Review – The Chameleon Theatre Company – The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley

November 14, 2025Leave a comment

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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. Lady has seen her friends, I’m making good progress with various writing tasks, and sometimes we’ve ducked the rain so I’d call that a good week! Oh and I have publication news too with more details to come in my next round up on Tuesday, 18th November.

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I’m delighted to share my review of The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley (best known as Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army, such a wonderful programme). This was recently staged by my local excellent amateur theatre group, The Chameleon Theatre Company.

I share a little of what the play is about (but no spoilers!) and look at the wonderful use of sound and lighting which made this play especially atmospheric. I also look at how good costuming does wonders for giving a real sense of time and place. Plus the acting was great.

Really good theatre should leave you feeling as if you have left the real world for a little while and this certainly did that for me. Hope you enjoy the review. It was a pleasure to see the play (and I was curious to see it too because of who it was written by, having long been a fan of Dad’s Army).

Review – The Chameleon Theatre Company – The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley

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Has been a mixed bag of a day. Lady did see her best buddies, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback, but later in the day, Lady was not wanting to put weight on one of her back legs. Visit to the vet (who was lovely). We think it’s a strain/a touch of arthritis (Lady is nine now) and we have to lead walk her only for short periods for the next couple of weeks and see how Lady gets on. Lady has had the odd strain before and this kind of treatment helps enormously so we hope and pray the same will be the case again. What Lady won’t like is not being able to run after a ball for a while…

In much happier news, I’m reviewing The Ghost Train recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up tomorrow. See above. The week after I’m reviewing again but this time that will be The Business of Murder, recently performed at the Chandler’s Ford Methodist Church. No reviews for ages and then two at once…

Am very happy to say I’ll be putting in a book order soon. How come? Well, another of my short stories is about to come out in the latest Bridge House Publishing anthology called Magi. More on that at the weekend.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Good time had by all and we even had some unexpected but most welcome sunshine.

Writing wise today, I hope to get plenty of “bits and pieces” done. I’ve a blog to finish and schedule and a review where I want to finish writing the text plus, of course, I will have today’s Flash NANO prompt to respond to as well. I’ve also an interview to prepare – always good fun to do these. I do like a good variety in my writing life.

Hope to have some more publication news soon too. See above! (More to come in my next round up).

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Am pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Recall. Occasionally I write a flash story with rhyming elements and this worked well for this tale. It suited my character’s narrative style. Do see what you think (and a huge thanks for the lovely comments coming in on this so far).

Am happily cracking on with the Flash NANO prompts and will have a go at today’s one shortly. I do love the variety. It is why I mix up the writing prompts I use generally. It keeps me on my toes and encourages further creative thinking. I also don’t want to ever just have to rely on one prompt type – why limit yourself?

I like to use the random generators (and there are so many of those, trust me you won’t run out of ones to try), books of prompts, story cubes, as well as going back through my notebooks every so often to pick up on ideas I jotted down during writing events. (It’s too easy to forget about those the moment you get home!).

Will be thinking about memories in flash fiction for the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this month. November is a month of memories for all sorts of reasons. (Many churches, including mine, have a memories service this month where we recall loved ones – it’s always a moving service).

Memories can drive action (from a character being determined to never do what someone in their past did or to do something better than they did). Memories can often form interesting narrative non-fiction articles – and that is the theme of this month’s Writers’ Narrative. Do check it out if you haven’t already – link below.

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Fairytales with Bite – Behind The Scenes

What goes on behind the scenes in your magical setting? There could be plenty of story ideas here from looking at what goes on behind the scenes in magical government, other magical establishments, but also how villages etc are run. Are there dominant families, for example? Are they beneficial overseers running the village well or do they make everyone else’s lives miserable?

When it comes to learning magical or other skills needed in your world, what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to training students? Can all benefit from this kind of tuition or is it limited to certain species only?

When fairies are sent out on missions to help others, how is it decided which fairy does what? Are there rivalries going on here? How is infighting dealt with or are your characters expect to “slug it out”?

In your setting, how were things set up in the first place and why was it done in this way? Who ensured things behind the scenes were set up the way they wanted? Was this truly in the best interest of your magical world?

Definitely story ideas there!

This World and Others – Staging

We can all think of those who stage things for their own benefit (and not just in the political world, though I suspect it is rife there!). In your magical setting, who would do this? There would be those who wield obvious power but lower down the scale, you can find those who would be manipulative if they had the chance to be so and get away with it.

So who would set things up for their benefit? How do they get away with it? Is what they stage ever challenged?

When it comes to entertainments in your magical setting, what forms do these take? Who would carry out the creative staging needed here? Is it appreciated by the general populace? Is magic used to help this process or is it expected other means would be used instead? (If you use magic everyday as the day job, you may well want something different when it comes to arranging your entertainment, else it would be what we’d know as a busman’s holiday).

When it comes to staging for political reasons, what is someone hoping to gain from this and why do they feel the need to do things this way?

Story ideas there too!

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Pleased to be back on FFF with my new drabble, Recall. Occasionally I write a flash tale with rhyming elements and it worked well here. It suited my character’s narrative style. See what you think (and thanks for the lovely comments coming in so far).https://t.co/MqFXuKZf3K pic.twitter.com/5CRtG3OHlc
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 14, 2025

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Delighted to share my review of The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley (aka Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army), staged by The Chameleon Theatre Company. Great theatre should leave you feeling as if you have left the real world for a while and this did that for me. https://t.co/dwiygS7AQE
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 14, 2025

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Author News – Allison Symes – Out and About With ACW

October 31, 2025Leave a comment

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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 the image of me at the most recent Hiltingbury Book Fair. I now use this as my Gravatar! Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good week. Had a lovely time watching The Chameleons perform Arnold Ridley’s Ghost Train. Review to follow in due course. Am off to another amateur production soon too. It’s all go. Author newsletter out again tomorrow. How can it be almost November already?

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31st October 2025 – First Post

Am thrilled to share Author News – Allison Symes – Out and About with ACW as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week, I review last week’s Autumn Gathering run by the Association of Christian Writers. I reflect on the presentations given (with so many helpful thoughts for all writers) and celebrate what was a lovely event. Hope you enjoy the post.

Author News – Allison Symes – Getting Out and About with ACW

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31st October 2025 – second post

As an extra post to the Chandler’s Ford Today one, I am delighted to say the Association of Christian Writers now has its own YouTube channel.

One thing to come out of the Egham day was that ACW members in attendance with books out had the opportunity to share a little bit about their books on this channel. Hope you enjoy the video below.

You will spot I am in full “just come in from a walk mode” here (so apologies for the wild hair but it is the authentic me you are getting!) but do check out the other authors and books here. There will be more videos to come too. There was a fantastic range of ACW works at the book table last week.

Hope the day has gone well. Quiet over the park but Lady and I had a lovely time. I then got on with my autumn working out – raking up leaves. (Lady is no good at this but is excellent in running through leaves, scattering them everywhere).

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Author News – Allison Symes – Out and About with ACW for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I’ll be looking back at a fabulous event in Egham last weekend and share some of what I thought came out from the theme of the presentations, all useful for any writer. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Am off out this evening to see The Chameleons’ latest production – Ghost Train (which was written by Arnold Ridley of Dad’s Army fame, he was Godfrey in that). Will review for CFT in due course. Will say now it was an excellent story but more to come in a future review.

Pleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with my latest blog post, Memories and Fiction. I look at how memories can inspire fiction and why characters should have memories (it helps make them more believable for one thing). Hope you enjoy the post.

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I don’t celebrate Halloween as I prefer to commemorate 1st November – All Souls Day – where you remember and celebrate those who have gone to heaven.

But for this week’s Friday Flash Fiction story I have come up with an appropriately titled piece for this time of year. I hope you enjoy Pumpkins.

One thing with flash is it is suitable for almost any topic but you do have to focus on one particular moment, one particular character. The essence of flash is to hone a story down to its essence.

