Tag: online book launch

Springtime in Words and Music

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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. Many thanks to Janet Williams (my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today) for taking the photos of me at a local Book Fair. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Have had a lovely time on Zoom this week at an online book launch from a fellow ACW member and then on the next night I followed on with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. Lady has had a smashing week too in that she has seen plenty of her friends.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Lovely day in the park though Lady had to put up with just me today. Having said that, we both had a lovely time.

Pleased to share Springtime in Words and Music as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. I discuss books I associate with the season (well some of them anyway) and share some thoughts as to how we could use spring as a season in our writing. Plus there are some lovely music clips courtesy of YouTube.

Hope you enjoy the post. Thought it would be a nice one to wind down a working week with and the writing thoughts I hope “spring” story ideas off in you!

Springtime in Words and Music

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Will be sharing Springtime in Words and Music on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Link up then (see above) but in the meantime if you fancy a fantastic read (and why wouldn’t you?), why not check out the April 2025 edition of Writers’ Narrative, which came out today (27th March 2025).

The theme is Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, a theme I love as many of my flash tales are fantasy related. And yes it is possible to write fantasy in the shorter forms of fiction. My two articles in this month’s magazine are Flash Fiction Fantasy and Writing Fantasy in Short Forms of Fiction.

Do check out the wide range of articles in here which look at all aspects for writing in these genres.

 

Hope you have had a good day. Lady had a fabulous puppy party this morning with her best friends the Hungarian Vizler, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, and the lovely Labradoodle. Some very tired but happy dogs went home again!

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom this evening. We’ll be looking at editing flash fiction, always a useful topic.

Enjoyed going to an online book launch by a fellow ACW member last night.

Will be celebrating Springtime in Words and Music for Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up on Friday. Pieces like this are always a joy to write. See above. It was a pleasure to write this one. Need more positive things right now, yes?

Has been a nice week so far. Hope to look at competitions again at the weekend as I am actively trying to submit more flash pieces to more competitions this year. Not doing badly so far.

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Something a bit different this week. Friday Flash Fiction are currently running the Andrew Siderius competition. Last week I submitted my 100 word entry. This week I use the other theme in the 151 to 500 words category as you can only enter one story in each category and only use one of the two themes for each tale you send in. It is about the only time of year when I do enter longer stories for FFF.

Hope you enjoy my It Was There (which comes in at just over 300 words).

As ever do check out the other tales, the 100 words and the longer ones, on this site. Makes for a great read!

Pleased to report I have two articles in the latest edition of Writers Narrative. (April issue out today – see my author page for the link – see above). One of those articles looks at Flash Fiction Fantasy and I often do write flash pieces on a fantasy theme. It can be done!

I know when you think of fantasy it is easy just to think along the lines of a three part epic (The Lord of the Rings, anyone?!) but I often write fairytales with bite which come in at well under 1000 words so it can be done.

What I do is select the relevant telling details to flag up this a fantasy piece and I often do this via the characters. For example, I will often show you a fairy godmother at work so that flags up immediately this has to be a fairytale/fantasy piece. I can show a spell being cast or someone being on the receiving end of that spell and again it flags up this has to be a fantasy piece.

So if you like fantasy but want to write the short form, you can do it and have a lot of fun with this. I do.

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There is more to editing flash fiction pieces than just trying to get to the required word count, as I’ll be exploring with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group this evening.

I learned to appreciate editing much more than I had done on realising good editing was helping me obtain more acceptances for flash and short stories. It has also helped to know no one writer ever gets it right first go and, for me at least, it is easier to edit the whole thing so I can see what it is I have to work with than try to do it a paragraph at a time etc.

I’ve also learned to see writing and editing as two separate creative tasks, It is lovely when as I edit a story, I can see it “tightening up” and becoming a stronger piece for it. There is a creative element here, honestly.

Fairytales With Bite – Keeping Busy

Keeping Busy
A fairy’s work is never done.
Dawn to dusk, always on the run.
Checking on clients old and new
Having many spells on the brew.
Recording how these things work out
Being honest by sharing doubt
If ideas are useful or not.
It’s never good when a new spell
Blows up the roof and creates hell!

Allison Symes
26th March 2025

This World and Others – Working Weeks

Naturally most of us are used to a standard working week of Monday through to Friday. But what would a working week look like in your setting? Are there weeks as we know them or does your setting measure time in a totally different way? What does work look like to your characters? Are their jobs similar to what we know here? What jobs would be different because your setting is literally alien?

As in any setting, there will be those who love their work, those who hate it, and those who work just to meet needs (which can also include cultural expectations as well as financial requirements). There will be those who work hard and those who do the bare minimum, the ones you know could do more but don’t. So how would characters like that work in your setting? How about writing some “industrial” stories set in your world? There could be potential for humour and/or drama here. Work is something we all understand so a story set in the world of work should be relatable.

And there are stories to be written about those characters who leave their working week behind altogether to do something unexpected? Why? What happens? What is the outcome? If they return, are they welcomed back? Do others understand why they did what they did? How would your characters handle any resentment because they didn’t keep going with a normal working week and left their colleagues to it all?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Do see the link to the April 2025 magazine given above.

