Tag: Hannah Kate – Spring Equinox show – North Manchester FM

Flash Fiction On Radio

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Hope you have had a good week. Lovely weather. Lady and I have enjoyed being out and about in that. Writing and editing going well. Steadily making progress.

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Delighted to share Flash Fiction On Radio for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I include in this a link to the Mixcloud recording of Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM. I was thrilled to have my Out With The Old included in this.

Also in the post are hints and tips on preparing stories for broadcast which I hope you will find useful. I also share tips on preparing the story itself. Thinking about the impact you want to have is especially useful here (and do bear in mind you are so reliant on how something sounds here).

I look at the importance of rehearsals and believe flash fiction and radio are a great match. There are opportunities out there for short form writers – community and internet stations help a lot here and are well worth supporting and listening to.

Hope you enjoy the post.

Flash Fiction on Radio

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Not as warm as yesterday but pleasant enough. Lady enjoyed seeing her Hungarian Vizler friend again.

The Society of Authors have launched a Human Authored campaign in conjunction with their American counterparts, The Authors Guild. To find out more do click on the link here.

I’ve applied for it for my Tripping The Flash Fantastic and will add future books of mine to this labelling scheme. The scheme is open to books published from 2020 onwards (which is why I can’t list From Light to Dark and Back Again as that came out in 2017). There are logos you can use on your website and I hope to put them on mine over the weekend at some point. If you’re not already a member of The Society of Authors, you can apply to do so via the link below too.

I think this is a great idea to differentiate from AI produced books and wish the scheme well.

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Gorgeous day today and Lady enjoyed catching up with her Hungarian Vizler pal. I squeezed in a short swim and a hairdressing appointment so a nice but full day and am glad to now be at my desk to write.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Flash Fiction On Radio for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I will be including in this the link to the recent Hannah Kate Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM where my story, Out With The Old, was broadcast. I’ll also be sharing hints and tips when it comes to writing short pieces for radio. Hope you’ll find it useful. See above.

Am happily editing a short story for a competition at the moment. Am also equally happily editing someone else too. Editing others is interesting because it can show up so much about your own writing which you can take and learn from.

Editing Tip: If you prefer to edit on screen, do change the font, the font size, the colour of the text etc to make the document look new to you. That will help you pick up more errors and there will be some. There always is, for everyone. You also know you won’t be sending the manuscript out in this form but it is amazing how enlightening a “new” looking piece can be to your brain for spotting things you would otherwise have missed. It is worth doing. Also it helps to be aware the brain will fill in the words you meant to put in but which aren’t there in fact. Having a new looking document makes that kind of thing easier to spot too.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope today has been a good one. Lady had a lovely puppy party in the park with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals. We also saw Daisy the gentle spaniel. Great time had by all.

I look at Flash Fiction On Radio for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week (see my author page here for the link to that – also see above). I’ve mentioned before reading work aloud ahead of sending it anywhere is a useful editing technique. For broadcast and Open Prose Mic Nights, I would say it is essential.

I know I find it helps calm my nerves a bit precisely because I know I’ve rehearsed, I’ve played my recordings back to check how the story is coming across and so on. Good prep work helps all kinds of writing including flash.

As well as seeing my own work come out, it is a privilege and joy to see books I’ve edited for others come out. Another one of those has come out recently.

Now one of the lovely things about the writing community is it is supportive and you quickly make friends. Of all the writer friends I am privileged to know (hello, all!), I can’t think of one of them who enjoys writing their blurb. They’ve come up with thousands of words of fabulous prose and then that short bit on the back cover…

I also can’t think of any writer (and this goes for me too) who doesn’t spend considerable time on getting that short bit on the back cover right or as right as possible!

Blurb Tip: I’ve found it helpful to try to treat this as a piece of flash non-fiction writing. I will often start by working out what I know I want the blurb to end with. From there I can figure out what must come immediately before it and then that will open up ideas for how I open the piece.

Still hard work. Still plenty of crafting and editing to be done but I’ve found thinking of it in these terms has helped and I hope it helps you too.

