Image Credits:-
Book cover images from Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes. Other images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images or photos from Bridge House. AI images avoided.
I’m thrilled to share with you the good news my third book, Seeing The Other Side, is about to be published by Chapeltown Books/Bridge House Publishing . This is my third flash fiction collection and is the largest I’ve written to date.
Amongst other flash type tales, it contains linked flash stories, where the same character turns up in more than one story but where each tale stands alone. The group of flashes do follow individual arcs and a collective one in that each of the stories in the linked group push the overall story onwards. These were great fun to write and I hope to write more of this kind of flash fiction in due course.
I also share a number of acrostic flashes in the new book too.
It is hard but enjoyable work creating stories. It is a wonderful feeling when you know they’re going to be published and also that someone else thought they were worthy of being “out there”. I just wish I could bottle the feeling you have when you know your work is coming out and uncork that bottle for a needed morale boost during the tougher times of the writing life.
Blurb – Seeing The Other Side by Allison Symes
Perspective can be wonderful but will you still feel the same if your view from the fence changes?
Allison Symes has long loved what can be done with flash fiction in terms of genre and even how it is presented. Here, you will find flash tales covering a wide range of genres. Some are written in acrostic format, some are linked flashes where a character will turn up in two or more tales revealing more about themselves as the stories go on, and many will make you laugh. Others will make you shudder. Justice is served in some of the tales too, though whether it is to the characters’ liking is another matter. Flash fiction is perfect for any mood or genre. Oh and a Canada Goose comes into the book too.
Allison Symes, author of Seeing The Other Side, Tripping The Flash Fantastic and From Light to Dark and Back Again is passionate about flash fiction and hopes her latest collection introduces more to the joy and fun of the form.
The Book Cover
Am thrilled with this. See images above. For the first time, I used Book Brush to create a partial book cover reveal to share on social media. It was easy and good fun to do.
I am also pleased Seeing The Other Side is going to be in the same Chapeltown Books format of being a square book with a frame with a picture in the middle. It wasn’t certain because this book is far larger than my previous two but am glad this is going to be possible. The square books stand out and I’ve had many comments to that effect at events. Naturally I would like those positive comments to continue!
I am also lucky in that I have some input into the image which goes in the middle of the frame here. Bridge House have a fabulous designer and when they came back to me with the first draft of the cover, I was thrilled.
A book cover is such an important element to a book. Indeed, it is usually the first thing which draws me to a book. (Sometimes that can be the author name as was the case for the much missed Terry Pratchett but initially it was the Josh Kirby covers for the Discworld series which drew me into Pratchett’s work at all).
What Happens Next?
For the first time since 2020 when my Tripping The Flash Fantastic came out, I need to think about launches again and ordering various publicity materials through good old Vistaprint. I am looking forward to all of this though! I’m still using the pens I created via Vistaprint when Tripping the Flash Fantastic came out in 2020. The pens are excellent writers and are much appreciated giveaways at events or as prizes.
The good news is my first in-person launch will be at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in August. A fairly recent development for the school has been to allow delegates who are attending to launch their book there in the year of first publication.
This is a fabulous opportunity not to be missed because you are in a supportive environment with other writers who are so supportive of others. It’s one of the biggest things I love about the writing community. The mutual support can be incredible. I’m very much looking forward to having my launch for Seeing The Other Side there.
Sometimes the unexpected happens and there is the possibility of me having an in person book launch at a venue I hadn’t anticipated. I hope to share more news of this at a later date.
Bridge House Publishing (Chapeltown Books is one of their imprints and focuses on flash collections) are great at holding online launches for their authors so I hope to be having a Zoom launch with them in due course. I also hope to have a further one later on via my own account.
For my last launch, I did use Facebook and I may do this again. Haven’t decided yet. But I do know I’ll be using Zoom. That came into its own during the pandemic and I often attend author launches on this medium. They work so well and it is easier for people to “get” to these.
On my to do list, I’ll be updating my website with the new book. I’ll also need to update my business card (good old Vistaprint again for that one).
I will also need to add the book to my account with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). I earn something most years from them. To find out more about what they do and how it works, do visit their website.
If you have books out with an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) or have articles/stories where the magazines have a ISSN (International Standard Serial Number), this is so worth doing. The more works you have listed with these good people, the better, but it is wonderful that it works just as well for article and short story writers as well as the book ones. It helps to ensure we do get a fair slice of the monetary cake out there.
My membership of The Society of Authors gave me free membership of ALCS and it is one major benefit of that membership I especially appreciate.
Various forms of publicity for Seeing The Other Side will be ongoing for some time. I once mentioned to Scottish crime writer, Val Penny, whom I’ve interviewed here, that authors should love their first books because you will always be promoting them in some way, as well as promoting your current one.
Conclusion
The next few weeks will be especially busy, I suspect, but it’s a joy to deal with that precisely because I do have a new book out. It has been a long time coming for various reasons and it is a relief as well as a joy to see it out there.
I’ve long wanted to give back to the world of stories some of the pleasure I have had (and continue to have) over decades from the stories which have entertained me. I hope the new book also helps promote flash fiction and shows something of what it can do and be.
The thrill of being published doesn’t diminish over time, I’m glad to say. Each book is its own challenge. Blurbs don’t become suddenly easy to write either. What you can do is use experience in writing past ones to help you with the current one. You know what is expected at least!
As for book four, it is well under way!
Related Posts:-
LOCAL AUTHOR CYBERLAUNCH NEWS – ALLISON SYMES – TRIPPING THE FLASH FANTASTIC
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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