Author Interview – Val Penny – Murder in Gilmerton

August 7, 2026August 7, 2026Leave 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 few days. So looking forward to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Will be writing one big blog post on Friday 14th August and will do daily Facebook posts but there won’t be much time to write more while away.

Will be too busy (a) learning from the courses, (b) catching up with friends I only see online the rest of the year, (c) socialising with said friends, (d) enjoying my book launch for Seeing The Other Side and (e) knowing my fellas will be fine, wondering how the dog is doing!

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Am delighted to share a fabulous interview with Val Penny on Chandler’s Ford Today this week called Author Interview – Val Penny – Murder at Gilmerton.

I’m a great believer in having titles which “do as they say on the tin”. It’s a reference to the old Ronseal advert which always claimed “it does what it says on the tin”. Keep it clear and to the point!

Anyway, in this in depth conversation, Val brings us up to date with what has been going on in her writing life since she was last on CFT, not least of which is her move to Joffe Books. We also discuss back story (for series characters and one-off characters, who in Val’s books are often the victims), whether Val can read crime while she is writing her own or not, the advantages of using an area you know well as your setting and much, much more.

Plenty to enjoy here and, as ever, there are useful tips too.

Hope you enjoy the post and good luck with Murder in Gilmerton, Val.

Author Interview – Val Penny – Murder in Gilmerton

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lovely swim, my last one this side of Swanwick.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Author Interview – Val Penny – Murder at Gilmerton on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

Val shares the changes in her writing and publishing life since she was last on CFT and there are plenty of useful thoughts and tips too. Be sure not to miss it, especially if you love crime fiction. Val’s books are a tremendous read but don’t just take my word for it. Check them out after seeing what she has to say about her new release on CFT. Link up tomorrow.

Now I hope to post daily from Swanwick but I will be having a big round up blog via my website after I get back. It will be easier as I mentioned yesterday. I’ll also resume my Substack and YouTube stories after Swanwick but hope to get some drafts down while there.

I do hope to come back buzzing with inspiration, mind you!

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Hope today has gone well. Lady was overjoyed to run around with Coco, the lovely Labradoodle, this morning. Must be a good month since we last met up.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing a smashing interview with Val Penny about Murder in Gilmerton for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do look out for that. Again, see above.

Have packed for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. As I go up by train, I can’t leave this until the last minute but it is good to have it done. Will be posting as and when next week and certain things I will probably leave until I get home again such as my Sunday stories and WordPress round up. Will resume those on my return. To be honest by the time you’ve been to the courses and workshops, caught up with pals, made new pals, enjoyed the evening entertainment, there’s not a lot of energy left for writing!

Naturally am so looking forward to my launch for Seeing The Other Side on Sunday too. Will be a busy and fun few days in the run up to Swanwick, while I am there, and catching up with everything on my return. It is a joy though! (I also anticipate being mugged by the dog on my return too – it’s what she usually does).

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It’s a busy Friday on the article front as my latest post on Writers’ Narrative, Is It Time For Your Characters To Get Away From It All, is also out today.

I look at the advantages of sending your characters away from their usual setting and share some favourite books of mine which have done just that.

Yes, for individual short stories and flash fiction, it is still possible to send a character away on vacation. You simply make it clear somewhere in the narrative they’re not in their usual location.

I look at using holidays as backdrops (which is why they can work so well in any length of tale), I share tips on how to best make use of holiday settings, and I set you a couple of questions which I hope will prove to be a good starting point for your own stories.

Hope you enjoy the post and you and your characters enjoy your holidays!

I’ve mentioned before I like to mix up the moods of the stories I write. Now this isn’t just down to how I’m feeling. I will often write a cheery piece when I feel anything but cheery. It can help and it does take my mind off things for a bit. Writing can be therapeutic like that at times. But I also think this is a reflection of life in general. It is a mix of moods. So how about this for some story ideas?

Theme Tip: Pick a well known proverb or saying and write two stories on it – one to be cheery, one to be anything but cheery (though that still leaves you a good range to choose from). This also makes for a great writing exercise. And if you’re stuck for the proverbs, use the random generators – the phrase one would be good for this.

Hope to draft some flash fiction pieces while I’m at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick shortly but will probably not get to share any on Substack or YouTube until after what is one of the major highlights of my writing year. Mind you, Swanwick is also a great opportunity to wave the flag for flash fiction, which I’m always glad to do.

Am also looking forward to the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side which will be from 7th to 13th September. More news later on that but it is the first time I’m having an “official” blog tour. It also makes a lovely change for me to be on the other side of the fence here as I do often support such tours for other authors so it’s nice to be able to join in myself!

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Get Togethers

I’m shortly going to head off to what I consider to be a magical get together – The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. It is one of the major highlights of my writing year and there is something magical about being able to spend time with writing friends, learning more about the industry, and just being immersed totally in the writing life for a few days.

For your magical characters/setting, what would count as a magical get together when magic, for them, is such an everyday thing? What would it take to make something stand out as special to them? Could it be an event where magic is specifically not allowed and everything is done “manually”?

What could happen against the backdrop of a magical get together which could not happen in ordinary life and who would want to take advantage of such a thing to cause that happening? What are they hoping to achieve? I could see some magical crime stories going on there!

Also, what one character would consider magical, another may think was humdrum. Why the difference in opinion? Who is right? Again there could be story ideas to explore from fleshing this out more – I could see there being clashes between the characters here.

This World and Others – Leaving The World Behind For a While

When I go to my big annual writing event in Derbyshire, which I will be heading to shortly, I get to leave the world behind for a while. For a few days I am immersed in the wonderful world of writing and I love it.

Am I glad to get back to reality again? Yes. Aside from being back with the family again, I am also keen to get to my desk again to write up those ideas I had while I was away. There are various ways to get away from it all for a bit and we are in holiday season as I write this.

So what would your magical/sci-fi characters do when they want to leave their worlds behind for a while (as we all do from time to time)? How easy or otherwise do they find shrugging off their responsibilities for a while? Does the break refresh them or do they come back, wanting to get away from it all on a more permanent basis? Plenty of story ideas there.

Even if the break is a normal holiday one, where would your characters go? How would it differ from their normal environment and is is the differences which draw them here? Do they try to introduce those differences to their home worlds? What kind of outcome/fall out would there be from this as there would be reactions!

Again, story ideas there.

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How Using Nature Can Enhance Your Fiction

July 7, 2026July 7, 2026Leave 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 weekend. Nice one here. So pleased my book order for Seeing The Other Side is now in and am looking forward to receiving these. Lovely Zoom with writing friends and a great meal out with family made the weekend especially nice. Lady doing well too though we will have to watch the temperatures again this week.

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Pleased to share my latest Writers’ Narrative post – How Using Nature Can Enhance Your Fiction.

Nature inspires so much fiction but it can also help inspire ours too. You can also show so much about your characters just by revealing what their attitude is towards the natural world around them, no matter how fantastical a setting they might be in.

I share useful tips as to how you can use nature effectively in your own work.

I hope you find the post useful.

Hope you’ve had a good start to the week. It was okay in the park this morning for Lady but for the rest of this week, it will be back to the early shift. So hot this afternoon so we’re staying in. None of us will be sorry.

Writing wise, I’m delighted to share my Substack story which I shared on that platform yesterday. I hope it makes you smile. Hope you enjoy Melting. The fact it is due to be another hot week where I am inspired this one though there are other circumstances where melting can occur.

