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 Rosemary Johnson for sharing a reel she created on my behalf on Instagram, one platform I’m not on at the moment. Also a huge thank you to my Slimming World consultant for letting me read a SW related story from Seeing The Other Side at our group session – marketing takes many forms!
Hope you have had a great weekend. Cooler here which is welcome. Writing going well. So looking forward to book launch events for Seeing The Other Side.
Facebook – General
Bonus Post
A huge thank you to Rosemary Johnson for posting a reel about my Seeing The Other Side on Instagram.
Lovely day here. Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal today. The dogs haven’t seen each other since the heatwave started and the Vizler is considerably older than Lady so would have found the heat even harder going. The dogs were delighted to see each other. It does seem to be dog reunion week so far.
Writing wise, I’m going to be sharing one of my stories from Seeing The Other Side at my Slimming World group tonight with the consultant’s blessing. This particular tale will have resonance with everyone there and I’m looking forward to sharing that. (Whether it leads to book sales remains to be seen!). Glad to report the reading went well!
Have also been getting on with some admin which will end up hopefully giving further publicity to my new book via a website and in house journal. These are nice tasks to be getting on with!
And I’m also looking forward to meeting up with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. Am delighted one member has had a story broadcast since we last met.
Marketing Tip: Think about what you’d enjoy doing. It pays to plan things out. As I’ve mentioned prepare some material so you are ready to tell others what your book is about and remember this is an ongoing process. It can’t be done all at once, which is as well really.
Fantastic start to the week for Lady as she got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal. The dogs haven’t met up properly since the heatwave started for obvious reasons. They were overjoyed to see each other. And I had a good natter with the Ridgeback’s human mum so that got the week off to a good start for me too.
Writing wise, it is time to share the story I put on my Substack yesterday. Hope you like my A Good Show.
Look out for my YouTube story this week, If I’d Known, because it links to the Substack one. Good fun to do and I hope you like both of them.
Meantime, it is indeed time for a good show…
Hope the weekend has gone well. So much cooler, a lot nicer to be honest. Back to normal walks for Lady today for the first time in what seems like forever. She’s enjoyed that but I do know she’s missing her dog friends. Am hoping we’ll catch up with some of them at least this coming week. We did!
Writing wise, I’m glad to report I will be having a blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. Likely to be in September. More news as I have it. Hope to get on with some admin relating to promoting the book later today which will include working on my newsletter, which will be out again on 1st August. To sign up for that, just head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com
While there if you head over to my books page, you will see I’ve added in recent publications including the new flash fiction collection to that. This kind of admin I never mind doing!
And it won’t be that long before I’m off once more to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Am so looking forward to seeing everyone again and this year will be extra special given it will be the first time I’ve had a launch here.
A writer’s life is made up of special moments – over time you realise how important it is to make the most of them because you can’t know when the next will be. It does help a lot to know you need to see all of this as a long term investment in your writing.
Thankfully it’s cooler today though we still have to be careful with Lady. But at least there’s a decent breeze which helps a lot.
Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Summer Reading for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be looking at what I like to read over the lighter months of the year and flagging up flash fiction and short story anthologies as good reads, especially if your reading time is more limited due to other commitments.
And, yes, I’m biased here obviously, but I do like to include the shorter forms of fiction, as well as the longer ones, in my overall reading “diet” and highly recommend this. I’ve discovered some great authors this way.
Short Fiction Tip: What is the one single thing which matters to your character(s)? (For flash it will often be one character). Focus on this and why it matters and you have an excellent framework for your story.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Another cooler day which is most welcome. Certainly Lady has been appreciative of it.
Flash Fiction Tip: Don’t be afraid to start with the ending first. In many of my tales I know this first and then work backwards to get to a starting point.
But when I do things this way, I know why the ending is the way it is. That matters because it conveys truth and it is easier to work backwards to the starting point for my character because I will already know why they have concluded the action in the tale the way they have.
Motivation matters. I do think of my characters as if they were a cast. Are they the right fit? Do they have the right motivation to do what has to be done for the tale to make sense? I find this helps.
Not so hot as it has been which is a relief but still hotter than I’d like. And it’s Monday which scuppers most things anyway. So it’s definitely time for a story and my YouTube one this week links up with my Substack one (see my author page for the link for that). See above.
Hope you enjoy my latest video, If I’d Known.
Some people have to learn their lesson in life the hard way but for this guy it involved a bear, a girl and a woman who was more than she appeared to be. Find out more here.
Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly with the weather cooler and pleasanter. It is hard to focus in a heatwave (though having shorter pieces of writing to work on does help!).
I never know exactly what I’ll be writing for these flash sessions and that is the fun of it. The challenge to come up with something interesting is an ongoing one and should be – it keeps me on my toes. I usually know what mood of story I’d like to write though. I find that a useful starting point.
From there it is a case of working out which kind of character would best suit that mood and then I need to know something about the character themselves to convince me this one is interesting enough to write up. Then I get drafting.
Sounds complicated? It isn’t really. What I have found is that, over time, you do develop a better instinct at what character would best suit a story and what is fascinating about them to have them as your “star”. Definitely instincts worth cultivating.
Quiet weekend this time and a cooler one. Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. Also looking forward to sharing readings from Seeing The Other Side in due course. It’s lovely having more material to choose from!
I’ve often recommended reading your work out loud as part of your editing processes. (Yes, there is definitely more than one!). I’ve found doing this helps me spot missing words. It also flags up clunky dialogue and where you think you’ve put a crucial element to the story in somewhere and then realise you haven’t.
You haven’t missed this before because, of course, you know the story inside and out so it won’t necessarily stand out to you that you haven’t put in the necessary elements to make it clear, but your reader doesn’t. Reading your work out loud and ideally playing it back means you can take in the tale as a reader would and it is so enlightening.
For longer works, it is still possible to do this though it would pay to break it down into scene and/or chapter segments. There’s nothing to stop you making notes on what works and what doesn’t as you go through the whole of your book a piece at a time and then come back to the correction stages only once you’ve gone through the whole book. Your notes will show you what needs work and where. That will save you a lot of time later.
Goodreads Author Blog – Having A New Book Out
It’s always a special moment for an author when they have a new book out. I’ve had the joy of this recently given my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side, came out on 16th July 2026.
As I write this, I’m happily arranging book events and updating certain records, including my website, to show off my new creation, of course. This kind of lovely work will go on for some time.
But for a writer, the moment you hold your new book in your hand is the special moment, I think. All the work, all the edits, and here the final result is – you’ve done it!
But now the hard work begins in promoting your book and any others you may have out. It’s also the time authors most appreciate reviews, especially here on Goodreads.
Other than buying a book from an author, the next best thing you can do to support them is to leave a review. It doesn’t have to be a long one. It does have to be honest.
So if you know someone with a book out, do give them a review. It helps more than you know. I use quotes from reviews I’ve had so far on my other two books (From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping The Flash Fantastic) as part of my marketing.
It shows readers this is a real author, someone else read their work and liked it, so it is worth them checking it out.
And you are encouraging reading too when all is said and done. That has to be a good thing!
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