What can be tricky is working out what the particular moment is you have to share with readers. Often you’ll have a great idea for a story but it will take more than your allowed word count to put in everything you want so you have to hone down to get to the spirit of the piece and focus on what will serve that alone.

It is why flash is a wonderful discipline and why it will do so much for your editing skills. With time and practice, you develop skills and instincts as to what does really matter in your stories.

Hope today has gone well. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal on what has been a murky day here.
I don’t tend to use the weather much in my flash and other stories. It can be open to cliche but you could use weather to influence your character’s mood and, as a result, what their attitude and behaviour might be. This will be especially effective if other characters in your story know your lead person isn’t normally like this.

Also the weather can be used to put another obstacle (or several) in your character’s way. What will they do/can they do to overcome that?

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Events

What kind of events are commemorated in your magical setting? I am thinking along the lines of historical events for your world but it could also include “scientific” discoveries in the field of magic being commemorated, especially if they have brought great benefits to your setting.

For example, if a particular spell helped boost your world’s equivalent of medicine, how would that be commemorated? Would your characters be encouraged to look at how life was before it was discovered and compare it with how things are now?

Naturally such events could be manipulated to keep folk under control so who would be behind that and why did they feel the need to have the Roman equivalent of “bread and circuses” to contain their magical world?

Who set up magical events in the first place and, even where there is a good reason for having these things, what did they have to do to persuade others to have these things?

I’ve always imagined that organising magical beings to do anything would be like herding cats – technically possible, of course, but nigh on impossible to actually do, so how did your person get these things set up?

Could be some funny stories here. Also there could be good stories to be had with the magical event concerned as the backdrop.

This World and Others – Commemorations and Sombre Events

Now for Fairytales with Bite above, I was assuming the magical events in question would be jolly ones. But there are other types of events of course, including formal commemorations and more sombre events.

For example, what would your world’s equivalent be of Remembrance Sunday? All worlds would have some history behind them. If there is one thing I do know about history, it is that it is so often grim. And while that may not come into play for your story directly, a world setting would hint at its past in some way, including things like this. It would help a reader picture your world more. It would make it seem more real.

Also your characters would refer to events of any kind going on, especially if you did use them as a backdrop. Also it could form part of their conversation – e.g. “did you get to Event X last week? Did you hear what happened?” etc. That kind of chatter would have a direct impact on your story. There would be consequences from the chatter as well as from readers finding out what did happen.

In the development of magic, there would be good developments and bad ones. So could your more sombre events remember those times when things went badly wrong? How did your world come to terms with this? What impact does it have on your setting now? Were your characters involved in these things in any way or are they the descendants of those behind what may well have been a tragedy? How do they come to terms with the past here?

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More than Writers: Memories and Fiction by Allison Symes https://t.co/AntHraiWX5 Pleased to be back on MTW, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with my Memories and Fiction. I look at how memories can inspire fiction and why characters should have memories. pic.twitter.com/AS49PCt9Er
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 29, 2025

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I don’t celebrate Halloween as I prefer to commemorate 1st November – All Souls Day – where you remember those in heaven. But for this week’s Friday Flash Fiction story I have come up with an apt title for this time of year. I hope you enjoy Pumpkins.https://t.co/52BdYVIHsh pic.twitter.com/eHXF7lPpON
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 31, 2025

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Author News – Allison Symes – Getting Out and About with ACW https://t.co/lVkzEjIpPf
I review last week’s Autumn Gathering run by the Association of Christian Writers. I reflect on the presentations (with so many helpful thoughts for all writers) and celebrate a lovely event.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 31, 2025

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As an extra post to the CFT one, I'm delighted to say ACW now has a YouTube channel. One thing to come out of the Egham day was ACW members in attendance with books out had the opportunity to talk about these on this channel. Hope you enjoy the video.https://t.co/issx9ugWhC
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 31, 2025

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Review – The Chameleon Theatre Company – Notes From A Small Island

August 1, 2025Leave a comment

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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.

Have had a good week. Hope you have too. Lovely meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday, Looking forward to supporting Rosemary Johnson’s online launch for her Past and Present (Bridge House Publishing) short story collection via Eventbrite later on Friday 1st August. Lady has had a good week, catching up with her closest buddies, to the joy of all.

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1st August 2025

First post of two here tonight. I’m pleased to share my review of the recent Chameleon Theatre Company production of Notes From A Small Island for Chandler’s Ford Today. The bestselling book by Bill Bryston was adapted for the stage by Tim Whitnall.

My lovely editor from CFT, Janet Williams, and I went to see the play a week or so ago and had a great time. I remain amazed at what the Chameleons can produce on what is not the world’s biggest stage!

For more see the post. Note to self: now read the book! This show was unusual in that it is the first time I’ve seen an adaptation of a book without having read the book first.

Review – The Chameleon Theatre Group – Notes From A Small Island

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1st August 2025

Second post of two here tonight. Glad to say my author newsletter went out again earlier today. Just where does the year go? Hard to believe it’s August already. My theme this time was flash flexibility.

Also delighted to say the August edition of Writers’ Narrative came out today. (Too late to include in my newsletter but I will include it with the next one). The theme this time is Cover Design and my article here is called Cover Design and Why It Matters.

And as it is the weekend it is time for a good read, is it not? Link below to the magazine.

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Hope today has been good for you. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals again, ahead of the rain too, so all had a lovely time.

Will be sharing my review of The Chameleon Theatre Company’s production of Notes From A Small Island on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Plus I will be supporting Rosemary Johnson for her online book launch for Past and Present (Bridge House Publishing) tomorrow evening. So the beginning of August will get off to a cracking start (especially given my author newsletter will be out too).

Had a lovely meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday evening. Plenty to think about and ideas to try from the theme of summer too.

Found out today my story for The Bridport Prize didn’t make the cut so will have to try again for that competition next year. I will have another look at my story at some point and see if I can improve it and send it somewhere else. I have done this before with stories going on to be published elsewhere. All part and parcel of the writing life…

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady has had a fantastic one in that she had a good run around with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal while their Hungarian Vizler pal looked on. All were very happy dogs and it is lovely to see how pleased they always are to see each other. Humans can learn a thing or two from that! I was also pleased to get a short bonus swim in – the water was lovely.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this evening. Glad to report good time had by all and plenty of excellent results from the exercises I set too.

Also looking forward to Rosemary Johnson’s book launch for her Past and Present (Bridge House Publishing) on Friday. A busy but fun week!

Will be sharing my review of Notes From A Small Island which was recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. My newsletter will be out again then too.

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It’s Friday and time for another story. I hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction called Clock Watching. Thrilled to see I am the Editor’s Choice this week too. Hope you enjoy the drabble.

Some of the most popular flash fiction competition word count limits are the 100, 250, 300, and 500 words ones. Ironically, I am preparing a story for a 750 word competition as I write this! Those come up sometimes too but, by far, there are more flash competitions for the sub-500 word count limit so it is worth practicing writing to these.

Following my advice yesterday (see below) about using postcards to write a story on literally or just accepting this would be a 50 to 100 word count limit would also help practice here!

I mentioned as part of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting yesterday that the theme of summer (or indeed any of the seasons) can be wonderful backdrops to your stories. You won’t need to spell out a time frame in detail if you, say, set a story against someone watching a Wimbledon tennis match live. Everyone will know that’s in the summer. This can save so much on your word count and makes for tighter writing.

I set a series of exercises based on postcards (and the amount of words you get on them) for a recent post for More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers.

Why not give this a go? Depending on the size of your handwriting, you can only get 50 to 100 words on there so these exercises come with an inbuilt word count limit!

You could think along the lines of what would your characters write home about. Also give some thought as to what they might tell you as their creator. It may well not be flattering but could they reveal something about themselves to trigger further story ideas for them. Worth a go and it’s a good fun exercise.

The postcard idea is to make you focus on the one thing a character would reveal as you literally wouldn’t have room for anything else. So if you need to work on character focus, this idea is definitely worth trying.

