Image Credits:-
Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One image directly from Pixabay. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Photos from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick were taken by me, Allison Symes, or by kind colleagues using my phone!
It has been a busy few months since my last round up and that was only back in March!
Mind you, this is how it is supposed to be! The writing life is not a static one. Nor it is meant to be. So what has been going on writing wise for me recently?
Workshop and Feedback – Medway Mermaids
I was delighted to run a flash fiction workshop, including competition tips, for the Medway Mermaids group on 15th May via the wonder that is Zoom. (Much as I would have loved a trip to Kent, it wasn’t practical for a workshop lasting two hours!).
It was great fun to do. I share some of my flash pieces and break down how I wrote them for this workshop. I’ve found this to be a useful learning technique when other authors have done this. It’s why reading writing magazines is so helpful. Author interviews here can be illuminating.
Sometimes you can learn from what they did and realise you can benefit. Sometimes you can learn from what they found didn’t work and avoid making the same mistakes yourself.
I’m glad to say the workshop went down well.
“Thank you so much for your presentation last evening to Medway Mermaids. It was comprehensive and informative, giving writers an excellent guide to the art of writing short fiction.”.
Now there’s a quote I am very proud to share (and with their blessing).
The usefulness of Zoom continues. I find screen sharing and PowerPoint invaluable for these workshops. I can also pause the latter to set a writing exercise or two which everyone has a go at online. The idea is to finish these later and I hope people then go on to submit them somewhere. I also take part in this because I deliberately don’t draft anything in relation to the prompt I’m setting until the night of the meeting and people can see I’m giving it a go too! I’ve then polished my pieces later and had some published.
What was nice is some of the members of this wonderfully named group are people I know from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. I look forward to seeing them again hopefully later this year.
But if you’ve ever wondered about the point of networking with other writers, let me say it’s (a) great fun and a huge encouragement to you as a writer, (b) you make friends (when is that not a good thing?), and (c) just sometimes a connection is made which can lead to this kind of booking. People have to know who you are and what you do before even considering asking you to run a workshop for them.
The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick
Am pleased to say I’ll be running a one hour course on editing (the view from both sides of the fence) in August. I ran this course last year at Swanwick, it went down very well, and I’m doing it again with updates. Editing is one of those topics which is always timely. There is always something to learn to improve your own editing techniques. Being aware of the amount of time you do have to allow to edit properly is useful too.
End of the Road for Mom’s Favorite Reads
In June the last issue was produced of Mom’s Favorite Reads. It was wonderful fun producing a monthly flash fiction column here and editing the stories which came in as responses to my challenges.
I learned a great deal from doing this but everything has its day and….
Beginning of the Road for Writers’ Narrative
The same editorial team, headed by Wendy H Jones, will be bringing out a writing based online magazine called Writers’ Narrative. I am part of that team. I hope to bring more news about the magazine at a later date once it has got established. First edition is due out in August. It will be free to download.
Publication News
Am thrilled to be in The Best of CafeLit 12 which will be published by Bridge House Publishing later this year. My story here is called Jubilee. I’ve recently got the proof-read copy of the story back to the editors.
Hope to share a publication date later given everyone knows anthologies make great Christmas presents! (Can I claim a prize for what must surely be the first mention of the Christmas word for 2023? No? Oh well!).
I’ve also submitted my third flash fiction collection to Chapeltown Books. While I don’t have a contract yet, I do have the understanding they will be publishing me again. More news as and when I have it. (It’s lovely to have the “nod” so to speak).
Friday Flash Fiction
I continue to have work published on here and the feedback is so useful (and encouraging). If you want to see what 100 word flash fiction stories look like, do check this site out. The range of material is great too.
And if you have ever been on the receiving end of round robin letters, you might appreciate a recent story of mine on here called News.
I like the idea behind this website which is to produce a new 100 word story by the following Friday for possible inclusion. It means I have a deadline here (and I’ve always found those helpful. They focus the creative mind!). Plus I like to respond to the challenge of producing a new flash tale week on week. Keeps me on my toes.
Talking of feedback, it was lovely to receive an unexpected plug on another author’s website. Many thanks to Rosemary Johnson for that.
Author Newsletter
This continues to grow steadily and I love putting these together. I do sign up for other author newsletters because I am nosy and love to know how other writers are doing, so there! Author newsletters are a great way of keeping up with what your favourite writers are up to and I am pleased my audience is growing for my one. Signing up to these is a simple and nice way to support writers whose work you like.
Hiltingbury Book Fair
I hope to have more details of this to share nearer the time but please get your diaries ready to hand and note 8th July will be the date for this. It will be at The Hilt and a number of local authors, including yours truly, are taking part in this.
The organisers hope to make this an annual event. I hope they can do that. See this kind of fair as a way of getting local authors together especially since Chandler’s Ford no longer has a bookshop, the Waterstones in Eastleigh closed some time ago, and the nearest book shops will be in Winchester, Southampton, and Romsey (there’s a Christian based one, Oasis, there).
The fair will be a great way to catch up with what local authors are doing.
Conclusion
It will be interesting finding out what happens in the next quarter of the year! I hope to report back on the Book Fair to (a) advertise it and (b) review it later in the summer but I am pleased this kind of event is happening again.
I have submitted work to The Bridport Prize once more. It has a great reputation and it is on my bucket list to get on their long list. Am looking forward to Writers’ Narrative. That should prove to be useful to writers (and I hope illuminating for readers).
Postscript
I used to love adding at least one PS to letters I wrote but it makes a change to add one here. Am thrilled to announce my story, Desperately Seeking Talent, will be in Gifted, the new Bridge House Publishing anthology due out later this year. Many congratulations to those in the book with me. More details later in the year. It’s lovely doing “the double” here thanks to being in The Best of CafeLit 12 as mentioned above.
Related Posts:-
Local Author News – Allison Symes – Crossing Fiction and Non-Fiction
Local Author News – Allison Symes – Summits, Talks, and Interviews
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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Great to read about all your exciting news. Busy busy! X
Many thanks, Lynn. Hope all is going well with your writing.
It’s always good to make contact with other local authors- I find Hampshire Writers Society a good source of connection and recently at a library event for authors with novels to sell met some lovely writers from the Portsmouth Writers Collective. Hiltingbury Book event sounds exciting!
Thanks, Jude. I love meeting writers. My big writing event of the year is The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick (the Derbyshire one!) and highly recommend it. I have been a guest speaker for the HWS and hope all is going well with everyone there.