, which will be via Zoom, ahead of this.
My Chandler’s Ford Today post this week will also details of my launch at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. See above.
So plenty going on then with more to come.
Publication day tomorrow – yippee! Good to be celebrating flash fiction with another collection out and, as mentioned on my author page, I have enough material for a potential fourth book so hope to to look at that later this year.
The best definition of flash I’ve ever come across is from The Bridport Prize where they describe is “the art of just enough” and I think it that aspect which makes you hone your writing, cut out wasted words, and lose all fear of editing when writing in the form. But these disciplines can cross over into other forms of writing you do and I have found this to be the case for my Chandler’s Ford Today and Writers’ Narrative articles especially.
Hope to crack on with updating my website for Seeing The Other Side later this week. Plenty to do but it will be fun.
Fairytales with Bite – Writing Fairytales With Bite
I love writing what I call fairytales with bite. These tales (and there are more of them in my new book, Seeing The Other Side) focus on a magical character or something happening in a magical setting.
My stories are usually humorous and can involve someone getting a long overdue comeuppance (which I like to think of as my tribute to the original fairytales which also are often based on this). There is a lot of irony (which I discovered the joys of thanks to reading Jane Austen).
But what matters is there is a proper story structure, the “bite” has to come from the situation before it and has to seem to be a sensible result, a believable one, regardless of how fantastical my character or setting may be.
It’s why I’ve had no problems about writing from the viewpoint of a mother dragon before now. It was a question of understanding her motivation for what she was about to do and it made it all so believable.
I start with knowing my character, what then makes them special, what motivates them and take things from there. When I start with the setting, I work out who would be in it and what they would need to be able to do to survive in that setting. A non-magical being in a magical setting is at an immediate disadvantage, unless they have something useful which isn’t reliant on magic.
But you can have a lot of fun writing this kind of story. I’ve always had a soft spot for humorous fiction and it works so well for flash work too. For flash, I can’t go into too much detail about what kind of magic my character has. What I can do is show them using it – readers will pick up what they need to know from that.
This World and Others – Aspects of the Magical Setting
Tying in with Fairytales with Bite above, when I use a magical setting as my way into creating a story, I focus on one or two aspects which makes that setting stand out. I won’t have the word count room to show all which makes my setting a magical one but I can show enough.
I’ve found the best way of doing that is to show my characters thriving in the setting or struggling against it and that in turn will reveal what the aspects of my setting are. For example, if one aspect is my setting has the unfortunate capacity to change weather patterns every ten minutes, I can show my characters coping with this, what their attitude towards it is, and how it impacts on what they’re supposed to be doing.
Magical settings don’t have to help those who live in them and fun tales can be written around characters trying to make the best of what they’ve got, possibly inventing things to improve things too.
But it helps to know what your setting has, what it hasn’t got, and what your character(s) can/cannot do, though not all of that will make it into the story itself, even if you write longer form. You need to know more than the reader does. It helps you create your character and setting with believability built in because you will believe in these things because you know how things work.
Am posting early today as am delighted to have family come down today. We’re off to see a local festive lights show this evening. Should be fun.
It’s Monday. It’s dark though I am enjoying seeing the Christmas lights when I walk my dog in the evening. Brightens the place up no end. Still time for a story though. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Who What When.
Will be winding down the writing as we approach Christmas and intend to have a few days break. I appreciate the time off yet when I get back to my desk that’s no hardship and this is a good place to be. I am phenomenally grateful for discovering flash fiction. It is such fun to write and read. 
Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Lovely weather again here. So nice being out in the garden today.
Congratulations to all who won or were listed in the Andrew Siderius competitions recently run by Friday Flash Fiction. Enjoyed reading these.