I was talking about editing on my author page here and it is just as vital to get it right for flash fiction, as for any other kind of writing. I would also say it is easier with flash to make the classic error of leaving words out.

Why? Partly because you do have the word count limit in your mind and partly you may well be writing quickly to get that first draft down. Depending on the word count, I can draft a flash piece in fifteen minutes. It’s not going anywhere in that rough state, mind you! I easily spend several times longer than that honing and crafting the piece before it does go anywhere.

And it’s easy to think you’ve got to the required word count when you spot those dratted missing words, put them in and then need to go through the piece again to get it to what you need word count wise.

Flash may be short but there are still no short cuts with crafting it and rightly so.

Fairytales With Bite – Light Bearers

Who are the positive souls in your setting? Who could be considered to be light bearers for others who need that? The obvious one here to me is Sam Gamgee acting in this manner towards Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. Sam’s presence and actions made a huge difference and your light bearers should do the same. Their motivations for doing this should be strong enough to withstand pretty much anything because this should come from a genuine wish to help someone else. No fair weather friends here.

Even outside of quest stories, there will be times your characters may feel as if they’re stumbling in the dark, figuratively or literally. So who would be their light bearer to help them get out of this? How would the light bearer achieve this? Is magic involved at all?

What struggles would your light bearers have with their role? Many will play second fiddle to the lead character. Could they come to resent this or are they relieved about it? Sam never sort to take over from Frodo as such, neither did Sam envy him. This is just one reason why I think Sam is more heroic than might at first appear to be the case – and maybe that could be true for your characters too.

Also, what darkness is there which needs to be overcome by light? How did that come into being making light bearers needed at all?

This World and Others – Sources of Light

What sources of light does your world have? How many of these are natural for your setting? How many have been invented to suit the purposes of your setting? There could be interesting stories in working out who developed these things, their problems doing so, and how those were overcome. Also, what materials would they have needed and how easy or otherwise was it to get these things? Would your setting experience environmental damage similar to what we have had here?

Assuming sources of light have been well established, what kinds are used for what purpose? Could magic be used to produce these light sources or are they powered by magic? What would be the downside to that? Would there be a risk of running out of magical energy to keep these things going?

Who controls the sources of light and do they so fairly? Would certain magical species have access to only some kinds of light but not others (and could that be because they’ve shown they can’t be trusted with these when allowed access before?).

Story ideas there, I’m sure!

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Templates

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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. Weather more changeable but Lady has been having fabulous times in the park with her closest chums so all well there. Glad to say my story did go out on Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show on Tuesday 24th March. Links below

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Am pleased to share Templates on Chandler’s Ford Today. I share thoughts on what you could put in your own template to help you flesh out characters and/or settings. All of the questions I share here will help you come up with story ideas.

I also look at the advantages and disadvantages of templates. I see them as a helpful way in to creating a new character and/or setting. Sometimes it is useful to know the setting first and then you can work out who would populate it. Often settings can almost be like characters in their own right – for example, think of the moors in Wuthering Heights or Dickens’ London as shown in Oliver Twist.

I also mix up the questions I use in templates to avoid them becoming formulaic. Hope you find the post useful.

Templates

 

Hope today has gone well. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler chum today – the dogs are always pleased to see each other. It’s lovely to see.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Templates on Chandler’s Ford Today this week – link up tomorrow. See above. I’ll be looking at the usefulness of these things (and also discuss some disadvantages, not everyone gets on with them for one thing). I’ll also be suggesting ideas for your own templates. Hope the post will prove useful.

Am glad to say I now have the link for the Hannah Kate Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM on Mixcloud. I hope to catch up with this myself at the weekend but highly recommend a listen because I love the stories on these shows though I will admit to bias being on the show and knowing someone else who is but it is a good bias to have, I think.

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Lady had a fabulous puppy party this morning with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback friends and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. All four dogs went home tired and happy.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later on tonight. Our theme this time is sixty. There are various ways to incorporate that thought into stories and we will be looking at some of those this evening.

I hope to catch up with Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show over the weekend but many congratulations to all of the writers who had work featured here. I always enjoy catching up with these shows and listening to all of the stories – fabulous entertainment.

