Tag: Jenny Sanders

Author Interview: Jenny Sanders Part 2 and Remembering D-Day 80 Years On

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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 so far. Have had some lovely weather, hope it continues. Pleased to share Part 2 of a fabulous interview with Jenny Sanders for Chandler’s Ford Today – this time we’re looking at launches, marketing etc. Plenty of tips and useful thoughts. Lady’s thoughts this week, however, have revolved around how much of a good time can she have with her chums. Useful to her but nobody else!

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am delighted to welcome Jenny Sanders back to Chandler’s Ford Today for the second part of her interview which forms part of her blog tour for Polished Arrows, her latest devotional book, which is now out.

This week we discuss marketing, launches, tips on reaching potential readers, the value of supportive writing groups (Jenny and I are both members of the Association of Christian Writers), and much else besides.

Hope you enjoy the interview – plenty of tips and useful thoughts for all writers here. Good luck, Jenny, with Polished Arrows.

Author Interview: Jenny Sanders – The Polished Arrows of Non-Fiction Writing – Part 2

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6th June 2024 – 80 Years Ago…

Today of course is the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Will be listening to a special programme Classic FM are putting on later this evening featuring suitable music, clips from veterans etc. (It was wonderful). Am sure it will be so moving. (It really was).

I tend to think back to my grandfathers for D-Day and Remembrance in November. One fought. One was in a reserved occupation (and was forever being bombed out).

It is a sobering thought to consider I am only two generations away from this history and only one if you count my parents, both of whom were evacuated from London as children. My father was too young to go for the first batch of evacuees but did go later on in the war when the threat of the V1 and V2 occurred.

We have much to be thankful for including the freedom to have an education, to read, and to write. Too easy to take those things for granted.

Have read Double Cross by Ben Macintyre recently. It is the true story of the D-Day spies who made such a difference. Highly recommend along with his Operation Mincemeat. Stories are so important in preserving what happened for others to learn from, including us.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady has had an excellent one in that she saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback chums again today. Lady and the latter had a good zoomie session too. It is a sight worth seeing but you stand well back! Both of them can put in a terrific pace. You don’t want to be mown down by a combined weight of 58 kilos of dogs!

I’ve mentioned before I interview my characters to find out more about them before I decide if they’re worth writing up or not. I try to ask in depth questions because, as in a “real” interview, such as the one I’ll be conducting with Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday, you want the one answering the questions to open up. You don’t want the simple yes/no answers. That kind of response doesn’t tell you much.

But questions such as what do you fear most and why can trigger some interesting responses. I have to think about what my characters would fear and then figure out what they would do if they had to face up to that fear. The fear doesn’t have to be a complicated one either. Looking at the reason why can be fascinating too.

If my character feared black curtains, I would then be delving into their past history to come up with a reasonable explanation for that. This means I have to flesh them out more and it is that process which helps me to get to know them well enough to create situations I can put them in.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you enjoy my latest story on Friday Flash Fiction – Litter. What will Rosie do when confronted by litter louts? Who gets the upper hand and how? Find out here!
Screenshot 2024-06-07 at 10-00-24 Litter by Allison Symes

6th June 2024 – 80 Years Ago…

To all who fought on the beaches 80 years ago on D-Day, thank you.
To all who worked behind the scenes to make D-Day a reality, thank you.
To those who came back, thank you.
To those who did not, thank you.
The least we can do is remember.
Allison Symes
6th June 2024

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Writing flash fiction has led to me writing more in the first person and it does have its advantages. It is immediate. I take you straight into my characters’ heads. You literally see their world through their eyes.

But I do like a good balance so when I’m thinking of stories, one of the first questions I ask myself is whether this would work best in first or third person. When I’ve got more than one character in a story, then I’m going straight for third person (though I may get one of the characters to show you some of their thoughts if it is appropriate to do so).

For individual characters, first person is inevitable though I often get them to refer to other characters who mean something to them. Doesn’t necessarily need to be a good meaning either!

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Fairytales with Bite – The Establishment

Who or what makes up the establishment in your setting? How did it become the establishment? Is it based on long standing traditions, rights of inheritance, or have your characters had to fight their way to the top? Or is it a mixture?

What do the”ordinary” characters make of the establishment? Are they generally in support or are they oppressed by it? Does magic underpin the way the establishment works and could that be broken by anyone?

Give some thought as to how your establishment issues laws. Is it rule by diktat or is there some semblance of democracy? What did your current establishment replace? Is the replacement an improvement or not? Are all species in your world setting represented in this body or are some deliberately excluded?

