Tag: short story collection

Author Interview – Introducing Hannah Retallick

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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 huge thank you to Hannah Retallick for supplying many of the images in my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week and to Wendy H Jones for creating some fabulous images for the December 2024 edition of Writers Narrative, which I’ve incorporated into a Book Brush collage below. Do check out the magazine itself – link below.
Hope you have had a good week to date. Storm Connell early in the week followed by bitterly cold days – it has been a mixed bag of a week here, weather wise. Lady has been running around so the cold doesn’t worry her. Writing wise, am thrilled to announce Writers’ Narrative is back – see more below on this. Written by writers for writers, it is well worth checking out. And it’s double blog day given my Chandler’s Ford Today and More than Writers posts are both out on the Friday.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

29th November 2024 – Post 1 – CFT

Quick bit of news just before I share double blog posts – lots going on today.. Am pleased to say I sent in a prompt for Flash NANO and Nancy Stohlman has chosen mine to be today’s one. I haven’t written up the prompt myself yet but do plan to do so later on and see what I can do with it!

Double blog day once more and this time I start with a stunning interview with Hannah Retallick on Chandler’s Ford Today. We celebrate her new (debut) short story collection, Something Very Human.

Hannah shares with me so many useful thoughts and tips any writer will find useful so do check the post out. Hope you find it useful and entertaining – I did!

Hannah and I are both short story and flash fiction writers. We’re also both published by Bridge House Publishing. We discuss the joys of writing in the short form, fiction wise, and look at marketing and writing routines amongst other topics.

Author Interview: Introducing Hannah Retallick

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29th November 2024 – Post 2 – More than Writers

Double blog day part 2! I’m delighted to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers with a timely piece called Light in the Darkness. Timely, of course, since we go into Advent at the weekend. Hope you find the piece encouraging and inspiring.

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Two pieces of great news to share tonight:-

1. Am sharing a fabulous interview with Hannah Retallick about her debut story collection, Something Very Human (Bridge House Publishing), on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. Hannah shares so much useful information, tips, and thoughts useful to writers so do check this out. See above.

2. Am thrilled to say Writers Narrative is back with the theme of cozy marketing and writing. My piece is about festive flash fiction which, given its nature is fun and lighthearted, is a very cozy read indeed! Check out the magazine below (and there’s a free to subscribe link within the magazine itself).

 

Brrr… a cold one today. Storm Connell has done some damage – most evident in the afternoon and evening walks I take with Lady. Flooding, parts of tracks swept away etc. Had to do a detour tonight. Having said that, she did get to have a good time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal this morning. The park just gets soggy. Think I’ll be living in my boots now until next March (if early 2025 proves to be good), next May (if it doesn’t!).

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom later this evening.

Will be sharing a fabulous interview with Hannah Retallick on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Be sure not to miss it – lots of useful and interesting thoughts for all writers. See above.

Will be a double blog day on Friday given my post on More Than Writers will also be out and I will be looking at Light in the Darkness for that one. Apt as we go into Advent. Again see above. Has been a busy week!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale here Fitting In. This one I would describe as a fairytale in reverse. Just what does happen to the Fairy Kingdom’s clumsiest fairy ever? Find out here.
Screenshot 2024-11-29 at 09-48-00 Fitting In by Allison Symes - Friday Flash Fiction

Many thanks to all who came to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom last night. The theme was festive flash fiction. I talk about the same topic for Writers’ Narrative this month which I am so glad to say is back. Its focus this issue is on cozy marketing and writing. Festive flash fiction fits in perfectly here given it is the ultimate, I think, in lighthearted reads – short, often funny, and definitely light, something I think is needed at that this time of the year. Link given up above.Screenshot 2024-11-28 at 16-32-08 Writers' Narrative Magazine December 2024 by scottandlawson - Issuu
As well as providing an interesting varIety of prompts, taking part in Flash NANO does mean you end up drafting stories in varying moods and genres. What will I do with these later? I hope some will go into a future collection. Others I will reserve for competitions.

Word count length has varied for the month – most have come in at the 500 words or fewer count. I have had a couple at the 100 word mark or so. None of this surprises me but I do find Flash NANO invaluable for (a) getting more flash written and (b) taking me out of my comfort zone with some of the prompts. The latter is good because it makes me “up my game”. No bad thing that.