Mind you, just looking at the image I chose for this story makes me feel a bit cooler and I hope it does the same for you!

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Hope you’ve had or are having a lovely Sunday. Starting to warm up here so will have to be careful with Lady again, though we did get her out earlier today when it was fine. Having said that, we now have a hot weather routine to follow and she was fine with that. We had wondered if she’d be restless, not being able to exercise as much, but not at all which tells us we got this right. She did briefly see her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal in the distance earlier. Think both dogs were wondering why the other was going the wrong way!

Writing wise, I’m cracking on with various blog posts, will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday shortly, and other writing tasks such as my next newsletter. I’ve found it helpful to draft the latter over the whole month so there is no last minute panic. Had a lovely Zoom meeting with writing pals last night, which was fabulous. A good boost to morale.

Pleased to say I was invited to submit a blog post by another author where I talk about flash fiction formats. Hope to share the link for that next weekend.

Blog Tip: It’s not a bad idea to have, say, up to 500 words prepared on what you write and why you love the writing you do. There is always a home for this – on your own website, guest blogs and so on. It also means when you meet up with other writers for the first time you have a rough idea of what you will say when folk ask about your writing, as they do.

I found networking easier to handle on realising it is talking about something you love – writing – with others who have the same love. And it’s not long before good conversations start because naturally you will ask about what they write and things take off from there. It has always been my experience this is the case and it is such a positive one.

But having something in mind to say here is useful. Helps against your own nerves especially if you’re going to a writing event for the first time.

Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Not bad here. Busy evening so am posting early.

Will be sharing Marketing and Writing on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Will be sharing thoughts and tips as to how balance these two halves of the writing life. Both are very much in my mind right now given the imminent release of Seeing The Other Side, of course.

Writing Tip: I use an old school diary to plan out when I must have work in by when. It’s not fool proof. It is still possible to miss things (guess how I know but I also suspect this happens to most writers at some point!) but it reduces the chances of you doing so considerably. It also means when there are extra competitions I’d like to try, I can figure out how I could do this around my existing writing commitments.

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Am thrilled to say the paperback of my Seeing The Other Side is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Woo-hoo! Delighted to see that now on there. Am expecting my copies to come in either later this week/early next week.

After 16th July will come the work of setting up events, updating my records on the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, updating my records on The Society of Authors website, updating my own website and much more.

I also hope there will be a blog tour.

Watch this space as they say and the great thing with all of this? It will be fun!

It’s Monday and another hot one where I am so that led to the inspiration for this one. Hope you like my latest here on YouTube – Too Hot.

Sometimes arrogance can cross dimensions but it still doesn’t pay off. Find out how and why here.

Beginning to get seriously warm again. Am grateful I write in the cool (or relative cool anyway). Will be writing some flash fiction shortly.

I sometimes decide I will write to a specific word count on my flash fiction Sundays. At other times, I know I’ve got a topic in mind so will focus on that. I have found that for Substack and YouTube, both work best if I keep my tales up to about 100 words (also known as drabbles).

Suits me. Keeps me working on the form of flash fiction which led to me discovering what a great format flash is and to now having three books to my name. Let’s hear it for the drabble!

Nice day here. Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. Will shortly be penning a guest blog about flash fiction formats. That will be going out on another platform and I will share the link as soon as I have it. Am very pleased to have the opportunity to do this (and a huge thanks to the author concerned for inviting me on – more details later).

I always like to celebrate flash fiction, not least when I have a new book out (can’t imagine why!), and I still think it is a great form for drawing in the reluctant reader or those who prefer short reading sessions. Flash is ideal for these.

And even if you write longer works, flash is also ideal as a warm up writing exercise. The great thing here is you can polish these stories up and get them out there too if you wanted to do so.

Goodreads Author Blog – Ordering New Books

I’ve had the great joy this week (first week of July 2026) to put in an order with my publisher for my stock of my new flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side. The book is due out on 16th July and the ebook version is already available on Amazon for pre-order (and since this post went out on Goodreads originally, the paperback is now up there too). I should receive my paperbacks in a week to ten days’ time. My publisher’s delivery system is very good. Last time I was able to do this for my own collection was for Tripping The Flash Fantastic back in 2020. It has been a while then! (All sorts of reasons for it too and the pandemic didn’t help).

All of this led me to wonder about ordering new books. Now I do use the online retailers including people like Waterstones, Hive, Bookshop.org, Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop (which is my publisher’s online shop) and others.

Now in common with all indie presses, my publisher uses print on demand. It’s a great idea. No storage costs, no distribution costs, kinder to the environment and so on. One slight snag it is can show up on screen as not being in stock. Please ignore this. If you order it, the retailer will get it in quickly and then the book is on its way to you.

I wish they didn’t do this. Print on demand books are never in stock so to speak but they are readily and easily available. I’ve never had any problems when I’ve ordered books like this from other authors.

It is a joy to order new books of mine as a writer. I enjoy ordering books from other authors whose works I know I’m going to like I often use ebooks by them as a way of finding whether I like their work or not incidentally.

I do like the fact there are online retailers such as Hive and Bookshop.org who also help independent bookshops. Every purchase you make on them has a proportion going to an independent bookshop you nominate – fabulous idea. You can also arrange for your ordered books to be collected from those bookshops or delivered straight to your home. Lovely to have the choice like that.

So let’s hear it for ordering new books. I also think it is great to have a variety of ways in which to do this.

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Seeing The Other Side – Book Cover News

June 9, 2026June 9, 2026Leave 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 the lovely lady at my local blood donor clinic who used my phone to take a photo of me celebrating their first anniversary at their new place. A very worthy celebration!

Hope the weekend went well. Not bad here. Wet week ahead but Lady and I just get on with things here. She dries off faster than I do! In other news, I’m thrilled to say I have now seen the book cover for Seeing The Other Side and well… see below!

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady and I caught up with her Hungarian Vizler friend after breaks away. Both dogs pleased to see each other again, Lady was especially affectionate.

Now in other news, I mentioned yesterday I had news on the book cover for Seeing The Other Side. See the partial reveal photo below and I hope to reveal the whole cover later this week). I created this image in Book Brush and it was fun and easy to do.

Image reveals part of a book with a yellow cover and two books in green, one called From Light to Dark and Back Again and the other Tripping The Flash Fantastic.

More news to come in due course.

Delighted to share my latest story which went out on Substack yesterday. Now time to share it here! Both this story and the one I’m sharing on YouTube this week took the phrase Goody Two Shoes as a theme. Hope you like both tales but first up here is the Substack one – Atonement Time.

And in other news, I plan to share more news on the book cover for Seeing The Other Side tomorrow. Exciting times. See above!

Am delighted to share my latest piece on Writers’ Narrative – Food Writing in Fiction. Food can /be used successfully in stories of any length to help with characterisation, setting, time period and more. Also, whatever kind of character you create, they are bound to need to eat at some point!

Do see the post for more and I hope you find the tips and thoughts useful. I almost always end my posts here with a question. Why not check out the latest one? Comments are welcome and don’t forget Writers’ Narrative is free to subscribe to. As it is now on Substack, what happens is you receive an article on the topic of the month every few day or so. Easy way to take in plenty of useful writing advice.