What role has the history of your setting placed in getting an establishment established in the first place?
Does it have any role to play in the lives of most of your characters or is a remote establishment in that local governments etc do the day-to-day running of things and most characters are more affected by what they do instead?

Every society has an establishment of some sort though the make up of these differs. You could use what we have here – monarchies, republics (democratic or otherwise) – to give interesting backdrops to your stories.

Also could your establishments hinder your characters in what they are trying to achieve in your stories? If so, how? Hiw do your characters overcome that, assuming they do?

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This World and Others – The Hospitality Industry

One of the sectors to be affected the worst by Covid was the hospitality industry. It didn’t matter what country you were in – this applied worldwide. In your setting, what does the hospitality industry comprise of and what disaster could hit them badly? How is that disaster resolved?

Every so often I like to go out for a pub meal with family but have noticed, though the pubs are recovering from the pandemic, they are still not fully back to how they had been. Hopefully time will rectify that. But in the event of a disaster in your setting, how long would it take your hospitality industry to recover? What support would they have?

Separately, think about who works in this industry. They meet people all the time. They probably get to hear and see interesting things while serving drinks, meals etc. This was certainly true of The Prancing Pony in The Lord of the Rings!

So who could you get to be in a pub like environment? What would they say which might be of interest to someone else (and why is it of interest)? What pivotal role could your hospitality settings play here?

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Seasonal Stories, Publication News, and a Lady With a Grudge

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. It is always great fun to come up with titles for my posts here. All of the above apparently unrelated topics are covered below! Hope you enjoy.BookBrushImage-2022-11-29-20-3957

Facebook – General

It’s my turn once again on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. Aptly, now we are in Advent, I talk about Seasonal Stories. I talk about writing festive flash fiction and also the importance of planning well ahead for writing for the seasonal markets. I also look at what I love to read over the Christmas period.

Hope you enjoy your seasonal writing and reading.

 

Has been a very busy Monday. Am hoping for a less hectic Tuesday!

One nice task today though was to put in my order for my copies of Evergreen, the latest Bridge House Publishing book. More news on this below. I’m going to be picking up my copies at their celebration event in London on Saturday and am so looking forward to that. These events are always great fun. The event will also be celebrating The Best of CafeLit 11 which was out a little earlier this year.

Looking forward also to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Wednesday this week.

And on Thursday, I send out my latest author newsletter.

Writing Tip: If you use the random generators to trigger story ideas, as I often do, make sure you mix up the ones you use. Firstly it’s not so much fun if you just stick to one or two. Secondly, other generators will stretch you. I didn’t think I could get stories out of the random number generator, for example, until I gave it a go.

 

Hope you have had a lovely Sunday. It’s Advent Sunday today and it was lovely to see the Christmas tree up in our church this morning.

Many thanks for the congratulations coming in on my story Never Old – Ever Green and Good To Go (a title which in many ways is my motto!) appearing in the new Bridge House Publishing anthology, Evergreen. Much appreciated, folks. Now you know what the publication news is in the title of this post!

Also thanks for the great response to my two part interview with Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today recently.

Am glad to report I have another super author interview coming up this coming Friday, when I get to talk again to Scottish crime writer, Val Penny. Looking forward to sharing that on Friday. The theme will be “seconds” – it’s an interesting tag for this one.

Hope all who are taking part in Flash NANO are having a great time with it – I am. Can hardly believe we’re almost at the end of the month and the prompts.#

 

Am thrilled to say I am back in print again with a short story, Never Old – Ever Green and Good To Go, in the brand new anthology from Bridge House Publishing. This is called Evergreen – an Anthology and I am pleased to be between the covers again with familiar names and new authors. For more details see The Bridgetowncafe Bookshop link.

And well done, everyone, who has a story in here – the buzz of being published never diminishes. Nor should it!

Screenshot 2022-11-27 at 15-12-29 Evergreen eBook Multiple Hobbs-Wyatt Debz James Gill Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store

Screenshot 2022-11-26 at 17-10-44 Evergreen

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Many thanks for the views coming in on Judith, my latest YouTube story. It seems my lady with a grudge has some fans!

Don’t forget my author newsletter goes out on Thursday. My monthly newsletter is a great reminder of how quickly the year is flying.

Will be tackling another interesting challenge from Flash NANO later on. Am so pleased with how things have worked out here.

While my stories need further editing and polishing, to have 30 new stories in a month is great. Would I take part in this again? Oh yes.

