Tag: reading tip

Seeing The Other Side – Book Cover News

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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 the lovely lady at my local blood donor clinic who used my phone to take a photo of me celebrating their first anniversary at their new place. A very worthy celebration!
Hope the weekend went well. Not bad here. Wet week ahead but Lady and I just get on with things here. She dries off faster than I do! In other news, I’m thrilled to say I have now seen the book cover for Seeing The Other Side and well… see below!

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady and I caught up with her Hungarian Vizler friend after breaks away. Both dogs pleased to see each other again, Lady was especially affectionate.

Now in other news, I mentioned yesterday I had news on the book cover for Seeing The Other Side. See the partial reveal photo below and I hope to reveal the whole cover later this week). I created this image in Book Brush and it was fun and easy to do.

Image reveals part of a book with a yellow cover and two books in green, one called From Light to Dark and Back Again and the other Tripping The Flash Fantastic.

More news to come in due course.

Delighted to share my latest story which went out on Substack yesterday. Now time to share it here! Both this story and the one I’m sharing on YouTube this week took the phrase Goody Two Shoes as a theme. Hope you like both tales but first up here is the Substack one – Atonement Time.

And in other news, I plan to share more news on the book cover for Seeing The Other Side tomorrow. Exciting times. See above!

Am delighted to share my latest piece on Writers’ Narrative – Food Writing in Fiction. Food can /be used successfully in stories of any length to help with characterisation, setting, time period and more. Also, whatever kind of character you create, they are bound to need to eat at some point!

Do see the post for more and I hope you find the tips and thoughts useful. I almost always end my posts here with a question. Why not check out the latest one? Comments are welcome and don’t forget Writers’ Narrative is free to subscribe to. As it is now on Substack, what happens is you receive an article on the topic of the month every few day or so. Easy way to take in plenty of useful writing advice.

Soggy old day today. Lady and I went around the park in record time!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Discovering Classical Authors for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. This post is inspired by my recent visit to The Dorset Museum to see the Thomas Hardy exhibition. I also discuss in this post other ways bar books to discover classical authors and I share some of the ways I’ve used here. Post up on Friday.

Looking forward to sharing that and unusually for a CFT post I put in a PS but you’ll have to wait until next week to find out what that is and why it has gone up. Mind you, it was a joy to do!

Reading Tip: I’ve often mentioned the need for writers to read in and out of their genre. Aside from anything else it is fun to do and inspiration can spark from other stories so the wider you read, the greater the chance there is of this happening for you.

But mix up, not just the genres, but the lengths of stories and whether they’re classical or contemporary. While it is true writing styles have changed over the years, you can still learn loads from studying how the classical authors created their characters and situations.

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Thrilled to bits I have now shared a partial book cover reveal for Seeing The Other Side over on my Facebook author page. See above here. I hope to share the full cover later this week.

But it is always exciting when you know you are so close to having a book with your name on the cover in your hands again.

The thrill of being published doesn’t diminish and I am looking forward to sharing more about my new flash fiction collection soon.

It’s a soggy Monday and time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Reason For The Name.

There are always those who don’t get the point of a training scheme for self improvement and that goes for the magical world too. See what my fairy character who is about to be “properly qualified” is planning to get up to when allowed out in the world.

Both this story and my Substack one, Atonement Time, are based on the theme of Goody Two Shoes. Hope you like them both.

And look out for book cover news for Seeing The Other Side from me tomorrow. See above. This will be my first book out since 2020 so am naturally rather excited about it!

 

Now when I flag something up it is usually something to do with writing, as you’d expect, but this one is a bit different but could lead to a writing idea or two, maybe suitable for flash stories too.

Earlier this week, I went to give blood and it was the first anniversary of the Blood Service being at their base near where I live so there were plenty of balloons out (red ones naturally). Having donated blood, I then happily posed for a picture. See below. If you can give blood, please do as it is such a worthwhile thing to do.

Now how can that, worthy as it is, lead to a writing idea?

Easy! You meet all kinds of people at blood donation sessions so you could invent characters who meet there. What happens next? You could also use the donor centre as a setting.

Off you go and happy writing!