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Fairytales with Bite – Mix Up by Allison Symes

Mix Up
It never pays to be in too much of a hurry.
It will only lead to trouble and worry.
As one fairy godmother, once of such great renown,
Found to her utter chagrin, it got her down.
Picking up the wrong wand by such a clumsy mistake
She turned a client into a fancy cake
Which was then scoffed by a so hungry and fast young elf
The fairy godmother was besides herself
With tremendous grief, ridicule, and later, with pain.
She became the Fairy Queen’s appointed bane.
She was then banished to Earth, speedily, just like that.
Now she can’t magic a rabbit from a hat.

Ends
Allison Symes – 27th November 2024

Hope you enjoyed that one.

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This World and Others – Borrowing From Other Worlds

How advanced is your setting? Does it have technology to travel to other worlds (openly or otherwise)? If so, does it like what it sees and does it “borrow” anything? The other world may not have anything taken from it but copying is an ancient business. So is the outright theft of a good idea!

So what would your characters bring back to their home world and how would these things be put to use? Does everyone back at home welcome the new “things” or are they fearful of them? Could they have good cause to be? There is potential for a humorous story in having a character bringing back all sorts of things, which never work out properly when he/she/it gets back home again.

Also give some thought if the world they’ve pinched ideas from get to travel across universes themselves, could they ever come to your character’s home world and discover what they’ve done? Could make for interesting clashes (and even more so if both worlds are trying to improve relations. Something like this could scupper that. What would the consequences be?).

Could other worlds borrow from what your setting has to offer and how could this come about? Who discovers your character’s home world in the first place and was it something they were deliberately seeking to do or something which they stumbled on accidentally?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Am so pleased Writers’ Narrative is back. Do see the link further up the post.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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New Year, New Writing Format for Val Penny

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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 Val Penny for supplying fab author pictures and book cover images for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. Many thanks to Richard Hardie for the publicity shot of me with my two flash fiction collections.
Hope you have had a good week. Cold with some snow here though Lady has been too busy having a lovely time with her best girlfriends over the park to take any notice of that! Writing wise, I share my first author interview of 2024 and look at why you can learn so much from reading/listening/watching these.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am delighted to welcome back Val Penny to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her changing from her usual long form work to the wonderful world of the short story.

Val tells me all about her new book, Hunter’s Christmas and Other Stories, in my CFT post New Year, New Writing Format for Val Penny. Does what it says on the tin, folks!

Plus there are plenty of super tips and thoughts on the short story form. Val shares with me, for example, what she found were the challenges of the short story form and what she thinks makes a character sustainable for more than one tale of any length.

Much to enjoy here and many thanks, Val, for a super interview. Good luck with the short story collection!

New Year, New Writing Format for Val Penny

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Brrrr…. I can always tell it is especially cold outside because it is the only time the water in my local swimming pool feels like I’m getting into a tepid bath! Trust me, I’m not, but it just feels like it given outside is worse!

Will be sharing my link to New Year, New Writing Format for Val Penny on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Do look out for that. See above. Lots of good tips and thoughts on the short form of writing.

Talking of short stories, I’ve got my first flash fiction competition entry off already this year. Next on the agenda is a potential longer short story for an anthology. Will probably look at that over the weekend. First draft done a while back so any time around now is a good time to come back to it so I can see it with fresh eyes and spot the errors. There will be some!

But then that’s the purpose of the first draft, isn’t it? Just get it down and come back and do the tidying up and sorting out later. Works for me. The crucial bit is having that time away from the first draft. It helps me to put some necessary distance between the rush of creativity where everything is wonderful and the downside where you think everything is rubbish to be able to spot yes, this bit is fine, this other bit needs work, and then get on and do said work.

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Lady got to play with her two girlfriends, the Vizler and Ridgeback, so is having a cracking time this week. As did they it must be said. Not quite as cold as yesterday but still time for the big coat. Fortunately most dog owners are well prepared. The new boots I had at Christmas are getting a very good airing!

Writing wise, it’s great to have my first author interview of the new year with Val Penny on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Double win here for me – we are talking about short stories too, which as you know are a huge love of mine. Link up on Friday. See above. I always find I learn a great deal from author interviews whether I conduct them, read them, listen to them etc.