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28th November 2022 – Second post
Almost forgot to mention my new YouTube tale is now out there. See what you make of Judith – a lady with a grudge against… well I’ll leave you to find out! Hope you enjoy it!

28th November
Have selected the pieces I hope to read from From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic for my London trip on Saturday. This is always a fun task!

Am working on a flash piece I hope to enter for a competition (deadline is the end of the year. I will aim to have it sorted and submitted in the next week or two as I always take time off any official deadline to give me time to make sure I haven’t missed anything and still get the story in on good time.

Good rule of thumb to remember here is it is okay for them to be late. It isn’t all right for you to be late! This is probably a hangover from my pre-driving days when I took the same view with buses – and rightly so too!).

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Looking forward to a trip to London on Saturday when I go to the Bridge House Publishing event. Part of the celebrations here include reading stories and I hope to read two or three of my flash pieces here. The nice thing with flash is each story doesn’t take long and I like to mix up story length and mood. Also had fun packing my book bag ready for Saturday (well, I like to be ready for these things!).

Almost at the end of Flash NANO – hard to believe where the time has gone. I’ve got something for each of the challenges set and plenty of editing to do in December but that’s fine.

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Hope you have a good day. Am so pleased to have another publication credit (Never Old – Ever Green and Good To Go is my short story in Evergreen an Anthology published by Bridge House Publishing).

I am making good progress on the Flash NANO challenges – can’t believe the month has almost gone.

And am so looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing celebration event next Saturday. Will be good to see people again. Especially since this event has had to be cancelled due to Covid in the past, it will be so nice to meet up.

I’m getting my next author newsletter ready to go out on 1st December. I share flash information and tips here as well as my news. To sign up head over to the landing page at my website – https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Have also spent time today preparing a certain wish list for a certain festive event – books are included – surprise, surprise, not!

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Goodreads Author Blog – ‘Tis The Season To Buy Books!

The 27th November 2022 is Advent Sunday, the day the Church begins the countdown to Christmas. Certainly it is at about this time of year I get present lists up together and books are very much included here! It is a joy to select books for others as well as giving my family a wish list for books I’d like to have.

Okay, you can always tell a book-shaped present for what it is under the Christmas tree but there is joy in spotting those there too!

I like a mixture of books as presents to me. This year I’ve opted for a couple of crime novels and a humorous book which is part of a series I love. Kindle books I tend to get as and when I want them and I often try out authors new to me by downloading their ebooks first. If I really like their work, I will often to go for the next book in paperback.

One thing the pandemic has changed for me is that I haven’t been in to the big shopping centres (and therefore the big bookshops) for a while. I don’t know yet if that will change for this year but I do, whenever possible, support a variety of online retailers, including those who support the independent bookshops. Do look out for those. I also support smaller bookshops when I can. They all have a lovely ambience to them and that’s reason enough to go in and support those!

I hope you have a lovely season buying books and then the great joy of having several to unwrap on Christmas Day!

Screenshot 2022-11-26 at 19-53-57 'Tis The Season To Buy Books!

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Interview Part 2 with Jenny Sanders, Shout-outs, and Getting Steamed Up

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Many thanks to Jenny Sanders for supplying author, book, and other pictures for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. As ever, screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good working week. Nice surprises this week – unexpected shoutouts for Tripping the Flash Fantastic and I will be glad to share further publication news very soon too. (And it stopped raining for a bit too so Lady and I consider that a win!).

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Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

It’s with great pleasure I welcome back Jenny Sanders to Chandler’s Ford Today for Part 2 of a stunning interview (and many thanks for the comments coming in on this already).

This week, Jenny and I discuss writing devotionals, short stories, and flash fiction. The latter especially is another example of where Jenny and I cross (writing) paths – hence the title for this interview this week. Hope you enjoy.

The writing journey can take you on all sorts of interesting pathways as Jenny and I have both found.

Crossing Paths with Jenny Sanders – Flash Fiction, Devotionals, and Short Stories- Part 2

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Many thanks to #ValPenny for a lovely shout-out today for Tripping the Flash Fantastic. That was a lovely surprise, as was the fabulous comment from #JoyWood. Now that is what I call a review! Thank you, ladies.

Also had a further nice surprise when I gave someone, a fellow dog walker, one of my business cards as they’re interested in my books. Now that’s music to a writer’s ears, is it not?

Don’t forget, as well as getting copies of TTFF and From Light to Dark and Back Again, online (usual outlets), you can contact me via my website at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com if you would like a signed copy (or copies) directly from me. See my contact page.

