Tag: The Neighbours by Allison Symes

Books Which Work and Those Which Don’t

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Not bad here. Glad to spread good news about the forthcoming monthly online magazine, Writers’ Narrative. This is written by writers for writers and the first issue will be out soon. More details below. Am very pleased to be part of this. (Images kindly provided for Writers’ Narrative by Wendy H Jones, Editor in Chief).

Facebook – General

Am pleased to be back on Authors Electric once more. This month I talk about Books Which Work and Those Which Don’t. I do love titles which get to the heart of the matter! Hope you enjoy the post.

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Back to the changeable weather today but Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend so was very happy with that.

Will be looking at Websites – Why A Writer Needs One for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on Friday. Looking forward to the next Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Group meeting next week too.

The countdown to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick starts about now. Well, at least it does for me! So looking forward to catching up with friends and making new ones and the workshops are always an inspiration.

I’m chatting about Books Which Work and Those That Don’t for Authors Electric – link up tomorrow. See above.

May be a graphic of 1 person and text that says "The writing life is addictive but fun. The support of other writers makes a huge difference."Better day weather wise today though was thankful to avoid most of the rain yesterday. Still our park is looking much better than it had done. The grass is looking like grass as opposed to straw.

Many thanks for the comments coming in on my post yesterday about Writers’ Narrative. Much appreciated. I’ll be sharing a fabulous interview with editor in chief, Wendy H Jones, about the new writing magazine, in a couple of weeks time on Chandler’s Ford Today.

Meantime I’ll be looking at websites and useful material for them for the post coming up on CFT this coming week. Hope you will find both posts useful. More on each nearer the time.

15th July – Val Penny blog tour
So pleased to be part of Val Penny’s book blog tour to link in with the re-release of Hunter’s Blood. The tour is organised by Lynsey Adams but do check the tour out. And good luck, Val.
Screenshot 2023-07-18 at 20-42-30 Reading Between the Lines Online Book PR15th July – second post
Am pleased to share more news about Writers’ Narrative, the forthcoming new online writing magazine. Written by writers for writers. The first issue will be out soon and the best way to ensure you don’t miss an edition is to subscribe to it. Best news of all – this is free – do see the link (and meet the team as well while there). The magazine will be a monthly one and packed full of advice and aspects of the writing world you will not want to miss. Oh and check out the cover on the first one – it’s fabulous.

Writers' Narrative

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Many thanks for the great comments coming in on The Neighbours, my most recent tale on Friday Flash Fiction. This is the only tale I’ve written which is inspired by Shakespeare, Terry Pratchett, and the female characters from long running sitcom, The Last of the Summer Wine. It’s a good mix though! If you missed it, do check out the link.

(Oh and many congratulations to other members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group for having work on here this week as well. Always good to see that).

Screenshot 2023-07-14 at 10-10-17 The Neighbours by Allison Symes

It’s Monday. I just about rescued my washing in time from a heavy downpour when the forecast said there would be no rain. (Have always felt the forecast is more like an intelligent bet – and sometimes it does not pay off!). Time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Porridge.

 

I’ve mentioned before that telling details, which includes having a hook-them-in title, are crucial components for flash stories. With no room for much in the way of description, you do have to show only what your readers what they need to know and leave it there. The rest can be implied.

This is where using the senses can come in handy. Rather than get my character to wear a drab coat, I would get them to wear a beige one. It is specific. Beige is considered a drab colour. Job done there.

Sometimes for locations you can use sound to imply where a character has to be. If they’re listening to a wide variety of bird song, they’re unlikely to be in the middle of a big city. Other little details can then flesh this out such as the character relishing the sound of walking through crunchy leaves etc (and that gives you the season too without you having to say so).

Naming a street, say, would imply the character has to be in at least a village.

It pays then to work out what your reader has to know and then work out how you can show that through your character’s actions and thoughts.

May be an image of text that says "What's Next? A good hook will make your reader want to find this one out!"