Soggy old day today. Lady and I went around the park in record time!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Discovering Classical Authors for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. This post is inspired by my recent visit to The Dorset Museum to see the Thomas Hardy exhibition. I also discuss in this post other ways bar books to discover classical authors and I share some of the ways I’ve used here. Post up on Friday.

Looking forward to sharing that and unusually for a CFT post I put in a PS but you’ll have to wait until next week to find out what that is and why it has gone up. Mind you, it was a joy to do!

Reading Tip: I’ve often mentioned the need for writers to read in and out of their genre. Aside from anything else it is fun to do and inspiration can spark from other stories so the wider you read, the greater the chance there is of this happening for you.

But mix up, not just the genres, but the lengths of stories and whether they’re classical or contemporary. While it is true writing styles have changed over the years, you can still learn loads from studying how the classical authors created their characters and situations.

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Thrilled to bits I have now shared a partial book cover reveal for Seeing The Other Side over on my Facebook author page. See above here. I hope to share the full cover later this week.

But it is always exciting when you know you are so close to having a book with your name on the cover in your hands again.

The thrill of being published doesn’t diminish and I am looking forward to sharing more about my new flash fiction collection soon.

It’s a soggy Monday and time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Reason For The Name.

There are always those who don’t get the point of a training scheme for self improvement and that goes for the magical world too. See what my fairy character who is about to be “properly qualified” is planning to get up to when allowed out in the world.

Both this story and my Substack one, Atonement Time, are based on the theme of Goody Two Shoes. Hope you like them both.

And look out for book cover news for Seeing The Other Side from me tomorrow. See above. This will be my first book out since 2020 so am naturally rather excited about it!

Now when I flag something up it is usually something to do with writing, as you’d expect, but this one is a bit different but could lead to a writing idea or two, maybe suitable for flash stories too.

Earlier this week, I went to give blood and it was the first anniversary of the Blood Service being at their base near where I live so there were plenty of balloons out (red ones naturally). Having donated blood, I then happily posed for a picture. See below. If you can give blood, please do as it is such a worthwhile thing to do.

Now how can that, worthy as it is, lead to a writing idea?

Easy! You meet all kinds of people at blood donation sessions so you could invent characters who meet there. What happens next? You could also use the donor centre as a setting.

Off you go and happy writing!

(And if you do give blood, I know the blood people would want to thank you. I know what I like most is finding out what happens to mine about a fortnight or so after the donation. It’s fascinating to know).

Flash fiction has been around for a long time, centuries in fact, but has been known by many different names. Jesus’s parables and many of Aesop’s fables would come in at under 1000 words.

I must admit my favourite name for the format is postcard fiction because it sums up things well. You’d be hard pushed to get more than a 100 words or so on the back of a postcard (unless you have tiny writing like I have which might push it up to 200!).

Indeed a good writing exercise is to take a blank postcard and get a complete story to fit on it. (I’d aim for 50 to 100 words here).

GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – Reading Acrostic

Hope you like the following acrostic. Has been a while since I last wrote one here.

R = Reading does so much for you, not least of which is increasing your vocabulary.

E = Entertainment awaits within books if that is what you choose; education is also an option.

A = Adventures in this world and others just within the power of the imagination await the reader.

D = Dastardly villains, heroes, heroines and more – all fabulous characters with stories to share.

I = Imagination fired up, maybe enough to write your own stories.

N = Nothing beats reading for all you can have from it and there are plenty of formats to choose from.

G = Get reading – old favourites, new books, ideally both!

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Book Event Tips

May 8, 2026May 8, 2026Leave 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 JANET WILLIAMS FOR PICTURES OF ME AT THE MOST RECENT HILTINGBURY BOOK FAIR FOR MY CHANDLER’S FORD TODAY POST THIS WEEK.

Hope you’ve had a good week so far. Lady is doing well and the writing is also going along nicely. I like weeks like this!

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Delighted to share Book Event Tips on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I discuss doing as much prep work in advance as you can, suggest some good things to have on your book table, having newsletter sign up forms ready for these things, and giveaways. I also look at the benefits of taking part in book events.

Naturally I hope to take my own advice at future events once Seeing The Other Side is out. My last launch was back in 2020 with Tripping the Flash Fantastic. It wasn’t the best year to have events!

I hope you find the post useful.

Book Event Tips

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I’m delighted to share my latest post on Writers’ Narrative and hope you enjoy my Comedy Writing in Short Fiction. It can be done! I share thoughts and tips here, which I hope you will find useful.

Don’t forget Writers’ Narrative is free to subscribe to and you receive articles on the theme of the month every few days. The theme this time is Comedy Writing.

My article discusses “natural comedy” which flows from a well developed character and situation. For comedy to work, it mustn’t seem forced. I also look at comedy from dialogue and share one of my stories here to illustrate the point.

Hope you enjoy the post and do check out the other articles.

Hope today has gone well. Lady had a lovely time in the park with her Hungarian Vizler and Coco, the smashing Labradoodle. Tired but happy dogs went home.

Looking forward to an ACW online group tonight. It was great fun!

Will be sharing Book Event Tips on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. The post will have tips I’ve found useful over the years (and hope you will do too) and which I hope to bring into play again for when Seeing The Other Side comes out.

Marketing Tip: Play to your strengths. Be yourself. If certain social media platforms are not for you, that’s fine. It makes sense to enjoy (as much as possible) the marketing work you do. I like meeting with readers, online or in person, so will aim to do both kinds of event. I like sharing posts on Facebook but haven’t got into, say, TikTok.

Whether that changes or not remains to be seen but I won’t try to spread myself too thin. I see any kind of event, including marketing posts, as a way of engaging with potential readers so want these to be as fun as possible for them and, indeed, for me. So it pays to work out then the kind of marketing you know you would be likely to enjoy the most and focus on that.

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Hope today has gone well. Lady had a fabulous puppy party in the park today with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals, plus Coco put in an appearance.

Looking forward to interviewing fellow flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, for Chandler’s Ford Today later this month, though it will be her children’s work which will be the focus of the interview.

Planning to work on more flash fiction over the weekend though I will soon need to look at what I’ve got so far. I know I’m close to a potential fourth book. In Seeing the Other Side, there will be acrostic and poetic flashes plus I’ve written more linked pieces and those were fun to do.

Hope today has gone well. Lady came with me to vote today. She loves that. Everyone makes a fuss of her and she is as good as gold. She then caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal and her “boyfriend”, the lovely Aussie Shepherd. So Lady has had a great day.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Book Event Tips on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. I hope the post will prove useful (and maybe reassuring as well). See above.

Editing Tip: I was asked at an online meeting I went to earlier this week about anything which stands out as a “bug” for me with my editing hat on.

I mentioned two things – inconsistencies with character names and paragraphs which go on and on for ever, amen. These grate because you do expect the writer to get their character names right.

The huge block of text, on screen or on paper, is off putting. See it as facing a great big “wall of characters”. Not everyone will read on. Your editor will be contractually obliged to (!) but you won’t win any friends doing this. Also bear in mind the longer the paragraph, the slower the pace.

Another top tip here is to read a wide range of books in the genres you write in (which you should do anyway) but look at how the authors here have laid out things like paragraphs etc. See how they will mix up short pacy ones with longer (but don’t drag) ones. Studying this will be a great guideline for you.

One of the many joys of writing and reading flash fiction is escaping into many different worlds.

Flash is character led and those characters can be set anywhere (and in any time) so it is lovely to take advantage of that.