Talking of flash fiction, I’ll be discussing that very topic, amongst others, with Jenny Sanders in Part 2 of her interview on Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Screenshot 2022-11-24 at 19-39-22 Val Penny Facebook

 

Lady got to play with her best buddy, the lovely Ridgeback today, and after Monday’s weather, it was so lovely to have a nice day out in the park today. Nice to come home still dry too!

Am enjoying the Flash NANO challenges especially as there is great variety in them. Looking forward to tackling today’s one later on. I deliberately mix up the random generators I use to produce stories. I don’t want to limit myself to one type. I think this has stood me in good stead for Flash NANO. Best of all, it’s fun anyway!

I was impressed – my train tickets for the Bridge House Publishing event arrived today. I only ordered them a couple of days ago. So looking forward to catching up with people again here (and I hope making new friends too).

AE - November 2022 - Taking part in Flash NANO

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s time for another story. (Think it is quite nice to start the working week with one on my YouTube channel and to finish said working week with another one on Friday Flash Fiction). Am pleased to say Getting Steamed Up is my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. This one started life in response to a Flash NANO prompt. Hope you enjoy it.

Screenshot 2022-11-25 at 09-38-34 Getting Steamed Up by Allison Symes

Many thanks to #FridayFlashFiction for commenting on my post yesterday about one of the disciplines of flash fiction. Couldn’t agree more – see screenshot if you missed the post. Don’t forget a new batch of stories will be up tomorrow and do check out what’s on there.

Fabulous reading and catching up with stories via websites like this can be a great way to ensure you get some contemporary flash fiction reading in as part of your “reading diet”. I consciously try to ensure I read in and out of my genre, past and present work, books, magazines etc. It keeps life interesting for a start. It’s fun too!

Screenshot 2022-11-24 at 19-49-51 Allison Symes Facebook

 

One of the disciplines of flash fiction (which comes in useful for other forms of writing) is in knowing where and when to stop! You tell your story, your character has done/said all they needed to do/say, and then you stop. I find the word count restriction helps here.

The End really does have to be the end. It can be tempting to add in a kind of concluding bit. Flash writing cures you of that habit quickly as you can only include anything which moves the story on in some way. There really is no room for anything else and that’s good. Your focus is sharpened thanks to this.

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Fairytales with Bite – Who Guards The Guards?

In a magical setting, there should be some way to measure magical standards. One way is obviously through schooling and exams but what about later? Who ensures standards are kept up by fairy godmothers and the like? Who ensures short cuts aren’t being taken which could endanger others? Who sets the standards people need to stick to in the first place and have these ever been changed or challenged?

Is there a magical enforcement agency of any kind and, If so, who guards those guards to ensure they’re doing their job properly? Is the agency a good one or are they the equivalent of the old Keystone Cops (i.e. fit for comic purposes only)?

Are the guardians of magical standards respected or feared? (Could be both but I find it interesting where a body like that is respected rather than feared. It would tend to show me that these people are doing their job in a way that benefits the people and there could be stories here about where the public helps the agency solve magical crimes, prevents standards slipping and so on precisely because that respect exists. People don’t tend to assist those they fear unless they have no choice).

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This World and Others – Law Making

In your fictional setting, does law making tend to follow the pattern we have here of parliamentary democracy or dictatorship? How do laws get made and passed? Do people have any say in this? Can people petition the likes of their local councillors/MPs? And when laws are passed how are people informed about them? How long does a new law take to be implemented fully?

Does your world have a separate civil/criminal law making body/bodies?

In the case of longstanding laws, what could make the authorities change these? Do they update laws where situations/technologies and the like have changed? That kind of change can make some laws redundant. For example, we no longer need a man with a red flag walking in front of a motor vehicle to warn pedestrians a car was on the road!

Is the law respected or mocked (even if the latter is done privately)? Are there laws which desperately need scrapping or an update and who/what is blocking that? Plenty of stories to be had there I think!

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Opening Lines, a Reading Acrostic, and a Reader Hub

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots (and photo of Lady) were taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Dawn Kentish Knox for taking the photo of me reading at a previous Bridge House Publishing event. Very much looking forward to going to the 2022 one!
Hope you have had a good few days – weather stormy and then next day gorgeous sunshine. It’s a case of looking out of the window and thinking big coat or not today then! This will be the position for the next few months – certainly till at least early March.

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Facebook – General

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady got to play with her “boyfriend”, a lovely tri-coloured Aussie Shepherd today. Both got a good run!

