Tag: New Year New Books New Authors

Happy New Year!

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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.
Happy New Year! Hope it includes lots of lovely reading/writing. I’d like to find authors new to me this year as well as get more things published and have a go at more flash fiction competitions. Not exactly New Year resolutions but good things to aim for. (Lady loved Christmas by the way and, yes, Santa Paws did visit).

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Lady and I got a good soaking so I guess we have got back into routine well enough! Mind you, I did manage to have a far more pleasant soaking when I went swimming today. Now I’d like to say dry for the rest of the day – not a big ask I think!

Good to resume submitting flash pieces to Friday Flash Fiction.

Have got a couple of other pieces drafted for potential competitions so am pleased with that (though I will ‘fess up and say one of them is a draft based on one of my Flash NANO 2023 stories. Having said that, this is the whole idea of Flash NANO – to prepare work at the time and then edit and submit it somewhere at a time of my choosing!

I’ll be looking at The Joys of Writing Dialogue for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.

1st January 2024 – New Year’s Day

Happy New Year! Happy new writing/reading year too.

Author newsletter went out earlier today. One good thing about January being such a long month is I have plenty of time to think about the next one! I will be doing something a bit different for the February edition, more details much later on in the month.

Was pleased with efforts at the writing desk over the weekend – short story drafted, blog posts drafted – feels good to be back in the saddle again.

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Do you review your writing year on New Year’s Eve? I do look to have had work published during the year, made progress (running more workshops is a good example of that), and got on with my longer term project. Am pleased I have made good progress on all three of these things. As for the coming year, would like more of the same and even more stories out there.

Glad to see my author newsletter is growing steadily. Next one will be out tomorrow, New Year’s Day. (The 1st is a handy date to remember!). If you’d like to sign up for tips, news, story links etc, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I enjoy various newsletters from other writers too. We learn and inspire from one another. That’s one aspect to the writing life/community I adore. Let’s hope for more of that in 2024 for us all! It is such a pity you can’t store inspiration for those times when we flag a bit. It would be lovely to drag that store of inspiration out for those times.

Mind you, I do go with the P.G. Wodehouse principle of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair regularly. It gets my brain into “it’s writing time then” mode and I find that useful. I also find it helpful to just free write sometimes. I inevitably won’t ever do anything with those pieces of writing but they can be excellent warm up writing exercises.

Newsletter advertHope you have had a good day. I must admit it doesn’t feel like the weekend. I couldn’t tell you what day of the week it does feel like though!

I’ll be looking at The Joys of Writing Dialogue for Chandler’s Ford Today as my first post there for 2024. Link up on Friday. You’ll get to find out what conversational ping-pong has to do with it too.

Looking forward to resuming what I know as flash fiction writing day (aka Sunday afternoon). Do have longer short stories to draft for later on in the year but this time of year is great for brewing ideas and then going with the ones I like best.

Am slowly getting back to my writing routine and am adoring my Christmas books.

What do I hope for in 2024 writing wise? Hmm… well would love to have more stories published but this is an ongoing wish. One good thing about that one is there is no use by date on it! Would like to do more workshops etc. Looking forward to usual writing events.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day. I’ve spent a lot of It getting wet (walking with the dog – unavoidable – and then swimming, which was fine!).

Have spotted a flash competition I want to have a go at, which I’ve not tried before. I do want to enter more new competitions this year so see this as a promising start. Deadline is mid-February. Am also drafting a longer short story for submission elsewhere. So getting off to a good start!

I love mixing my story moods when writing flash (which is how From Light to Dark and Back Again got its title). Flash encourages focus on the character(s) and I can set them wherever and whenever I want to – and I do.

Writing Prompt: Take any well known proverb and see if you can write (1) a sad story based on it and (2) a funny one based on it. Proverbs are great sources for themes and most themes can be taken in more than one direction.

Sayings and proverbs used as themes can show us timeless truths

1st January 2024 – New Year’s Day

Happy New Year! It’s Monday, it’s dark, it’s chucking it down with rain where I am, it’s still Monday but it is the start of a brand new year. Definitely calls for a story and what else could my latest on YouTube be called but Happy New Year! Hope you enjoy (and find out if Mary is too late for a late romance after all).