I also like writing acrostic flashes from time to time, poetic type ones, all dialogue stories and so on. I also like to mix up the word counts I write to for flash. It all helps to keep me on my creative toes and I think this is why flash remains a constant and wonderful challenge. It’s a hugely enjoyable one too.

Certainly if you love creating characters, you get to do this all of the time with flash fiction so I highly recommend it. It is also a fabulous warm up writing exercise.

Why not give it a go?

Fairytales with Bite – Escaping For A While

It’s good to get away from it all for a while. I love to do this via writing, listening to classical music, getting out and about, reading and in many other ways. Day trips and holidays help too of course.

But what would your characters do to escape for a while? Where would they go to get away from it all? If they’re magical beings, can they switch their powers off to get a real break or do they have to keep them on “low” as a defensive measure? What would your characters read, listen to, watch, do for day trips and holidays? Is your setting similar to what we know here on Earth or so different there is nothing here to compare with it?

Why do your characters need the break? Do they take a break willingly or does someone else persuade them they need one? How does the break help or hinder them in accomplishing their purpose?

Plenty of story ideas there.

This World and Others – Winding Down

We all need to wind down but it isn’t always that easy to do. Jobs to do, places to go, people to see, a never ending (or seemingly so) To Do list etc.

I like to wind down with classical music and funnily enough writing. It is both a challenge and a joy to do so I find it unwinds me but there does come a point when my brain says that’s enough for one day and I’ve got better at recognizing that for what it is.

How do your characters do in this department? How do they wind down? Are they glad to do so, relieved even, or is it a case they know they need to do so because nobody can go on for ever and ever, amen, without having health issues at some point?

I find it easiest to wind down, knowing it will do me good, so no issue for me here but I could see characters resenting having to “stop” and that could be an interesting idea to explore. There will be an impact from that on how they react to others, how well they do with their work and so on.

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Travel Writing – Making The Characters Move

April 7, 2026Leave 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 wonderful Easter. Moving Easter services meant a great deal to me. Lady has been out and about enjoying the sunshine and I’m writing away. A good weekend and yes chocolate was involved too!

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lovely day weather wise today.

Writing wise, I’m delighted to share the link to my latest article on Writers’ Narrative. For this month, the theme is travel writing. My take on it? To think about it from a character’s viewpoint.

At some point we have to make our characters move and travel problems will be as real for them as, alas, they are for us. (I faced yet more temporary traffic lights today – no warning given etc!).

Even in a fantasy world where some characters may be able to fly without the aid of machinery, they will face issues such as wind currents and so on. I share thoughts and tips on this including the thought travel brings out the best and worst in us so it can do exactly the same for our creations too.

Hope you enjoy the post and find it useful.

It’s a Bank Holiday here in the UK. I’ve spent a lot of the weekend listening to and enjoying the countdown of the Classic FM Hall of Fame for 2026. I’ve heard two of my choices so far – one went up, the other went down – and have still to hear the third. The third one ended up being a non-mover!

It’s not that easy just picking three pieces of music but it’s fun having a go. And listening to so much lovely music over the Easter weekend has been a joy – everything from classical to film scores to operatic to themes from games (the latter is surprisingly good). I usually write with Classic FM on. It relaxes me and when I relax I write more.

Writing wise, I shared another flash piece over on my Substack page over the weekend. Link here. Have started work on various things I’ll be sharing in one form or another later this month/early next month. Plus I’ve been editing. So the weekend has been productive.

Character Tip: If you’re fleshing out a character outline, give some thought as to what kind of music they’d like and why. It may well show you their likely age, possibly some of their background too, and I’m sure you can make use of that in your stories.

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Happy Easter to all who celebrate. Lovely and cheery church service this morning. Our minister even brought a big chocolate egg for us to share. It went down very well with all!

Writing wise, will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly.

Congratulations to all who have been accepted for the Bridge House Publishing anthology out later this year. News came out about that yesterday.

Ahead of that will be the release of The Best of CafeLit 15, where my story, Freedom, will be included. Already looking forward to catching up with folk in person at the end of the year.

Writing Tip: Will be reviewing my story for the BHP book because I know its theme may well make it open for other competitions. I’ve nothing to lose doing this and, indeed, have sometimes gone on to have work accepted which was initially turned down elsewhere. The good thing is I now know I’ve the necessary distance now to re-read this story and see what can be done to boost its chances out there.

Hope the Easter weekend has got off to a good start. Weather can’t make up its mind what it wants to do here, not that this stopped Lady and I having a nice time at the park.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Flash Fiction On Radio for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be sharing tips here too. Am looking forward to sharing that.

Will also be starting work on a super interview to come up on CFT later in May. Good to be kept busy!

Structure Tip: I find this tip as useful for my non-fiction writing as I do for my short form fiction. I have a rough plan of what will be at the start of the piece, what must be in the middle, and from there what must come at the end. The Three Act structure has much to recommend it even when you’re writing short pieces. I find it keeps me on track. I do find having a framework to work to so useful.

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Absolutely gorgeous day today. Lady and I had a quiet time in the park today. Hope to catch up with pals again tomorrow.

My Writers’ Narrative article is out today (7th April 2026) and talks about Travel Writing – Making The Characters Move. So many of the issues, including travel, that we face, we can then apply to our characters.

Now in flash fiction, there isn’t a lot of room for description so if I need to show you my fairy godmother on the move, I’ll show her getting on her broom or tapping her red shoes to go somewhere. Flash uses inference a lot but there does need to be something in the story for readers to be able to make that inference. This is where using tropes can help you – red shoes will remind folk of The Wizard of Oz and brooms, well everyone knows about flying brooms in the magical world. So it is a question of then of picking out the right detail for readers to pick up on. For flash, they don’t need to know the ins and outs of broom transport unless that is the story itself.

It has been one of those rare beasts in the UK – a Bank Holiday Monday which was sunny! Have loved that. But it is still Monday when all is said and done and so it is time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Colour of Lying.

It seems lying politicians get everywhere when it comes to energy usage, as my fairy godmother character finds out

Hope your Easter Sunday is going well. Good to see some sunshine out. I know it cheers me up no end seeing some brightness especially since earlier today Lady and I were caught in a hail shower.

Weather can change moods then for better or worse but how does it do this for your characters? Could a change in the weather change the outcome in your story and, if so, how?

What other factors would change your character’s mood for better or worse? Who could exploit that, whether or not it is in the character’s best interest?

Definite story ideas there!

I plan as part of my flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow to look through some drafts I’ve been storing as I’ve got ideas for competitions in mind for some of this work. This is why it pays to build up a stock of stories and something I need to get back to doing because I’ve got some to use now, which is fabulous, but I will need to replenish these in due course.

Naturally keeping some stories back like this gives me the necessary distance from them to see the faults and rectify those.

It also pays to draft some tales, every so often, to common themes because you know these will come up at some point and it can give you a head start when you spot competitions you fancy trying.

Goodreads Author Blog – Easter Stories and Inspiring Characters

The Easter story is full of drama – betrayal, injustice, a grim killing – but also hope in the form of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. The characters in the story do go through a rollercoaster of emotion from crushing grief to overwhelming joy.

I must admit I like the little moments in these stories. I can picture Mary, literally blinded by grief, mistaking the risen Jesus for the gardener. You just would, wouldn’t you? Grief does things to you like that.