Am looking forward to sharing Part 2 of my interview with Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. This week we’ll be discussing short stories and flash fiction, other areas in which our paths have crossed, writing wise.

Have booked my tickets for the Bridge House Publishing event in London on 3rd December. Looking forward to that very much. Will be giving a reading at that event too. Flash is ideal for that kind of thing – you cannot go on for too long!

 

To say Lady and I got wet this morning is something of an understatement. Had Noah been passing, we’d have thumbed a lift.

Now I use Book Brush to design graphics with and I love using their tools to help me achieve great images for my blog posts. (I use them all the time for Chandler’s Ford Today, Authors Electric, Mom’s Favorite Reads, More than Writers etc). I’ve now set up my Reader Hub page on this (it is a new feature) where I can share pictures, my social media links and a bit about what I write, all in one handy place. Very pleased with this and am sure it will prove useful.
Screenshot 2022-11-21 at 20-00-26 Allison Symes - Author Reader HubProgressing well with Flash NANO. One of my pieces for this I plan to use for my YouTube tale this week so look out for that when I share the link tomorrow. See below. I’ve mentioned before about having a “stock” of stories ready for competitions, markets etc. Taking part in Flash NANO is a great way to build up a good stock!

I’ve shared a couple of my pieces on the Flash NANO Facebook group (as these stories needed little alteration) but I won’t share everything there because I know there is plenty of work to do on my other tales before I want anyone else seeing them! Having said that, I am loving reading what others are sharing here – it does to pay to read in your genre as well as outside of it. It always reminds me of why I love the flash format. And it is such a fun thing to do so win-win!

 

Hope you have had a good day. Many thanks for the lovely comments coming in on Cat Chat, my new tale (or should that be tail?) on Friday Flash Fiction. I write stories from an animal’s point of view every so often. They’re fun to do. But, as with any story, the character voice must be strong enough to be convincing.

Am looking forward to sharing Part 2 of my interview with Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today next week (and again thanks to all who have responded so well to Part 1 where the post was shared on social media yesterday. Lots of memories about schools programming from years ago!) Part 2 will look at where Jenny and I cross paths with regard to short story and flash fiction writing.

Screenshot 2022-11-18 at 16-56-02 Cat Chat by Allison Symes

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom next week. It is a lovely time to catch up with writing news, share details of competitions etc, and I usually share a short presentation.

Writing wise, I am already beginning to think about stories for a future (fourth) collection. It does take time to build these up but Flash NANO is going to be a good contributor here!

Have got a story in draft which I want to enter for a competition before the year is out. Currently resting it but hope to have another look at it over the weekend. I can’t stress enough how useful it is to have time away from a story as I find I pick up various things to put right having given myself enough distance away from the piece. It really is worth doing.

Time away

It has been the kind of Monday that makes Noah wonder if it’s time to set sail again so definitely time for a new YouTube story from me. This one, Looking and Finding, is one of my responses to the Flash NANO challenges set so far for this year. The 19 word story, all in! Hope you enjoy it. (I didn’t include the title as part of the word count for this or for the Flash NANO challenge itself but this was great fun to write and will resonate with cat owners and Tom and Jerry fans in particular).


What makes for a good opening line for me? It’s something that draws me in, sets up an interesting premise, and gives me that “I’ve got to find out what happens here” feeling. Only one way to do that – read the story – job done! But…

The job is only done if that vital closing line does its job well and delivers on the promise set by the opening one.

This is why I like to outline my flash and other stories. I don’t need to work out everything but I do need to know how I am going to get from A to B with a rough idea of the stopping points on that journey. In a flash tale, even at the 1000 words upper limit, I often only need a line (which will form the basis of Start Point A), a rough line about what happens in the middle, and another line summing up how the story finishes (my finishing point B). For a longer tale I might need a couple of lines for each of the three points of my story.

I’ve found outlining doesn’t take too long and has saved me a lot of grief. I no longer box myself into a corner with my story. I’ve only scrapped two stories in my time because I hadn’t outlined and I did box myself in as a result of that.

Don’t forget my author newsletter goes out on the first of the month and I do share tips here, especially those pertinent to flash story writing. Last time I shared a pdf I’d created for a flash fiction group I run on Zoom (the ACW one). If you’d like to sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com – you would be most welcome! A big thanks to all who are already subscribers too.