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Zooming Around and Author Anniversaries

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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. Had a fabulous birthday weekend. Lovely to see folks. A huge thanks too for all of the online birthday wishes. Lady had a great time too. Now back to the writing work…

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Looking forward to going to an online book launch later this evening. Lovely way to end a Tuesday!
Will be sharing Springtime in Words and Music on Chandlers Ford Today on Friday. Nice to finally have the weather to go with a post like that!

Hope to have more time this coming weekend to explore more competitions to try. Have a draft story ready for one of the regular ones I go in for so also hope to edit that and submit in a week or so.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again in a few days time. To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com and many thanks for all of you who subscribe. The support is much appreciated.

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Hope you have had a good day. Hectic here but then it is Monday. Looking forward to going to a friend’s online book launch tomorrow evening plus I then have the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Wednesday. I will be “zooming” around. Sorry, couldn’t resist that one.

Writing Tip: What do your characters do with their spare time? Do any of their hobbies and interests have a bearing on what they do in the story? Do any of your characters take up a hobby or interest which they know will help them later? Does it pay off?

Hope you’re having a lovely Sunday. Enjoying a quiet one after a fabulous do yesterday. So good to see everyone. Lady is still pretty tired from yesterday!

Writing wise, will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. I hope to have another go at the Andrew Siderius competition being run by Friday Flash Fiction at the moment (they do this annually). This time I will have to write in the 151 words + category. You can only enter one story per category and my story last week was a classic 100 worder.

Busy week coming up. Will be going to an online book launch and the following night I will be leading the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. All will be fun though!

22nd March 2025
A huge thank you for the wonderful birthday messages. Much appreciated. Had a fabulous day with family and friends today. Lady is shattered but then she was hosting a spaniel family member (and yes the spaniel went home very tired but happy too!).

Writing wise, I’ll be celebrating Springtime in Words and Music for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll also be looking at ways of using spring itself in our stories. More on that next week.

Meantime I’m looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. Have another competition entry I want to sort out too.


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Hope the day has gone well. Lady had her usual wonderful time over the park. Always good to see that.

Sometimes when I am out and about, I will spot things I think I can use in a story. It’s okay. I’m not a spy, honest. But I will see, for example, an interesting coloured hat, or catch a snatch of conversation I know I can turn into something a character of mine would say and so on. Incidentally, I should add the original people having the conversation would never know I’d used it even if they read my story out loud in front of me and I remembered it was them saying it originally.

Why? Simply because I have one golden rule here – never use anything directly, I am treating these things as prompts and then put my own spin on them. That’s where the creativity comes in.

So if my interesting coloured hat was a purple trilby, I would turn it into a lime green knitted hat – you get the kind of thing. But it will be little details like this which will help make my characters and their stories stand out. Colours and items, not necessarily clothing, can make it easier for readers to picture your setting and your characters.

It’s Monday. It’s been even more hectic than usual my end. Definitely time for another story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Breaking the Contract.

It seems anyone can succumb to the lure of chocolate but for some at least there are consequences…

I know the theme for my Friday Flash Fiction story this week and will be working on that soon. I like to enter a range of competitions and tend to find I have a rough split between those where the theme is set and the other kind where it isn’t. I love both. It’s a good idea to regularly practice writing to both types then you will be ready for any competition coming your way.

One thing about using the random generators (or books or prompts) is it does give you practice at writing to themes not set by you. I plan to have another look for more competitions to have a go at next weekend, when I should have more time. 

Good luck if you are sending in any stories shortly.

22nd March 2025 –

Well, my birthday do went by in a flash, somewhat appropriately given what I write! Great fun.

On a somewhat more serious note, life is made up of good moments and I aim to treasure the ones which come my way.

Now there’s a thought you can use for your flash and other stories too. Which moments would your characters treasure and why? Also which moments are they glad they would never see again and why?

Bound to be some story ideas there.

Goodreads Author Blog – Author Anniversaries – P.G. Wodehouse

Often when we think about author anniversaries, we’re commemorating the birth, sometimes the death, of globally renowned authors such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens etc. Or it can be the anniversary of when one of their most famous books was first published, you know the kind of thing here.

But 2025 sees a strange author anniversary for one writer and where the events took place within weeks of each other. In early 1975 the wonderful humorous author, P.G Wodehouse was finally knighted. In February 2025, sadly he died. So this year sees the 50th anniversary of these things and the P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) has been commemorating these. (I’m a member).

I love Wodehouse’s way with the English language. It is simply brilliant and his characters live on in your head long after you’ve finished reading the stories. I even like Wodehouse’s golf stories and I hate the game as I do see it as a good walk ruined! There aren’t many writers who could achieve making someone read about a subject they are really not keen on. Even fewer can make them enjoy it!

Wodehouse’s characters live on in the forms of Jeeves and Wooster, Lord Emsworth, Uncle Fred, and so many more. There are some books of letters out written by the great man too and they’re well worth a read as they’re a fascinating insight into the writing life he enjoyed.

You also get to see his wartime controversy from his viewpoint (and I would add had the Nazis got irony at the time Wodehouse would have been in real trouble. Check out the reproductions of his radio speeches which caused so much trouble and you will see what I mean).

But above all check out his stories, Especially when life is grim, and it is right now, they are a tonic and I happily recommend them just on those grounds.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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