Tag: Reading Between the Lines

Author Interview: Miriam Drori – Loyalty and the Learner

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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. A big thank you to Miriam Drori and Lynsey Adams (Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog) for photos supplied for my interview with Miriam on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Miriam also sent pictures of her setting with captions so do check those out. Settings add so much to a story.
Hope you have had a good week. Lady has seen her friends most of the time so she’s happy. Am off to Rugby on 12th October to go to the Association of Christian Writers Autumn Gathering event. Looking forward to catching up with friends, making new ones, and enjoying the workshops. Also looking forward to Flash NANO which starts soon too. Hope I can get another 30 draft stories out of it this year! (Have also been playing with Book Brush for my flash fiction collections – see below!).

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to welcome Miriam Drori to Chandler’s Ford Today this week to discuss her new novel, Loyalty and the Learner. She also shares her views on titles (especially as she has used alliterative titles for her other book in the Jerusalem Murder Mystery series, Style and the Solitary) and what led her into creative writing at all, given her career was in a very different direction. Even her other writing has been in a different direction as Miriam has also written on social anxiety.

Miriam also discusses writing blurbs and writing guides with me. Plenty to enjoy here and lots of useful thoughts. Do enjoy!

Many thanks for joining me on CFT, Miriam, and good luck with the book.

Meeting Miriam Drori: Loyalty and the Learner

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Don’t forget to check out a superb interview with Miriam Drori on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Miriam discusses her new book, Loyalty and the Learner. The interview is part of a blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog. See above.

It was lovely to meet Miriam in person at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick back in August and both of us took part in the Open Prose Mic Night there.

Miriam shares wonderful tips on book launches and her approach to marketing. She shares what led her into writing crime at all and her favourite aspect of storytelling. She also discusses how she handles the inevitable ups and downs of the writing life and there is much more besides. Do look out for it. Looking forward to sharing this tomorrow. Do look out for the link.

 

Hope you have had a good day. Lady did. She got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals – all three so pleased to see each other. Off to have my flu jab later.

More author interviews coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today in the run up to that famous event in December (it is too early to mention it by name yet, though I note that thought clearly hasn’t occurred to the supermarkets). Am looking forward to sharing those.

Am a fair way through a first draft of a fourth flash fiction collection and am preparing a submission for something else which I hope to get out in the next few weeks. I’m at that stage where I’m resting it as I want to judge it again before I send it off. Time away from any piece of work is the only way I know to be able to judge a piece objectively enough.

Am also happily judging a flash fiction competition at the moment too. Love doing this kind of thing and I always critique. I’ve been on the receiving end of critiques myself and have always found them useful. They do have to be constructive though.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, Put That Light Out. Fans of Dad’s Army should recognise that phrase and who said it in the series. It directly inspires this story. Hope you enjoy it.
Screenshot 2024-10-11 at 10-26-43 Put That Light Out by Allison Symes - Friday Flash Fiction

Have another train trip over the weekend so hope to use some of that travelling time in drafting blog posts, flash fiction etc. Am delighted the notes app on my relatively new phone replaces Evernote for me. I didn’t need a paid for subscription with them given I use this kind of note program only when travelling like this and Evernote have been pushing towards subscriptions, which I think is a shame. Never used to do that but I understand they were taken over by someone else a while back so that probably explains the change of viewpoint!

Paid for subscriptions are not for everyone. I only ever pay for something I know I will use. I use graphics a lot so having a paid for plan with Book Brush makes a great deal of sense for me. Likewise I have a paid subscription for my website and I am always keen to renew my subs with the Society of Authors as I have long found their advice useful. There is a huge business in services fur authors. Just know what you’re getting into and always check things out before committing to anything.

I am looking forward to getting on with some drafts on the train on Saturday though. It’s amazing how much I can get done and I like making good use of time like that.

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So looking forward to taking part in Flash NANO again. Not long to go now. Have enjoyed taking part over the last couple of years and some of those pieces have gone on to be published. If you want to take a look at what it is all about, do follow the link below.

A huge thanks to those members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group who put me on to this. I just love the whole idea of having something for the short form writers while the novelists crack on with NaNoWriMo (and if you are taking part in that, good luck!).

