Tag: learning from author interviews

Author Interview Questions and Ghost Stories

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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. Many thanks to my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today, Janet Williams, for taking the image of me at the 2023 Hiltingbury Book Fair.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Glad to see some wonderful autumn weather with plenty of sun and a nice temperature. Lady off to a great start this week having a riotous time with her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback.
Writing wise, am looking forward to sharing a wonderful interview with Ruth Leigh on Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. There will be another great interview with Anita D Hunt the week after. Plenty to look forward to and lots of useful information for any writer.
And I can confirm I will be going to the Hiltingbury Book Fair next month.

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Facebook – General

Lady was delighted to see her Hungarian Vizler pal this morning. Lovely time had by both dogs. Another lovely autumn day too here.

Don’t forget I’ll be talking with Ruth Leigh about her new book, The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge, on Friday on Chandler’s Ford Today. There will be plenty of useful tips too – so be sure not to miss it.

Looking forward also to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. Always good fun and it has been wonderful to hear how group members have had work published and/or broadcast on North Manchester FM when Hannah Kate puts out the call for theme related flash fiction to be sent in.

Well done, everyone, and keep up the good work!

 

Lady has had a fabulous start to her week having a wonderful time with her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback. As well as running around and play fighting like the overgrown pups they are, they gave each other cuddles too. Very sweet to see.

Writing wise, I’m busy preparing various interviews for Chandler’s Ford Today and there will be more to come in October, I’m glad to say. There is always plenty to learn from these, I find, and they’re great fun to conduct.

Writing Tip: Whether you’re published singly or a number of times, or even if you’re not published yet, look at the questions posted in author interviews and work out how you would answer them if someone posed them to you. It will make you think in more depth about what you write and get you used to talking about what you do.

I did this early on in my career and worked out what I would say. I found that enormously helpful especially in overcoming nerves. I knew I had something I could say and that helped a lot. Plus you learn a lot from the tips and advice writers share in these things. I always ask authors to name three top marketing tips as we can all learn from that and no one writer can know them all.

460226249_10162248915762053_570811761049776159_nHope the weekend has gone well. Lovely autumnal weather here. I enjoy days like these. Lady does too. Pleasant, not too hot etc.

Many thanks for the lovely responses to my post the other day about my taking part in the Hiltingbury Book Fair. Much appreciated. More on the event nearer the time.

My author newsletter will be out again before you know it. If you’d like to sign up for news, tips, story links etc, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Writing Tip: Know your character. Know them well enough for whatever length of story you write. For flash, I need to know less than, say, a novelist would need to know but I still need to know enough. Above all, I do need to know what drives them and makes them tick. That underpins their attitudes and actions/reactions.

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Hope you have had a good start to your weekend. Not bad here. Got the lawn cut. Always looks good for it.

Am delighted to say I’ll be interviewing the lovely Ruth Leigh for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. My post, Catching Up with Ruth Leigh: The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge, goes out on Friday.
Since we last talked on CFT, Ruth has had two other books out (A Great Deal of Ingenuity and The Unexpected Book of Poetry) and we’ll be discussing how those came about, as well as celebrating Ruth’s new Isabella book. Isabella is one of those characters for whom it is true once you’ve met them you don’t forget them. That’s always a sign of a great character in my view. More to come nearer the time and I’m looking forward to sharing the interview.

And if you love author interviews, as I do, I’ll have another fabulous chat the week after, this time with Anita D Hunt where we’ll talk about her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain. Much to look forward to in both interviews.

Last but not least, I’m delighted to say I’ll be taking part in the Hiltingbury Book Fair again. The date is 19th October and I will share more news on this as and when I get it. It was a huge success last year and naturally everyone will hope it is again this time.

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Facebook – From Light To Dark and Back Again

Many thanks to all who have subscribed to my YouTube channel. I create flash fiction videos (using Book Brush for the video element and my imagination for the rest!) and usually put a new tale up every Monday. New subscribers are always welcome.

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It’s that day of the week again. The day Garfield the cat hates with a passion – Monday. I’ve not yet met anyone who is especially keen on it. By my reckoning, it’s time for a story then.

Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – First Trip Out. If there’s a moral to this one it is to be wary of Granny’s recipes especially when she can’t recall where she got them! But does my character, Bill, follow that advice? Umm… no. Find out what happens here.