Writing Tip: Character names can be used to reflect something of their age and likely social status but the main thing to watch when having more than one named character in tale is to ensure the names are different enough so it is easy for readers to tell who is speaking at any given point.

Also it helps not to have the same initials. If Jake and John are in the same tale, it could be easy to confuse these unless there are other clear points of difference such as in the manner each of them speaks and the type of vocabulary they use.

A good editing tip here is when you read through your work, can you tell the characters apart easily? You should be able to do so.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Earlier this week at the meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group, we looked at the theme of Sixty. I chose that to fit in with my special birthday (couldn’t resist it!) but it does lend itself to stories based on diamonds, special birthdays and anniversaries. You can also just use the number itself as part of a story such as part of an address, a sum of money and more.

I also set the group some exercises, one of which was to write to sixty words exactly including the title. My story for that session, to show as an example, is below. Hope you enjoy it.

My Hero by Allison Symes

I can’t say I like his handiwork but he leaves me gifts. He doesn’t do that for anyone else. He comes and sits on my lap when I feel sad. Then goes out and kills as many mice as he can find and brings them all to me.

I possibly shouldn’t have called my rough diamond Mr Tiddles.

Ends
Allison Symes – 8th March 2026

Word Count including title = 60

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The next best thing any reader can do after buying an author’s book is to review them, of course. A lovely one for my Tripping The Flash Fantastic includes the following quote.

Fabulous collection of poems and flash fiction. Some made me giggle, some made me gasp, all surprised me! I found it a real page turner, as the stories had such unexpected twists and turns!

Many thanks to my lovely reviewer here. Reviews like that reassure an author they’re on the right lines. I look to entertain with my flash and short stories so it’s good to know that is happening!

The great thing with reviews is they don’t have to be long, which is so apt for when you’re reviewing a flash fiction collection.

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Looking forward to joining in with some of the exercises I’m setting for tonight’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. Always good fun this and I get more drafts down so nothing to dislike there. Hopefully these will end up later on being polished up for competitions. Am hoping to get to write some further drafts over the weekend as there are competitions coming up in May and beyond which I always have a go at and I do like to start early. It means I get enough time to rest my drafts to assess them properly well ahead of deadlines.

I also make a point of mixing up the kind of writing exercise I use because it keeps me on my toes and I get to create more stories this way. I must admit though I do have a soft spot for the opening line kind.

Fairytales With Bite – A New Era

This topic came to mind as I’ve recently celebrated a landmark birthday. You know, the kind of one which marks the end of one decade and the beginning of another.

So how would your magical characters recognize what was a new era for them? Does your setting mark time in a similar way to ours but, if not, how do they do so? How would their eras correlate to what we would recognize as that?

Now I see my next decade as a promising one in that I hope to continue to develop my writing and hopefully have more success with it. But how would your characters see the passing of another decade (or the equivalent)? Do they worry about aging and, if so, why? Would magical powers decrease with age and that is why nobody really wants to think about getting older and what it would mean there? (There are clear parallels with us here).

Is your magical setting a benevolent one or a dictatorship? That would colour the views of your characters as they enter a new era. They may want more of the same or a complete overthrow of the regime. Good story thoughts there.

And a character’s view to aging, whether they’re magical or not, can also highlight other attitudes of theirs. If they worry about aging, could it because they know how older beings are treated? Again, good story ideas there.

This World and Others – Leaving the Past Behind

Landmark birthdays can give cause for reflection as you look ahead to the decade to come and ponder on the one you’ve just left behind. I don’t think it is entirely possible to leave the past behind. You always carry some of this with us and so should our characters. But there are times we want to not be held back by damaging things from our past and that again can often be the case with our characters.

When it comes to magical or alien characters, what kinds of things would they want to confine to the past and why? Would they have the same or similar regrets to us or would theirs be different due to their nature and/or environment?