Screenshot 2024-10-07 at 20-40-54 Nancy Stohlman

Fairytales With Bite – How Do You Know When Your Wand Needs Servicing?

Time for some lighthearted nonsense I think.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when fur slippers become glass ones.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when the three bears have to call in carpenters to sort out the ruined furniture because your wand decides it doesn’t “do wood”. The one comfort you have here is in knowing a certain time travelling alien with two hearts has s sonic screwdriver which also doesn’t “do wood”. On the plus side again, you are unlikely to upset the Ents from The Lord of the Rings precisely because your wand doesn’t “do wood”.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when it misfires and what would normally emerge as sweet little tweeting birds turn out to be huge vultures who don’t look that pleased to see you. They’re even less pleased when you aim your wand again and they become those sweet little tweeting birds with feathers missing. Somewhere in their brains they will recall they had been much bigger and more threatening and they liked that role. They also begrudge the missing feathers.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when, despite all magical attempts to get spinning wheels out of the magical kingdom, one still manages to turn up.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when despite using it for help with your baking, your cake still has a soggy bottom and despite using fabulous ingredients it still tastes like fairy dust (which is dry and bitter).

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This World and Others – Equipment – Servicing and Manufacturing

Hope you enjoyed Fairytales with Bite. Now for story ideas.

Fairy godmothers and the like will need to have somewhere to go to get their wands etc serviced, replaced (if damaged in the call of duty or because they simply fancy the latest model). The Harry Potter series famously had Diagon Alley for this.

What would your world have or does your setting import this kind of service and manufacturing from other places? If so, why? What set the tradition for importing skills and services? Does that have a downside? There is one obvious one – they better not be at war ever with the world which supplies them!

Story ideas could also come from following the tale of a craftsman here. What do they produce? How did they get into the trade? Is their reputation a good one? What would they do if made to make equipment for someone they really don’t want having it? Good tension raising drama there!

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the November 2023 edition of the magazine which was on the theme of novels. Timely too given November each year sees both NaNoWriMo and Flash NANO. My piece in here looked at writing novels and shares what I learned from writing my, as yet, unpublished one.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Author Interview: Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt

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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 Anita D Hunt and Lynsey Adams for pictures supplied for the Chandler’s Ford Today post this week.
Hope you have had a good few days. Torrential rain and brief spells of sunshine here. Hoping it brightens up for the weekend as have a family event. Writing wise, have more superb author interviews coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today in October. Will say more nearer the time though I find it hard to believe we’re almost at the tenth month of the year already! Where has the time gone?

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

As part of her blog tour, I am delighted to welcome fellow Swanwicker, Anita D Hunt, to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain.

Anita shares many useful tips and plenty of great advice in this in depth interview, in which she also discusses how it can be painful getting inside your characters’ heads at times and what to look for in a writing group.

She looks at what she likes about creating characters and how Cornwall, her home county, plays a major part in her work. She discusses themes and shares an invaluable tip about writing blurbs. Do check out the interview and settle down for a riveting read.

Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt

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Glad to say the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom last night went well. The theme was marketing (many thanks to Rosemary Johnson for suggesting it) and I shared a few ways flash fiction can help with this.

If nothing else, sharing flash fiction stories every now and again can act as a marvellous advert for the rest of what you do. It doesn’t take long to read, it entertains potential/actual readers, and it showcases you/your work. Nothing to dislike there, I think.

And talking of marketing, it’s time for me to put in my usual end of month reminder about my author newsletter. The next one goes out on 1st October and I share stories, tips, advice (based on what I’ve found useful myself), news etc. If interested do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com where you can sign up. A huge thank you too to all of my subscribers here and on my YouTube channel.

Thought for Today: Every writer has their fair share of rejections, not doing well in competitions etc, but there’s nothing to stop you revisiting your old work, seeing if you can polish it up and get it out somewhere else. I’ve had work published that way.

Sometimes I will review a piece and with the benefit of time and that useless aid, hindsight (I would far rather have the ability to spot something wrong at the time I’m working on a piece and see my mistakes before I send anything out!), I can see why a piece failed but even that can be useful because I’ve learned from it.

