Tag: Reviews for From Light to Dark and Back Again

Stories Based On Other Stories

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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. Very stormy on Wednesday night/Thursday. Glad things are settling down now. But on the fabulous news front (and there so needs to be one!), I’ve started my Flash NANO 2023 “campaign”, my copies of Gifted (the Bridge House Publishing anthology) have arrived, and the fantastic November issue of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Its theme is writing novels. More details below.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Am talking about one of my favourite topics – stories – for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I discuss Stories Based on Stories.

So many wonderful tales (book, plays, adaptations etc) have come into being thanks to inspiration from previous ones. We build on what has gone before. Writers need to be inspired and it is our own love of books and stories which does this. I also look at the advantages and disadvantages of stories based on other stories.

Hope you enjoy the post. All of my posts here are a joy to write but some are just that little bit more joyous. This is one of those.

Stories Based On Stories

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Sympathies to all affected by the horrendous weather in the UK today. Have seen some horrible pictures from places I know well in Dorset.

On a much happier note, I’ll be sharing Stories Based on Other Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. It’s always a joy to talk about stories and so many wonderful ones have been inspired by previous ones. I like to think of that as building on solid foundations.

Talking of books, don’t forget reviews are a great way to help authors. Reviews don’t have to be long either so if there is a writer whose work you have loved, do send a review in. It’s encouraging for one thing. Given writers spend so much time at their desks, encouragement like that is always welcome!

Part of a lovely review for From Light to Dark and Back Again reads ‘A thoroughly enjoyable read that kept me turning the pages’ but that does make a complete review in and of itself. It also encourages me a lot!

Am pleased to say the November edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Link below. The theme this month is novels (appropriately given November is NaNoWriMo time).

My article is on page 58 and I discuss what I learned when writing my first novel, though to date that remains unpublished. It was a fabulous learning experience though and what I learned has gone on to help me with my other forms of writing. If you are willing to learn, little is wasted in writing. I speak from experience there. And do check out the whole magazine for a wonderful range of in depth articles packed full of advice. It is a joy to be part of the team working on this.

For those of you who receive my monthly newsletter which went out earlier today, I hope to share a double link in my next one (out on 1st December) to cover the November and December issues of Writers’ Narrative. In the meantime, do check out a fabulous read below.

In other news, as they say, I’ve received my first Flash NANO challenge for 2023. Looking forward to working on that! Good luck and happy writing to all who are taking part in this and NaNoWriMo.

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with Manners Maketh The Fairy. Hope you enjoy this. It is one of what I call my fairytales with bite. This one has an environmental theme to it as well.

Screenshot 2023-11-03 at 10-14-06 Manners Maketh The Fairy by Allison Symes

Will be cracking on with the Day 2 challenge of Flash NANO 2023 shortly. Now since done and good fun it was too! I love the variety of prompts. Good way to kickstart the old imagination. Some of last year’s flash pieces will form part of my third flash fiction collection in due course.

I’ve always enjoyed those moments in stories (especially in film) where I know I’m going to be able to recall it years later. The great thing with flash stories is they are those complete moments. Short form writing can have far more of an impact due to its limited word count and flash fiction writers especially can use that to work out what kind of impact they want their latest tale to have. Then it’s a case of making the most of the word count you’ve got to play with.

396714200_764034269069770_9199351449952028100_nThere are some days when I have a quiet writing day. There are other days when loads of things happen at once. Today is one of the latter.

Firstly, the November issue of Writers’ Narrative is out and focuses on novels. Link shared on my main Facebook page (and above!).

Secondly, my author newsletter went out today. The subscribe link to Writers’ Narrative is in this. If you’re not already a subscriber, I highly recommend signing up and it is free!

Thirdly, my copies of Gifted, the latest anthology from Bridge House Publishing arrived today. My story, Desperately Seeking Talent, is in there. The joy of opening a box of books from your publisher never diminishes!

Does it make the hard work, the years of rejections and learning the craft (which is an ongoing process), all worth it?

Oh yes!

Fairytales With Bite – The Environment

Whatever your setting, there will be an environment. Some will be much nicer than others! What is the attitude of your characters to their environment? Do they care about it? Has damage been done to it they’re trying to rectify?

If the environment is generally sound, how do your characters contribute to it being so good? Are there laws in place banning certain activities or insisting certain ones are carried out?

In a magical setting, think about the energy your magical characters have. Where do they get this from? Even if it is from within themselves, what affect does their using it have on the outside world? Do they have to be careful with how much of it they use and/or where?

What creatures would live in your setting’s environment and what would be your characters’ relationship to these? If magic has done damage to certain parts of your setting, how did that happen (presumably magical wars/industrial kind of accidents are two ideas that occur to me here)? What is being done to correct that damage? Or are those areas left alone and is that the right thing to do? What would what passes for nature on your world do to correct things if left alone to get on with it?

How does the environment, which includes all manner of things from air quality to transportation, have a bearing on what your characters can and cannot do?

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This World and Others – Agencies

What kind of agencies exist in your setting? These can include environmental agencies (see Fairytales with Bite above) to agencies who care for elderly magical beings who need looking after in their latter days. And who almost certainly are grateful to be still alive to be looked after given most magical worlds are not exactly friendly to their inhabitants. Well, you can hardly call a place friendly when dealing with dragons is a daily, hazardous, occupation, yes?

Also you could think here of stories involving magic which went wrong and damage had to be undone somehow. There would be stories here. This might explain why you have elderly magical beings. They would have to be phenomenally good at their craft to survive, yes?

Every world will need some sort of government and even if you focus on one area, who would be in charge of that and how did they come to power? Do they rule well or badly? What agencies do they use to help their peoples (or to suppress them)? What kind of characters would work in these things?