(And if you do give blood, I know the blood people would want to thank you. I know what I like most is finding out what happens to mine about a fortnight or so after the donation. It’s fascinating to know).

Flash fiction has been around for a long time, centuries in fact, but has been known by many different names. Jesus’s parables and many of Aesop’s fables would come in at under 1000 words.

I must admit my favourite name for the format is postcard fiction because it sums up things well. You’d be hard pushed to get more than a 100 words or so on the back of a postcard (unless you have tiny writing like I have which might push it up to 200!).

Indeed a good writing exercise is to take a blank postcard and get a complete story to fit on it. (I’d aim for 50 to 100 words here).

GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – Reading Acrostic

Hope you like the following acrostic. Has been a while since I last wrote one here.

R = Reading does so much for you, not least of which is increasing your vocabulary.

E = Entertainment awaits within books if that is what you choose; education is also an option.

A = Adventures in this world and others just within the power of the imagination await the reader.

D = Dastardly villains, heroes, heroines and more – all fabulous characters with stories to share.

I = Imagination fired up, maybe enough to write your own stories.

N = Nothing beats reading for all you can have from it and there are plenty of formats to choose from.

G = Get reading – old favourites, new books, ideally both!

 

 

 

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Caring for Characters

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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, as was the photo of a frog. Find out below why I needed one!
Hope you have had a good few days. The heavy rains have stopped but we now have strong gale force winds! Lady has got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal so all is well in her world. Am busy working on what will be author interviews for Chandler’s Ford Today (to go live a little later on in the year). I love the behind the scenes work on these. I’ve always loved research especially when it comes to writers and their works.

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Hope you have had a good day. Enjoyed my swim earlier. I did think when I took up swimming seriously I would use the time in the pool to think about stories, blogs, work out ideas etc. Not a bit of it! I do find my mind goes blank so when I come out I feel refreshed physically and mentally. Maybe that is the point of swimming!

Having said that, I do get ideas at odd times. I just write them down as soon as I can. It can’t always be immediately. I am thankful though I am never woken up by potential ideas. I’d be too grumpy for having woken up early for anything I then wrote down to make any sense!

I do have notebooks/post it notes all over the place. It pays. I’ve been known to email myself with ideas too. Smart phones are handy there. I wish I could train my brain to come up with ideas at times which are convenient to me but I suspect most writers wish for that.

Ideas, the spark for writing competitions, image via Pixabay

Not a bad start to the working week though we have had gale force winds in my part of the world today. Not that this stopped Lady having a riotous time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal today. Dogs like to keep things simple!

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out again on Friday. How are we nearly at March already? If you’d like to sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

The joy of author newsletters (and I subscribe to several) is finding out what is going on writing wise with your favourite authors and I always learn from the tips shared. I hope folk learn from the tips I share in mine. The goal is always to improve our own writing and newsletters are a great way to share useful information like this.

I chose to send out a newsletter once monthly

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Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Weather up and down though Lady got to see Coco again today. Both dogs pleased with that.

Reading Tip: I like to mix up reading novels and short story/flash collections. I also like to mix up moods of both kinds of book. I feel doing this immerses me in a wonderful world of books. Also I don’t want grim/dark all the time. Neither do I want light frothy fare all the time. Life is a mixture of things so I like my reading to reflect this. Taking this forward….

Writing Tip: I also like to mix up the mood of my flash and short stories. So, yes, there are darker ones but I make sure there are also plenty of lighter ones. I know what I like to read in terms of mood and try to reflect that in what I produce. Again I think it is a reasonably accurate reflection of life. I want my writing to move people and to entertain.

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Lady got to see her pal, Coco, today and the dogs had a good run around before the heavens opened.

Will be looking at Light Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Hard to believe we’ll be into March for that one. Still it does mean spring is getting ever closer, always a good thing! I’ll be looking at what I think light writing actually is and share my thoughts on it. I will say now though I don’t think it should be underrated. Link up on Friday.

I occasionally look up the random theme generators. Sometimes these trigger ideas for stories, occasionally for blog posts. I did so for this post but had to smile. The theme that came up? Well, I doubt if I’ll be writing on the theme of vampires for Chandler’s Ford Today or Writers’ Narrative any time soon!