Leaving the past behind can throw up interesting areas to explore for historians and archaeologists. What would count as archaeological finds on your setting? Would it be anything we’d recognize? Sometimes discoveries from the past can have impact on what is known now. For example, the finding of the remains of King Richard III has done this. Are there things from the past your world and/or characters wish had stayed hidden?

Definite story ideas there.

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Broadcast News, Broadcast Hiccups, and Birthdays

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you had a great weekend. I had a fabulous 60th birthday celebration with family and friends – Lady was exhausted too by the end of it. A huge thank you for all the good wishes which have come in too.

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Good news. I’ve heard from Hannah Kate that her Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM, which was due to be broadcast on Saturday, will now be broadcast this evening, 24th March 2026 from 7 pm to 9 pm. The link below, I’m told, will still work for this.

Huge congratulations to fellow ACW member, Rosemary Johnson, whose story is on the show, along with my one, Out With The Old.

It is ironic perhaps I’m out later so will almost certainly have to use the wonderful Listen Again feature later this week to hear the stories but do tune in as and when you can. I always love listening to all of the stories on these shows. The range is amazing and, of course, they all have to be flash fiction to fit in with broadcasting requirements.

North Manchester FM: Hannah’s Bookshelf Spring Equinox Special, Saturday 21 March, 2-4pm


Hope your week has got off to a reasonable start. Delighted to have my statement through from the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). Good result and up on last year so am very pleased. Many thanks to Wendy H Jones for flagging this up. I’ve been a member of ALCS for years as it comes with my Society of Authors membership. Do check them out if you have work out there with an ISBN or ISSN on them. It is a superb way of helping authors.

Don’t forget it won’t be long before my next author newsletter comes out. To sign up for hints, tips, stories and more do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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A huge thank you for the many birthday greetings coming my way thanks to my hitting the big 60 today. Much appreciated. I can’t quite believe it either. Had a lovely time yesterday with family and friends. Today is recovery time! (Lady had a ball with her chum, Lily. Lady slept very well last night!).

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Templates on Chandler’s Ford Today this coming Friday. I use them often and they can help so much with character creation and in helping you to “see” your setting in your own mind even if you don’t share most of that with your readers. I hope the post will be useful.

Am also looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group next week.

Hope to get back to drafting short stories for competitions from next weekend.

Unfortunately there were technical issues on Hannah Kate’s show yesterday so the Spring Equinox show did not go out as planned. I understand this will be redone at a later date and I will share further details when I get them. Tech is wonderful when it works! Update:  See above. Programme rescheduled for 24th March 2026.

Delighted my Out With the Old will be broadcast by Hannah Kate on her Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM today. Many congratulations to all of the featured authors. Flash is wonderful for broadcast and Open Prose Mic Nights precisely because they don’t take too long while retaining the challenge of ensuring listeners are engaged with a gripping story line and characters.

There is a Listen Again feature on the station, which I will be making use of as, when my tale goes out, I will be busy partying with family and friends ahead of my 60th birthday tomorrow. It’s all go. Sadly, things went wrong but the show was rebroadcast on 24th March 2026 instead.

North Manchester FM: Hannah’s Bookshelf Spring Equinox Special, Saturday 21 March, 2-4pm

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

My story, Out With The Old, will now be broadcast on Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show this evening on North Manchester FM – 24th March. I look forward to listening to it and the other tales in due course.

Flash works well for radio as it doesn’t take long and has immediate impact as does radio itself, of course. I also love taking part in Open Prose Mic Nights when I can especially at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, because you can get immediate feedback from the audience reaction as to how something went down with them.

Trust me, this is useful, and I’ve used the feedback I’ve had here to hone stories further. I think the tricky bit is getting the mood of the stories right for the occasion. For Swanwick with the five minutes maximum reading time, I like to read something punchy, something funny, something reflective. I think it makes for a good balance of moods and is a great way to showcase what flash can be.

It’s Monday. As ever it’s been hectic. Time to wind down with a flash story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Blame Game.

Well, just who IS to blame when food goes missing at a party? Find out here.

 

22nd March
I celebrate my 60th birthday today, not quite believing where the time has gone. I’ll be setting some sixty word exercises for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. Think three short paragraphs and you’re there. It’s a good challenge!

