Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Another lovely day and Lady has made the most of catching up with her two closest pals this week. Good to see. Swimming was especially nice today too.

Writing wise, I’m pleased to share What I Look For In A Writing Advice Book for Chandler’s Ford Today. I share tips and hints as to how to narrow down the search so you find what you really want/need. Plus bear in mind what you need from a guide will change as your writing develops.

I also share what I like to see in any writing guide I go for and what I feel the purpose of a good writing guide should be.

Hope you find the post useful.

What I Look For In A Writing Guide

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Lovely day today. Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals, I had a lovely swim later, and then this afternoon I’ve put in my book order with my publisher for Seeing The Other Side. Hope to receive these in about a week to ten days time. So looking forward to receiving them. Looking even more to taking them to events such as Swanwick to sell them!

I also hope there will be a Bridge House/Chapeltown Books online launch. More news on that when I have it. But things are happening… it is a great buzz!

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing What I Look For In A Writing Advice Book for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. I hope this will prove useful as there are so many wonderful guides out there. Half the battle is in working out what you need/know you are likely to need but more on this in my post. See above.

Pleased my author newsletter went out promptly this morning (1st July). I met a friend at the park who subscribes to it and he congratulated me on the forthcoming Seeing The Other Side as I was walking Lady. That was a nice surprise.

Lady had a nice surprise too. As well as catching up with her Hungarian Vizler pal, she saw her Rhodesian Ridgeback chum too for the first time in a week or so. Basically, everyone stayed out of the sun last week and rightly so. Lady was good about her routine change but she did miss her pals. Had a great time today though.

Writing wise, I’m hosting an ACW group this evening. I’ll be writing various bits and pieces in the lead up to that. Am having fun designing various things on Vistaprint too. Marketing can be fun, sometimes at least, honest.

For one thing, it is always a joy to put the newsletter together. A huge thank you to my subscribers, your support is much appreciated.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to say I put in my book order with my publishers for Seeing The Other Side yesterday. Things are happening!

Also it’s just over a month to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick which is one of the highlights of my writing year. It will be especially nice to have a new book of mine there this year. I hope to report back later on Chandler’s Ford Today as to how my launch at Swanwick went.

I also hope to have news of my publisher having an online event for the new book soon too. Plus there will be other events. Watch this space as they say but it is so nice to be thinking of these kind of things again.

Last time, 2020, was a long time ago and it was online only. So much has changed since then and at least some of it is for the better. It will be lovely to have in person launches again for one thing.

Hope to crack on with more flash writing over the weekend too.

Hope today has gone well. Lovely one here. As mentioned over on my author page, I’ve put in my order for my copies of Seeing The Other Side and should receive those in about a week to ten days. So pleased with this.

Am looking forward to sharing stories from this new collection of mine at Open Prose Mic Nights too. I shared one at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick last year and it went down so well. So am hoping for a good response to the book as a whole, naturally enough!

And as I’ve mentioned, having a new book out very shortly does mean I can flag up the form of flash fiction too, which is always a joy to do. It is a wonderful challenge to write and I am so grateful to CafeLit for flagging it up to me via their 100 word challenge. I am so glad I went for that one!

Hope your day has gone well. Still appreciating the cooler weather here, especially since it is due to heat up again at the weekend.

Flash fiction wise, I hope to get back to writing for competitions later this summer. My main focus does have to be on Seeing The Other Side coming out. Once I know I can get my book order in, I can start arranging things like blog tours, in person events and so on. It will be lovely getting on with this kind of thing again. Matters were different back in 2020 when Tripping The Flash Fantastic came out – everything had to be online for a start.

I’m also using the opportunity of having a new book out to update my business card. Fun to do. I will be updating my website in due course too – I have a books page on there where I list my publications and the anthologies I’ve been in. Will share the link specifically to it once the update is done. But this kind of background work is nice to do and I like to see it as making progress. Every writer wants that.

Fairytales With Bite – Beginnings, Middles and Endings – Character Careers

How do your magical characters see themselves in terms of how their careers are going? Are they at the beginning, middle or even end of their careers?

I’ve sometimes written flash fiction regarding fairy godmothers who know they’re about to depart their life but have one final flourish before the big goodbye. I’ve always had a soft spot for those characters who know they cannot go on for much longer but do have one final gift to give. I do think that’s so appropriate for fairytales.

If your character is at the start of their magical career, after a suitable training and education, where do they think their career will take them? Will it work out as they think or will they discover that perhaps one magical career isn’t for them after all but another one is? It happens for us – why not for them?

If they’re in the middle of their career, are they pleased to be where they are or disappointed they haven’t made further progress? If the latter, what has got in the way and could they be unwittingly blocking themselves here? That happens for us too!

Definite story ideas here.

This World and Others – The Jobs Market

What is the state of the jobs market in your setting? Does your setting cover magical and non-magical careers or if it focuses on the magical only, what would they need to import to cover those tasks magic isn’t suitable for?

There would be some interesting stories for your setting in working out what can’t be done magically, how your setting discovered this, and what they have to do to overcome the issue.

Also, could your setting discover too much magic can damage their environment so they have to find ways of limiting its usage and to have other ways of doing more manual things, which could be done another way. Magic is a form of power/energy after all and every form of those things do tend to have their downsides!

What would your characters be looking for when it comes to seeking work themselves? Who organises the job market and are certain jobs only for certain species? What would be the reasons behind that?

Has anyone challenged it or is this something your character might do? What would they be seeking to achieve – equality for themselves, their species, or something beyond that such as a wider recognition the jobs market shouldn’t be a closed shop, so to speak?

Again, story ideas there.