I hope you had a lovely Christmas break and may I wish you a very Happy New Year.
One of the things I love about the period between Christmas and New Year is having more time to catch up on reading. The rush of Christmas is over and there are a few blissful days before normal routines kick in again and I use that time to enjoy books. Winter is the perfect time for this, isn’t it?
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.
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.
[Read more…] about Author Interview – Introducing Penny Rogers and Amelie At The Window
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.
[Read more…] about Author News – Allison Symes – Getting Out and About with ACW
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.
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.
I had the opportunity recently to go and see a Jane Austen exhibition at the Dorset Museum in Dorchester. This year marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and there have been various events to commemorate this. (I am sure there will be more as we head to Miss Austen’s birthday in December and it would pay to keep an eye out for events at Winchester Cathedral, where Jane is buried).
Breaking down why a story works may seem a strange thing to do. Surely you just want to read an enjoyable tale and move on to the next one, ideally having a good mix of genres, classic and contemporary works as part of your “reading diet”?
Well, yes, but if you want to write your own stories, it does pay you to work out what it is you love about those you enjoy reading. You will learn a great deal from this, some of which at least you will be able to apply to your own writing.
Do you read more or less fiction when the news is grim? Are you conscious you’re doing so? I know I deliberately listen to more classical music, write more, read more. All of these are good to focus on, so unlike the news. I recall there was always a funny or warm hearted story at the end of the main news bulletin. Do those still exist? I haven’t come across them recently.
This may be a strange question for a fiction writer to ask but it’s not a bad thing to look into as it ties in closely with why write at all. I believe the creative arts as a whole are worth celebrating and supporting. Fiction writers, though, have the chance to show reflections on humanity’s behaviour all through the medium of entertaining stories.
History is full of stories, which is one reason I love it. Of course, history is said to be written by the winners. There is truth in that but every so often someone will come along and come up with alternatives to the “orthodox” version. Josephine Tey did this in fiction regarding Richard III with her marvellous The Daughter of Time, which The Richard III Society credits as being a major reason for many people joining them.
As I write a lot of flash fiction and short stories, I need to create a lot of characters. I do re-use some but not many compared to the numbers I’ve created in total. My characters often have one story in them, though occasionally one may play a “bit part” role in another tale.
For me, any good story of whatever length is all about what happens and, specifically, what happens to the lead character. I must know what happens to them. I must care about what happens too, even if they’re a villain and I am hoping their evil plans will fail. I also need to know whose story it is.
[Read more…] about What You Need to Know About Character Creation
You take in what makes a story work subconsciously. Even as a child, when I read the classic fairytales, I knew on the third time of something occurring, there would be a different result leading to the happy ever after ending. I had no idea that was the Rule of Three in action. I just knew if this didn’t happen, there was something wrong with the story. I also knew early on I had to want to find out what happened to the characters so there had to be something interesting about them to grab my attention (and just as importantly keep my attention going).
Picture the scene. You discover this dodgy lamp. You polish it. A genie appears and grants you the ability, as a writer, to create your own wish list. You can have five items on it. Better still, all of those wishes will be granted. The only rule here is no wish should be harmful. You think fair enough and then compile what you would wish for.
So what would I choose and why?
Making the most of writing time is always a timely topic. Every writer will have their own answer to this.
I catch up with a lot of stories during the Advent and Christmas periods but not always via books (of any format).
I know it is a little early but Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2025 proves to be a good year. It would be nice to have less grim news but I think that may be something I will have to put on a wish list somewhere.
It’s a lovely way to finish my Chandler’s Ford Today posts for Christmas by sharing festive related writing news.
[Read more…] about Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News
Everyone has their own tastes in books and stories, of course. The publishing and literary world would not be so interesting and extensive if we all read the same thing. Genres would disappear and creative imagination would be limited to whatever it was we all read. But there are elements in books and stories which cross all genres. These are the things I look out for whenever I read any kind of story, regardless of its word count.
It is with great pleasure I welcome debut novelist and fellow Swanwicker, Anita D Hunt, to Chandler’s Ford Today. Anita’s novel, Behind the Curtain, is a domestic noir published by SpellBound Books.
The novel was launched at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick following its release in paperback on 2nd August. Anita had the joy of signing copies in the Book Room, almost literally hot off the press.
