Chandler's Ford Today

Allison Symes

Three Wishes

By 2 Comments

Right now is the height of the pantomime season and I’m looking forward to seeing The Chameleons’ production of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves soon. It should be great fun (as Robin Hood was before). One common element to pantomimes is the use of magic. It comes in somewhere to make the character change directions or to rescue them from what seems an inescapable problem.

So let’s pretend the fairy godmother has turned up for us and, being the kindly soul she is, offered us three wishes.  What would you go for?  Firstly, the ground rules (you knew there would be some, bureaucracy gets everywhere!).

I always thought the traditional magic wand looked a bit twee for something meant to be so powerful - Pixabay
I always thought the traditional magic wand looked a bit twee for something meant to be so powerful – Pixabay

[Read more…] about Three Wishes

Tags: , , ,

Tried and Tested Writing Tips

By 2 Comments

Over the years, you pick up many useful writing tips and then you need to work out which are the most useful to you. Following on from an earlier CFT post of mine about writing tips, I thought I’d take a look in greater depth at why I use the tips that I do.

In general, I don’t look at those tips for playwrights, given that’s not my specialism, but one that is aimed at them (read your work out loud) is good advice regardless of what type of fiction you write. It also works well for non-fiction given it can help you pick up on whether your prose flows as well as you thought. So how do you deduce which writing tips are the most useful?

It pays to plan your writing - Pixabay
It pays to plan your writing – Pixabay

[Read more…] about Tried and Tested Writing Tips

Tags: , , , ,

Winter Traditions

By 8 Comments

Some of my post-Christmas traditions include riding on the Watercress Line, having a day trip to Dorset and walking along West Bay beach, enjoying a New Forest walk, and catching up with members of the family who live a little further away. Have ticked those all off for this year and a good time was had by all.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year celebration.  Many best wishes for 2019 from us all at CFT!

Image Credit:  All images were taken by Allison Symes, unless otherwise stated.  (This means if they’re wobbly, it’s my fault!).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

[Read more…] about Winter Traditions

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Year End Review 2018 – Allison Symes

By 9 Comments

It may be me becoming more cynical but isn’t every year described as a “momentous year” somewhere in the media? Certainly you’ll hear a lot of that phrase in the next few days!

It is true 2018 has had its moments but it will be overshadowed by 2019 and whatever happens with Brexit. And that is as political as I want to get!

In any case, I prefer a more positive review at the end of the year. Positivity and negativity can be contagious and I know which I would rather “catch”. Also, it’s not as if there is ever a world shortage of bad news, unfortunately.

Always great ideas - Pixabay
Always great ideas – Pixabay

[Read more…] about Year End Review 2018 – Allison Symes

Tags: , , , , , ,

Christmas Stories – Allison Symes

By 1 Comment

One of the things I love about this time of year is that it is a wonderful time for stories. The weather’s cold and grim, it can be getting dark by 3.30 pm (which I find depressing), there’s not much on TV, so what could be better than keeping cosy and warm while reading a good book?

Naturally the publishers try to tap into this. It is with very good reason the Christmas book market is a major “pay day” for publishers and long may that continue. Book sales now should help fund the discovery of other writers and fabulous books later. [Read more…] about Christmas Stories – Allison Symes

Tags: , , , , ,

Celebrations, Crackers, Chapeltown, and Cafelit – London 2018

By 3 Comments

On 1st December, it was my great joy to travel to London once again to meet up with fellow Bridge House Publishing/Cafelit/Chapeltown Books authors at the annual celebration event. On the way up by train, I enjoyed my usual routine of writing stories on my phone app and getting quite a bit of work done by the time I got into Waterloo. [Read more…] about Celebrations, Crackers, Chapeltown, and Cafelit – London 2018

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Scrumptious Cooking, Charity, and Barbara Large

By Leave a Comment

There are many ways to raise money for charity and often people will do something extraordinary like bungee jumping or having a parachute jump etc (though it is not a good idea to try the pair of these at the same time!). All kudos to those who are brave enough to have a go but this kind of thing is definitely not for me.

The idea of writing a book for charity is much more up my street and this is what Barbara Large, MBE, has done recently. Barbara was the founder of the Winchester Writers’ Festival (formerly the Winchester Writing Conference), which is one of the major writing conferences in the country. Barbara has also run creative writing classes, including at the Dovetail Centre. [Read more…] about Scrumptious Cooking, Charity, and Barbara Large

Tags: , ,

A Christmas Carol – The MDG Players – Review by Allison Symes

By 4 Comments

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is amongst my favourite stories, as I’m sure it is with many of you. It is ultimately a tale of redemption and also a cracking ghost story.

My favourite versions of it (and there have been many produced over the years) are The Muppet Christmas Carol (Michael Caine playing Scrooge) and the version starring Patrick Stewart. It is a question of getting Scrooge’s hardness of heart right without it spilling over into melodrama, something both knights of the realm did fantastically well. [Read more…] about A Christmas Carol – The MDG Players – Review by Allison Symes

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Light Fantastic

By 4 Comments

I love autumn, as I’ve mentioned before, but must admit I do dislike the earlier and longer nights.

