Tag: Local Author News – Allison Symes

Crossing Fiction and Non-Fiction

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Image Credit:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.

Many thanks to Wendy H Jones and Gill James/Bridge House Publishing for book cover images as part of my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Images of me signing my contract re my contribution to a non-fiction book were taken by Adrian Symes. It is SO helpful having a significant other who can take photos like that for me! Not that easy to do it yourself.

Has been a hot week here in Hampshire. Have appreciated my swims this week. For once, the water felt refreshing rather than perishing cold!

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Local Author News – Allison Symes – Crossing Fiction and Non-Fiction as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. I take the chance to give an update on what has happened/is about to happen with my fiction and non-fiction writing.

This includes two books and writing for an American online magazine. So there has been lots going on over the last few months! And more Zoom talks have taken place, with another one due at the end of the month. I’ll also have further news to share later on in the year and am looking forward to being able to do that.

Mind you, I am looking forward to going back to the local theatre company next week and being able to review their shows for CFT again. Have so missed seeing The Chameleons in action on the stage, Their productions are wonderfully done.

Local Author News – Allison Symes – Crossing Fiction and Non-Fiction

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Another hot day. Another day of Lady taking it easy and cool.

Will be sharing what’s going on in my writing world this summer with my local author news post for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Writing for CFT has taught me so much.

  1. Writing to a deadline.
  2. Writing to a word count. (Up to 1500, as my posts are articles rather than blogs as such, here).
  3. Working out questions for other authors so the interview ends up being an enlightening conversation full of useful tips and advice for other writers.
  4. Coming up with ideas week by week.
  5. Thinking laterally where I need to for both article ideas and suitable Pixabay photos to illustrate my posts.
  6. Discovering what’s going on in my local area with things like The Chameleon Theatre Group and learning to produce reviews with interesting background information on the play being performed, its author(s), and often both.
  7. Working out what would be a good non-fiction story to write up for CFT.
  8. My responding to comments and engaging with readers has come on a lot since writing for CFT!
  9. Thinking about my target audience here and actively engaging with articles designed to entertain them (with the odd local news author post about me for a little publicity for yours truly).
  10. Learning to plan ahead, schedule my posts, and where possible write things in advance so I know I have post all ready at least a week ahead.

So a huge thanks to CFT editor, #JanetWilliams, for having the vision behind the website. The idea was to bring Chandler’s Ford people together and it has but it has gone beyond that. There is a reasonably sized writing community in and around our area so the magazine has been able to engage with that audience too. And I have had the odd gig from it – the Hursley Park Book Fair a couple of years ago where I met #HelenMatthews, whom I recently interviewed, and also getting to take part in other local book fairs. Will be so nice to have those back again but watch this space as they say.

Always nice to have a lovely contract to sign
Image of me signing my contract re my contribution to Wendy’s book taken by Adrian Symes


Another sweltering day here in Hampshire but Lady and I are managing to keep our cool.

Just to say the paperback of Tripping the Flash Fantastic is currently on offer on Amazon. To find out more head here – http://mybook.to/TrippingFlashFantastic

Looking forward to seeing The Chameleon Theatre Group back on stage for the first time in well over 15 months in just over a week’s time. Review to come in due course for Chandler’s Ford Today but I do like reviewing their shows. Over a year, there is a varied programme and every show makes for a wonderful evening’s entertainment. Good to see some normality back.

Chapeltown Books - consistency matters

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again


I was chatting on here yesterday (see below) about titles being the first hook for the reader. The important thing is to make sure your fabulous title isn’t the only one. The story has to live up to the promise of its title for a start (otherwise you won’t get repeat readers).

So what you are also after then are an intriguing character, a cracking opening line ensuring your reader simply has to read on, and a satisfactory ending. The ending must suit the character and type of story. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a happy ending.

See what you make of my ending to my latest story on #Friday Flash Fiction called Missing. Is it happy?


Screenshot 2021-07-23 at 17-16-56 Missing, by Allison Symes

It was great talking to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group last night, all thanks to the wonders of Zoom. I took the topic of titles for this month’s meeting and looked at different ideas for finding inspiration for these.