The days of my staying up to see the New Year in ended when I realised I really do appreciate my sleep more! And, funnily enough, after a great writing session, I usually do feel shattered. Time to wind down with a good book then before snoozing. It is lovely to switch from writing stories to reading them. It is such a lovely way to relax.

Sunday afternoon is usually when I get a fair bit of flash written (or I’m drafting a longer short story for a competition). I don’t tend to measure my writing output by word count which may seem odd for me to say given flash focuses on a limited word count.

What I look to have achieved by the end of a writing session is to focus on what have I got done. Have I completed a draft? Have I edited a draft? Am I working out ideas for future blog posts etc? As long as I can think yes, got this done, got that done, or am well on my way to getting it done (for longer works) then I’m happy. I take the view the word counts will mount up as I press on.

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It doesn’t really feel like almost the end of another year to me. This odd time between Christmas and New Year almost feels unreal. But it is lovely getting back to the writing again. Will be back on with my flash fiction writing tomorrow afternoon I hope as I often do use Sunday afternoons to get a fair bit done here.

Do have an interim goal of trying to get more flash submitted to more places this year (and I suspect my drafts for Flash NANO 2023 may well prove handy here!).

Talking of the passing of time, what do your characters make of it? Do you ever use Time as a character?

I’ve used the phrase Time Waits For No Man as a title (in fact, I’ve used it twice but the stories are totally different. The title was apt for each story though!). And in my The Pink Rose I use time as a thread throughout the story as we see one character go through something witnessed by her daughter. The latter also fears time given what she has witnessed.

So maybe this is a good time to think about using time in our stories then.

Goodreads Author Blog – New Year, New Books, New Authors

Well, this had to be the topic for my final Goodreads post for 2023. I’ve had a great reading (and writing) year. Hope you have too. Delighted with my Christmas book presents.

Am reading three of them together – as you do. They’re a great mix too – one is crime, one is history non-fiction, and the other is biography (the late great Terry Pratchett’s A Life In Footnotes). Loving all three books so far. Hope to review later.

So for the new year, what would I like which is book related?

Naturally, I would like to discover authors new to me this year. I often find going to writing events is a fabulous way to do this. I also like using the Kindle to try out authors new to me. If I like what I’ve read, I may well then go on to buy other books from that author in paperback.

Naturally also, I will be on the look out for new books by authors I already love reading. On a personal note, I’m keeping my fingers crossed my own third book will be out in 2024 but will keep you posted on that one.

I do hope 2024 gives us all plenty of excellent reading material. To fellow writers out there, may your pens/laptops etc be blessed by inspiration! We always need stories.

Happy New (Reading and Writing) Year!

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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New – and Looking Forward

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Book cover images from Chapeltown Books, Bridge House Publishing, and Wendy H.Jones.
Welcome to 2022! Hope you enjoyed the Christmas and New Year break. I did but am pleased to be back in the writing “saddle” once again. Oh and it was a real pleasure to include a certain YouTube clip below to tie in with one of my posts. Think Hebrides…

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Bitterly cold today, not that Lady minded. Good to get back to swimming today after a Christmas break. You can always tell when it is really cold outside because it is the only time the water in the pool feels remotely warm! I’m sure they keep it at the temperature they do to ensure you get swimming quickly – it works!

Will be subbing a piece to Friday Flash Fiction shortly now that submissions are open again. Good to get back to that. Am thinking up ideas for a longer short story I want to do. The old brain is ticking over nicely!

Many thanks also for the views so far on my first YouTube video of the year. Appropriately the story is called New. Possibly I should create something for the end of the year so I can call that Old!

 

It has been a Bank Holiday today (and I believe the Scots have another one tomorrow – enjoy!). I find these days feel a bit surreal.

I get on with my usual bits and pieces so I can get them out of the way so I can then settle down to do what I really want to do – write – but the world outside my door is a lot quieter than it often is and it all feels a little odd. And I know I shall “feel” as if I am a day “out” all week! Ho hum… Mind you, I am looking forward to resuming swimming tomorrow after a break for Christmas. Could do with it too!

Christmas was very enjoyable! (Lady gets a bit confused too – she will wonder where my family are tomorrow- there is no way you can explain holidays to a dog).

Now writing wise this week, my Chandler’s Ford Today post will be called J is for January. I look at the positive and negative aspects and share some interesting “national days” associated with the month. Link up on Friday.

I’m back to creating my YouTube videos again and I will be sharing my latest one over on my book page (From Light to Dark and Back Again) shortly. Also see above!