Fairytales with Bite – Preserving the Past

Does your magical setting cherish its past, fear it, or does it do everything it can to cover it up? What we see as fairytales do they see as actual historical events? Do they think we’ve got them right or wrong?

Are stories/books stored in libraries as we would know them? Who would be the custodians of them and is anyone allowed access? Can anyone read the stories kept at home or are your characters not allowed to do this? Is education limited? It always interests me when this is done because you have to ask what are the powers that be afraid of he ordinary folk find out? There will be something!

If the past is treasured, as I hope it would be (you have to learn from the good and the bad after all), who would do this? What would your setting’s equivalent be of librarians, archivists, archaeologists etc? What items would they be looking after? How do they care for these things properly? Do they copy any of our techniques here?

This World and Others – Hiding the Past

Following on from Fairytales with Bite, if the past isn’t treasured, who hides it? How do they do this and who finds them out? Sure to be cracking story ideas working that out!

What are the reasons to hide the past? Is it all hidden or just a specific era or incident? Could there be good reasons for doing this? Could the discovery of this be used to cause ruin to others for good or evil purposes?

If something rotten needs to be exposed for the greater good, who does this, what led them to decide it had to be done, and do they have help at all? Can magic come to their aid or does it complicate matters?

Naturally there would be opponents to this. What have they got to lose if your character’s quest succeeds in exposing the truth? How would the discovery change the way the world (or a particular area of it) is governed? What impact could there be on those lower down in the “chain”?

Who initially made the decision to hide the past in question and had they any good reasons to do so? Naturally you get to decide how you define good here!

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August 2025 edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out too. See above for the link to that.

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It’s Friday and time for another story. I hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction called Clock Watching. Thrilled to see I am the Editor’s Choice this week too. Hope you enjoy the drabble.https://t.co/fTW6RwpMkH pic.twitter.com/r2UAfyNuOk
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 1, 2025

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Glad to say my author newsletter went out earlier today. My theme was flash flexibility.

Also delighted to say the August edition of Writers’ Narrative came out today. The theme is Cover Design.
My article here is Cover Design and Why It Matters. https://t.co/ZNflRfuEC8
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 1, 2025

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Review – The Chameleon Theatre Group – Notes From A Small Island https://t.co/BQd1MDnHd6 Pleased to share my review of the Chameleon Theatre Company production of Notes From A Small Island. My lovely CFT editor, Janet Williams, and I saw the play last week and had a great time.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 1, 2025

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Author Interview: Introducing Esther Chilton and The Secret Dragon

July 25, 2025Leave a comment

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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 Esther Chilton for supplying book and author pictures for my interview with her on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Great interview too.

Hope you have had a good week. Mine has involved going to see a local theatre production (a hugely funny one too), starting to get ready for Swanwick (will be doing some volunteer sessions so wanted to make sure those were ready), and plenty on the writing front. Lady has had a nice week so far too, getting to see some of her friends. Looking forward to a trip out at the weekend too.

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It’s a pleasure to welcome fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new children’s book, The Secret Dragon.

While I am well outside the age range (the books is aimed at the 5-7 bracket!), the blurb and extract intrigues me. I almost wish I was back in that age range again! Do check out the post to read these.

Esther also shares useful writing and marketing tips, the background to how The Secret Dragon came about, discusses her writing journey to date including her work with The Writers’ Bureau, and much else besides.

Many thanks, Esther, for a fascinating interview.

Author Interview: Introducing Esther Chilton and The Secret Dragon

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Hope today has been okay.

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing a fabulous interview with fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, about her new children’s book, The Secret Dragon, for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Off to watch The Chameleon Theatre Company perform Bill Bryson’s Notes From A Small Island later. Am sure there will be plenty of laughs, given all I have heard about the book. Hope to review for CFT in about a week or so.

Writing wise, I’m busy with my usual stories and blogs. Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week too.

Hope to get plenty of writing done while on the train on Saturday as I go to visit the Jane Austen exhibition in the Dorset Museum in Dorchester.

Hope you have had a nice day. Lady got to show off in front of her Hungarian Vizler pal today so was most happy about that. Her chum looks on indulgently, almost like a proud granny.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to welcoming Esther Chilton to Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday to discuss her new book, The Secret Dragon. Also looking forward to catching up with Esther in person at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick which is not far away now.

Am off to the theatre tomorrow night to watch The Chameleon Theatre Company perform Bill Bryson’s Notes From a Small lsland. Should be fun. Will also enjoy catching up again with my lovely CFT editor, Janet Williams.

Writing Tip: When you go out and about over the summer months, try to jot down a few notes of impressions, sights, sounds etc which you may well be able to use in a story later on.

I’m looking forward to seeing a Jane Austen exhibition on Saturday so (a) plan to follow my own advice here and (b) get an article out of it for CFT. But trips out give you a chance to see new things and even familiar ones in your own area in a new way so you may be able to use aspects of that for your writing.

Also bear in mind you can check out the websites of various places. Some have virtual tours which might inspire you too.

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Two bits of news here tonight. Firstly, a huge thanks to Rosemary Johnson for a lovely shout out over on her website. This links in with her book launch on 1st August for Past and Present, which was recently published by Bridge House Publishing. I plan to reshare the Eventbrite link for this during the next few days so do look out for that.

Secondly, it is lovely to end the working week with another story on Friday Flash Fiction. I hope you enjoy my latest here, Postcards Home. Is Barry right to worry about Shirley’s intentions here?

I got into the habit of reading my work out loud to hear how dialogue works when I was preparing for my first Open Prose Mic night, many years ago.

It was a joy to find Zoom will convert a recording you make with yourself into an mp4 file (can also get mp3 – audio) so I could play back how I came across.

I found from that I have a tendency to speak a little too fast (I blame the old adrenaline for that!) but it means I know I have to watch for this so I can slow myself down.

I hope to put my name down for the Open Prose Mic at The Writers Summer School, Swanwick again and, if picked, am hoping to get to read some material from my Seeing The Other Side. If that works out, it will be a joy to do it. Always lovely to share new material. It’s fun too.

Am also looking forward to Rosemary Johnson’s book launch via Eventbrite on 1st August for her recently published collection, Past and Present. Always good to hear when people I know have new books out. It’s even nicer when they’re with the same publishing house as me.

Flash Tip: When thinking about your character, ask yourself why would a reader want to find out what they get up to? What is it about them which appeals to a potential audience?

There has to be something a reader will latch on to with your creation. Mind you, they don’t have to like them. I can think of a few of my characters I would never share a cup of tea with, if that were possible!

Fairytales with Bite – Sharing News

Aside from what might be considered the equivalent of our media (social or otherwise), how do your magical characters get to share news?

Is telepathy a reality in your setting? Are there any controls over its usage? Can only certain species use it? What would happen if a banned species gets to develop/use telepathy themselves? What is there in place to prevent sensitive information being shared this way?

If telepathy isn’t a thing, what other magical means of sharing news would your world use instead? Would your world consider copying what we have here in terms of technology (because they could see that as a form of magic)?

Also, are the “old school” ways of sharing news still going? Think of things like the town crier, messengers sent out from villages to gather information, and those who come to villages as part of their duties. Could the sharing of news be used as a kind of barter system between different species and/or settlements in your world? If this was a settled pattern, what or whom could disrupt that and why would they do so? Is it for the best they do or are there evil plans afoot?

Also, whatever the way news is shared, is the news itself generally considered reliable? Can it be verified and who would do that?

This World and Others – Media

Wherever there is news, there would be some sort of media to spread it. Who controls that media? Is magic used in running it and, if so, who controls that and ensures it is used properly? Is the media available to all? What do your characters make of it?

Are your characters involved in producing it/presenting it? How critical or otherwise is the media in your setting of the powers that be?

