author event

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

October 31, 2025 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

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.

Tags: ACW, am reading, am writing, Association of Christian Writers, author event, creative writing, networking, the writing life, writing event

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

August 8, 2025 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

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/

Tags: author event, Captive Audience by John Puzey, Chandler's Ford Library, John Puzey

Review: Book Fair at The Hilt

July 14, 2023 By Allison Symes 4 Comments

Image Credits:-

A huge thank you to Janet Williams for taking pictures of me at this event. Many thanks to Richard Hardie for taking some of me too. Always tricky doing your own for things like this! Many thanks to Vie Portland for the Book Fair poster image. Other photos are from me, Allison Symes. A real co-operative effort on the picture front this week! Some images created in Book Brush using one of my photos.

It was fabulous taking part in the Book Fair at the Hilt on 8th July. It was great to catch up with authors I know and to meet up with others for the first time. I was delighted there was a great turn out for this inaugural event.

The organisers counted 125 (and there were more. The organisers were sometimes supervising talks by some of the writers so literally could not count everyone!). I hope this bodes well for there being future events like this.

Tags: am reading, am writing, author event, Book Fair at The Hilt, book signings, books, creative writing, Vie Portland, volunteers, writer talks

Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event 2022

December 16, 2022 By Allison Symes 4 Comments

Image Credits:-

Photos taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Lynn Clement for taking the image of me reading work. Other images created in Book Brush but using one of my photos.

It is always a joy to get to go to the Bridge House Publishing celebration event and it is equally lovely to blog for Chandler’s Ford Today about it! This year it was held at the Theodore Bullfrog pub in London. They do have some great pub names (and if you can think of any you’ve come across, do share them in the comments). It is an especial pleasure to go since Covid-19 has put paid to previous planned get togethers. It was by no means certain this year’s event would go ahead either due to other outside events beyond BHP’s control.

But we made it and it was lovely to get into a cosily warm pub, given it was bitter out. (Coldest places on the planet must include railway stations. They make for very good wind tunnels… brrr… and I’d nominate Southampton Airport Parkway as one of the worst there).

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Tags: author event, author readings, books, Bridge House Publishing, celebration event, networking

Making the Most of an Author Event

November 5, 2021 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. (Many thanks to Sarah Archibald who is behind the Brechin/Angus Book Festival for the originals of these). Book cover images created by Chapeltown Books/Bridge House Publishing.

Now this is a timely topic for me as I will be taking part in the Brechin/Angus Book Festival from 19th to 21st November and something rather special is coming up next March which I hope to write about nearer the time.

For the Festival, I’m running a writing workshop on flash fiction. I’m also giving an author talk on the ups and downs of the writing life. I’m looking forward to doing this and hope to share a report on how things went later. There are also events over the weekend I will be taking part in alongside the other authors such as the afternoon tea on the Sunday when people can come and chat to us over tea and cake. (Now there’s a civilised event for you!).

Tags: Allison Symes, am writing, author event, Author talk, Brechin and Angus Book Festival, creative writing, flash fiction, in-person author event, preparation, workshops

When Authors Talk… by Allison Symes

November 15, 2019 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Author events are fun but they all have one thing in common – the writer always wonders if anyone will show up! The relief when people do is enormous.

So if you know writers and they are putting on events, do go along. Never underestimate the value of much appreciated morale boosting support here. (The other simple way of supporting writers is to review their books on the usual sites. The nice thing with this is the review doesn’t have to be a long one).

Warning - poems, blogs, stories, novels, all writing alike benefits from good editing - image via Pixabay — Writers at work! Pixabay

Tags: Antony M Brown, author event, books, Cold Case Jury series, creative writing, Hiltonbury Farmhouse, local writers, Richard Hardie, Temporal Detective Agency, writing

Celebrations, Crackers, Chapeltown, and Cafelit – London 2018

December 14, 2018 By Allison Symes 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: Allison Symes, anthologies, author event, book celebration, Bridge House Publishing, Cafelit, Chapeltown Books, creative writing, flash fiction, independent press, short stories

author event

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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

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Image Credits:-

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Image Credits:-

Photos taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Lynn Clement for taking the image of me reading work. Other images created in Book Brush but using one of my photos.

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Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. (Many thanks to Sarah Archibald who is behind the Brechin/Angus Book Festival for the originals of these). Book cover images created by Chapeltown Books/Bridge House Publishing.

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