So maybe hindsight isn’t so useless after all. I would still prefer foresight or at the time sight though! Suspect most of us would.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady has had a smashing one given she got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. I’ve managed to avoid most of the rain today too so will take that as a win.

Don’t forget I’ll be talking to Anita D Hunt about her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. The interview is packed full of useful tips and advice too so do look out for it. See above. Glad to say there will be more author interviews to come on CFT in October too.

Writing Tip: I know some writers dread marketing and would far rather focus on writing. I understand that but there are creative aspects to marketing your stories too. After all the challenge here is to make what you have to say here about your work interesting and appealing to readers and not switch them off. (Saying buy my book all the time does do precisely that).

I’ve found if I can make the marketing fun for me to do it is more likely to be appealing to a reader. Sharing something of interest and/or value to readers/writers as I discuss what I’m up to writing wise is also marketing. I think it is more likely I can keep this kind of marketing going too.

My aim with posts like this one then is to have a chatty informative style, while sharing useful tips and something like oh by the way my newsletter is out soon, if you want to sign up head over to etc etc. I take the view if it is something I wouldn’t mind reading if I were on the receiving end, other readers (or at least some) will take the same view.

So work out then what you like to see in marketing you receive. Figuring out what works for you as a reader will help you come up with material based on your work you won’t mind sharing with your readers (and they won’t mind it either). The focus has to be on engagement, I think. Stories about your writing life work well too.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday, end of the week time, weather iffy so definitely time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – The Old Bat and The Cookie Tin. Think I’ve found a contender for one of my all time favourite titles!

Screenshot 2024-09-27 at 10-09-12 The Old Bat and The Cookie Tin by Allison Symes - Friday Flash FictionHope you’ve had a good day. Lady didn’t get to see any of her pals today though she hopefully will tomorrow. Have a family event at the weekend. Lady loves these because (a) she loves people, (b) she loves getting extra food and getting to be an outside Hoover, and (c) she loves playing with the visiting dog, with whom she gets on brilliantly. Am expecting Lady to be shattered on Saturday night. She was last time but happily so!

Looking forward to the local Book Fair in October and literally the week before the Association of Christian Writers Autumn Gathering event. I shall be off to Rugby for that one and will be back to London in December for the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Lots going on all connected with writing and I plan to enjoy every minute! I also get to spread the word about flash fiction of course.

Prompt Idea: Events mean different things to different people so why not invent one for a character of yours and show what they make of it? Do they organise it? Do they love it? Do they dread it? What happens at this event which changes things for them?

461332721_10162283069397053_7196259478840081979_nI’ve mentioned before the importance of using the right telling details to help your readers picture your world/setting/character/any combination of those. In my The Terrified Dragon (Tripping The Flash Fantastic), I start with the line The dragon was surrounded by angry humans with weapons and realised to his dismay he was supposed to blast them all away.

Note I haven’t told you what those weapons were as that isn’t the important thing. What you need to know is the main character is a dragon who has got into trouble (which is odd in itself given dragons are usually the cause of fire-related trouble!). You need to know about the angry humans (and you don’t need telling why they’re angry given a dragon turning up is seldom good news).

But you also see something of the dragon’s attitude. He knows what he is meant to do but is strangely reluctant to do it. There is something strange about this creature. Only way to find out what is to read on. Job done.

I’ve always found it useful to figure out what a reader has to know and then decide how I am going to plant those things in the story. When I’ve outlined my character well enough, I can see how the story will develop and where those things should go. It will arise naturally, which is what you want.

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Fairytales with Bite – Flying Around

Now I know I moan about traffic in my area – I suspect most of us do – but what would this traffic look like in a magical world? How is the Eye in the Sky supposed to work when all around them are flying on broomsticks and other magical craft?

Would there be speed limits? Would there be corridors magical flying beings are supposed to stick to (if only to give the wildlife a half decent chance of being able to fly anywhere in safety? I feel sorry for birds in magical worlds. In any other kind of world the skies would be theirs. Not in this kind of environment it isn’t!).