Has your setting copied what media types we have here or is there something they have which we could never reproduce here? What matters here, I think, is your readers can make sense of this kind of “technology” so they can see how it would work without necessarily going into all of the details of how. Just give readers enough to see how it could be if your world existed and they had this/that capacity…

As for media itself, any form of power, including this one, can be used for great good or evil, of course. It will be how you exploit that thought which will make for gripping stories. Can your characters make use of the media they’ve got to help their cause or must they do everything they can to ensure the media doesn’t get wind of their story until the proper time?

Can your villains exploit the media for their own purposes and cause further problems for your leads?

That could be fun to find out!

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It is lovely to end the working week with another story on Friday Flash Fiction. I hope you enjoy my latest here, Postcards Home. See whether Barry is right to worry about Shirley’s intentions here.https://t.co/otrnogegFT pic.twitter.com/oT0M7Pwjt2
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) July 25, 2025

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Author Interview: Introducing Esther Chilton and The Secret Dragon https://t.co/x7C4YakrzU Am pleased to welcome fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, to Chandler's Ford Today. She shares writing/marketing tips, how The Secret Dragon came about, and more.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) July 25, 2025

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Books Which Live On

July 22, 2025Leave a comment

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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. One image of me holding Creativity Matters and my flash collections was taken by Adrian Symes, as was the photo of me signing copies of Tripping The Flash Fantastic. I was being watched over by a distinctly unimpressed Lady! Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you had a good weekend. Fabulous one here – lovely family party. Good time had by all, including the dogs. Lady was so tired on Saturday night! Pleased to say the second part of the serialisation of Seeing The Other Side is now on CafeLit – link below. Looking forward also to helping a friend with her online book launch on 1st August – details below.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady had a lovely time in the park. Have been very busy, so much so my feet feel like they need a retread! Good to be at the desk writing.

Don’t forget it won’t be long before my next author newsletter will be out. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I share news, tips, discuss a topic, and share story links, including to the partial serialisation of my Seeing The Other Side plus more on my newsletter. Would be good to have you aboard. A huge thanks to all who support me here. It is much appreciated.

Am looking forward to watching The Chameleon Theatre Company perform the stage version of Bill Bryson’s Notes From A Small Island later this week. Should be great fun. I plan to review it for Chandler’s Ford Today at a later date.

Plus I am off to visit a Jane Austen exhibition at the weekend. Plenty going on. Loving it all.

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Hope your week has got off to a good start. Lady got to play with Coco, the lovely Labradoodle, today and saw Tao, who looks as if he could be Lady’s big brother (but isn’t!).

Event News: Am delighted to say I’ll be quizzing dear friend and former ACW colleague, Rosemary Johnson, about her new book, Past and Present, which has recently been published by Bridge House Publishing. She will be holding an online book launch via Eventbrite, hosted by Bridge House Publishing, on Friday 1st August from 7.15 pm (UK time). The event will last for an hour.

Do check out the link to find out more – the event is free. Rosemary will also be sharing extracts from her book so if you love stories, especially those of a historical ilk, do come and join us on 1st August. And you can put questions to the author herself too. Hope to see you there.

Lovely family party yesterday. Weather okay in the end (and thankfully cooler thanks to the rain in the morning). Lady enjoyed playing the role of doggy host to Lily and Teddy. Lady was absolutely shattered at the end – caught her out for the count in our passageway. She also slept really well last night but I suspect those of us with two legs, as well as those with the four, all did!

In writing news, I will have news of an event I am helping with for a friend’s book launch in the next day or so. Launch itself will be on 1st August. See above.

Serialisation News: And I am pleased to share the second part of the serialisation of my Seeing The Other Side (due out on May 2026). Hope you enjoy the selection in the link.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Other half had his birthday yesterday. Family do today. Great fun. Wonderful seeing everyone. Knackering? You bet but isn’t that the sign of a good party?

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to welcoming fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, to Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday to discuss her new book, The Secret Dragon. Looking forward to sharing that. The book is aimed at 5-7 year olds and I can tell you now the blurb and extract she shares with me for the post makes me almost wish I was that age range again! More nearer the time.

Sometimes things occur which you hadn’t thought about but it has a special resonance. Yesterday, 18th July, I shared my Authors Electric post about Jane Austen. Her birthday is commemorated later this year (December) but 18th July is the anniversary of her death in Winchester. I hadn’t picked up on that. Always good to re-read her works though. You don’t need a special event for that.

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Hope the day has been a good one. Have a couple of competitions (flash ones) in mind to start drafting for at the weekend (or at least I hope to get to do that. Do have plenty of time for the deadlines which helps).

Also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week. Will be looking at the topic of summer for that. The seasons can throw up plenty of ideas for stories.

Also do consider using the game of Word Association to help trigger prompts, which in turn can trigger story ideas.

It’s Monday. It has been an especially hectic one, at least for me. All I know is it is time for a story. Hope you like my latest on You Tube – Prompts.

Which three prompts could Shirley pick out to cause any concern to Barry, someone who has never understood her wish to write? Find out here.

Hope all well with you. Will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday shortly after a lively and fabulous weekend.

The second part of the serialisation of my Seeing The Other Side is now out on CafeLit. See the link (though it is over on my author page here too).

One of the nice things about having a book accepted is getting to read your stories again after a gap apart from them. I hope to take part in the Open Prose Mic night at Swanwick again this year so hope to share some of my new material from this book there too.
Did manage to get my competition story off during the week, the one I mentioned last weekend. Have another competition to have a crack at – a lovely 750 words one. Plus there is another one which links with a book festival where I can go up to 1000 words.

I sometimes have a look at my past Flash NANO stories and polish those up for competitions. They’ve had long enough to rest up before I use them. I can usually spot things I can strengthen them so I do. When I draft those tales for the event in November each year, I do have this idea in mind. I’ve found it useful.

Goodreads Author Blog – Books Which Live On

Books which live on is an apt topic for me at the moment as I’ve just written about Jane Austen for another blog I contribute to monthly and it was a lovely, enjoyable thing to do. Her books will live on and have lived on long after her because she creates such memorable characters and situations. That, I think, is the secret to any good story.

Yes, sure, styles of storytelling do change over the years. We don’t need descriptions in the way Dickens wrote them because we have our own references to helps us picture things. His readers would not have had those things – being in the film, radio and TV age does make a difference, as does universal education. But we can still understand his characters and what motivates them. I do feel it is the characters which are the important connection in any story.

Any book which does that should live on. I think the classic books can give us insights as to how life was lived back then so they can be educational in that respect. I don’t want stories dismissed just because they’re old or not read for that reason. (Same applies to the authors!).

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Books Which Live On https://t.co/mfGv68FeQy via @goodreads I look at why books should live on long after their authors have left us and what I think helps here for Goodreads this week. pic.twitter.com/QqBzNzdV2R
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) July 19, 2025

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I am pleased to share the second part of the serialisation of my Seeing The Other Side (due out on May 2026).

Hope you enjoy the selection in the link below.https://t.co/nozuFM8j2x pic.twitter.com/rprfdoyu6z
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) July 20, 2025

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It’s Monday. It has been hectic. All I know is it is time for a story. Hope you like my latest on You Tube – Prompts.

Which three prompts could Shirley pick out to cause any concern to Barry, someone who has never understood her wish to write? https://t.co/5inkS6p8Y6
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) July 21, 2025

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Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at the Open Evening

June 20, 2025Leave a comment

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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. The Creativity Matters image was kindly supplied by Wendy H Jones. One image of me with books taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good week so far. Has become hot here so Lady has had to miss some of her walks (getting too hot in the afternoons basically). Writing continues to go well. Glad I can do that in the cool at least!

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Hope you have had a good day. Another hot one here but thankfully the morning was much cooler and Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals before it became too hot. No outings this afternoon!

Delighted to share Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at The Open Evening for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It was a joy to go to the Open Evening and I even found a Symes family link and odd visitors to the Ritchie Hall where The Chameleons are based. Full report in the post.

Hope you enjoy it and many congratulations to The Chameleons for reaching such a wonderful milestone.

Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at the Open Evening

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Hope you’ve had a good day and managed to stay cool. Lady had a lovely time in the park while it was cool enough this morning but a quiet afternoon as it heated up considerably after about 2 pm where I am. I took the chance to have a good swim and felt much refreshed for that!

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at the Open Evening for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on that tomorrow. See above.

Writing wise, I am busy editing, preparing blogs and flash fiction, and putting the finishing touches to my presentation for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. Best of all, I keep cool while doing all of that.

Writing Thought: One positive thing about the hot weather where I am at the moment is I need to get up and take drinks more often and later on answer the call of nature. So I guess the hot weather is giving me additional screen breaks! These are important.

I have found I work better (and for longer overall) if I build these mini breaks into my writing sessions. Else you can find yourself getting bogged down and too tired simply due to things like dehydration and eye strain from being at the screen for too long in one “hit”.

All I know from that is it doesn’t help your writing at all.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals this morning before it became too hot. I didn’t take her out this afternoon. She and I were not sorry about that.

Delighted to be back on Authors Electric talking about Themes. I look at how I use these for creating characters and stories and why I find them useful for workshops I run and my monthly newsletter.

I also share a theme I used recently and on which I based an exercise, which I share again here.

Hope you give it a go and find the post useful.

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Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my Trifling Around. This one is a fun, summer related piece. Doesn’t even matter if, like me, you loathe trifle (sorry, I never have liked the custard, all the other ingredients would be okay though!). Hope you enjoy it.
One question all writers need to be prepared to answer is the inevitable one – what do you write? I was asked this earlier this week at a group I go to when I mentioned my third book is due out next year. So I told them!

But that meant I know what to say, having given this prior thought. I also know to keep it short. I can always take further questions from people later but a brief summary of what you write is always handy for a writer to have to hand. It’s good practice in flash fiction writing too as you do basically want a one line summary.

An exercise I set for a recent Association of Christian Writers Flash Group Meeting was based on the theme of Tens. The exercise was to write a story in exactly ten words. Nothing more. Nothing less. Why not give it a go?

The point of this exercise, funnily enough, is to give practice in writing straplines for longer works later on. Ten words works well for this.

My From Light to Dark and Back Again has the strapline of A collection of very short stories to suit every mood. Ten words to the full stop! Did I get that done in one go? Oh no.

Also ten word stories are fun and easy to share on social media etc. This is one of those I came up with for that exercise. Hope you enjoy it.

The aliens diverted past Earth, as they’d heard about humans.

Allison Symes – June 2025

Well, you couldn’t blame them, could you?

Fairytales with Bite – Good News

I’ve recently had the excellent news my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side, will be out in May 2026 with a partial serialisation of the book coming this July. Naturally I reacted pretty well to this news! I also want to say a huge thanks to all who sent congratulations etc via my Facebook page, all much appreciated.

But my good news led me to wonder what would your characters see as good news and why? What situations could you have where one character sees something as good news and another as anything but? Who would be right?

How would your characters receive any kind of news? Is their technology the same as ours or significantly better or worse? Could the problems with their technology lead to your characters doing something which would usually be frowned upon in their world but where they honestly feel they have no choice?

What news is so important to them they have to “cheat” to get it through? Do they get away with it? What happens when the news does get through? There is bound to be a reaction of some kind which in turn is likely to drive further drama/tension and actions with consequences. (All great for storytelling though!)

This World and Others – Handling The News

There can never be any one great way to handle news, bad or otherwise. It all depends on the individual, of course, but you might like to look at that aspect for finding out more about your characters, which could prove useful for whatever story you put them in.

Do your characters take things calmly or do they make the biggest fuss imaginable over even the slightest bit of bad news? What drives your characters to react this way? Is your character wary of “drama” and so they make themselves react calmly, no matter what? How do they do this? What led them to decide this was the best way to be? There will be stories behind all of that.

As for news via media, who does get to handle it before the public can know about it? Is there government interference here or are the broadcasters genuinely independent? Who does get to decide what news the public gets to find out about?

Even if there is no official “interference” who gets to make the editorial decisions and can they be “bought” at all? What would happen if they broke a story the government would not/did not want to go public?

Handling the news can be tricky indeed.

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Authors Electric: Themes by Allison Symes https://t.co/muIQmQRDWJ Glad to be back on AE. I use themes for creating characters/stories, workshops and my newsletter. I also share a theme I used recently on which I set an exercise, which I share here. Why not try it? pic.twitter.com/pC0hPAsPeK
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 18, 2025

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Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at the Open Evening https://t.co/04CcizNlOQ The Open Evening was a joy. I found a Symes family link and odd visitors to Ritchie Hall where the company are based. Well done, Chameleons, for reaching a great milestone.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 20, 2025

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Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my Trifling Around. This one is a fun, summer related piece. Doesn’t even matter if, like me, you loathe trifle (sorry, I never have liked custard, the other ingredients would be okay though!). https://t.co/QWFYL5G8Qe pic.twitter.com/UBzSNmPDVa
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 20, 2025

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Review – The Chameleon Theatre Company – I’ll Be Back Before Midnight

November 8, 2024Leave a comment

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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 Janet Williams for taking the image of me at The Hilt Book Fair and to Adrian Symes for taking the image of me holding The Best of CafeLit 13. A huge thank you to the lovely folk at The Chameleon Theatre Company for kind permission to use their photos in my Chandler’s Ford Today post reviewing their recently performed I’ll Be Back Before Midnight.

Hope you have had a good week so far. Not bad here. Delighted to share my review of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Plays are another way of taking in stories and I have discovered many fantastic ones going to see the various shows The Chameleons have put on over the years. It will be panto time for them next – oh yes, it will be!

Am busy with Flash NANO and preparing separate flash pieces for competitions plus there will be further author interviews to come on CFT. Still with the weather being dark, murky and damp, I am so thankful writing is something which is generally done indoors! It is no hardship to sit at my desk in a nice warm room!

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Lady had a smashing day today in she got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend and then play with Coco, her young Labradoodle pal. Damp, dull, and murky weather again today though.

Delighted to share my review of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. One of the joys of my involvement with CFT has been discovering my local amateur theatre company.

I review the performance and the play itself (so if you get a chance to see it elsewhere, please do. I haven’t given too much away, just enough of a flavour for you to get a good idea that this is a cracking thriller, well worth seeing).

Hope you enjoy the post and well done to the splendid Chameleons for a fantastic performance. They also build their own sets. The work they did for this one was amazing and their lighting/sound crew were brilliant, adding so much to this play.

Review – The Chameleon Theatre Company – I’ll Be Back Before Midnight

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My review of I’ll Be Be Back Before Midnight recently staged by The Chameleon Theatre Company on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Do check it out. See above.

As well as reviewing the performance, I take a look at the play itself and this one has a fabulous storyline which kept me on the edge of my set all evening.

One of the joys of loving stories, writing, reading, or watching them (as plays), is you do get to learn how stories work. You take this in as you read, watch or listen, I find. And all of that you can apply to your own writing. It does mean when I go to see a show, especially a thriller like Midnight,

I am looking out for what I think might be red herrings, bluffs etc. It is a joy when I spot them but it is an even better one when I am wrong footed. For a book, I will then go back through and see how the author managed to do that. So much to learn here. It is a pleasure to do it too.

Hope you have had a lovely day. Lady is having a tremendous week in that she played with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals again. Sadly though her Chuckit ball thrower broke (the ball holder end sheered off!) but fortunately we have a spare. Have had the thing for years and it does get a lot of heavy duty usage so fair wear and tear here. Lady has more than tested it!

I’ll be sharing my review of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight recently staged by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that. The play had a fabulous storyline. More later in the week. See above.

Am cracking on with Flash NANO 2024.Will be tackling Day 6’s prompt shortly.

Writing Tip: If you outline your characters (as I do, even if you outline briefly), give some thought as to their vocabulary. What kinds of words would they use? Which would they never use? How does their educational background feed into this?

You can tell a lot about a character from what they say and think. When editing, just ensure there is consistency here and also ask yourself if readers can tell characters apart just on the grounds of how they speak. They should be able to do so.

