Chandler's Ford Today

Allison Symes

A Year In Flashback

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Image Credits:- 
Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay image. Book cover shots from Bridge House Publishing/Chapeltown Books. Many thanks to Lynn Clement, Paula Readman, and Penny Blackburn for images from the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event and The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick held earlier this year. Other images and screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes.

It is hard to believe, sometimes at least, just how quickly another year has gone by. I make a point of taking some time out to review how my writing year has gone and what I’d like to see happen in the next one. I’ve found writing things down for this makes it more likely I will take at least some steps to try and achieve what is on my writing wish list.

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Back At The Theodore Bullfrog with Bridge House Publishing

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Image Credits:- 
Most of the images were taken by me, Allison Symes. Other images were created in Book Brush using my images or ones from Pixabay. Many thanks to Paula Readman for taking the images of Rosemary Johnson and me with some of our respective works. Many thanks to Lynn Clement for the selfie of both of us.

On Saturday 6th December 2025, I had the great joy of being back at the wonderfully named Theodore Bullfrog in Charing Cross, London, for the annual Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event. This, along with The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, is a major highlight of my writing year.

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Author Interview – Introducing Heather Beveridge/Hetty Waite – Evolve

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Image Credits:-
Many thanks to Heather Beveridge (who writes as Hetty Waite) and Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Vlog for author and book cover pics. Some images from The Writers’ Summer School were taken by me, Allison Symes. Other images created in Book Brush using their photos or ones from Pixabay.

It is with great pleasure I welcome Heather Beveridge, who writes as Hetty Waite, to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new book, Evolve. This interview forms part of a book blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Vlog.

Heather and I have a mutual acquaintance in the form of Scottish crime writer, Val Penny. We have a certain writers’ school in common too, The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick.

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Short Story Collections

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Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. Book cover images from Bridge House Publishing/Chapeltown Books.

I am fond of short story collections for various reasons, not least of which is the fact they gave me my way into being published. My first story in print was A Helping Hand in the Bridge House Publishing anthology Alternative Renditions back in 2009.

Coming right up to date, I am also pleased to say another short story of mine, The Family Legend, has recently been published in Bridge House Publishing’s Magi anthology. I’m looking forward to celebrating that book at the Bridge House Publishing celebration event in London next week, which is always a fun event.

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Review – The Business of Murder by Mike Standing

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Image Credit:   Images taken by me, Allison Symes. Some images created in Book Brush using my images or photos from Pixabay.

 

Review – The Business of Murder

Written by Mike Standing

Presented by Chandler’s Ford Methodist Church Senior Thespians

The last week in October proved to be a busy one for Janet and I. As well as going to see The Chameleons perform The Ghost Train on the Thursday (30th October), Janet and I went to the Dovetail Centre on the Saturday afternoon (1st November) for a murder mystery play, The Business of Murder by Mike Standing.

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

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Image Credits:-
Many thanks to The Chameleons for kind permission to use their photos. Other images created in Book Brush using their photos or ones from Pixabay. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes.

I was intrigued when I heard The Chameleon Theatre Company were going to stage The Ghost Train, written by Arnold Ridley, actor and playwright (1896-1984). If that name seems familiar, it is because it is, given Arnold Ridley is best known for his role as Private Godfrey in the classic Dad’s Army. But it was also known he was a writer and The Ghost Train is his best known work.

Janet and I went to the opening night on Thursday, 30th October and were gripped by the story. There were plenty of twists and turns. Was there something supernatural going on here or was it a con or could it be both?

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Author Interview – Introducing Penny Rogers and Amelie At The Window

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Image Credits:-
Many thanks to Penny Rogers and Bridge House Publishing for supplying book cover and author shots. Other images created in Book Brush using images from them or from Pixabay using their photos. One image from a past Bridge House Publishing celebration event was taken by me, Allison Symes.

