Tag: Hunter’s Christmas and Other Stories by Val Penny

New Year, New Writing Format for Val Penny

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 Val Penny for supplying fab author pictures and book cover images for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. Many thanks to Richard Hardie for the publicity shot of me with my two flash fiction collections.
Hope you have had a good week. Cold with some snow here though Lady has been too busy having a lovely time with her best girlfriends over the park to take any notice of that! Writing wise, I share my first author interview of 2024 and look at why you can learn so much from reading/listening/watching these.

BookBrushImage-2024-1-12-19-1939

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am delighted to welcome back Val Penny to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her changing from her usual long form work to the wonderful world of the short story.

Val tells me all about her new book, Hunter’s Christmas and Other Stories, in my CFT post New Year, New Writing Format for Val Penny. Does what it says on the tin, folks!

Plus there are plenty of super tips and thoughts on the short story form. Val shares with me, for example, what she found were the challenges of the short story form and what she thinks makes a character sustainable for more than one tale of any length.

Much to enjoy here and many thanks, Val, for a super interview. Good luck with the short story collection!

New Year, New Writing Format for Val Penny

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Brrrr…. I can always tell it is especially cold outside because it is the only time the water in my local swimming pool feels like I’m getting into a tepid bath! Trust me, I’m not, but it just feels like it given outside is worse!

Will be sharing my link to New Year, New Writing Format for Val Penny on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Do look out for that. See above. Lots of good tips and thoughts on the short form of writing.

Talking of short stories, I’ve got my first flash fiction competition entry off already this year. Next on the agenda is a potential longer short story for an anthology. Will probably look at that over the weekend. First draft done a while back so any time around now is a good time to come back to it so I can see it with fresh eyes and spot the errors. There will be some!

But then that’s the purpose of the first draft, isn’t it? Just get it down and come back and do the tidying up and sorting out later. Works for me. The crucial bit is having that time away from the first draft. It helps me to put some necessary distance between the rush of creativity where everything is wonderful and the downside where you think everything is rubbish to be able to spot yes, this bit is fine, this other bit needs work, and then get on and do said work.

418911502_807596361380227_6141907357539036607_n

Lady got to play with her two girlfriends, the Vizler and Ridgeback, so is having a cracking time this week. As did they it must be said. Not quite as cold as yesterday but still time for the big coat. Fortunately most dog owners are well prepared. The new boots I had at Christmas are getting a very good airing!

Writing wise, it’s great to have my first author interview of the new year with Val Penny on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Double win here for me – we are talking about short stories too, which as you know are a huge love of mine. Link up on Friday. See above. I always find I learn a great deal from author interviews whether I conduct them, read them, listen to them etc.

Interviewing your characters by getting “them” to answer a few pertinent questions is a great way to get to know said characters well enough to write their stories up. I find the answers to said pertinent questions also throw up ideas for stories to put those characters in. If you’ve not tried this, give it a go.

You don’t need to ask a lot of questions – just a couple to get you started and these can range from finding out what your character tastes are (which will lead you to wonder why they have these) to what they would never do. The latter can lead you to dumping them right in it and having to face up to having to do this very thing – all good fun!

Author interviews are useful for another reason too. Long before my work started being published, I would study said interviews and look at the kinds of questions being asked. Let’s just say it’s proved to be excellent research material.

418961876_807048098101720_1747723484469436022_n

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest story, Consequences. Just how strict can librarians be? Find out here and do you agree with the attitude of my librarian character here.

A huge thank you to all who have commented on this so far – check the comments out for their views on my librarian here!
Screenshot 2024-01-12 at 11-57-23 Consequences by Allison Symes

Hope you haven’t got too cold today. Lady is probably wondering why I am encouraging her to keep moving when we’re out and about right now. It’s not for her. It’s for me!

Looking forward to the first meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom later on this month. Will flag up Writing Magazine has a 500-word competition open at the moment. Deadline 15th February. For more details see the link.

There is an entry fee but it is cheaper if you are a subscriber to the magazine. (They also have a very useful competitions guide out with the magazine this month so if writing competitions are of interest to you, it would probably pay you to get a copy of this).

Screenshot 2024-01-12 at 09-55-31 Writing Competitions - Writers Online

I sometimes love playing around with well known sayings for titles/themes for stories. I’ve done this for my YouTube story Lost in a Bad Book. Why a bad one? Well, check out the video to find out why!

But changing one word in a phrase like that can be an excellent way to come up with something which is different and will grab attention. Wouldn’t you want to know how a book could be bad, for instance?

I’ve talked about using books of proverbs and sayings for inspiration before. It is worth doing and you can change the odd word here and there in such things to get even more ideas for stories. Well worth a go.