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Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, Okay. When a friend rings you to find out how you are after a divorce, what answer would you give? Find out what Beth says to Jenny here – and that all is not as it might seem.

Looking forward to having a go at Flash NANO’s Day 7 prompt later. Again it is so different from all of the others so far. This is the joy of this challenge – not knowing what is coming and having a go at as many prompts as I can manage.

I know I’m going to be late with one over the weekend as I have a family do happening (Lady will love the company and the food!) but I will catch up and enjoy doing so. My word count so far has varied but it always does for this.

I would like to see if I could write a 50 worder (aka a dribble) at some point over November for this. Didn’t manage it last year (the lowest word count was a 30 word exactly tale).

Am also preparing separately three flash pieces for competitions which I want to have out by early December. So plenty going on with the flash fiction right now.

Now I’m sure the thought of a certain event in December is not too far from your minds and there is one simple thing you can do to cheer up any author – well two actually.

One is obviously to buy their books. The other is to leave a review. Reviews don’t have to be long but every single one helps a build the author’s profile with Amazon. I’ve had some lovely reviews for From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic though more are always welcome – neither is there a use buy date on these things!

You can check out my works (and the anthologies I’ve been in including the recent The Best of CafeLit 13) via my Amazon Author Central Page at https://author.to/AllisonSymesAuthorCent

Aptly my reviews are on the short side but this is right for flash fiction books, yes?!

Fairytales with Bite – Getting in the Way

Who or what gets in the way of your magical creations achieving their ambitions? Are their own powers limited? Is there an overriding authority who controls what being can do what kind of magic and how is that policed, if so? There is always someone who wants to break the rules. Can your characters get in their own way where ambition is dwarfed by their lack of competence? (There would be some funny tales to be written there).

When something or someone gets in the way, how does your character react to this? What do they do to try and overcome the problem? Do they succeed or only make things worse (again potential for humour there)?

Fairy godmothers often put something in the way of a being they’re punishing, something they have to achieve. (In the case of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast he has to win love from Belle to be set free. He has to make the effort here). So having something getting in the way isn’t always a bad thing and you can capitalize on that for your characters.

This World and Others – Who Obeys Whom?

In your magical setting, who lays down the rules? Who decides who has what magical powers? If these things are a species issue given at birth, how did these originate? What are the limits? Overall, who controls the use of magic and how did that come about? (The reason why is obvious – to prevent chaos and to give more beings a chance of surviving).

Is your system of government a monarchy, a republic, or something else entirely (such as a ruling Council)? What are the consequences of not obeying the top beings here?

Can your beings make progress and develop further magical powers if they “fit in with the system”? Are they rewarded for being obedient? Or is it a case they have little choice but to obey if they wish to see the end of the day alive and in one piece?

Can reforms happen and if so, when were the last ones done and why? What struggles did the beings concerned have to overcome to get these reforms through? You can learn so much from history here and it can inspire many tales. I understand Game of Thrones by George R R Martin is inspired by the UK’s War of the Roses in the medieval period.

Has your system moved away from a “might is right” attitude, having learned its lessons from its own bloody history?

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This time I share the June 2024 magazine which was based on the theme of poetry. I look at the links between flash fiction writing and poetry in this one. There are more than you might think.

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Review – The Chameleon Theatre Company – I'll Be Back Before Midnight https://t.co/6dNoaq8W9M I review The Chameleons' recent fantastic performance of a cracking thriller. They build their sets. This one was amazing, as were their lighting/sound crew. It added much to the play.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 8, 2024

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Okay, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/gakXsXhcY4 Pleased to be back on FFF with my new tale, Okay. When a friend rings to ask how you are after a divorce, what answer would you give? Find out what Beth says to Jenny – and that all is not as it might seem. pic.twitter.com/bZ4vvCiTtI
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 8, 2024

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The Writing Life and Competition Placing News

October 22, 2024Leave a comment

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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. One image of me demonstrating flash fiction was taken by Penny Blackburn at Swanwick 2024 and the image of me taken at the Book Fair at the Hilt 2023 was taken by my lovely Chandler’s Ford Today editor, Janet Williams. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good weekend. Had a lovely time at the Book Fair and was then delighted to find I’d won third prize in a competition (more details on that below and a link to my story). I had known about the competition result a little while ago but was waiting for my story to appear before saying more. But all in all a good weekend. Lady has made a good start to her week too by seeing her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback friends today and the rain mainly held off until we were all back home so we’ll take that as a win!

Looking forward to seeing I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, which is the latest production from The Chameleon Theatre Company. Will be meeting my lovely CFT editor Janet Williams, there. I always see these things as CFT “works outings” and a good time is had by all. Can’t wait for the Chameleons pantomime – it is always good fun – oh yes it is! – and that will be with us before we know it.

Writing Tip: If you’re writing for the Christmas market, you left it too late for this year but you should be in good time for December 2025. All magazines take in their Christmas material during the summer (and some earlier than that, always check but their websites should make what they want and when by clear) but the good news here is given we all know Christmas is coming year on year, there’s nothing to stop you preparing and polishing your material and sending it in good time for the next one.

This also acts as a reminder to me – I usually prepare flash fiction stories for the festive season towards the end of the month. Good fun to do, perhaps especially so as the darker nights draw in.

A huge thank you for all the lovely comments, likes etc regarding my post yesterday about coming third in Esther Chilton’s flash fiction competition. All much appreciated and catching up with these was a lovely way to start what has proved to be a dull, dreary Monday! (Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal so she has got off to a great run around the park Monday).

Am delighted to say I’ll be welcoming Debz Hobbs-Wyatt to Chandler’s Ford Today for a super two part interview beginning this Friday. Debz talks about her new novel, If Crows Could Talk, but shares so much good advice and tips relating to writing, editing, the writing life etc, it is, I feel, a must read, wherever you are at in your own writing journey. Link up on Friday.

Will be a busy couple of weeks on CFT as I’m off to see The Chameleon Theatre Group’s latest production, I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, later on this week and a review will follow in due course. Plus I will share a write up about the Book Fair at The Hilt. So plenty to look forward to writing up and sharing. A new writing week beckons – time to get stuck in!

Competition Placing News: Am thrilled to say I won third prize in Esther Chilton’s flash fiction competition which she set up at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Word count was a maximum of 250 words. Definitely my territory!

Hope you enjoy my Catching Up (see link) and many thanks, Esther, for the kind words beneath the story.

Third Placed Story – Catching Up

Screenshot 2024-10-20 at 13-31-32 Third Placed Story – Catching Up Esther Chilton

Screenshot 2024-10-20 at 15-27-00 Third Placed Story – Catching Up Esther Chilton

19th October – Book Fair

Good to be back at The Hilt for the Book Fair. The sun even came out, always useful for any event.
As per last year, there was a good number of authors and genres represented. I plan to write more on this for a future Chandler’s Ford Today post but it was lovely catching up with authors I met last year and to meet new people.

Do support any writing events local to you. That support is always appreciated. And you may well be pleasantly surprised to find out just how many talented authors you have in your midst!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Almost time to start thinking about festive flash fiction, folks. Now in fairness if an idea occurs to me earlier in the year (and it often does) I will write the story up and put it aside. This is useful for any fixed event. It will be interesting and fun to find out if Flash NANO, starting on 1st November, throws up prompts I can use for festive flash this year. Will report back!

It’s Monday. It’s been dull, damp, and dreary in my neck of the woods. Not much natural light at all today. Time for a story then.

Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – The Hairbrush. Now what could possibly go wrong handling and using an old hairbrush? Find out here.

Looking forward to my Sunday flash fiction afternoon (and it’s especially nice having come third in a competition this week, see my author Facebook page for more on that – also see above). Given it’s wet and stormy outside, the idea of writing away in a cosy room is even more appealing! Hope the weather isn’t too horrendous where you are.