One of the Flash NANO challenges is in the form of an exercise I’ve done before – to cut a story in half word count wise. It’s a great exercise to work on your editing skills as the story still has to make sense and to not lose anything important to its meaning. This kind of exercise though is not the type you can do in five minutes. What I’m hoping to do with mine is have it done by the end of Flash NANO at the end of the month.

Goodreads Author Blog – READING ACROSTIC

R= Reading is wonderful and inspires further stories to be written.
E = Educational and entertaining – what is there not to like?
A = Animals, aliens, all sorts of characters end up being the heroes and villains in the stories.
D = Dialogue in books and stories is like overhearing an intriguing conversation where you have to find out what happens.
I = Imagination – reading fires this up considerably even if you don’t write yourself.
N = Novels, novellas, short stories, flash fiction, non-fiction, articles, books, magazines – there is something to suit you somewhere!
G = Great reading can cross centuries – there is no time limit on how long a book or story can be good for.

Screenshot 2022-11-19 at 18-01-56 Reading Acrostic

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Crossing Paths with Jenny Sanders, Autumnal Matters, and Cat Chat

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. A huge thank you to Jenny Sanders for supplying author, book, and other pictures for Part 1 of a great interview with her on Chandler’s Ford Today. I also share my latest Author Electric post about autumn and a fun tale (or should that be tail?) which is my latest offering on Friday Flash Fiction. Hope you have had a good week. Have had some nice autumn days here after a right wash-out earlier this week.

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Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today – and Authors Electric

18th November 2022 – 1st Post – CFT
Not one but two blogs to share tonight. First up is Chandler’s Ford Today and I am delighted to welcome Jenny Sanders to the interviewee’s “chair” for Part 1 of a fabulous conversation. This week Jenny shares her lifelong love of books and stories and her earlier career in television (which in itself showed her a lot about putting stories together, a fabulous learning experience for any writer).

Jenny and I cross paths, writing wise, in a number of ways and that is shared here too. Next week she’ll be sharing more about her short story, devotional, and flash fiction writing (just one of many of those “crossed paths” for Jenny and I!).

Crossing Paths with Jenny Sanders – Part 1

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18th November – 2nd post – Authors Electric

My second blog to share tonight is my monthly post on Authors Electric. Aptly, I talk about Autumnal Reading and Writing. I share my love of autumn, ask if you choose books according to season, and celebrate the one positive about the longer, darker evenings (in my part of the world at least). I find I get more writing and reading done! Do share your thoughts on the season and how it affects you reading and writing wise over on the AE comments box.

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Now today was the kind of autumn day I love – dry, not too cold, sunny, and dry. (I mention that again as on Tuesday Lady and I were anything but dry for a lot of the day!).

Looking forward to sharing Part 1 of a fabulous interview with Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up tomorrow. See above.

I’ll be interviewing other authors well into December too so do keep an eye out for these. I always learn a lot from author interviews I read and listen to so hope you do with these great posts coming up. (Many thanks to everyone taking part in them too).

I’ll also be sharing a lovely autumnal post on Authors Electric tomorrow so double bubble for Friday!

Am looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing event on 3rd December. (Hope to report back on that for CFT in due course and my January 2023 newsletter).

Writing Tip: People often talk abut focusing on the senses in fiction writing and it is a great idea but why not just pick one and focus your strory on that? If you decide to focus on hearing, for example, you can focus on what sounds mean the most to your lead character and why these matter. A piece of music could remind them of their lost love etc.

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Lady was delighted to have a good old run-around with her best friend, the Rhodesian Ridgeback today. All before the weather closed in later so win-win there. I knew her pal was out because Lady tugged me most of the way to the park and she doesn’t do that for anyone else!

On Chandler’s Ford Today this week, I’ll be sharing Part 1 of an interview called Crossing Paths with Jenny Sanders. Jenny and I do cross writing paths a lot. More on that on Friday when the post goes live. She’ll also be talking about her writing life and her previous life in television. Looking forward to sharing that. See above (and Part 2 next week is also fab so stay tuned).

Friday is one of those days when I will have a second blog post up so I will have two Facebook posts up then. The other blog coming up is for Authors Electric and I’ll be talking about Autumnal Reading and Writing which is definitely topical in my part of the world! Again, see above. Every so often my various blogs “collide” and end up on one day!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I’m delighted to share my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction though maybe I should’ve written that as tail! Why? Because my new story is called Cat Chat. Hope you enjoy it, whether you own a cat (or any other pet) or not.