I like the story of Doubting Thomas too. Someone would’ve asked…

All of these tales bring home the very human qualities of these people.

Naturally, you can be inspired by that to create your own characters where the grief hits home for them, the doubts and fears do haunt them, though I must admit I would always like those stories to end on a note of hope. The news is grim enough. Books and stories can take us away from that for a while but you still need to be able to root for the characters. Understanding where they come from is a huge step for this.

And this is what the very best stories do, of course. You get behind the characters because you want them to do well (usually). It’s the hope of that which keeps me reading, for sure.

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Easter Stories and Inspiring Characters https://t.co/kIQ1v0Gwxe via @goodreads I look at the rollercoaster of emotions in the Easter Stories and how this can inspire our characters. We mainly want to root for characters as that keeps us reading. pic.twitter.com/0XrwJWGLCh
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 4, 2026

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It has been one of those rare beasts in the UK – a sunny Bank Holiday Monday! Story time though. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Colour of Lying. Lying politicians get everywhere when it comes to energy usage, as my fairy godmother finds out.https://t.co/tzxLb1oMXF
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 6, 2026

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I share my new article on Writers’ Narrative. The theme is travel writing this time. I look at it from a character’s viewpoint. At some point we make our characters move. Travel problems will be as real for them as, alas, they are for us, even in fantasy.https://t.co/BFZ6Cd3yxB pic.twitter.com/mCqhv2aJLF
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 7, 2026

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Hope Springs Eternal and Characters

March 31, 2026Leave 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.

Hope the weekend has gone well for you. Sunny but cold now but has been good to get out with Lady. Writing and editing going well. Would’ve liked to have done more at the weekend but various things got in the way of that so onward and upward this week, I hope.

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Hope today has gone well. No chums in the park for Lady today as I had to get her out early so I could squeeze in a wonderful swim. Timetable changes for the Easter holidays but it was well worth going. Feel suitably tired and refreshed at the same time.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Hopes in Writing on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I’ll be looking at hopes for writers and how we can use hopes in our characters. Hope you’ll find the post useful.

Next author newsletter is out tomorrow (1st April). Many thanks to all who subscribe.

Character Tip: When we talk about write what we know, this applies directly to characters too. We know what we as a species, and as individuals, can be capable of so we can apply that to our creations. It pays to be honest here about the better qualities we have and the worst ones too. From there, we can create well rounded characters.

Hope the week has got off to a good start. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback chums and a good time was had by all three dogs. Can hardly believe we’re almost at the end of another month.

Writing wise, will be getting on with various blogs during the week and stories at the weekend. Am also editing at the moment and am enjoying the work immensely.

Writing Tip: It’s easy to forget to do this one but do read about what is going on in the industry. It keeps you up to date and may well share news of interesting competitions and so on. The advice is also useful and I’ve often found tips coming in useful for me much later on after I first read about them. They stick in the mind. You come across something and recall advice you’d heard about before. I catch up with writing news while having lunch – win-win there. Food for the creative mind as well as the body here!

And don’t forget Writers’ Narrative gives plenty of good advice every few days on Substack. Do sign up. It’s free.

It’s my turn once again on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time I look at Hope Springs Eternal, which is particularly apt as we enter Holy Week and Easter.

I look at why writers need hope and how you can find this via a supportive writing group. ACW is excellent here, of course. I should add I have been to the two ACW Connect sessions held so far and found these were great opportunities to listen and talk with other ACW members. If you get the chance to go to these online meetings, I would highly recommend it. I do know a little hope and support can go a long way in the writing community.

I also look at how, as you start out in writing, you do need this kind of hope and support but as your own journey goes on, you in turn can become a source of hope and support to other writers. This is a real blessing for both ends of this seesaw.

I also look at why I like hopeful stories as a rule. I know I’m not alone there.

Hope you enjoy the post.

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Hope you’ve had a good start to your weekend.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Hopes in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll look at this from the viewpoint of writers and characters.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again soon. To sign up for hints, tips, story links and so on, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Hope to get on with plenty of flash and short story drafting tomorrow. It has been another hectic week so will be especially glad to get to Flash Fiction Sunday afternoon!

Writing Tip: Clarity is everything in storytelling and never more so than in the short forms. Part of the editing process for me is going through and checking the impressions I want to give to a reader via my characters are coming across clearly enough.

If I need a character to be ambiguous, I will show this through their dialogue and then back it up with what they are thinking because the two things won’t marry up here. But I want the reader to be able to see that my character is like that. This is the advantage of the written form. A reader can literally read my character’s thoughts and deduce from that whether they’re trustworthy or not.

And if it is a case the character said something and then realised later they were wrong, I’ll either show them apologising or get them to act in a way that shows they know they were wrong. But this will be crystal clear. There will be a natural and clear progression and that is what I like to try to achieve in all of my stories.

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I love the focus on character flash fiction encourages. Without much room for description, I have to take you inside a character’s mindset immediately. Even when the story starts with action, it won’t be long before you meet the character responsible for it and gauge something of their attitudes and actions.

Flash fiction is great for strengthening writing skills. You have got to cut the waffle and that’s no bad thing. That skill is transferable to other types of writing too and I’ve found this to help a lot with my blogging and article writing.

So am I all for flash fiction and flash non-fiction? Oh yes! Why not give it a go? (And if you regularly have a go at writing exercises, you are already in the flash world – welcome!).

It has been another hectic Monday. It’s time for another story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Heavy Handed. This dark tale started life as a sixty word flash fiction exercise. Brief can still give plenty of impact, which is why I love the form.

My character explains their actions against the most powerful man in their world.

We’re racing towards the end of another month and while I’ve managed to get plenty done, there is still plenty I would’ve liked to have done. I think this is true for most writers. Still, it does mean I’m never short of things to write up.

Talking of which, it’s almost time for my flash fiction Sunday afternoon. It’s a lovely way to finish an old week and begin a new one – getting more flash written. I had hoped to spend time this weekend either drafting more stories or picking competitions to enter but that isn’t going to happen. Will try to do better in the coming week. But what does matter is making the most of the writing time you do have and, as long as I’ve done that, I’m reasonably content.

Onwards and upwards with the writing then!

Flash fiction can and does make good use of words which have more than one meaning. The meaning being used will be clear from the story context. I am selecting words for definitive impact.

If I want to lead a reader down a certain path and then throw in a twist, there will be clues early on in the story to show that might happen so a reader can look back over the story and see, yes, this character was capable of doing this. I love this when other authors do it to me and it especially works well in crime fiction, of course.

But I choose words with care because I want to wring every possible use out of them that I can for my limited word counts!

Goodreads Author Blog – Characters Acrostic

C = Characters make or break a story.
H = Having characters to root for, to succeed or fail, is vital.
A = Actions and attitudes should be understandable though nobody says you have to agree with them.
R = Reading the stories should draw you right into the world and mindset of the characters.
A = Any action should have a reaction and consequences.
C = Characters should grip you by the heart.
T = Tension, drama, laughs – what will the characters give you?
E = Endings should be apt for the characters, not necessarily happy ones.
R = Re-reading stories is a sure sign the characters have got to you in a good way.
S = Stories with characters you can get behind – the best tales of all.

And whether you’re reading books, novellas, short stories or flash fiction, all of the above applies!