Looking forward also to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Wednesday. Plus I’m off to my local theatre company’s latest production on Thursday. I enjoy their shows but I especially love those “little moments” in their plays which tell you something more about the character etc. I like to think of them as flash moments!

Pleased to spread the word about flash fiction at the Book Fair at The Hilt today. This year I took part in the talk slots which were on offer.

My approach here is to share a little about what flash fiction is and to then share some stories. The best way to demonstrate flash is to read some!

The nice thing here is I can mix up the style and mood of the tales I read.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Book Fairs/Events

I’ve been at a couple of book related events over the last fortnight. Both were great fun and it was especially nice to catch up with fellow authors.

It is so nice not having to explain the urge to write and, of course, the one thing which unites us all is our overwhelming love for books.

I’ve inherited my love of books from my late mother who read to me regularly and encouraged my own reading. Book events are great opportunities to bring books to people and make them aware of what is available in their own area.

So if you get a chance to support events like this, please do. Books – we need to spread the word!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the bumper January/February 2024 edition of the magazine. I ask Flash Fiction Romance: Is it Possible? I also look at New Beginnings for Characters.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Book Fairs/Events https://t.co/eU0dcfRdpV via @goodreads I talk about supporting local authors at book fairs and events for Goodreads this week. There will be plenty near you in the coming weeks! pic.twitter.com/hcnna8Ngtw
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 19, 2024

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Thrilled I won 3rd prize in Esther Chilton’s flash competition which she set up at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Word count was a maximum of 250. Hope you enjoy my Catching Up (see link). Many thanks, Esther, for the kind words beneath the story.https://t.co/cnsT8FRZe2 pic.twitter.com/5xrMcWOfF0
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 20, 2024

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It’s Monday. It’s been dull, damp, and dreary in my neck of the woods. Not much natural light today. Time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – The Hairbrush. Now what could possibly go wrong handling and using an old hairbrush? Find out here.https://t.co/70oZ59dlTL
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 21, 2024

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Review: The Sleeping Beauty and Publication News

February 2, 2024Leave a comment

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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 goes as ever to The Chameleon Theatre Company for supplying the photos for my review of their pantomime for Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

Hope you have had a good week. Author newsletter out this week, as is the super duper bumper issue of Writers’ Narrative for January and February 2024. Plus I review The Sleeping Beauty pantomime for Chandler’s Ford Today. Lady has seen her friends all week so she has had a great time too and I’ve spotted first daffodils out. Spring is on its way at least here in the UK.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

So pleased to share my review of The Sleeping Beauty recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company. Great show. Wonderful performances and The Chameleons prepare all their own sets too.

My review looks at the classic ingredients for a perfect pantomime. Did The Chameleons deliver on these? You can find out via the link – oh yes, you can!

Review: The Chameleon Theatre Company – The Sleeping Beauty

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Author newsletter out today, I’m glad to say. Given it is a Leap Year this time around I shared 29 tips/prompts which I hope my subscribers find useful.

Will be sharing my review of The Sleeping Beauty as staged by The Chameleon Theatre Company on Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up tomorrow (see above) and I hope the review reflects the fun of pantomime. It was a great laugh when I went to see the show last week. This is always a sign of a great pantomime wonderfully performed.

Have two stories to work on and submit over the next day or so. Have also got a number of possible competitions to check out in the Writing Magazine guide that came with the February issue. Looking forward to checking these out.

Delighted to say the super-duper double issue of Writers’ Narrative magazine is now out covering January and February 2024. Lots to read with plenty of superb interviews and advice. Hope you enjoy it (see link below).

I have two pieces in here. I talk about New Beginnings for Characters on Page 14 and ask Flash Fiction Romance – Is It Possible? on page 40. But to find out the answer to that question, do check out the magazine.

If you haven’t already subscribed, there are links to do this within the edition itself. It means you won’t miss an issue and it will come straight to your inbox. Happy reading!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Down Time. Find out why a robot would like to dream here and what it tries to smuggle into its shed on its down time.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to play with her youngest friend, Coco, the small Labradoodle today. Both dogs happy. Coco did not want to go home. I guess that’s a good sign!

Flash fiction has many joys to it, including being able to write in different genres and moods with it, but it is also adaptable when it comes to working out what you do with your finished pieces.

Some of mine are reserved for future collections. Others are sent in for competitions. Others go to Friday Flash Fiction and still more on to my YouTube channel. Flash is easy to share as part of your marketing. It shows what you do and, hopefully, gives some entertainment for potential/actual readers. I find the dribbles and drabbles (the 50 and 100 worders respectively) work best for this.

Pleased to be talking about flash fiction again in the double issue of Writers’ Narrative magazine where I look at Flash Fiction Romance – Is It Possible? (Check out the link to find out more).

One of the joys of flash fiction is it has to be character led, as you haven’t got the word count room for lots of description, and you can set said characters wherever and whenever you want. I love doing this. I’ve written crime fiction, historical fiction, monologues, fantasy flash fiction etc. I’ve written from the viewpoint of a mother dragon and from an alien curled up inside a ping pong ball! Had a ball writing both of these two as you can probably imagine.

The only limitation is that upper word count limit of 1000 words but there is plenty you can do effectively up to that word count. Some of my most poignant stories come in at this count or under (see They Don’t Understand in From Light to Dark and Back Again and The Pink Rose in Tripping the Flash Fantastic).

Advantage to flash is setting characters anywhere

Fairytales with Bite – Character Ambitions

What ambitions do your characters have? Where magic is involved in your setting, is it a question of your characters getting any magical powers at all or is it a case they wish to top up on what they already have?

Would their ambitions be easy to achieve because they’re expected to have ambitions like that and there is a clear career path, or would they have to fight to get to where they want to be? If magic is restricted to only those of a certain background, how would those of other backgrounds get access to magic? Who breaks the barriers and how do they do it?

If your characters fulfil their ambitions, does this bring them what they were looking for, or are they left feeling let down, frustrated even? If the ambition is a “good” one, what is your character hoping to do by achieving it and are they seeking this “good” ambition for its own sake, for others, or just for themselves?

Are character ambitions limited to whatever class your characters are in? Is there only so much a character could hope to achieve because of their background? When it comes to limitations, who brought them in and why? Were there logical reasons for stopping a certain kind of character achieving something others are allowed to achieve?

Good potential for stories there! Characters who break the moulds set on them by others are always fun to write and there is no lack of tension and conflict, which means there has to be some sort of resolution as well. Pretty much an inbuilt story structure going on here.

This World and Others – Types of Character

One of the fun sides of world building is working out what kinds of character you will have populating it. Are they based on human biology or on something different? Give some thought as to whether your characters will determine the kind of geographical location they can live in or whether the latter dictates the kind of the characters you have to invent who can live there.

A water based world, for example, is likely to have aquatic creatures, which may or may not be the stars of your stories or may threaten/be helpful to your other characters who are the lead, as the case may be. In a water world, would your characters, assuming they are roughly humanoid, be expected to swim and do they have features we do not? For example, would they have gills and fins attached to a human like body?

Also give some thought as to type of character based on intellectual ability or the complete lack of it.

What kind of characters to you need to bring your setting to life? For any setting to seem plausible to a reader, you need to show something of how it works and one great way to do that is by showing your characters at home in their environment as part of the story.

If they’re on a journey, what transport would they use, for example? In showing, say, they can hire flying cars, readers will assume there is a whole industry behind producing said flying cars, which immediately highlights your setting as being reasonably well developed.

Where you have different types of character, you can also show how well or otherwise they get on, what the politics between the different types are and how this affects your characters, amongst other things. (There will be a history behind whether types of characters get on with each other or not so you can imply/show some of that history. If an outsider queries why Character Type A does not get on with Character Type B, a third one can reveal it was because of the war in the year 18,006 and Character Type B’s people committed atrocities. You don’t have to give a lot of information. My example here would be a line or two in a conversation between two characters).