As promised, more news about Writers’ Narrative. I am one of the team behind the magazine (the editor in chief is Wendy H Jones) and the magazine is packed full of wonderful information and advice no writer is going to want to miss and much more besides. Good news! You can subscribe to the free magazine here. The first issue will be out soon. It is a pleasure and privilege to be working on this. (Oh and naturally I’m talking about flash fiction in the first issue). You can subscribe for free here.

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Goodreads Author Blog – All The Fun of the Book Fair

I was thrilled to take part in a Book Fair local to me last weekend. It was the first one in the venue chosen (and the venue was excellent). It was fantastic to see a wide range of authors covering so many different tastes in books and age ranges too.

Non-fiction (travel journeys) was well represented too. The organisers counted well over 100 people in attendance and there was a constant footfall flow all afternoon. This is highly encouraging. There is hope this event will become an annual one. For obvious reasons, I hope it does too.

But I also saw it as encouraging that people still love books. They want to see what their local authors are coming out with. If you have an event like this coming up near you, do go if you can. You may well be pleasantly surprised at the wealth of reading material on offer. I was – and I was taking part!

Also great to see these events back again. The last one I took part in was before the pandemic – that seems like a world away now – though I have run workshops, gone to conferences etc since. Good to see the book fairs back too now! This was something I was especially pleased about as our bookshops are now several miles away so having the books come to the locality will always be a fantastic idea.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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This tweet came as a nice surprise! Thank you. Jacci Gooding! Also have been very busy on the Twitter front this week – that bird has been tweeting a lot from my end!

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Review: Book Fair at The Hilt

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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 Vie Portland, Janet Williams, and Richard Hardie for contributing images to this week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post, the rest are from me. Lovely Book Fair, more details below and in my CFT post. (And there will be exciting news about new online magazine, Writers’ Narrative, which will be launched soon, in my next post here and on my Facebook timeline prior to that – lots going on).

BookBrushImage-2023-7-14-19-340Feature Image - Review - Book Fair at The Hilt

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

It is with great pleasure I share Review: Book Fair at The Hilt for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Talk about writing (a) what you know and (b) what you love, this post is a fabulous example of that. If you were at the fair, I hope this makes for a good look back at the event. If you missed it, see it as something not to miss next time!

I look at the hard work behind the scenes (some of it anyway) and I was glad to say there was a good contingent representing Chandler’s Ford Today too. Naturally there was plenty of networking going on and it gave every author taking part to spread the word about what they do – that was much appreciated.

And if that was not enough I have exciting news to share about Writers’ Narrative, the new online magazine which will be coming out shortly. I’ll talk more about this tomorrow but this will be something of use to every writer so worth watching out for.

Review: Book Fair at The Hilt

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Nice to be back in the swimming pool today (making the most of the quiet before the six weeks summer holidays!). Lady got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback bestie and Coco, a lovely Labradoodle. All three dogs were so pleased to see each other.

As well as being on Amazon, I‘m pleased to say you can find me on Waterstones, Hive, Bookshop.org, and, naturally, the Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop (which covers the books from Bridge House Publishing/CafeLit/Chapeltown Books). If you ever come across somewhere which says the books are out of stock, panic not! This simply means the book is a print on demand one (and is not really in stock as such) but it doesn’t take long for the online bookshop to get these in.

I’ve ordered my own books from Hive and Bookshop, as well as directly from Bridgetown, and received them quickly. You can also contact me directly via my website (https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com) as well. There are plenty of options here – I like that as a reader, as well as from a writer’s perspective.

 

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend again today. Both dogs happy. It’s lovely to see friendships like that.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to sharing my review of the Book Fair on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on Friday. See above. Got some feedback sent off to the organisers yesterday too as they are keen to have feedback. It helps with planning for future events.