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Characters Acrostic https://t.co/6HVtQZjLXD via @goodreads I share a characters acrostic on Goodreads this week. This looks at some reasons why I believe characters make or break a story. They've got to grip your readers. Hope you enjoy the post. pic.twitter.com/LlnhOObgsB
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 28, 2026

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More than Writers: Hope Springs Eternal by Allison Symes https://t.co/oPCw4hkn5o This is so apt a topic for Holy Week. I look at why writers need hope and how you can find this via a supportive writing group. ACW is excellent here. I also look at why I like hopeful stories. pic.twitter.com/lJm9ypuirc
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 29, 2026

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It has been another hectic Monday and so it must be story time. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Heavy Handed. This dark tale began as a sixty word flash exercise.

My character explains their actions against the most powerful man in their world.https://t.co/nFQOL88h5N
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 30, 2026

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Broadcast News and Judging Stories

December 16, 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. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a lovely weekend. Family came down to visit so had a fantastic and busy time – we went to see a local lights festival. Lady loved seeing the family too. She is very much a “people” dog! Writing and editing are going well. Will be wrapping up for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday 19th December and then will be back in the New Year.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal today so both dogs were pleased at that. Later on our evening walk Lady, other half and I came across her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal. The two dogs were so excited to see each other, sweet to see.

Character Creation Tip: You know your own likes and dislikes. Why not take those and swap them around for potential characters?

For example, if you love sprouts, get your character to hate them and then face a situation where they have no choice but to have some of the things. Could be a good fun story there but the general point here of taking what you know (your likes and dislikes) and using them for characters should be the means of generating plenty of story ideas for you.

Have fun!

Delighted to say the bumper December issue of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Pleased to have two articles in here – Real Characters, Please and Why Should Fiction Writers Read Non-Fiction?

The theme of the magazine is Diversity Matters and there are plenty of fabulous articles to enjoy, all of which will help you with your own writing in some way.

Hope you enjoy the magazine, all 52 bumper pages, link below. Plenty here to keep you busy for a bit!

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Have had a fabulous weekend with family visiting. Went to see a local light festival. That was great but the parking was abysmal. Traffic guidance (which was indicated by a sign saying there was police approved traffic control) was non-existent. Once parked though, we had a great time at the event itself. It was impressive.

Oh well. Great to catch up with the family though and it won’t be too long before we meet up again which will be lovely. (A riotous time is usually had by all including the four legged members of the family).

Next weekend will be busy too as will be taking part in Carols by Candlelight services and reading a beautiful poem at one of them. Looking forward to that.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing A Year In Flashback as my last Chandler’s Ford Today post for 2025. That will be up on Friday.

I did manage to get to listen to Three Minute Santas with Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM yesterday before the family arrived. Loved all of the stories. Am looking forward to congratulating via Zoom those members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group who also had stories on here. We’ll be having a round up meeting on Wednesday sharing chat and stories, a great way to finish our year.

Character Tip: What would your character make of our Christmas celebrations, especially if they were not from this world? Could be some fun stories to write following that prompt. Have fun!

Am posting early today as am delighted to have family come down today. We’re off to see a local festive lights show this evening. Should be fun.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing my last Chandler’s Ford Today post for 2025 next Friday, 19th December. I’ll take a look back at my writing year and look ahead to the next one too.

Broadcast News: Am enjoying listening to Three Minute Santas on North Manchester FM as I post this. (Well, I was at the time, honest!). The show is hosted by Hannah Kate (as part of her Hannah’s Bookshelf programme) and I know I am going to love listening to the festive stories. There will be some from members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group, including me, too.

North Manchester FM: Hannah’s Bookshelf 3 Minute Santas Special, Saturday 13 December, 2-4pm

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Flash is easy to share on social media and your website so can be an excellent marketing tool. I like to share some flash stories every so often, including the regular ones I share here, simply to show something of my writing style to potential readers. Besides which, I like doing this because it is fun!

I love it when other authors share their stories (or snippets). The tales in themselves are entertaining but you can learn so much from what other writers do. The writing community is very supportive here and I think a lot of that is because we know ideas spark other ideas. There will be never be just the one Christmas ghost story, for example (though Dickens did write a magnificent one in A Christmas Carol) but that particular famous tale will have and will continue to spark other story ideas.

What could our story ideas spark in others? I hope lots of other ideas that only those writers could come up with! I like to see this as contributing to the big world of stories out there. Also, we do build on what has gone before. I continue to be inspired by the classic fairytales for a start.

It’s Monday. It’s dark though I am enjoying seeing the Christmas lights when I walk my dog in the evening. Brightens the place up no end. Still time for a story though. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Who What When.

Discover who fell down a chimney, what happened when a collie became involved, and when this is going to happen. Hope you enjoy this fun Christmas story.

With my judge’s hat on, how do I pick a potential winning flash fiction story?

I look at how well the character grips me and then how do they deliver on the premise of the story. I am expecting the character to make me feel something/react to what they do (and it should be apt for the story of course). If the character stays in my mind after I’ve read the story, then that is a good sign and of course it is a challenge to me to make sure my characters do just that for my readers.

There should be heart and feeling in a story regardless of its length, I think. I’ve got to care about what happens to the characters after all.

Will be winding down the writing as we approach Christmas and intend to have a few days break. I appreciate the time off yet when I get back to my desk that’s no hardship and this is a good place to be. I am phenomenally grateful for discovering flash fiction. It is such fun to write and read.

Would like to try competitions new to me in 2026 (having ensured they’re reputable first, of course), as well as keeping up a reasonable number of entries. I do know my recent turndown is a story I would like to try and place elsewhere. Ironically, I am being a story judge myself again soon and again in February.

Does being a story judge sometimes help me with my own flash and short story contenders? It can do. I do know with my judge’s hat on I am looking for that special something which makes a story stand out. If I remember the story, that’s a good sign and it is a challenge to me to make sure my own are memorable too.

Goodreads Author Blog – Have a Lovely Reading Christmas and New Year

I hope the Christmas season brings you plenty of lovely new books to read. I put my list in early. Yes, there is always a list! There would be something wrong if I didn’t have plenty of books on my wish list.

Did you use to get annuals as part of your Christmas presents? Do you still get them even? My son used to love The Beano Annual (and yes I often took a peek or several, having loved many of the characters in there). D.C. Thomson are a fabulous publisher. My annual these days is the thoughtful The Friendship Book, which has been a yearly fixture for decades now.

As well as the books I’m looking forward to, I love the Christmas story itself. I also take part in Carols by Candlelight services and have read some wonderful poems based around the Nativity, which I hadn’t come across before. Beautiful words to read and the poems conjure up tremendous imagery, as do the carols, especially my favourite In The Bleak Midwinter (has to be the Holst tune though).

I suppose that’s what I love about words, stories, and books the most. They really do take you places through the power of your own imagination.

I’m looking forward to having my imagination re-fired by the books I find under the tree this year!

I hope to post again next week but in case that cannot happen, I will wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year and hope books to continue to play an important part in your life. I cannot imagine a world without books. Nor do I ever wish to be able to!