Now we all know there are certain kinds of car driver (usually with specific brands of vehicle too) who are notorious for tailgating, jumping traffic lights, being awful at junctions etc. What would the magical equivalent of these things be in your setting? How is flying traffic controlled or is it a free for all and it is assumed the fittest/fastest/strongest survive and it’s tough luck on the others? What are the accident rates?

Are the state of the skies in your setting better than they used to be or worse? Can any magical being fly? Are the “vehicles” restricted to certain speeds?

You could have some funny stories here about the magical traffic cop and how they rein in anyone who breaks the rules here. I once wrote a festive flash piece where such a character tried to pull Santa over for speeding! Great fun to write.

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This World and Others – Policing the Skies

Linking in with Fairytales with Bite, who does police the skies? How seriously or otherwise is this role taken? Does it get the support of the general public or it is looked down on? Are there any perceptions that certain flyers (e.g. witches and wizards) get away with traffic faults and other more lowly kinds (such as the trainee fairies etc) do not?

Who does control the skies in your setting and how do they do it? We consider keeping control of our own air space as vital to our defences (as proven by the Battle of Britain in World War Two) so I would assume your setting’s government would take the same view.

Who would they need to defend their skies against? What is the history behind that? What is the history behind how your government does police the skies? What have they found works well and what less so?

I quite like the idea of a traffic cop on a broomstick with a flashing blue light pulling over other magical beings for speeding etc. What punishments can be given? How are other magical beings stopped from avoiding these and/or giving the cop a hard time?

Story ideas here (and possibly funny ones too).

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Since marketing has come into this round up tonight, I thought I’d share the link to the September 2023 edition of the magazine given it has marketing as its theme. I have two pieces in here – Marketing Your Books and Writing For Online Magazines.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Writing Time, Lines, and a Petulant Goose

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Hope you have had a good few days. It’s got off to an odd start for me as the title above confirms.

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Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good Tuesday. Had a most enjoyable swim earlier. When I started swimming more often I thought I’d be using the time in the pool to work out story ideas, dream up further ideas and so on. Not a bit of it. My mind tends to go blank when swimming! Make of that what you will!

I’ll be looking at Quizzes and Word Games for my Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday. I’m fond of word games so this post was a particular pleasure to write. I suppose it makes sense that a writer unwinds by playing with words!

Many thanks for the continuing comments in on Moving On, my latest Friday Flash Fiction tale. The feedback on this site is so helpful.

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Glad to say the August edition of Mom’s Favorite Reads is now out. Treat yourself to a free read. Plenty of fascinating articles and stories here. I talk about Funny Flash Fiction this time and share useful tips here. As well as setting a flash fiction challenge in my column, I respond to it myself so you get a story from me here too – and do check out the wonderful tales that came in as a result of the challenge.

Screenshot 2022-08-01 at 19-26-15 Mom’s Favorite Reads eMagazine August 2022

Is there ever enough writing time? Probably not but I suspect the answer to this dilemma is working out how to make the best use of the time you have got. In my smaller pockets of time, I’m jotting down blog ideas, story titles, possible opening lines etc. In my longer pockets of time. I’m writing those ideas up! I also plan my week around my Chandler’s Ford Today post. Generally I have that written and scheduled by Tuesday. I then start work on the one for the following week.

I plan my monthly blogs so I have them ready in good time. I like to have those scheduled at least a week before due date. Now life gets in the way sometimes but giving myself this leeway means I still have a few days to get something in and I like knowing that I have this safety net. I rarely have to use that safety net. It is a relief to have it when I do.

So yes I outline my writing time too and have found doing that pays off.

Also my next author newsletter goes out tomorrow. To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter has gone out but new subscribers are always welcome.

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Hope you have had a good Saturday. Looking forward to catching up with some Swanwick friends on Zoom tonight ahead of seeing them in person again soon.

Many thanks for the comments in on Moving On, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. Don’t forget comments are welcome over on my Chandler’s Ford Today blog post pages as well.

I do enjoy getting my monthly posts together for Mom’s Favorite Reads and am just putting the finishing touches to my piece for September. My piece in the August edition, which is due soon, will be about Funny Flash Fiction, which is is also a joy to write.