 

One of the joys of being published with Chapeltown Books was having some input into the covers for From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic. All of the flash fiction books published by Chapeltown are square books (ideal for gifts!) but there is a central image to the front cover.

For my first book, I deliberately went for a ripples picture. I think this apt for flash fiction as a whole given flash infers so much and there are ripples coming out from the stories as a result. It is one of the aspects to flash I adore because I like to work things out when I am reading stories by other authors. I just need the right clues to be able to do that.

With flash, I don’t have a lot of time and space in which to plant said clues (often I only get to plant one but it is key as you would expect). Readers don’t get much time in which to work things out but I love the challenge of that myself when I am reading flash by other writers. It is a good challenge!

 

I’m going to be taking part in the Hiltingbury Book Fair again next month as I mentioned over on my author page. This time I’ve opted to give a short talk and a reading or two from my books as part of this event. I have found before demonstrating what flash fiction is by reading some out is a great way to encourage sales. Naturally I hope it will do that again this time!

There was a good range of authors and genres at last year’s event. I hope that will be the case again. Certainly I happily enjoyed representing the short story and flash fiction forms last time and am looking forward to doing so again.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Ghost Stories

Earlier this week, I was sorry to hear about the death of Kenneth Cope who famously played the role of the ghost detective, Marty Hopkirk, in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). It was known as My Partner The Ghost in the USA. It was a great series.

This led me to thinking about ghost stories generally. Now I know next month (October) would probably be a more appropriate time for this post but I would like this one to be a kind of tribute to a great show. It was quirky, it was different, and I loved it. I still love quirky and different stories and shows. I write quirky fiction too.

For me the ultimate ghost story does have to the classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. What I love most of all I think about this is the ghosts, while scary (especially the Ghost of Christmas Still To Come), have a positive role. They are on a redemption mission and I feel it is appropriate to be reminded of that at Christmas. As a Christian I see the link to the redemption story of Jesus whose birthday I celebrate then. But I like the fact the ghosts aren’t just there to scare. They do have something to do. The story wouldn’t work without them.

For any story to work well, the characters have to be believable. One way of doing that, of course, is to ensure they have every reason to be in the story and no reason NOT to be in it. Dickens does this brilliantly here. (I’d also argue the hardhearted Scrooge is far scarier than the ghosts by the way).

So, yes, even ghosts have to have a reason to be in a story and I like the fact it isn’t always about scaring people. Sometimes it is to help them. I’ve written the odd short story on this theme myself and loved doing so.

Screenshot 2024-09-14 at 17-55-23 Allison Symes's Blog - Ghost Stories - September 14 2024 09 55 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the June 2024 edition of the magazine which had poetry as its theme. My article here looked at The Links Between Poetry and Flash Fiction Writing.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Author Interview: Jennifer C Wilson – 31 Days of Writing

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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 few days. Dare I say it but summer does finally seem to have turned up in the UK. There have been some gloriously sunny days and Lady has been making the most of them with “puppy parties” with her friends. Writing wise, it’s a delight to welcome back Jennifer C Wilson to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her hot-off-the-presses book, 31 Days of Writing. If you like writing prompts, do check this one out.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

It is with great pleasure I welcome back Jennifer C Wilson to Chandler’s Ford Today on what, for her, is publication day, Her latest book, 31 Days of Writing, is out today (21st June 2024).

We discuss what inspired her to write the book, aspects of publishing (including via Amazon), favourite forms of writing prompt, and the joys of writing groups (in her case the North Tyneside Writers’ Circle which launched its first anthology last year and is planning to bring out a follow up volume).

So much to enjoy here and plenty of useful information for writers at all stages. Do enjoy and good luck with the book, Jennifer.

Author Interview: Jennifer C Wilson – 31 Days of Writing

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Hope you have had a good day. Gorgeous weather today. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler chum this morning before it became significantly hotter this afternoon. But it is good that summer seems to have turned up!

Do check out my interview with Jennifer C Wilson on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. As well as discussing her new book, 31 Days of Writing, she’ll be sharing many useful tips and thoughts on publishing. Well worth checking out. Link up tomorrow.

Writing Tip: Check out author interviews. They’re fun. You learn a lot from them. Sometimes you can learn what not to do – that can be more useful than you might think. But do look at how the authors have approached answering the questions they’ve been set.

Where relevant to your work, figure out how you would answer these questions had they been put to you. Draft some notes. See it as practice material for working out just what you will say about your books and stories. I’ve found this so useful.