I haven’t come across any competitions for this word count (I have come across 53, 75 etc) but these short pieces are excellent for sharing on your social media and website. They give a good taster of your writing style and make for an excellent “warm up” exercise ahead of longer writing work.

Also birthdays are useful for looking back at times past as well as ahead to the future and good story ideas can come from those thoughts.

Hope your weekend is going well. Busy one here as I am about to celebrate my 60th birthday (22nd March) with friends and family today. Lady will have a fabulous time and be happily shattered later. She loves family get togethers especially as she will meet up with another family dog with whom she gets on very well.

Birthdays and other celebrations can be an excellent idea to write stories about. Who goes to what event? Who doesn’t get invited (there are consequences – think the wicked fairy in Sleeping Beauty here)? What happens at the event itself? Good story ideas there and they can be funny, tragic, dramatic, depending on your characters.


Goodreads Author Blog – Birthdays and Other Celebrations in Books

Birthdays and other celebrations can make a great backdrop in a story. I always think of Bilbo Baggins’ event at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. Here, it was used as a way for him to “disappear” without anyone seeming to notice. Frodo does, of course, and this sets in motion his own huge quest.

Birthdays can show up what other characters think of the celebrant. The birthday person can also use their event to make a point and that could set other things in motion. The event can also be where a murder or other crime takes place too. Nobody said these things have to be happy events!

Also reaching a certain age can set things in motion as they did for Harry Potter when he reached his eleventh birthday.

Other celebrations would include the ball where Elizabeth Bennet meets Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. It would not be something either of them would see as celebratory at the time but it did have a powerful impact on both of them.

It’s also lovely to see this kind of event in fiction at all because fiction does reflect life and birthdays are very much a part of that.

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Setting Writing Exercises

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Hope you have had a good few days. Delighted to share broadcasting news this time (see further time) and Lady has had a great week with her pals. All have appreciated the sunshine, as have their owners.

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Delighted to share Setting Writing Exercises on Chandler’s Ford Today which I hope will prove useful to those running writing groups and/or authors who set exercises as part of their newsletters etc to engage with readers (and fellow writers).

I set tips, include examples of different writing exercises, and the importance of mixing things up here. I also look at the benefits of writing exercises whether you do them, set them, or, like me do both as often as you can.

I love writing exercises and it is a joy to set them for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group, which I lead monthly. The group have come up with fabulous stories as a result and I maintain, even if your writing work is in the longer forms, using a writing exercise as a “warm up” is not a bad idea. It gets you into writing (and you can work on those shorter pieces again later, hopefully getting those published too. Nothing to dislike about that thought!).

I hope you find the post useful.

Setting Writing Exercises

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A busy day but Lady enjoyed meeting up with the “girls”, her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals.

I’ll be sharing Setting Writing Exercises for Chandler’s Ford Today this week – link up tomorrow. See above. Will be useful for anyone running a group and/or individual authors looking to set exercises to engage with readers/fellow writers via their newsletters etc.

I’m looking forward to joining in with a Zoom meeting of the Association of Christian Writers later this evening – will be good to chat to fellow writers/ACW members. I enjoyed this kind of meeting when ACW ran it before so I’m pleased they’re doing it again. This is one of the perks of being an ACW member and it was a great meeting.

Last but not least, I’m thrilled to announce my story, Out With The Old, will be broadcast on Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM this coming, Saturday 21st March. Link below shares more details. (If you can’t listen live, there is a Listen Again facility. I love that facility myself and often make use of it).

North Manchester FM: Hannah’s Bookshelf Spring Equinox Special, Saturday 21 March, 2-4pm

It’s my turn once again on the Authors Electric blog and this time I look at Special Years. I have a special birthday coming up over the weekend, you know the kind that ends in zero, but it is also a reminder of my writing anniversary thirty years ago.

A writing anniversary is a good time to reflect on the writing journey to date and mine has taken many twists and turns I hadn’t anticipated when I first started out trying to write seriously for publication. I also look at how I felt when I was first starting out because it is hard to believe then the break will come and you do need persistence, grit, call it what you will, to keep going as a writer. I think it pays to remind yourself of that sometimes. And, of course, to keep going!