Screenshot 2022-11-18 at 16-56-02 Cat Chat by Allison Symes

Have recently submitted a festive flash fiction piece – will report back it if gets anywhere. When I write flash, my starting point can be:-

1. Respond to a prompt (Flash NANO is brilliant here).

2. I know the mood of the story I want to write – humour, serious, crime etc.

3. I have a promising opening line (something I brainstormed previously) I now want to write up.

4. I have a promising closing line (again brainstormed ages ago) I now want to write up.

5. I want a stock of stories I can use for various competitions, including open theme ones so I will write something that could fit the categories I know interest me. I also write up stories I know could fit an open theme.

6. I can “hear” a character’s voice in my head and know I’ve got to write their story up.

7. Am responding to a challenge set by something I’ve used a random generator to create. Bear in mind I have no way of knowing in advance what will come up. What I can do is set parameters (and I have found generating a couple of things at a time works best for me).

8. Occasionally a writer friend will set a challenge and I respond to that. I have written a story called The Inside of a Ping Pong Ball based on that challenge. (Hello #WendyHJones!).

9. I have a promising title (again brainstormed earlier) I now want to do something with – and so I do.

10. Something catches my eye or ear when I’m out and about and I will think I’ve got to do something with that. I have used snippets of overheard conversation as a starting point for a story but done in such a way that the original speaker would never know.

11. Books of prompts (some of which I’ve contributed to in my time) are also handy.

12. Something I’ve read inspires me and triggers other ideas so I have to find out what my characters would do with them. I love the classic fairytales and they often inspire me to come up with humorous flash pieces.

May be an image of text that says "When I've quizzed my characters enough, I write their stories up. An outline is a necessity for me. 2®0 -"

Hope you have had a good day. Looking forward to having a go at today’s Flash NANO challenge later on this evening. Yesterday’s challenge was to cut a story in half and I’ve picked an old 2000 worder tale of mine. My goal will be to get that down to 1000, the top end of flash fiction. Can’t do that quickly though.

What I hope I will do is have it done by the end of the Flash NANO challenge on 30th November. I have done this kind of exercise before. It gets harder the more you have to cut down! Its advantage is it does make you get to the core of the story and focus on that.

May be an image of text that says "goe Ludwig Mie more es is Less Less Mies an Rohe Less is more could be THE anthem for all flash fiction writers."

Fairytales with Bite – Stories and Songs

Stories and songs have massive roles to play in most cultures so how would this work out in your fictional setting? What stories and songs would your characters enjoy? Equally which do they have to endure because it’s more than their life’s worth not to do so (and possibly literally there too)?

Are storytellers and bards etc respected? Are your society’s current generation of writers respected for what they do? Have modern stories and songs gone into popular culture and are expected to live on for other generations or are these “of the moment”?

Are there any restrictions on which stories and songs your characters are allowed to enjoy? If so, why are these restrictions in palce and who brought them in? Is there any kind of underground movement where people/beings of choice can enjoy these forbidden stories and songs?

Do you use the influence of the stories and songs you love to influence what your characters are likely to enjoy or do you go for the complete opposite here? Either could work!

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This World and Others – Culture

Culture is a huge topic but how does your fictional world react to it? Is it proud of its culture or embarrassed by it? Does it look down on the cultures of others or use the best ideas from those other worlds to improve its own? History can often come into play in responses to culture. There can be elements of culture that are “covered up” or deliberately forgotten especially if it makes a country look dreadful. Is there anything your own world’s setting would deliberately not bring out in the open?

Also within the arts, are certain things appreciated more than others? For example, is anything audio-related more appreciated than visual media because your fictional species hear better than they see? What factors have led to your world having the culture it does? How has your world’s culture changed over time and what history has led to that happening? If you think about our own world, we can all think of, say, humour, that would have worked thirty years ago but definitely wouldn’t now.

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Publication/Submission News and The Flash NANO Challenge

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Weather all over the place so far this week. Busy week with publication and submission news and the Flash NANO challenge continues… am never short of things to do writing wise. And that is the way I like it!

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Facebook – General

Lady and I spent a lot of the day getting wet. When I went out earlier it was to go swimming! You couldn’t make that up!

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Part 1 of a fabulous interview with fellow Mom’s Favorite Reads contributor, Jenny Sanders, over on Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. Link up on Friday. More interviews to come too.

Progressing well on Flash NANO. Also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting at the end of the month. And I’ve proofread my story – Ever Green and Good to Go – which will be appearing in Evergreen, this year’s Bridge House Publishing anthology. More details on that publication as and when I have them.