It is always a joy to welcome fellow authors to Chandler’s Ford Today, especially when they are fellow Bridge House Publishing writers. Penny Dale, who writes as Penny Rogers, is someone I have often chatted to at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event held annually in December.

Penny has had many stories in The Best of CafeLit anthologies. Indeed she and I have had our work in the same books but it is a great joy to congratulate Penny on her forthcoming book, Amelie at the Window.

The title story started life as a short story but other stories about Amelie’s life emerged in response to popular demand and this led to the book being written. It is written in two halves as a collection of short stories about the people who lived in a fictional small town in France in 1914 and again in 1924. So much happened in those ten years.

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

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Image Credits:  One image directly from Pixabay. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos or images taken by me, Allison Symes. Other photos were taken by me, Allison Symes, at the ACW Autumn Gathering event in 2025 (and for the funny captions on the tables from their event in 2024 but the captions do not date!).

Last Saturday, 25th October, I had the joy of going to Egham for the Association of Christian Writers Autumn Gathering. It is the annual in-person gathering. The other ACW meetings are held on Zoom and are so useful but there is something special about getting together with other writers in person.

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Author Interview: Introducing John Puzey – Captive Audience

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Image Credits:-
Many thanks to John Puzey and Richard Hardie of Authors Reach Limited for supplying book and author shots. Other images created in Book Brush using their images or Pixabay photos. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes, as was the picture of John Puzey at the Hiltingbury Book Fair in 2023.

It is a great pleasure to welcome John Puzey to Chandler’s Ford Today, as a local author and a member of The Chameleon Theatre Company.

John has recently been published by Authors Reach Limited (which local author and publisher, Richard Hardie, is behind) with his book, Captive Audience. John has recently held an author talk at Chandler’s Ford Library and launched his book on Facebook.
For more on what John writes, check out his website

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Ending A Piece of Fiction

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Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Given last week’s post looked at Starting a Piece of Fiction, I thought it would be apt to write about ending the said piece of fiction. The beginning of a story has to set up interesting characters and a good premise to hook the reader in, but the ending must deliver on this.

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Starting A Piece of Fiction

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Image Credit:    Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

I’ve often found starting a piece of fiction can be more problematic than finishing a first draft. How come? Knowing where to start is a crucial component to any story and every writer knows the opening lines, especially the first one itself, have to be strong enough to hook the readers in to want to read the rest of the tale. So no pressure then!

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Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier

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Image Credit:   Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Is there anyone who can’t name a list of things they wished they’d known earlier? No matter who you are, there is bound to be something here. I thought I would look at this question from a writer’s viewpoint (otherwise this post will be far too long!). Were there things about the writing life I wish I’d known earlier? Oh yes.

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Being Interviewed

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Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. The Writers’ Narrative image was supplied by Wendy H Jones with text added by me, Allison Symes, via Book Brush.

As many of you will know, as well as writing for the fabulous Chandler’s Ford Today, I also write for a monthly online magazine called Writers’ Narrative. I am also their copy editor. The magazine has a monthly theme and the October edition will be about Short Form Fiction.

I’m delighted to say I will be their Featured Author for October and have been interviewed in depth by the Editor in Chief, Wendy H Jones. I also wrote a separate article breaking down one of my published flash tales and looking at how I wrote it, as well as sharing some of the influences which led to its creation. Am very much looking forward to sharing this via my website and social media later.

It was interesting being on the other side of the interview. The questions were thoughtful and challenging and a joy to answer. So I thought for this post, I would look at what makes for a good interview, what authors can do to prepare themselves for interviews they face, and how to make the best of them once they are “out there”.

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Writing Competitions

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Image Credits:   Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images

Writing competitions can be useful in helping you get your short stories and flash fiction into print. There are novel competitions out there too, though the entry fee is significantly higher for these, which is understandable, because you are paying for a judge’s time to read your 100,000 words.

But for this post, I thought I would focus on the short fiction forms as there are more competitions available for them.