Titles can do a lot of “heavy lifting” in flash as they can indicate mood and genre without you having to spell things out in the story itself. So it is well worth getting these right. I often find I come up with better title ideas as I write my tale though I need something as a marker or peg to get me started.

And from a writer’s viewpoint, the title is the first hook for your reader. You want to hook them right there.

 

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Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting online tonight. It is always a joy to talk about flash.

Once you get over the idea of the restricted word count, you find there is more flexibility with the form than you might think. Not only can you write across genres, there is the possibility of writing your stories as poetic tales, acrostics, in diary format – all sorts of things as long as you don’t cross 1000 words. All great fun to do too.

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Fairytales with Bite – Animal Transformations

Animal transformations often crop up in fairytales but usually because some arrogant so-and-so has annoyed a powerful wizard, fairy godmother, or witch in disguise and have paid the price for doing so. See Beauty and the Beast for more on that!

But what could your magical beings do if they could change into animals? What would they choose to turn into and why?

Is there a price to pay for being able to transform like this? One idea there would be to have the transformation weaken them in some way so they would think twice about using the skill. You could then force your character into working out when they should use it and what other ways they could use to get them out of a situation where the animal transformation might have been useful but is not worth doing because it costs them dearly.

And is there resentment from those who can’t do animal transformations against those who can? What kind of conflict could that lead to?

I suppose if I could transform I would want to be able to fly so I’d probably look at becoming a bird. (I know I wouldn’t want to become an insect – far too much risk of being eaten!).

 

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This World and Others – What Makes Your World Stand Out?

What makes your fictional world something you want to write up? What would its appeal be to a reader? What would they identify with? What would they find strange (or at least strange compared to life here on Earth which in itself can be strange at times!).

Is it the setting that grabs your attention or the characters? What can you do with the characters in your setting that you could not do if they were based here?

Asking questions is a great way of working out a rough template for your creation and to iron out any issues early on. It pays you to work out what you need to know and, as you write your first draft, jot down things you discover you might need to research later. For example, if your created world does not have water, what could your inhabitants drink instead?

And especially if you’re thinking of a series of books, it would pay to keep a “biography” of your world so you have to hand what you need to know when you draft Book 2, Book 27 etc.

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Talks, Flash, and the Character -v- Plot Debate

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Image Credit:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Images of Lady, of CafeLit 10 books, and my stories in it, and screenshots all taken by me, Allison Symes.

Summer weather, a mini heatwave, finally here in the UK. The dog and I are busy keeping cool.

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Facebook – General

Many thanks to the lovely people at #DundeeCityWriters for making me so welcome at last night’s Zoom talk. I spoke about short story writing as opposed to flash fiction this time. All great fun.

Looking forward to sharing my Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday. It’s a local author news post this time about yours truly where I give an update on what has been happening/is going to happen over the summer for me. And I am glad to share news on both the fiction and non-fiction fronts for the first time here as well.

Lady, you’ll be glad to know, is keeping well and as cool as possible. She’s generally as daft as the proverbial brush but not when it comes to weather like this heatwave a lot of us in the UK are experiencing right now. (I know, it’s July, it is to be expected, but I have no way of telling the dog this!). She drinks plenty, stays in the shade, and enjoys gentler exercise sessions away from the main heat. She can go back to her usual athletic running about when the weather cools. And it will.

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Pleased to be speaking later tonight to the #DundeeCityWriters. Zoom is a wonderful thing!

Great to see so many lovely comments coming in on my #FridayFlashFiction story, The Unpaid Shift. Many thanks, all.

Working away also on my author newsletter. That will come out on 1st August. I share news, tips, writing prompts, and exclusive flash stories here amongst other things. If that sounds of interest, head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com where you can sign up.

And if you head over to my From LIght to Dark and Back Again Facebook page shortly, you will find my latest YouTube video as well. See below!

(Lady keeping cool and drinking well. I’m drinking well but do feel as if I’m melting right now. But at least it is the kind of weather you expect for July!).

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Facebook – General – and Authors Electric

Pleased to share my post on Authors Electric this month. I talk about character -v- plot (and many thanks for the great comments which have come in so far).