Hope you enjoy the post.

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I look at Setting Writing Exercises for Chandler’s Ford Today this week and, of course, it is something I do a lot of but I respond to even more writing exercises for my flash fiction. I can’t give an accurate figure on it but I estimate well over 90% of my flash stories started life as a response to an exercise. When I go to writing events such as The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, I will sometimes set exercises there but again response to even more from the tutors there.

Also, in entering competitions, especially those with a set theme, I’m responding to an exercise effectively so it is a good idea to practice writing to different kinds, something I hope to do more of later this weekend.

I must admit though I do love the opening line exercises and have used so many of these to start my flash pieces. I find they help me hit the ground running with my characters and their situations and I like that a lot.


Pleased to say I’ll be having a flash piece broadcast on Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM on Saturday, It has been an especially busy and tiring week so far so this was lovely news to receive. Pleased to say a dear friend of mine will also be having her story broadcast. Love it when that happens.

For stories for potential broadcast I always do record them on Zoom so I can practice reading them aloud and get my timings right. Playing them back when I finish the recorded Zoom meeting with myself is a boon as I can hear how I sound – am I reading too fast? Is my pacing a bit slow etc? Plus Zoom gives you an exact record time which is so useful.

I also use Zoom for when I’m practicing for Open Prose Mic Night sessions for the same reasons. Most of these sessions are for an upper limit of five minutes only. Nobody minds you coming in at under that time but it is unfair on the other performers to go over so using Zoom is a good way to know in advance I won’t be doing that.

It’s also useful for hearing how your dialogue sounds in longer stories too so highly recommend doing this. Back in the day I did use Audacity but I do find Zoom even easier to use.

Hope today has gone well. Lady has been busy enjoying the sunshine with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals.

Flash fiction is a wonderful format for sharing moments in a character’s life which are complete stories in and of themselves, but which are shorter than “normal” short stories. The form encourages you to cut the waffle and to only share with a reader what matters to the character. That alone tightens up your writing. I’ve found that has carried over into my blog and article work, which is no bad thing.

So when I’m outlining a character, I focus on what is the one thing which matters to them and what gets in their way of obtaining it. It’s a great story structure and naturally the tale will show whether they do obtain it or not in the end. Sometimes other things will crop up which show them what they thought they wanted wasn’t ideal for them after all and they find something better. But what matters is something happens, there is always a point of change even in the smallest piece of flash fiction.

And it is a fantastic challenge, always.

Fairytales with Bite – Party Time

As I write this in March 2026, I’m looking forward to celebrating a big birthday, you know the kind with the zero on the end. Party time is fun! But do your characters take the same view? Do they celebrate each and every birthday or just do the special ones? What kind of format would their parties take, especially if they live in a world alien to our own?

If your setting is a magical one with various species, would they all celebrate in the same way or would what would be acceptable to one kind be abhorrent to another? Could that lead to clashes?

I don’t especially like balloons (not great for the environment either) or candles (fire hazard especially with my big birthday coming up!), but what “fripperies” would your characters like to have at their celebrations? What would be considered a “must have”?

Also, who does all of the work in getting the party food and drink ready? Are certain magical characters in your setting known for their skills here?

Could be some fun stories to write up here, apt since parties should be fun.

This World and Others – Society Occasions

As well as private functions as I look at in Fairytales with Bite, most places will have some sort of society event, sombre or otherwise. What forms would these take in your setting?

Being based in the UK, we had various Jubilees for the late Queen Elizabeth (and it seems so strange still writing of her in those terms) and I enjoyed these. We also have sombre occasions such as Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day. But all of these things are important in different ways and matter in different ways.

So how would your society hold a public celebration? How would they have a remembrance event (and what are they seeking to keep in the public memory here)?

What would your characters make of these things and do they play any role in any official events like this? Is there anyone with a vested interest in disrupting these things in some way and what are they hoping to achieve?

Story ideas there!

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ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK 

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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