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.
Firstly, I hope you have a very happy and peaceful New Year. I slept through it – I was very happy! Writing and editing work has recommenced now but it is a joy to get back to it again. Secondly and most importantly, Lady had a fabulous Christmas and is enjoying seeing her friends again.
Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today
I don’t know about you but it really doesn’t feel like a Friday. Still, Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler friend again today and a lovely time was had by all.
What has helped me accept it really is a Friday is it is time for my first Chandler’s Ford Today post of 2026 – Winter Stories.
I share some of what I think count as winter stories, the importance of appreciating reading, and look at stories about stories, including how they can inspire further stories themselves. I also see stories as a link to the past and to the future.
I hope you enjoy the post – it’s a gentle start to a new writing year.
Winter Stories
Happy New Year! Lady was pleased to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today and I was pleased it was less cold than yesterday so we both came home feeling we had gained something!
It’s good to be back to the old writing routine again, having had a wonderful break (and a calorific one at that!). Glad to say my author newsletter went out earlier today and I will be back on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow with my first post for 2026 on Winter Stories. See above.
Am on both sides of the editing fence at the same time again at the moment. Loving this. The last time this happened for me was back in 2020, the year we all prefer to forget, when I was working on Tripping The Flash Fantastic. Seems a world away now but am so looking forward to Seeing The Other Side coming out this year.
Hope you have had a good day. Lady caught up with her two best buddies, the Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler. We kept the dogs moving. It was far too cold to keep still! Lots of fog too – didn’t really lift. Still, this is one thing I love about writing. It is an activity best done in the warm! Will be listening to Classic FM’s Pet Classics this evening too. (New Year’s Eve). I think it helps the dog but I know for sure the calming music does do wonders for me!
Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Winter Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. My next author newsletter is good to go for tomorrow, 1st January, and talking of which, I’ll finish by wishing you all a very Happy New Year.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
It’s sad to start the New Year with no more Friday Flash Fiction (see screenshot) but it was wonderful getting back into the world of writing drabbles with them for the last couple of years.
I do hope to share 100 word stories of mine every so often here. And to start, here was one I was going to submit to FFF in early 2026, having written it in December 2025. It does fit in with pantomime season though – oh yes it does!
Hope you enjoy Following.
Following by Allison Symes
‘Which way now? This old map isn’t clear enough. I knew we should have bought an updated one. See, here, the print is all smudged, Hans.’
‘Shall we toss a coin?’
‘Is that all you can come up with, Hans? Didn’t you learn something from last time?’
‘Yes. I learned not to rely on using a trail of breadcrumbs because the birds will eat them. Come on, let’s just go left. It’s the wider path. It looks less overgrown.’
‘Okay but if we come across a gingerbread house again, we are turning and running away immediately, right, Hans?’
‘Right, Gretel.’Ends
Allison Symes – 21st December 2025
Happy New Year! Had a lovely informal meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group just before Christmas. Our next meeting will be towards the end of the month. Already looking forward to that one plus ACW members have the chance to meet up online later in the month too so I’ve signed up for that one.
Zoom can and does bring people together when in person gatherings aren’t feasible. It’s also a great tool for helping with flash fiction writing in that I use it to record stories I intend to “perform” or send in for potential broadcast. It gives me a way of hearing how I come across and it confirms my timings. All useful stuff.
Hope to start looking for potential flash and short story competitions in a week or so. Looking forward to submitting stories again. You have to be in it to have any chance of winning it after all.
The turn of the old year into a new one is one of those points in time we all remember. But you can use the thought of points of time as something your characters have to deal with.
What moment in time would be a pivotal point for your character and why? It doesn’t have to tie in with the calendar after all. It could be an anniversary date (pleasant or otherwise) and much more. It could also be a driver for what your character does next and naturally there would be consequences from that.
Happy New (writing) Year!
Fairytales with Bite – New Beginnings
I write this on 31st December 2025 with the New Year only a few hours away so I suppose it is a natural time to be thinking about new beginnings. What would make your characters decide they need a new beginning? Would they use a New Year (or equivalent in your setting) to decide this or are they forced to make a new start and how did they get into that position at all?
Does the new beginning live up to its promise? What makes the character change to make the new beginning mean something to them? What do they have to change? Is anyone or anything getting in the way of your character having a successful new beginning? Or is your character made to face up to the need to have a new beginning by another character and what makes them go along with this?
Do you have characters who always make new beginnings but they never seem to work out? Could a friendly fairy godmother help with this and finally help them get the breakthrough they’ve been seeking?
Definitely story ideas there! Happy writing.
This World and Others – Letting The Old Go
New Year’s Eve is an obvious time to let things go. You don’t have the choice. The old year goes, the new one comes in. But what would your characters really not want to let go of, even if they should do so? I have sympathy here. I never want to let go of chocolate even though, strictly speaking, it is something I don’t need to be able to survive.
All successful stories pivot on a moment of change. The character has to change in some way or do something different – the story has to move forward so it can work.
Letting things go, especially those with great meaning to the character, can be a useful symbol showing your character being ready to move on as they let go of anything they feel is holding them back. This can, of course, include other characters, who may or may not be happy about this but what you definitely have here is a story. The conflict here has to be resolved in some way and that can include the first character moving on regardless.
Give some thought as to what your characters wouldn’t like to let go off too and make them face the possibility of having to do so. What would they do? How would they react?
Story ideas there for sure!
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— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 2, 2026
It's time for my first 2026 CFT post – Winter Stories. I share what I think are winter stories, discuss appreciating reading, and look at how tales can inspire further stories. Hope you enjoy the post, a gentle start to a new writing year.
Lovely church service, had some rain though Lady and I managed to miss most of it. 
Hope your weekend is going well. Have been out in the garden. Nice to have lunch out there with the other half and the dog. Don’t do this nearly often enough. Delighted the camellia at the front which I pruned back is out in full bloom and looking marvellous (and better than before for having had that prune, much like my stories are so much better when I’ve given them a decent editing!). 
It’s Monday again. Time for a story from me. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Timing.
What makes for a great flash fiction story? For me, the answer to that is when you have read a flash piece where you feel not one word could be added to it. You also feel not one word could be taken away. And that can happen at ten words, fifty, 100 etc.
Allison Symes: Collected Works 