Screenshot 2022-07-29 at 09-28-29 Moving On by Allison Symes

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Further to yesterday’s post and in breaking news, the goose came back!

Again I was hissed at. The dog turned tail and ran (back into the house). Yours truly scared the goose off into the wooded bit of the garden with the aid of a garden broom. Am not having my dog too scared to go out into her own garden. My herding skills were okay (I have clearly learned something from my collies over the years). Most annoying thing of all – I can’t write this up as a story. It’s a bit unbelievable, isn’t it?!

The goose is fine, Lady is fine, I’m fine, but I still don’t get why this bird isn’t flying – it isn’t injured and its attitude – well it would have that anyway. There is no sign of injury or anything like that. Have shut the garden gate on it so hopefully that will send it back to where it should be at the lakes about a mile away from where I live where there is a colony of geese and ducks.

They say you can’t make it up. Well, as a writer I would dispute that. It is a question of whether you can use the material at times!

In other news, am looking forward to getting my copies of The Best of CafeLit 11.

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It’s Monday. It has been a long, hot day. It has been an odd Monday. I got hissed at by an irate lost Canada Goose in my own garden this afternoon. There are a group of them on nearby lakes and it clearly had got lost. I am betting it is male and didn’t want to ask for directions!

Why the barking of Lady didn’t persuade it here was not a good place to be I don’t know but it did wander off eventually. (Lady would happily have chased it off but one slightly bonkers dog and an annoyed goose did not seem like a good combo to me!).

So as I say it has been a long day. It’s Monday when all is said and done. Definitely time for a story. Hope you like Acting Your Age, my latest on YouTube.

 

PS. Will keep you posted if anything odd turns up here tomorrow. Am hoping not though I suppose I can always get a flash story out of it. See above – The Goose Came Back! Not a typical day or two in the life of a flash fiction writer, I can tell you!

Understanding what makes your characters tick
Wow, another month gone. It won’t be long before I’m writing my festive flash pieces!

Am not kidding. For the short story market, you have to work on these much earlier in the year than I need to on my festive selections. But it still pays to give yourself plenty of time to write and hone your festive flashes so around summer/early autumn is not a bad time to start on that.

I find having a rough schedule to write to means I produce more finished writing. I like that aspect.

While flash is shorter prose, it still takes time to edit and hone. I can get a draft down relatively fast but it is the editing that takes the time. And that is how it should be too, no matter what you write. The writing is in the re-writing.

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Opening lines have to intrigue the reader enough to make them want to read on. This is even more important in flash where you do have to hit the ground running. You don’t have the word count room to expand on things later. In my The Silence (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I start with It was the perfect way to shut up Mr Know-it-all.

I imply questions here – hopefully the reader will want to find out what the perfect way is, did it work, and who is the character behind this. Sometimes I use questions directly as opening lines but implying them also works well. It is key to provoking reader curiosity, that have got to find out what happens here moment. And then the tricky bit – delivering on the promise to answer here!

This is a key reason why I outline. I set up the question. I want to know in advance what the possible answers could be. It means I know where I am heading as I draft the tale. And I always go for the answer that makes me go “wow” – If I do that, it is likely someone else will. Naturally my hope here is that someone else will be a publisher, editor, or a competition judge!

Tripping The Flash Fantastic - by night

Goodreads Author Blog – Reading Between the Lines

I write as well as read flash fiction and implying happens all the time here. You do get your readers reading between the lines all the time. You just give them what they have to know to be able to do that.

With my reading hat on, I love having to read between the lines. Crime writers do this constantly too – give us clues to work things out and you accept some of them will be red herrings. All great fun.

I don’t want tonnes of description. I just need enough to be able to picture the character and the setting. Specific details often work better anyway. A moth-eaten chair conjures up a stronger image than just saying an old chair. (Well, how old? Are we talking antique here or something that is only 30 years old?). ]

Specific details matter. Whenever a writer put them in, I am looking to see how important these things prove to be later on in the story. They usually are important. At the very least they have significant meaning for the lead character and that’s the important thing (if only because their opponent could use that against them).

I love reading between the lines then. The great stories encourage this I think.

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