Busy day as usual for a Monday. Hope things have not been too hectic with you. Pleased to get my usual batch of stories prepared and scheduled/submitted yesterday. Sunday afternoon is flash fiction writing afternoon! The rest of the week is blogging and more flash writing but I do reserve Sundays specifically for getting new material prepared and out.

It is like responding to “live prompt” writing with a very short deadline to meet and I enjoy doing that. I was pleased that something I prepared for Flash NANO will fit perfectly for something coming up shortly so I have gone and submitted it. Also submitted my third flash collection over the weekend so am pleased with weekend’s achievements.

I have some wonderful author interviews coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today so am looking forward to sharing these with you over the next few weeks.

Author Interviews coming up on CFT

May be an image of laptop and text that says "It took a while to find my writing style, voice for fiction and non- fiction but now I know what these are, I can play to their strengths."

Hope you have had a good day. The service at the War Memorial in the village where we go to church was most moving. Remembering and being grateful for sacrifices made is so important.

What would your characters consider important to remember? What does this reveal about them? What stories and poems do they choose to hold dear? Also what would they be prepared to sacrifice and what would drive them to do it?

And remember you can use a character’s memory as a point of conflict with another character. How would that then play out in your story?

May be an image of text that says "Dream Inspire Courage Harmony We should understand where our characters come from even if we don't agree with them. What dreams do they have? Would we dream the same?"

Many thanks for the comments coming in on my In The Blink of an Eye, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. I’ve loved getting back to the 100-worders (aka drabbles) again. These were what first got me into flash fiction writing at all and is a joy to be writing these weekly for FFF.

For Flash NANO, I’ve found my word count has been variable but that’s okay. They’ll be even more variable when I get to edit these pieces! But it will result in, I hope, thirty new stories written by the end of the month and I know I’ll be doing plenty with those.

Screenshot 2022-11-11 at 08-57-23 In The Blink Of An Eye by Allison Symes

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am glad my story on YouTube, Time Management, has gone down well. Also thank you for the comment left on this one over on my YouTube channel. Don’t forget you can subscribe to my channel and new subscribers are also welcome. Many thanks to those who already do!

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14th November
You know the drill. It’s Monday. It’s getting dark early. It is still flaming Monday, and it’s time for a new YouTube story from yours truly. I concede I may be a little early with this one given the subject matter (Time Management) but hope you enjoy it anyway!


Flash NANO challenge continues to go well. And I submitted my third flash fiction collection yesterday so fingers crossed time!

Over on my author page, I was thinking about the use of memories for story ideas. Flash can be an ideal form for monologues. So you could focus on one character and one specific memory and how that changed them to create a poignant flash piece. (I did this with my They Don’t Understand in From Light to Dark and Back Again. I think it works well precisely because it has to be kept short and pertinent).

The memory you select has to be something that has changed your character and which would rivet a reader into wanting to find out why the character was changed by it.

Allison Symes - Flash Fiction Collections


Flash News: Hannah Kate will be running her Three Minute Santas again on North Manchester FM. See the link for more details but I hope to submit something for this and it is easy to do too. Have since sent something in. Again fingers crossed time!

What I do is prepare my story, edit it, and then when I’m happy, I set up a meeting with myself on Zoom and record it. When you end your meeting Zoom turns the file into a mp4 file for you. Not only can you hear it back, you get the timing for your file too. (And reading your work out is always great for hearing whether your story flows as well as you thought).

3 Minute Santas

Goodreads Author Blog – Book Memory Associations

Books are special for so many reasons. Not least is the fact books have so many positive memory associations for us. I still have my Reader’s Digest Collection of Fairytales which my father bought for me many, many years ago. I think he saved up cigarette coupons to get the books. You could back then!

You went into what was a effectively a catalogue shop (a bit like Argos) and redeemed the coupons. One irony here is I know I did get a recorder thanks to those coupons thanks to Dad’s smoking habit, which I am glad he gave up much later on. Anyway, I still treasure those fairytale books. The spines are taped up because I read them so much when I was younger.

Then there are the books I inherited from my mum. There are the books I bought for myself to start my own collection off. There are the books I’ve written or contributed to and there are plenty of books on my shelves written by friends. I love them all!

There are books I associate with reading at certain times of the year. There are those I dip back into occasionally but I am just glad to know they’re on my shelves somewhere. For me a home isn’t a home without books in it. They are a great comfort.

So which books have great associations for you? Which books could you not bear to part with under any circumstances?

Screenshot 2022-11-12 at 20-08-03 Book Memory Associations
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