I also look at a character I don’t care for much in this post even though I love the author. Mind you, this kind of thing is useful for me as I think about my characters. I do look at what I love and loathe about characters produced by other writers and I can learn so much from that. If a character is dire, I can examine why that is and try to avoid doing this for my own creations.

I also look at how a character makes me react and discuss series novels where a character can develop over time. I also name my favourite example of the latter as my top pick is a masterclass in how a character can develop over several books.

Screenshot 2021-07-20 at 19-35-10 Character -v- Plot by Allison Symes

 

Hope you have had a good day. A huge thanks for the wonderful comments on my The Unpaid Shift currently on #FridayFlashFiction. So enjoying writing the drabbles again. If you missed it, see the link.

Looking forward to sharing my Chandler’s Ford Today post next week which will be a Local Author News one from me where I have exciting updates to share.

Am also looking forward to sharing great author interviews later on in the summer. So plenty going on here.

But more immediately, I am looking forward to sharing my Authors Electric post tomorrow. This time I’m writing about the character -v- plot debate. Give some thought as to where you stand on that one and maybe pop a comment up when I share the post link tomorrow. See above.

Screenshot 2021-07-16 at 18-47-03 The Unpaid Shift, by Allison Symes

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Thanks for the lovely response to Self Defence, my latest YouTube video. These are great fun to write and produce. And they are a great way to use the mini-flash tales which are only a sentence or two. See below for video.

I was giving a Zoom talk to #DundeeCityWriters last night about short story writing but many of the techniques I use for flash I can and do use for the longer tales. For example, I have to have a rough template of what I am going to write and then off I go.

The main difference for a short story (anything over 1000 words) is I need to have some rough pointers for what happens in the central part of the tale so I avoid the dreaded saggy middle! (Not wanted in cakes. Not wanted in stories either!).

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Hope you enjoy my latest YouTube story video. It appears self defence can, in the right circumstances, apply to inanimate objects.


Thanks for the great response to my post yesterday about writing more in the first person for flash. I hadn’t anticipated doing this earlier in my writing career. I’m not sorry about the development as it had been a kind of writing I’d gone out of my way to avoid. Why?

Because all I could see were the limitations of it. You can only see through that one character’s eyes. Everything the character sees, hears, or could be reasonably expected to know is what you have to play with.

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What I hadn’t seen immediately was that kind of framework Is useful for stopping me head-hopping and in making me focus on the lead character. I can’t go off at a tangent here. That in turn encourages creativity as I work out what the lead character can see, hear, be reasonably expected to know etc.

I’ve also come to love the immediacy of the first person narrator.

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I’m writing more in the first person with my flash stories as it is a very easy way to “hit the ground running” with my character. I can literally take you right inside the “I” character’s head and show you their thoughts, actions, and reactions. I can’t “head-hop” either as I have to focus on just that one character.

But when I do have more than one character in a story (usually one of my 500+ word tales), I do work out who the lead character is and who the support will be. I still have to know whose story it is and why and what the role of the support will be. (Of course the support may do anything but support the main character but that’s fine. I just need a defined sense of who does what and why).

Goodreads Author Blog – Annuals

Did you use to get annuals when you were younger? Do you still get them?

I am fond of The Friendship Book (D.C. Thomson – those wonderful Dundee based publishers have produced this for decades). This is one of those books that is always on the present list at a certain time of year I won’t mention yet because we’re still in the summer. I refuse to think of the C word until the autumn at the earliest (and just wish the shops would do the same).

When my family was younger, they loved The Beano annual, and when we could get it, The Bash Street Kids one. They weren’t the only ones to read them either! I still have a soft spot for Minnie the Minx in particular. For anyone who might not know, The Beano is veritable institution amongst comics and again produced by D.C. Thomson and again going back decades. I think I’m right in saying it is well over 50 years old.

I’ve got no time for snobbery around comics, comic books, annuals etc. The important point here is they do get people reading (and the hope is of course they go on to read books with a higher text content later. My family did. What matters is getting that love of reading to develop and annuals and comics can be a great place to start).

I still like comics like The Beano. The world they take you into generally makes you laugh. And I count comics as much a part of the reading life as books.

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