Fairytales With Bite – The Fairy’s Commandments

If there was such as a thing as a list of commandments for fairies to follow, I think it would look something like this.

  1. Never waste magical energy when common sense could solve a dilemma for you.
  2. Don’t transform animals into magical objects unless there is no choice. There was a bad backlash from the animal rights lobby after the Cinderella case.
  3. Make sure you can read your spells properly. Glass slippers, really? Those must have been horrible to wear. Nobody wants that happening again and it was assumed to be due to an elderly fairy godmother not reading said spell properly.
  4. Don’t let humans know of your existence especially when working in their world. They are curious enough creatures. We don’t need more curiosity from them. We don’t need them tracking our world down either. They’ll only try and colonize it.
  5. Know who and what you are taking on magically before you do so. Saves time and a lot of grief.
  6. Keep up to date spell books and always ensure your wands are fully charged.
  7. Always carry at least one spare wand. Things go wrong when out working. You need back up.
  8. If an evil witch wants to boast of her evil deeds, let her ramble on. You can spend the time working out how to outwit her.
  9. Make sure you know what your powers are and, more importantly, your limitations. We all have them. Then play to your strengths.
  10. If you are on call as the Tooth Fairy, try not to reach for the pliers unless the kid does have a long record of being obnoxious.

BookBrushImage-2024-1-12-19-4331

This World and Others – Rules and Regulations

Rules and regulations are needed for any world including our fictional ones. Not the most interesting thing to think about perhaps but you do need to know how your world works. Where magic is involved, how far can it go? Would there be rules governing the behaviour of magical beings to ensure they don’t wipe out the non-magical ones? What can’t be solved with magic?

What are your characters expected to comply with? What does everyone have to know?

Rules and regulations will cover all aspects of life too so think about transport rules, government regulations etc. How do these all impact on your characters? Are there rules and regulations which should be abolished (no longer needed, times have changed etc) and is anyone trying to get these things removed?

If your setting has contact with other worlds (especially in trade), what are the differences between them? Are there odd rules one setting has to stick to and the others do not?

Are there rules your characters wished did exist and, if so, why? Also why haven’t these things come into being? (I would suspect a vested interest somewhere especially if the wished for rule would benefit the majority but that may be being a tad cynical!).

BookBrushImage-2024-1-12-19-5648WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2023-12-05 at 21-13-46 The December Magazine isHere

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Twitter Corner with hashtag, Scrabble tiles, and the blue bird

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Characters and Lost In A Bad Book

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you had a good weekend. Had first snow in my part of the world but it didn’t settle. Big coat time! Mind you, Lady takes the view her coat suits all weathers and all occasions! Was pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction last week and have managed to get in my first competition entry of the year so a good start.

BookBrushImage-2024-1-9-20-2619

Facebook – General

Brrr…bitterly cold in my part of the world today, not that Lady noticed. I did though!

Delighted to say I’ll be welcoming back Val Penny to Chandler’s Ford Today this week to discuss her new short story collection, Hunter’s Christmas and Other Stories.

Naturally I was intrigued by the challenges a novelist like Val faced when writing the much shorter form of story. Writing short stories and flash is a challenge anyway but when you are used to writing the longer works, perhaps they are even more so!

Look out for interesting thoughts and tips on writing the short form and what led Val to go down this particular writing route. I’ll be sharing the interview on Friday and it will be part of Val’s blog tour this week.

Tour Poster

Hope you have had a good Monday. Had some snow here but ground still so wet from the horrendous rain late last week it wasn’t going to settle. Lady got off to a cracking start to her week by getting to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals.

Pleased with my writing weekend. I finished a story I’d been working on and got that sent off to a competition I had my eye on so nice to get the ball rolling with this one. Also working on various blogs and a couple of PowerPoints for future use.

It is one of those things that I do tend to write a fair bit over the weekend and less so on a Monday (too many other domestic things going on which even I can’t put off) but I take the view as long as over the week as a whole I’ve got certain things done, that’s fine.

I don’t set myself a word count target per day because I know life can get in the way of that. I do set myself a task I’d like to get done each day (and for longer works to get to a next stage on them). Most of the time I do it and that’s fine because when I can’t, it’s because I’m away, ill etc. Learning not to beat yourself up as a writer helps a lot! A relaxed writer is (usually) a reasonably happy one!

416086542_805688288237701_4517887420263129307_n

Hope you are having a good weekend. Weather has dried out but it has become bitterly cold. Still, it is January. Lady doesn’t mind the weather but when the rain is especially heavy she’s not sorry to get home either.

Characters are the bedrock of any story in any format because they are what readers/listeners/viewers get behind. We like Character X. We hope Character Y gets their overdue comeuppance etc. This is why I start with working out characters and then figuring out the kind of story they would star in to be at their best or worst (depending on whether they’re the villain or not. A “good” villain will be at their worst after all).