Feels good to be back in the writing “saddle” again.

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What are you looking forward to most this year in terms of writing and/or books you want to read? I want to keep going with the blogging, get my third flash fiction book submitted, and try and submit a book proposal for the non-fiction project I’m working on.

I want to have another crack at the Bridport Prize flash fiction category later on in the year too. As mentioned yesterday, I hope to get to Swanwick in August and I hope there will be other writing days throughout the year. I’m also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Golden Jubilee weekend at the beginning of June.

Reading wise, I want to bring my To Be Read piles down (and the one on my Kindle as well) significantly though I am making good progress here. (My main problem with reading is I tend to read in bed and when I am too tired, the reading gets put on standby for a bit. This is something I try to avoid as much as possible).

And I’d like to be published and published again and published again etc etc!

Better get my head down and get on with some writing then!

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1st January 2022 – New Year’s Day

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you have had a good start to the new year. Am looking forward to various writing events including the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School in August and getting out and about to day events again. It was nice to be able to start to do that again in 2021.

And the January edition of Mom’s Favorite Reads is now out – see link. My theme for the flash fiction column this month is New, an apt topic for this time of year.

You can take the topic in various directions – new beginnings for a character, a character having to face up to being forced to do something new and how they handle that, a character picking up an object new to them and how that changes them.

I also share a flash fiction tale of mine which involves a character having to get new furniture in thanks to the antics of a greedy golden-haired child – for more see the link.


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Hope it has been a good first day back to “normal” where that applies. (So much depends on what you define as normal too!). I’ve mentioned before that I listen to classical music when writing and have just finished listening to The Hebrides Overture on Classic FM. It is my favourite Mendelssohn piece. Why? Because it really does conjure up images of that fantastically beautiful part of the world via music. Amazing work.

When writing flash fiction pieces, I do give careful thought as to the images I want to “plant” in the readers’ minds. If I’ve decided to write a humorous piece, I will think about how and where the laughs or smiles will come and then work out what images of my characters in action could lead to that. (I don’t always aim for outright laughter here. A story that makes someone smile is equally good. I remember those that make me smile and I know they always lift my mood).

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Nice to get back to creating the YouTube videos again after a brief Christmas break. Hope you enjoy the latest one called New.  And the Mendelssohn clip above may be “old” music but it is still pretty wonderful. In with the New AND in with the Old!


My column in Mom’s Favorite Reads this month talks about New. I set a different challenge this time too. As well as inviting fiction pieces in on my theme, I have also opened it up to include flash non-fiction pieces on the same topic of up to 300 words. And if you want to check out the magazine, do see the link. Also see the Facebook link below.

It is great fun choosing a topic and writing an article around it. I like themes which are open to interpretation. It gives writers more to work with. I think you’re more likely to come up with something unique too.

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1st January – New Year’s Day

Happy New Year, everyone. This time of year reminds me of a pivot because this is the point where many of us take time out to consider change etc. It’s what New Year resolutions are for after all. Flash fiction by its nature has to have one pivot which changes the character and the course they are on, though it can come right at the end of the story and be a twist ending.

Equally you can set the character what seems like an impossible challenge they have to meet right at the start of the story. That’s the pivot, the point of change, which must come in any length of story. And both types of pivot are great fun to write up! Hope you have a fabulous writing and reading New Year.

Goodreads Author Blog – New Year, New Books, New Authors?

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you received lots of lovely books for Christmas. Am currently working my way through the latest Richard Osman one and a couple of flash fiction collections, and am loving them all. The To Be Read pile shows no sign of going down much though I think that is how it should be!

So with a new year ahead of us are there new books you’re looking forward to? Are there new authors you discovered in 2021 whose works you really enjoyed? A new year gives us the chance to try new books and writers new to us and I hope to do plenty of that over the next twelve months.

I like to mix up classic and contemporary reading and going to book events, whether I take part in them myself or not, gives me plenty of opportunity to boost my contemporary To Be Read pile!

What matters is enjoying plenty of stories. And I must admit I have finally got to watch the latest Bond film No Time to Die. I thought the storyline there was excellent. However you take your stories “in”, whether you read them, watch them, listen to them, or do a mixture, as long as the tale grips you, you are on to a winner. And I was gripped by this one. As ever with any great story, the characters make it work. They are the story.

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