Logically I could do so. I would look at the history of vampire stories etc., but it is not a topic I’m especially keen on and that is the reason why I wouldn’t do it. You do have to like the topic you’re writing about, I think.

For stories, you do need to care for the characters, even if you do want to see them fail and for me the sign of a “good” villain is where you don’t want them to win but have a sneaking sorrow they didn’t. Top notch villain here? The Sheriff of Nottingham as played by the much missed Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

And I guess I have got a post out of vampires – this one!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

What do I look for first and foremost in a flash fiction piece, whether I’ve written it or not? Impact is the simple answer. I want the story, whether it is six words, fifty words, or the full one thousand allowed in flash, to make me react, whether it is to make me laugh, cry, wince, or feel fear. (The theme for Jaws is excellent for the latter incidentally. Have never watched the film. Have no wish to do so. The music is scary enough but it is brilliant – also has made me react!).

For stories, I absolutely have to care about the lead character. If not, why read on to find out what happens to them? (Oh and I know they needed a bigger boat for Jaws. Assume they got one!).

sharks

Understanding where the characters come from can lead to understanding ourselves

It’s Monday. The rain has stopped. There are gale force winds where I am and it’s still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy Stranger in Town, my latest on my YouTube channel. Moral of this one: be nice. Find out why here.

I like to mix up the way I open a story of whatever length. I do this to keep things interesting for me and hope it will prove to do the same for readers. Sometimes I will give you a scene setting first line. Sometimes I ask a question (which you know the story will have to answer). At other times, I use dialogue or internal thoughts.

But all are designed to hook the reader in and get them to keep reading until the end of the story. I’ll be talking about this in more depth for a future Chandler’s Ford Today post, but the opening line is so important when you consider if people don’t get past that, they’re not reading any further. No pressure then!

424975042_837174928422370_5819201919355738451_nMany thanks for the comments coming in on Facing the Frog, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. Good fun to write.

Not quite an alliterative title but almost there! I try not to use these too often as I think it can look gimmicky but every now and again they can have a great effect.

For this story, I came up with the title first, knowing someone was going to be at the rough end of a spell against them, but I wanted a character who was determined to just cope with the temporary curse as best as they could. They would face up to being a frog for a bit. You can find out how they did at the link.

Let’s just say I came up with a character who is even more slippery than I first envisaged and I wouldn’t trust them either in frog or human form!

Image of frog below taken by me a while back!

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Goodreads Author Blog – Non-Fiction and Fiction – Where Worlds Combine

I love reading history, fiction and non-fiction. Just sometimes the worlds cross. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey is one of my favourite books and is the only novel to have made me change my opinion about a historical figure – Richard III. The fictional story of Tey’s Inspector Alan Grant is woven with history beautifully but it is still fiction.

I’ve read Philippa Langley’s books on her search for Richard III’s remains and, her current book, The Princes in the Tower. I am sure Josephine Tey would’ve loved both of them.

But in this case it was a fictional work which got me interested in the actual history here. Fiction has led into greater non-fiction interest here and this is a good thing.

I love it when different types of book feed into each other. Fiction and non-fiction are equally wonderful things.

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Taking Stock

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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 week. Enjoyed the Bank Holiday weekend here. More to come this month too. Doesn’t affect the writing. I usually write in the evenings. Do you have a good time of day for writing? I prefer to write when I know I’ve got most of what else I have to do behind me for the day.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady had a good run round with her Aussie Shepherd friend this morning. I swam 100 lengths in my local pool today in a personal best time. Lady and I shall sleep well tonight! I did think when I resumed swimming seriously I would use the time in the pool to think out story lines, blog ideas etc. Not a bit of it. The mind goes blank. Mind you, that can be relaxing so maybe it is not a bad thing.

Reading Tip (makes a change, yes?): Mix up what you read in terms of format as well as genre. I like to mix up reading paperbacks with reading magazines and ebooks. I mix up fiction with non-fiction. Within fiction, I mix up humorous writing with crime fiction with contemporary with classic etc. It makes for an interesting reading life. That in turn inspires the writing too so win-win here.