I like lighter evenings. They make it easier to spot my black collie, Lady, for one thing. At the moment we have to put one of the click on lights on her collar from early evening so she lights up the world like a little fairy light! She isn’t impressed by this but it does make her easier to spot. Walking around Hiltingbury at this time of year, you get to spot a few of these lights and the full on illuminated coloured collars. There are some well lit up dogs around here! [Read more…] about The Light Fantastic

Tags: ,

Time Management and Time Travel

By 6 Comments

I don’t know about you but time management is one of those things I always seek to get better at, given there is plenty I’d like to do (especially in writing) but there are still only 24 hours in any one day!

I like my lists, my calendar has plenty of notes scribbled all over it, and by the end of the week, I’ve usually achieved a reasonable amount of what I set out to do. I’ve learned to carve up bigger tasks (like editing my novel) into smaller chunks and accept there are simply some tasks that can’t be done all at once, no matter how much I’d like to do so! [Read more…] about Time Management and Time Travel

Tags:

The Importance of Memories

By 4 Comments

This is an appropriate topic as we approach Remembrance Day and Armistice Day and also after my review last week of The Chameleon Theatre Group’s excellent performance of Blackadder Goes Forth.

Why do we need to remember? To be grateful to those who made so many sacrifices, in too many cases the ultimate one, so we can live as we do now. To be grateful to these unknowns who gave up their fathers, sons, brothers, husbands, wives, sisters, daughters and other family so we do not have to give up ours. [Read more…] about The Importance of Memories

Tags: ,

The Chameleons: Blackadder Goes Forth – Review by Allison Symes

By 5 Comments

IMAGE CREDIT:  A very big thank you to Stuart Wineberg and The Chameleons for kind permission to use the images in this post.

I’m delighted to review the Chameleons’ latest production – Blackadder Goes Forth. [Read more…] about The Chameleons: Blackadder Goes Forth – Review by Allison Symes

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels Part 3

By Leave a Comment

In this final section of my mini-series, Jennifer C Wilson, Val Penny, Anne Wan, Wendy H Jones, and Richard Hardie continue to share their thoughts on different aspects of writing the series novel. Tonight we look at how to ensure each novel can be read as a stand-alone book, specific things my guests love and loathe about writing series, and whether they know, ahead of time, how many books are going to be in their respective series. [Read more…] about The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels Part 3

Tags: , , , , ,

The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels – Part 2

By Leave a Comment

It was a great joy last week to introduce my fellow writers and contributors to this series which looks at the joys and challenges of series novels. Amongst tonight’s topics for Jennifer C Wilson, Val Penny, Anne Wan, Wendy H Jones, and Richard Hardie to tackle are the challenges of writing a series and what are the issues which arise in trying to promote a series. (Trust me it is challenging enough promoting a single book!).  And as ever many thanks to all of my guests for supplying the author pictures and book cover shots. [Read more…] about The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels – Part 2

Tags: , , , , ,

The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels – Part 1

By 2 Comments

The joy and challenge of writing flash fiction is creating a short story out of nothing, with a proper beginning, middle and end, to a tight word count.

The joy and challenge of creating a novel is conjuring up your own world out of nothing and having an enthralling story set there, which usually comes in at the 80,000 to 100,000 word mark. (So your story must be strong to literally go the distance). [Read more…] about The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels – Part 1

Tags: , , , , , ,

Fantastic -v- Reality Writing

By 1 Comment

The world of literature would be much poorer without its fantastic fiction and its realistic opposite (and I am including non-fiction in what I term reality writing). Both show worlds we can identify with in some way.

For example, in The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkein’s epic fantasy work the way Saruman attempted to destroy the natural world to make his weapons and build his power is a direct reflection of how things have been on our own planet time and time again. I needn’t name the dictators and while Tolkein always denied any comparison to the build up to World War Two, you can see why people made that link. An absolute evil had to be destroyed. An unlikely hero did so. (Who would have thought Britain would win the Battle of Britain? We weren’t supposed to!). [Read more…] about Fantastic -v- Reality Writing

Tags: , , , ,

Writing Tips

By 7 Comments

Following on from last week’s post about the best and worst decisions made regarding writing, I thought I’d share here some of the most useful writing tips I’ve picked up on my writing journey to date. The great thing about making mistakes is, if sensible, you learn from them. It is true of life in general you learn what to do by getting it wrong first!
[Read more…] about Writing Tips

Tags: , , ,

The Best and the Worst

By 6 Comments

There are often best and worst lists – for example the 10 best jokes, the 10 worst ones. (Some make it on to both lists, which just goes to prove humour is subjective!). Then there are the best and worst cars, supermarkets, holiday destinations and so on. Almost anything can be listed if you try hard enough!

What can be a pain is not knowing what the best and worst options are at times – and this does go for writing and publishing too. When you are starting out as a writer, where do you go to for advice? [Read more…] about The Best and the Worst

Tags: , , ,