 

Glorious sunshine today. Lady had a fabulous puppy party with her Hungarian Vizler, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Labradoodle pals and with a lovely Toller (Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever) called Charlie. Wonderful time had by all. Lady has a lovely habit of looking up at me as we walk home with her “happy shiny eyes” expression. She was beaming today!

Don’t forget I’ll be talking with Jennifer C Wilson, author of the Kindred Spirits series and much more besides, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.  We’ll be discussing her latest book, 31 Days of Writing, which is sure to prove useful to many writers. Looking forward to sharing that. (More author interviews to come too, more nearer the time). See above.

I use a mixture of writing prompts because they all make for interesting challenges. I use books of prompts (and have contributed to some) and will be interested to find out what Jennifer has come up with in her latest.

I also use story cubes, the various random generators, picture prompts (and sometimes use my own photos here) and all sorts. I like to think all of this keeps me on my writing toes. That’s never a bad thing! Up the game and all that…!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s time for flash fiction. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Break The Ice. We all know families like this one who won’t let a loved one live something down – check out what this is here.

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How about a flash fiction story in four lines plus title tonight? Up for that? Good. Here goes then..

Cookie Crisis
The mystery of how the cookie jar was now empty when, less than an hour ago, it had been full was only resolved at midnight.
Fiona heard the sounds coming from her kitchen and crept downstairs to see the culprit raiding the restocked jar.
It was news to Fiona the Tooth Fairy fancied biscuits on her nightly rounds.
It came as a shock to Fiona the Tooth Fairy was capable of vanishing quicker than her cookies.

Ends
Allison Symes – 20th June 2024

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Although my main flash fiction work is at the 100 words mark, I do regularly write at lower and higher word counts than that. Some of these I save for presentations, future collections, possible competition entries etc.

I like to write across the range because I get the benefits of writing tightly (especially at 50 words or fewer) but for the 500+ word categories, I can give more detail, show more of the character(s), all still without having anything irrelevant to the story in it.

There are many flash competitions out there and from observation I would say the 100, 300 and 500 words or fewer categories are the ones I come across most often. So if you wanted to focus on any of the flash categories, I would go for those.

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Fairytales with Bite – Magical History

What value/importance does your setting place on its history, magical or otherwise? Are what we see as classic fairytales seen as real history to the characters in your setting or have they been subverted in any way (see Shrek for more on that!)?

When it comes to the history of magic in your setting, who wrote the records? Are they accurate? Do they show how magic has developed as a power source in your setting and who wields it, past and present? Was magic always present in your world (literally in the atmosphere) or has it only come to your setting by the folk who settled there? You could also think about what drew them to your setting in the first place.

Are there historical places people visit? Is history treasured or ignored? What history in your setting has been repeated over the years and could those repetitions have been avoided? What impact does your world’s history have on your characters and their stories?

We know how we can be shaped by our personal histories, our nations’ histories etc so why not take that thought and apply it to your creations? What does history mean to them and why? What would happen if someone came along to challenge their long held views? Now that would be a good source of conflict for a story or two.

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This World and Others – The Past Influencing the Future

Henry Ford is supposed to have said “history is more or less bunk”. No, Mr Ford, your view on history is more or less bunk.

While true, history is written by the winners, there is usually at least some evidence to back that history up. You normally can see why the history has been written down the way it has been.

I’m a fan of Richard III and believe he is a much maligned man. There is some (and increasing evidence) on that point. But you can see why and how Richard III has been cast as the everlasting villain. Shakespeare had a role in that!

Everyone is influenced by their own histories then, the histories of their families, their countries etc. There is no getting away from the fact the past does influence the future. For one thing, it definitely influences politics!

Now how can you make use of that thought for your characters? What from their past has influenced them? Are they trying to escape their past and are they successful?

If you have time travelling characters, what in their past is fixed and they can’t change it no matter how much they might want to do so? What would be the consequences for anyone who did try to change fixed points in time? (I think there would have to be some fixed points, otherwise your characters would get to change everything, nothing would be fixed, chaos would result).

On a more general scale, how has your setting progressed? Has it learned from its past and are things improving for your characters as a result? Or are the powers that be trying to keep things always the same, everyone in their places etc because that is how things have always been done?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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New Year, New Writing Format for Val Penny

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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. 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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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