So understanding what makes us tick is key to understanding what could make your characters tick. This is where reading widely comes in because it gives you the chance to work out the kind of characters you like reading about. From that, you can work out what it is you like and then how you can apply that to your own creations. There will always be a need for good and bad characters in fiction – what matters is how we portray them.

416058063_804986764974520_7662330475861587583_n

Many thanks for the great comments coming in on A New Start, my first story on Friday Flash Fiction for 2024. Hopefully, many more stories to come and do check out the website – there are marvellous tales here.

Why do I love the drabble/100-worder?

Firstly, it was my introduction to the world of flash fiction so it will always have a special place in my heart just due to that.

Secondly, I just adore the tightness of this word count limit. You have enough words to give enough detail but nothing more.

Thirdly, these are great for twist endings and/or humorous ones. These work well in the longer forms of flash fiction too but I think there is something more direct about the 100-worder. Impact isn’t diluted because the word count here is so tight.

Screenshot 2024-01-05 at 10-03-40 A New Start by Allison Symes

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Writing for online sites such as CafeLit and Friday Flash Fiction is a great way to hone your writing skills and, in the case of the latter, to get useful feedback on your stories.

In the case of CafeLit you have the chance to end up in their annual print anthology too. CafeLit takes stories from 100 words up to 3000 words so there is plenty of scope there for the flash fiction and short story writers. Why not give both websites a try?

With Friday Flash Fiction, you need to send in one x 100 word story. If they like it, that goes on their site on the following Friday. Then you can do the same again. After that they will be open to you sending in longer flash pieces but you do have to have two x 100 word stories on site with them over two weeks before you send in longer work. The idea with them is you create a new piece of flash for one Friday and then another one for another week. You don’t get to send in two stories in one week. See the link for further information.

Have fun here. I do!

Screenshot 2024-01-09 at 20-03-20 Submission GuidelinesScreenshot 2024-01-09 at 20-38-58 Submissions
It’s Monday. It has been snowing. Being a dog owner, am used to having to put a big coat on! It’s dark. It’s cold. It’s story time then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Lost in a Bad Book.

 

One of the challenges of writing flash fiction is in continuing to come up with interesting characters. Thankfully, it is a challenge I love!

I mentioned over on my Facebook author page that characters are the bedrock of any story. See above. This is especially true for flash fiction. There isn’t the word count room for lots of description so I make sure I focus on the telling details which will reveal something of the setting and/or the character, leaving readers to fill in the gaps and they do.

It is one of the charms of the form. Readers do have to work things out. This is also true for crime fiction. Who doesn’t like trying to guess who the murderer is after all?

My job is to make sure I have put the right clues in place so readers can do this. The idea is at the end of the story, people can go back and think, yes, this clue should have made me realise this could be the outcome here. Twists must come from within the plot and character. Even in a fantasy setting, it all has to make sense.

416051240_804987978307732_8478984873316795526_nHope you are having a a great weekend, the first “proper” one back after Christmas. I see Amazon have updated the look of the Author Central pages. I like the new look. You can check mine out at the link.

With their update, I took the opportunity to update my author bio on here so it now includes what I write/do for Writers’ Narrative. Periodically it pays to have a look at this and update accordingly. It is too easy to forget to do it though!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Goodreads Author Blog – The World of Books

I can’t imagine a world without books. I don’t want to either. But that does not mean I need my stories (whether I write them or read them) to be solely set in this world, a planet we know. I love fantasy, fairytales, and sci-fi. These story worlds can show us something of what we are like. Stories set in the future show us what we could be.

I love the way books can take us anywhere – past, present, future – and any setting – known or fantastical. While some fantasy worlds are easier to understand than others, I find I’ve got to salute the imagination behind them all. What is a book without imagination behind it? Blank!

Yes, there has to be imagination behind non-fiction works too. How does the author conjure up, say, a historical world which will intrigue present day readers? They have to think of the details which will draw us into this world.

I love historical fiction and non-fiction. I remain thankful I live in the era I do, for all its faults, but I can explore past worlds via books. Safest way to to do it too. I really would not fancy being at the court of Henry VIII, say, but I can explore that world thanks to books.

The world of books is an amazing one – any time, any place, anywhere. There is also room for more worlds to be invented in fantasy and sci-fi too. The only limit is our imagination. Books encourage us to develop that imagination.

Screenshot 2024-01-06 at 17-34-21 The World of Books

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
Screenshot 2024-01-05 at 20-14-06 Amazon Author

Twitter Corner with hashtag, Scrabble tiles, and the blue bird

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.