Feedback is useful elsewhere too. I appreciate the feedback given on Friday Flash Fiction. It is always useful to know what others make of your stories (even though that can be nerve wracking too). It is how you can learn though what works, what clearly didn’t work quite so well and so on. (Reviews are helpful here too)

When I give feedback, I explain what my thinking is behind it. I’ve been grateful for this myself when I’ve been on the receiving end. Again, you can learn a lot from this. You can see how others read your works. They may well pick up on things (good and bad) which didn’t occur to you.

Sometimes you are in for a nice surprise here.

May be an image of text that says "HONEST FEEDBACK WELCOME"

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It is a soggy end of the week so definitely time for a new story then. Hope you like my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – The Neighbours. This story was loosely inspired by the long running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine and the marvellous female characters in that.

Oh and I will have exciting news to share about forthcoming new online magazine Writers’ Narrative to share tomorrow. Watch this space, as they say. More details in my post next week here.

Screenshot 2023-07-14 at 10-10-17 The Neighbours by Allison Symes


Flash has a powerful impact due to its brevity and this can be used brilliantly for humorous stories. Who doesn’t love a punchline ending? It is also good for twist in the tale stories.

But it can also work well for thoughtful pieces. A character shares something of their life with a reader. They don’t want to go on too much. They want to show what matters. And this can have what I call the “punch in the gut” effect on a reader when done well.

Stories of all lengths encourage empathy as we understand the characters we’re reading about. Flash can be used to bring about that empathy in fewer words!

May be an image of text that says "Reading can encourage empathy as we follow what characters do and say."A major benefit of writing flash fiction for me has been to improve my focus. I have to ask do I really need this in my story? If there is any doubt, the answer is no! Out the words come along with the usual wasted words of mine I can’t help writing but which I know need to be surgically removed. Still at least that gets my editing off to a good start.

We all have wasted words/pet phrases. It does help to be aware of them. It helps even more to recognise that well over 95% of the time, these things don’t add anything useful to your story so out they come.

Maybe it is a form of comfort writing, I don’t know. What matters though is getting your work done and then improving it. So if that means having to write my wasted words and then take them out again that’s fine by me. I know this method works!

May be an image of text that says "Knowing when to cut and when to leave well alone takes time to develop."

Fairytales with Bite – Storytelling

We all love stories but do your characters? Do they value certain types of story or are they the more practical type who can’t see the use of books etc? I understand there are some folk out there like that for real. Never understood them but there you go.

But you could well end up having characters who have the same view and set them against someone who does treasure books and stories? What conflicts could that lead to? If their quest relies on a story to help them fulfil it, how does the negative one handle that? How would they react when old legends are proven true and has a direct impact on the success of their mission? Do they change their outlook?

Also give some thought as to how storytelling is done? Is your setting based on an oral tradition or is literacy widespread? Are stories confined to the printed age or is there technology, as we would understand the term, and what is this and how is it used? Can everyone have the benefit?

What stories do your characters like? What stories are forbidden in your setting and why? Inevitably there will be someone trying to read something they shouldn’t. What is this? What are the consequences? There are always consequences! What seems like a harmless story to one characters is anything but to another and that could make for an interesting story in itself.

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This World and Others – The Value of Books

Books to me represent entertainment, education, and inspiration. They represent literacy obviously, but also my freedom to read. Not everyone has that. I also treasure favourite books and stories of course.

Which books and stories would your characters treasure? Which can they not abide at any cost? Are books available to all? Who controls the overall reading list? What does their taste in books say about them?

How does your world value books, assuming they do? Are books a recent development or has your setting had these wonderful things for centuries? Are there set books everyone is expected to read? If so, which would these be and why? Did they develop importance immediately on publication or has this happened over time?

Then there’s monetary value. Some books are worth a lot simply due to their rarity or important historical factors behind them? Would your setting value books like that? Are there book exchanges, auctions of books etc? What would your characters be prepared to do to get a book of immense value to them?

And books can contain secrets? Again what would a character do to get hold of a book which means everything to them from that angle? I could see murder being committed there! Certainly there are story ideas here. Happy writing!

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
As well as selling my books, I was selling books I've contributed to - those went well too

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