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Couldn’t resist putting the above magazine back in here too. This has been one of the highlights of my writing year.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Enjoying Three Minute Santas on North Manchester FM as I post this. This is hosted by Hannah Kate. I know I'll love hearing the festive tales. There will be some from members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group, including me. https://t.co/UKX7cpP4oU
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 13, 2025

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Have a Lovely Reading Christmas and New Year https://t.co/4ckRdHEcla via @goodreads I look at the joys of annuals for Goodreads. Did you get these? Do you still get them (even if not for you)? I hope you find many books under the tree this year. pic.twitter.com/hSpybHHtZY
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 13, 2025

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🎙️ #OnAir now on Hannah's Bookshelf #3MinuteSantas Special:

🎅 Dear Santa by Keith Jones
🎅 Auntie Bertha by Dorinda MacDowell
🎅 The Request by @AllisonSymes1
🎅 A Christmas Miracle by @jennyhsanders pic.twitter.com/vzUtRXOHmf
— Hannah Kate (@HannahKateish) December 13, 2025

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It’s Monday and time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Who What When.

Discover who fell down a chimney, what happened when a collie became involved, and when this is going to happen.

Hope you enjoy this fun Christmas story.https://t.co/VYy9B7aXuy
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 15, 2025

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Delighted the bumper December issue of Writers’ Narrative is out. Pleased to have two articles here – Real Characters, Please and Why Should Fiction Writers Read Non-Fiction? The theme is Diversity Matters. Check out all of the fabulous articles. https://t.co/pWjaNubPH8
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 15, 2025

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

November 14, 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. 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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Remembrance and Book Memories

November 11, 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. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good weekend. Blustery here. Very moving Remembrance Sunday events. One good thing about the rain was it did limit the fireworks which helped Lady. Writing and editing going well too.

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11th November 2025 – Armistice Day

Hope you have a good day. Good to remember Armistice Day today.

Writing wise, had a lovely Zoom session at a group I go to once monthly. Was a lovely way to chill after a hectic Monday (though Mondays are always that way for me for various reasons. I know I won’t get much writing done so I do write little bits and pieces I can flesh out for longer work later).

Am busy writing a review of the murder mystery play I went to with my lovely Chandler’s Ford Today editor, Janet Williams, recently. My post this week will be the review of The Ghost Train performed by The Chameleons but it was one of those weeks where Janet and I got to see two shows in three days. The next show we are likely to see will be the pantomine The Chameleons stage (and this year it is Camelot, oh yes it is).

Will also have another author interview coming up in December and I will be working on that later this week.

So all go here but in a good way.

Hope your Monday has gone well. Lady was delighted to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today, especially as the weather was dodgy. We all managed to avoid the worst though so we will take that as a win.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing my review of The Ghost Train recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on Friday. All I knew about the play was it was written by Arnold Ridley of Dad’s Army fame. Was pleased to have seen it – great story – more in the review.

Writing Tip: When you’ve got five minutes (I know – this will become less likely as we head towards Christmas!), but can’t get to your laptop, grab the old notebook and pen and brainstorm ideas. I find writing in the old school manner like this can make the ideas flow. It also gives me something to review later when I do have more time. I’ve had plenty of story ideas doing this.

9th November – Remembrance Sunday

As ever the Remembrance Sunday service where I go to church was deeply moving. I recall my late grandfathers. One served in the Forces and then went on to be an ARP warden in London’s East End (neither easy as you can imagine); the other worked in Woolwich Arsenal (and forever getting bombed out as you can also imagine).

I also think of my late parents. Dad was too young to be evacuated immediately so went through the Blitz on London with his mum until he could be evacuated. Mum was evacuated, didn’t say much about it other than she hated it. Two generations – that is all which stands between my generation and the Second World War.

For our tomorrow, they gave their today.

Writing wise, stories which focus on remembering can be deeply moving. I like to focus on one character, one pertinent memory. This kind of story (I like to think of it as slice of life), I feel, works best when kept short and to the point. It’s where flash fiction can come into its own.

Am delighted to say the November issue of Writers’ Narrative is now available. The theme this time is Narrative Non-Fiction and my article on the topic can be found on pages 18 and 19. (I use the technique a lot in my Chandler’s Ford Today posts as well as those I write for Writers’ Narrative). Do check out the other superb articles – see the link below for more.

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11th November 2025 – Armistice Day

Looking forward to having a go at today’s Flash NANO prompt later this evening. The prompt involves the use of magic and given I love writing and reading what I call fairytales with bite, I think this prompt has my name on it!

Have been very pleased to have some lovely feedback on the stories I’ve shared on the Flash NANO Facebook page. I don’t share all of my drafts but will share ones I think will amuse. (Well, at this dark time of year and with the world in a right old state, we all need some literary cheer, yes?).

It’s Monday, a soggy and dark one where I am, and it’s time for a story. I hope you like my latest on YouTube – Memories Edited. There is a (rough!) rhyming scheme to this one. Think it will have resonance with many.

9th November – Remembrance Sunday

Today is Remembrance Sunday and the focus is, naturally, on the past and to the huge debt we owe to those who gave up so much for our freedoms, which should not be taken for granted.

As well as flash fiction, there is such a thing as flash non-fiction and short reflective pieces can be amazingly touching, especially when based on memories (collective and individual). I think the important thing here is, whatever your topic, to write from the heart (though that is also true for fiction).

Compassion, empathy, acknowledging the past can be very powerful themes for our writing, fictional or otherwise.

Am enjoying the range of prompts from Flash NANO so far. Yesterday’s one from me was a story told as a list involving using a number in the title. I shared a story about the struggles a cat owner has in getting to get their pet to the vet. I speak as a dog owner! Make of that what you will but it was fun to do and I will crack on with today’s prompt later on today.

Another nice angle to these prompts is they encourage me to get a story down quickly. It’s good practice for when I am set exercises at places like Swanwick. I find fast writing a really good thing to do sometimes. It makes me think on my feet and I know it’s okay to write first, edit later.

Goodreads Author Blog – Book Memories

One of the pleasures of books is as well as giving you stories and non-fiction to enjoy, they can also conjure up good memories for you. Many of my books on my shelves are written by author friends and every time I see the books I remember the story and where and whom I got the book from! I also inherited books from my much read late mother and her Dickens leather bound set always make me think of her when I see them.

When I read the classic fairytales, I am taken back to childhood memories of reading these for myself and, even further back, when my mum read the stories to me.

I think this is why physical books will always be around. They can give you tangible memories in the way a Kindle cannot, though that does have its uses. I use mine to discover authors new to me, for example, and it is great for holidays/being away etc. Physical books can be heavy to cart around but I would never be without them.

With my own flash fiction collections, the memories of having my work accepted will always be very special. Having some input into the covers is another special memory.

I also remember when I first read certain books which are firm favourites of mine.

Books are truly wonderful things.

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As I’ve shared the new November issue above, I thought I’d sneak in the October one again given it’s about short form fiction, I’m interviewed in it, and am a cover girl on it! Well, you can’t blame me really, can you? Absolute thrill to do this interview.

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Am delighted to say the November issue of Writers’ Narrative is now available.

The theme is Narrative Non-Fiction and my article on the topic can be found on pages 18 and 19.

Do check out the other superb articles – see the link below for more.https://t.co/Xwnq66i9yY
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 8, 2025

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Book Memories https://t.co/HJFCztKaKa via @goodreads I look at special memories books create for my Goodreads post this week. Am sure there will be plenty of books with special memories for you too. Physical books are great for this. pic.twitter.com/xOz7RUvesY
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 8, 2025

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It’s Monday, a soggy and dark one where I am, and it’s time for a story. I hope you like my latest on YouTube – Memories Edited. There is a (rough!) rhyming scheme to this one. Think it will have resonance with many. https://t.co/zn2GmUfi6t
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 10, 2025

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Cover Girl Time – Allison Symes – Writers’ Narrative – October 2025 – Short Form Fiction

October 7, 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. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Wendy H Jones and Writers’ Narrative for the magazine images. Also thanks to Wendy for images re Creativity Matters.