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Introducing Joan Livingston and the Isabel Long Mystery Series – Finding The Source

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Image Credits:- Many thanks to Joan Livingston and Lynsey Adams (Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog) for supplying author and book cover pictures and Sarah Holbrook for supplying a further two author shots. Other images were created in Book Brush using their images or Pixabay photos.

It can be a small world. The same applies to the writing one. I’ve followed Joan Livingston (via her Substack) for some time and recently discovered she is a friend of Val Penny, whom I met at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick and have interviewed here. Now it is Joan’s turn to be put under the spotlight.

This interview forms part of Joan’s blog tour for her new book in her Isabel Long series, Finding The Source. The blog tour has been organised by Lynsey Adams from the Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog.

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Flash Fiction Collections

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Image Credits:-  Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Book cover images are from Chapeltown Books/Bridge House Publishing.

I make a point of mixing up what I read in terms of genre and type of story. So as well as reading novels, I read novellas and, naturally for me, flash fiction and short story collections.

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Stand Alone Books

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Image Credits:   Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books.

I love reading stand alone novels. One of my favourites here is The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. The story is complete. There could not be a follow up. But especially in genre fiction, there is a lot of the room for the series novels. Crime and historical fiction seem to me to lead the way there. I will be interviewing an American author shortly who is renowned for her crime series, but I thought for this post I’d take a look at the joys and challenges of writing stand alone books.

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Returning to The Writers’ Summer School Swanwick for 2025

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Image Credits:-
One image created in Book Brush using my photos. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. One image directly from Pixabay. Many thanks also to Penny Blackburn and Joy Wood for supplying author pictures. Also thanks to Julia Pattison for taking the image of me when I ran an editing course at Swanwick in 2024. Other photos of The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick were taken by me, Allison Symes.

It is always a pleasure to return to The Hayes, Swanwick, Derbyshire for my big writing event of the year – The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. I spend a fabulous few days in the company of friends, enjoy making new friends, and learn so much from the courses and workshops on offer. I am immersed in the world of writing and it is a wonderful, tiring, and inspirational experience.

This year, the weather was gloriously sunny. We appreciated the air conditioning in the rooms where the workshops were being held, and there were new additions to the grounds at The Hayes. I do not remember seeing the goats before.

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Meeting Up With Other Writers

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Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. One photo taken by me, Allison Symes.

By the time this goes live, I will have just returned from my annual jaunt to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. As ever, a good time was had by all (and far too good a time had by me, writing events have their social side which doesn’t necessarily do that much for the old waistline!).

I learned so much from the workshops and courses. I do think this is one aspect where writing is good for you. You keep learning all of the time and developing your craft. That keeps you on your toes, encourages you to up your game and when, hopefully, publication successes come as a result of this, that too encourages you to keep going and it encourages you to see if you can be published again. At least that has been my experience to date.

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Author Event – John Puzey at Chandler’s Ford Library – Captive Audience – 16th August 2025

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Image Credits:  Many thanks to John Puzey for supplying the poster image. Screenshot from John’s website was taken by me, Allison Symes

AUTHOR EVENT: JOHN PUZEY –

CHANDLER’S FORD LIBRARY – 16TH AUGUST 2025

CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

 

 

Local author, John Puzey, will be at Chandler’s Ford Library on 16th August 2025 from 10.00 am.

All are welcome. John tells Chandler’s Ford Today that a big part of his new book is about life in a POW Camp. If you have letters, photos, or diaries of relatives who may have been in camps, do bring them along to when John holds his library event. Please note it should only be paperwork you bring along to this!

John (who is part of The Chameleon Theatre Company based in Ritchie Hall), will be discussing and signing his book, Captive Audience, which is published by Authors Reach Limited.

Behind the wire and the watchtowers, three prisoners of war begin their journey to fame. An adventure of escapism and escape, set against the backdrop of war-torn Italy and the lure of post war stardom.

For more information on this book, and his others, do check out John’s website at https://johnpuzey.co.uk/

 

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