I think in a magical setting there would have to be some agreement as to what was allowed and what was not to avoid chaos. So which agencies would set these rules and how do they ensure they are adhered to by everyone? The risk of not having rules is any powerful wizard worthy of the name would almost certainly ensure they became your setting’s dictator. See Sauron in The Lord of the Rings for more on this!

Also on a more peaceful setting, how do the agencies work with each other as there would inevitably be some overlap? There always is with any kind of agency. An environmental one would have to work with other agencies responsible for caring for specific aspects of the environment.

We in the UK for example have a Forestry Commission. We have water boards. Both are responsible for the environment but in different ways. When the water agencies need trees clearing to clear waterways, they would have to work with the forestry body. And that’s just one example. Where you have the need for co-operation, the prospect of conflict of interest arises and there would be interesting stories there in working out how to resolve these and what your characters do.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2023-11-01 at 16-23-41 Writers' Narrative eMagazine November 2023

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Wishes and Flash Fiction

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Facebook – General

One week to go to the Chandler’s Ford Book Fair from 10 to 12 at the Age Concern Centre in Brownhill Road. Good range of authors and genres represented. Should be good fun.

If one of my fairy godmother characters could grant me three wishes, what would I choose? (For that matter, what would YOU choose for yourself?). My choices would be:-

1. To send predictive text into oblivion and arrange things so people forgot it ever existed. (I’m counting that as one wish, my fairy godmother character may disagree, but I would sacrifice a wish cheerfully to get this through. Much as I love my smartphone it has confirmed my loathing of predictive text. Complete pain when writing, It rarely predicts anything I can actually use!).
2. To NEVER be interrupted by anything when reading. (Think my fairy godmother character might struggle with this one).
3. For paper jams and power cuts to be a thing of the past. They always happen at the most inconvenient times.

If I could sneak in some extra wishes, I’d go for:-

4. For all people to be able to read and write and to want to read. Reading can easily be dismissed as something people don’t have time for and I’m at a loss as to why. Same people would happily watch a 3-hour film. Maybe reading needs to be seen more as a form of entertainment than it currently is?
5. For genre fiction to no longer be looked down on (though there has been some progress here). Why shouldn’t a book JUST be for entertainment? Why does it have to be worthy as well?

So what would your wishes (+ 2 bonus wishes) be?

More of the books

Local writers’ books  including mine recently on sale at the Hiltingbury Extravaganza.  Hope to see some of you at next week’s larger event, the Chandler’s Ford Book Fair.  Image by Allison Symes

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Thanks to Catherine Griffin for the excellent Book Fair poster.  Also to Sally Howard and all in Chandler’s Ford Authors who are organising this event.  Should be good!

Well, what IS your story? Image via Pixabay.

Well, what IS your story? Image via Pixabay.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

A flash fiction tale has to be complete in itself with a beginning, middle and end, but its great joy (for me at least) is the ability to imply so much more.

My story, Serving Up a Treat, is a tale of domestic abuse where the character brings an end to it. (For how you’ll need to see the book!). What is implied in this story is the backstory. It is implied that what has been happening to the character has gone on for a very long time.

The “snap” point should be expected so does the piece deliver on that expectation? Yes, it does. You do have to follow through! However, that doesn’t mean you have to spell out every last detail. In fact, with flash you can’t as there simply isn’t the room with the limited word count.

I’ve found flash fiction to be a great way of improving my blog posts, longer short stories etc because it forces you to ask what is REALLY important. What MUST the reader know? What can I drop hints at and leave them to work things out from there?

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From my railway station signing. The lovely origami boxes were made by my CFT editor, Janet Williams.  Image by Allison Symes

Writer at work. Image via Pixabay.

Writer at work! Flash fiction stories must be complete in themselves but they can imply so much.  Image via Pixabay.

 

Many thanks to all who’ve reviewed my book so far on Amazon and Goodreads. 

Goodreads – Author Programme – Blog Post

Why do you read? Like me, I suspect you have several answers to this. Mine include:-

1. For entertainment.
2. For education.
3. For research (for a story or post I’m writing. Not quite the same thing as for education above. I define that as reading to learn but for its own sake and not necessarily to “use” elsewhere).
4. Because I always have read and reading is simply part of what I am and do.
5. The book is nearly always better than the film!
6. I like to read at bedtime to help me unwind and have a better night’s sleep.
7. To widen my tastes in books and stories, I have to be prepared to try genres new to me so I see this as a kind of exploration of what’s out there. I have no idea at this stage whether I’m going to like what I read or not so can’t say if I will be entertained!
8. I’m thrilled to be published myself and I do see it as necessary to support the industry I’ve entered. How can I best do that? By buying and reading books! (A kind of self-help here I think).
9. To enjoy what my friends are writing!
10. To explore literary culture. In the last two years, for example, I’ve read and seen more Shakespeare plays than I ever have done and part of this is to expand my knowledge here. (It’s a very enjoyable exploration too and I love National Theatre Live for making it easier to go to see productions).

There is no right order for any of the above reasons for reading but they strike me as all being very good ones to do so!

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To write books you need to have a deep love for the written word and how else can you develop that other than by reading widely?  Image by Allison Symes

Other News

Many thanks to Jennifer C Wilson for hosting me on her excellent blog a little while ago.  I share the link to my post here (Falling into Flash Fiction), but highly recommend exploring the rest of her site and her paranormal historical fiction works, Kindred Spirits: Tower of London, Kindred Spirits:  Royal Mile, and The Last Plantagenet?  Jennifer is published by Crooked Cat but her most recent book, The Last Plantagenet?, is her first self-published novella.