Hope the weekend went well. All fine here. Some debris from Storm Amy but grateful not more than that. The big news is I am finally a cover girl! Am on the front cover of Writers’ Narrative for their October 2025 edition on Short Form Fiction. Plus there is an in-depth interview between Wendy H Jones, Editor in Chief, and me for this issue. Do check it out and I am always pleased to hear the short form writers being given a shout out, naturally enough.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today – a great time was had by all.

Managed to make the most of my limited writing time yesterday and ended up doing more than I thought. This is often the way when you haven’t much time. You make the most of what you do have and lo and behold, several jobs are ticked off your list. All good stuff.

Character Tip: Jot down a short list of characters created by other authors, say five or six names, and then write one line about why you picked these characters. Was it something about their personalities that appealed to you especially? Could you use those thoughts in your own characters?

Hope your Monday hasn’t been too chaotic. Bit of a mixed bag day for me but Lady did get to have a fabulous time in the park with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal so she’s had a good day.

Writing wise, I’ll be working on “bits and pieces” given Monday is one of those days when I don’t have so much time for writing. I often use this time to get writing admin done and draft notes for future blog posts etc. These things mount up and save me a great deal of time later.

Later in the week when I do have more writing time available, I get to work on longer pieces. I learned long ago that all writing is valuable (even if you discard a lot of it later when editing) and using whatever time you have does pay off in the long run.

Writing Tip: You have a character in mind. What would their catchphrase be? You may not use it in your story but if you can figure out what they might have as a catchphrase, that can show you more about them which could be relevant to your tale. If they come up with a humorous phrase for example, does this mean they are a funny character or do they use humour to cover up how they really feel? Could be some interesting story thoughts there.

Hope the weekend has gone well for you. A huge thank you for all the support on yesterday’s news about my interview in Writers’ Narrative and being on the front cover of the e-magazine. Much appreciated.

Looking forward to sharing Starting A Piece of Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I sometimes find the starting point tricky so will be sharing in this post some tips I’ve found useful for overcoming this issue. I hope you’ll find them useful too. Link up on Friday.

Pleased to say I’ll be interviewing John Puzey, author of Captive Audience, later in the month for CFT. Will share more news on that nearer the time. Plus there should be another author interview coming up in early November.

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The big news is I am a cover girl! The October issue of Writers’ Narrative has Short Form Fiction as its theme, a topic very close to my writing heart of course, with yours truly as the Featured Author.

I am interviewed in depth by Editor in Chief, Wendy H Jones, and this was great fun to do. As part of the interview, I share a story showing something of the flexibility of flash fiction. I’ve written across genres, and have also written poetic flash, acrostic flash, as well as the differing word count ranges up to the 1000 words limit, and much more so I share an example here.

Hope you enjoy the story and the interview.

Let’s hear it for the short form writers!

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Good to be celebrating flash fiction in the October Writers’ Narrative, which is obviously my big news of the week! But if you have never tired flash fiction before, why not give it a go?

If you have ever written any kind of writing exercise at an event, you have almost certainly written some flash as you are never given too long to respond to these exercises. The most you’re going to be able to write in the time is a 100 words or so.

So why not make it an official part of what you write? I’ve found it be fun and addictive.

It’s Monday. It’s been busy. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Some Forward Thinking. (Always a good idea this, I find!)

You’re a fairy godmother with a problem which needs to be resolved fast. You can’t use magic directly but some forward thinking, involving an unsuspecting human, should do the trick, literally. Find out how here.

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday in a moment or two. (I did too!). Lovely way to end the week, I must say, and I get plenty of flash written. Nothing to dislike there.

If you’d like to know more about flash, including some examples of it, do head over to my landing page and sign up for my newsletter at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I regularly share tips and flash fiction stories of mine here – it makes for a good “one stop shop” to find out what I’ve written and where.

On a related topic, flash, I have good news and bad news.

The good news is Flash NANO is on again this year – see link for how to join up. This is where those who join in are given 30 prompts over the 30 days of November. You can do as many or as few as you like. I see it as a great chance to draft 30 new stories!

The bad news? This will be the final one, alas, so do sign up and give it a go while you can. I find it great fun and a good flash challenge and writing work out.

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So glad the short forms of fiction are being celebrated in the October issue of Writers’ Narrative (do see my author page on Facebook where I share the link). Also see above.

As well as reading a lot of short work, because it is the field in which I work, I love reading these stories anyway. I see them as wonderful reads in between reading lots of longer books. Indeed I see this has having a good overall “reading diet”.

Indeed my way into the love of stories and books was via the short form, the classic fairytales of which I remain fond. Many of my 1000 word pieces for Friday Flash Fiction have more than a passing nod to the fairytales.

What you read does influence what you write so it pays to read widely and well. Non-fiction has been an eye opener for me as I have found that too can spark story ideas. Who knew? Well, I didn’t until fairly recently.

Glad to have found this out though. Am always glad to have reading sources of ideas for my writing as I get to enjoy a fabulous read and then enjoy the writing up of the ideas – win-win there for sure.

Goodreads Author Blog – Light and Dark in Fiction

I guess it’s appropriate we have light and dark in fiction given our stories reflect our human condition and there’s plenty of light and dark in that. Indeed the thought of that inspired the stories in my first flash fiction collection and also gave me the title for it – From Light To Dark And Back Again.

I suppose light and dark in fiction also reflects reading moods. Certainly for me, when the seasons change and the darkness draws in ever earlier in the day, I want to read and write lighter material. Not exactly raging against the dying of the light happening here but I am trying to make my journey towards that dying light more pleasant at least!

Can’t beat Wodehouse, Austen and Pratchett here (though the latter is remarkable in that there is darkness within Discworld but it is dealt with via humour, which to me makes the points being made much more effective).

I guess we do need a balance here though if I have to tip the scales somewhere, I would tip it in favour of light fiction. I learned long ago what looks easy to read isn’t necessarily easy to write, far from it.

Time to read some more amusing stories then!

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Naturally I am thrilled to bits about the October issue but as I have shared that issue above, I will share a back issue here. Do enjoy a good read!

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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The big news is I'm a cover girl! The October Writers’ Narrative on Short Form Fiction has yours truly as Featured Author. As part of the interview with Editor in Chief, Wendy H Jones, I share a tale showing something of flash fiction's flexibility. Enjoy!https://t.co/j7TrYBYYjH
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 4, 2025

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Light and Dark in Fiction https://t.co/7QIY6rSuM5 via @goodreads This Goodreads post looks at two aspects of our humanity in fiction. Light and dark led to the title for my first flash fiction collection too, From Light to Dark and Back Again. pic.twitter.com/bYRzxAfOVC
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 4, 2025

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It’s Monday and time for my latest on YouTube – Some Forward Thinking. You're a fairy godmother with a problem which needs to be resolved fast. You can't use magic directly but some forward thinking, involving an unsuspecting human, should do the trick. https://t.co/vhN6zNRkGp
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 6, 2025

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