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Twitter Corner with hashtag, Scrabble tiles, and the blue bird

Allison Symes – February 2024 – Leaping Into Flash – https://t.co/HVzDAHy1zN pic.twitter.com/3u4p8zvONn
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 1, 2024

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Down Time, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/pGQVTvPVP3 Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Down Time. Find out why a robot would like to dream here and what it tries to smuggle into its shed on its down time. pic.twitter.com/BFJK3CmCYL
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 2, 2024

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Review: The Chameleon Theatre Company – The Sleeping Beauty https://t.co/Up5pKtJmLK Pleased to share my review. Fab performances. My review looks at the classic ingredients for a perfect pantomime. Did The Chameleons deliver? You can find out via the link – oh yes, you can!
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 2, 2024

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The Dragon of Wantley, Live Events, and the Writing Life

May 6, 2022May 6, 2022Leave a comment

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. A huge thank you to The Chameleon Theatre Company for supplying most of the images for my review of their recently staged The Dragon of Wantley for Chandler’s Ford Today.

Hope you have had a good week. Weather improving here. Hints of summer in the air too.

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

It is with great pleasure I share my latest Chandler’s Ford Today post, my review of The Dragon of Wantley. This wonderful pantomime (loosely based on a true story) was recently staged by the fantastic Chameleon Theatre Company.

My lovely editor at CFT, Janet Williams, and I had a fabulous time and spent most of the evening laughing (a sure sign of a successful pantomime well performed). For more details and a good flavour of what went on, do check out the review. It is so nice getting out to live events again and being able to review them once more too.

(And if you’re in a position to support your local amateur dramatic company, do so. I’ve watched many gems performed by The Chameleons and discovered plays new to me and I look forward to that continuing. Watching a live performance is a fabulous way of taking in a story when all is said and done).

A huge thank you to The Chameleons for the great pictures for this post too.

The Dragon of Wantley – Chameleon Theatre Company – Review

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Looking forward to sharing my review of The Dragon of Wantley, the recent production staged by the Chameleon Theatre Company, for Chandler’s Ford Today. See above. It has been lovely getting out to live events and reviewing them once again. I’ll resume my In Fiction series on 13th May.

Why did I start to write? Well, I’ve always been a reader. I loved what was known as composition lessons in English in school where I could invent stories. It just took me a while to realise I could carry on doing that as an adult!

What do I want from my writing? I want to improve on what I do, to continue having fun creating stories, and to be published as often as possible. I don’t expect to make my fortune (which is just as well!) but the moment writing stops being fun is the moment I will consider hanging up up my PC/pen. Writing has to be fun.

And creating something which is unique should be a joy (though it is also hard work and there are bound to be moments when any writer will wonder if the slog is worth it. I often find when I feel like that it is because I am tired. That is when I back off a bit and start being kinder to myself. Then the joy of writing comes back. I don’t think that’s a coincidence).

I know now as well in a way I could not know when I was starting that the writing life is a roller coaster. It helps to know to expect the peaks and troughs and this is all normal, It isn’t just me!

4th May!

Hope you have had a good day (Star Wars related or otherwise!). Am busy getting workshop material ready and looking forward to presenting both in due course. I love going to workshops too and always learn a great deal from them.

This is where my trusty notebook and pen gets a good workout too! The act of writing something down helps embed what you are writing down into your memory so there’s another reason to do it! Is there a writer out there who doesn’t have the dilemma of which notebook and pen combo to use? Oh well. It’s a nice dilemma to have.

I do sometimes read out a flash piece or two of mine when giving a workshop as I select stories which will back up the points I’m making. The nice thing with flash of course is that this doesn’t take too long. I think it’s easier to take the points made on board too.

So practicing reading out loud is a good idea too. The biggest thing I’ve had to learn to do here is slow myself down when reading. That also makes it easier for me not to trip over my own words.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I’m pleased to share my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. My One of Those Days is based on ideas triggered by a random noun generator this time. I generated two items – a waitress and a tiara. See how I used them here! Hope you enjoy the story.

One of my own favourite openings comes from Helping Out in From Light to Dark and Back Again. This reads as:-

It’s not everyday you untangle Hanacrill, a fairy who, Merlin knows how, got caught in a Leylandii hedge but being a witch means being able to handle anything though I’m not meant to rescue fairies.

Why do I like this one?

Firstly, you hear the character voice clearly. You can sense the attitude!

Secondly, you’ve got a fantastical setting spelled out in only a few words (fairy, witch, Merlin etc).

Thirdly, you’ve got a situation which I hope makes the reader curious. Just why would a witch come to the rescue of a fairy? How did that fairy end up getting tangled up like that?

Fourthly, you have a named character who has to be important to the story somehow – and so does the unnamed narrator. They’re telling the story after all so they have to be “in on it” in some way.

Fifthly, you can sense the mood. There is humour here if only in the idea of a fairy getting caught up in a hedge.

If I was writing this again now, I would split the sentence after the word hedge. This is a long one by my standards and I usually prefer short and punchy lines. But this one does work and I do love lines which show a lot of information like this. No need for lots of description. You an imagine what a fairy might look like and do the same for the unnamed witch.

4th May – Star Wars Day!

When I’m reading a flash collection by someone else I’m looking for a nice mixture of story moods. I do like a good selection! It helps with the tempo of the book too. I like a nice mix of upbeat and lower beat stories.

Life is like that so I like my story collections to reflect this. It also means there will be a good mixture of characters in the collection. Some will serve humorous pieces better than others, for example. And I like to “meet” a nice range of characters in any anthology.

When I’m putting a collection together, I like a nice balance of characters and stories knowing it is what I would like to read (and other readers will feel the same way. Again I have my Ideal Reader in mind here.). I also like to vary the flash word count used too. I’ve mentioned before I think of my books as mixed assortments of stories so it makes sense to me to vary the word count element too.

Fairytales With Bite – A Wand’s Tale

Woe to the one misusing me.
Who thinks that by casting a spell
He can get out of and be free
From fetching water from the well.

Who using objects for his work
Means he can take things so easy
Magic is not meant to let you shirk
Life isn’t so easy-peasy.

So guess who then called the big boss
When things went so horribly wrong?
His Nibs won’t let anyone “doss”
He’ll make them sing a different song.

That young smart alec apprentice?
You should’ve seen him go bright red
It was all rather momentous
Hearing what the big boss then said.

He came up with a naughty word
Oh I blushed as the big boss swore.
The apprentice didn’t – he’d “heard”
It from the owner of the store.

Where our lad “worked” briefly last time.
Boss there sacked him with a rude mime!

Allison Symes – 4th May 2022

And before you ask, I do love the music and story of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice!

This World and Others – When Things Go Wrong

Hope you enjoyed the above. It was fun to write. Now things did go wrong for that lazy apprentice and he was taught a lesson.

When things go wrong for your characters in your settings, how do they learn their lessons? Was it something they did need to learn of were they a little bit unlucky? What kind of machinery etc exists in your created world and what are the consequences when that goes wrong?

For the rulers of your setting, what things could go wrong for them and what do they do to try and prevent this? Would this explain why they rule by dictatorship, for example?

Understanding where your characters come from is important. It will help you picture them better and write them up more convincingly because you will believe in them precisely because you do know where they are coming from. Readers will pick up on that too.

Of course things could go wrong in a humorous way too. How do your characters react to that? Do they find it funny? What would happen when one character did find something amusing and another one finds it to be anything but hilarious? How would that change the nature of the relationship between the two? What impact would that have on the rest of the story and would it lead to other things going wrong, which are not so funny?

The Dragon of Wantley – Chameleon Theatre Company – Review https://t.co/A6IO5QatwI It is with great pleasure I share my review of The Dragon of Wantley. A huge thank you to The Chameleons for the great pictures for this post too.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 6, 2022

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One of Those Days, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/yJrvQrm6HG My new tale on FFF, One of Those Days, is based on ideas triggered by a random noun generator. I generated two items – a waitress and a tiara. See how I used them! Hope you enjoy the story. pic.twitter.com/yisxbQdRWq
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 6, 2022

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