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I like the month of May. More evidence that spring is with us (usually, she says hastily!). My late grandmother was called May. Charming lady. Charming name. Charming month.

Author newsletter went out this morning. Am looking forward to sharing my review of Spring Trio staged by The Chameleon Theatre Group which I went to on Thursday. Post will be up on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. The combination of plays was interesting. Good twists too. And as a friend said you can’t beat good local live theatre. For me, it’s a fantastic and different way of taking in stories – what’s not to love there?

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Wow, the end of another month already. Don’t forget my author newsletter goes out on the first of each month. If you’d like to sign up head over to my website landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I have an exclusive story this time as well and I also break down how I wrote this. I know from having read interviews with authors where they’ve done this, you can learn so much from that technique. I hope you find it entertaining and useful. So look out for my latest missive in your inbox tomorrow!

A huge hello to all who have signed up and those who have done so recently.

Completely off topic, my better half recently redecorated the office in which I work. Has done a grand job. I am still sorting out the boxes of stuff I had on my desk. Who knew I had so much clutter on there? Well, me now! Am determined to keep desk decluttered. Wish me luck!

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Glad to say it’s my turn on More than Writers, the blog spot from the Association of Christian Writers. This time I look at Taking Stock and why doing this every so often can give you the encouragement to keep going. We all need that kind of encouragement from time to time. Hope you find the post helpful.

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I was talking about Reading Moods on Goodreads this week and this is where reading flash collections has an advantage. Short story anthologies share this advantage too. And yes I am biased given I have a foot in both camps but the bliss of these is you can mix up your reading mood within the covers of one book! I deliberately mixed up the mood of my stories in my two flash collections as I wanted to give a good flavour of what flash fiction is and can be. Good short story anthologies do the same thing. And as I’ve mentioned before, these books give you a chance to try out the works of authors new to you.

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It’s Monday. Okay here in the UK it’s a Bank Holiday Monday but it’s still time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Circles.

 

Had a lovely time at the ACW Flash Fiction group on Wednesday. I always set exercises for these things and jot down ideas, along with the group, on the night of the meeting. I love live writing like that and everyone came up with ideas to work up later. I am hoping some at least will go and submit their finished pieces somewhere. Now have a few ideas to work up for story submissions. Win-win there!

This is where practicing writing to different prompts helps. It means you’re not fazed by whatever it is you’re set. Even if you haven’t done the actual kind of exercise before, you will know you can write to exercises and prompts because you’ve already got the practice in. It does pay off, honest!

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Hope you have had a good day. Loved my trip out to the theatre on Thursday night (which consisted of three plays, more on that in a future Chandler’s Ford Today post). Mind you, there are always moments in a theatrical production which could be turned into a flash fiction story!

Flash focuses on one important moment for a character and in any great play, there are loads of those stand out moments which, individually, could be explored in prose. With a play you have to go on to the next moment and then the next one until you get to the end.

I often outline my character first and that will give me a good idea of the kind of situation they’re likely to find themselves in and from there I can work out what their most important moment is to write about.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Reading Moods

Does your mood change what you were planning on reading? When life is especially grim, I will often turn to humorous works for sheer escapism. Indeed, I think humorous writing has a major role to play here. Funnily enough, the cosier end of the crime market can have a similar effect.

I have to be in a reasonably upbeat mood to begin with to cope with anything grim reading wise. That decision is backed by the fact I only have so much time in which to read so I want to make sure I enjoy what I do read! For non-fiction, if I’m reading history (as I currently am with 1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke), I find mood matters less.

Regardless of mood, whatever I read, I want to “zip” along and finish my reading session feeling I could have carried on reading all night if it wasn’t for the need to get some sleep!

So over to you then. Do you find you have to be in the right mood to read at all? (Not a problem with me – I will read, it is just a question of what I read). Do you find your mood dictates what you read (as it can do for me)? Or is it a question of working your way through your To Be Read pile methodically?

Screenshot 2023-04-29 at 20-14-37 Reading Moods

MOM’S FAVORITE READS LINK – CHECK OUT THE MAGAZINE INCLUDING MY FLASH FICTION COLUMN HERE –

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