Interviewing your characters by getting “them” to answer a few pertinent questions is a great way to get to know said characters well enough to write their stories up. I find the answers to said pertinent questions also throw up ideas for stories to put those characters in. If you’ve not tried this, give it a go.

You don’t need to ask a lot of questions – just a couple to get you started and these can range from finding out what your character tastes are (which will lead you to wonder why they have these) to what they would never do. The latter can lead you to dumping them right in it and having to face up to having to do this very thing – all good fun!

Author interviews are useful for another reason too. Long before my work started being published, I would study said interviews and look at the kinds of questions being asked. Let’s just say it’s proved to be excellent research material.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest story, Consequences. Just how strict can librarians be? Find out here and do you agree with the attitude of my librarian character here.

A huge thank you to all who have commented on this so far – check the comments out for their views on my librarian here!
Screenshot 2024-01-12 at 11-57-23 Consequences by Allison Symes

Hope you haven’t got too cold today. Lady is probably wondering why I am encouraging her to keep moving when we’re out and about right now. It’s not for her. It’s for me!

Looking forward to the first meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom later on this month. Will flag up Writing Magazine has a 500-word competition open at the moment. Deadline 15th February. For more details see the link.

There is an entry fee but it is cheaper if you are a subscriber to the magazine. (They also have a very useful competitions guide out with the magazine this month so if writing competitions are of interest to you, it would probably pay you to get a copy of this).

Screenshot 2024-01-12 at 09-55-31 Writing Competitions - Writers Online

I sometimes love playing around with well known sayings for titles/themes for stories. I’ve done this for my YouTube story Lost in a Bad Book. Why a bad one? Well, check out the video to find out why!

But changing one word in a phrase like that can be an excellent way to come up with something which is different and will grab attention. Wouldn’t you want to know how a book could be bad, for instance?

I’ve talked about using books of proverbs and sayings for inspiration before. It is worth doing and you can change the odd word here and there in such things to get even more ideas for stories. Well worth a go.

Fairytales With Bite – The Fairy’s Commandments

If there was such as a thing as a list of commandments for fairies to follow, I think it would look something like this.

  1. Never waste magical energy when common sense could solve a dilemma for you.
  2. Don’t transform animals into magical objects unless there is no choice. There was a bad backlash from the animal rights lobby after the Cinderella case.
  3. Make sure you can read your spells properly. Glass slippers, really? Those must have been horrible to wear. Nobody wants that happening again and it was assumed to be due to an elderly fairy godmother not reading said spell properly.
  4. Don’t let humans know of your existence especially when working in their world. They are curious enough creatures. We don’t need more curiosity from them. We don’t need them tracking our world down either. They’ll only try and colonize it.
  5. Know who and what you are taking on magically before you do so. Saves time and a lot of grief.
  6. Keep up to date spell books and always ensure your wands are fully charged.
  7. Always carry at least one spare wand. Things go wrong when out working. You need back up.
  8. If an evil witch wants to boast of her evil deeds, let her ramble on. You can spend the time working out how to outwit her.
  9. Make sure you know what your powers are and, more importantly, your limitations. We all have them. Then play to your strengths.
  10. If you are on call as the Tooth Fairy, try not to reach for the pliers unless the kid does have a long record of being obnoxious.

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This World and Others – Rules and Regulations

Rules and regulations are needed for any world including our fictional ones. Not the most interesting thing to think about perhaps but you do need to know how your world works. Where magic is involved, how far can it go? Would there be rules governing the behaviour of magical beings to ensure they don’t wipe out the non-magical ones? What can’t be solved with magic?

What are your characters expected to comply with? What does everyone have to know?

Rules and regulations will cover all aspects of life too so think about transport rules, government regulations etc. How do these all impact on your characters? Are there rules and regulations which should be abolished (no longer needed, times have changed etc) and is anyone trying to get these things removed?

If your setting has contact with other worlds (especially in trade), what are the differences between them? Are there odd rules one setting has to stick to and the others do not?

Are there rules your characters wished did exist and, if so, why? Also why haven’t these things come into being? (I would suspect a vested interest somewhere especially if the wished for rule would benefit the majority but that may be being a tad cynical!).

BookBrushImage-2024-1-12-19-5648WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2023-12-05 at 21-13-46 The December Magazine isHere

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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