Allison Symes's Blog, page 42
December 24, 2017
Christmas Reading
One of the things I love about Christmas is reading! I usually manage to catch up on at least some of my To Be Read pile. Plus I adore unwrapping a present knowing there is a book inside!
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I also hope you love your Christmas stories and books and that a very happy year of new and old favourite books lies ahead for us all!
I've just finished reading a Morecambe and Wise joint biography and it was a great read. It also brought back some very happy memories.
I hope to catch up with a lot of my Kindle reading soon. I love both ebooks and paperbacks, both have their advantages, so have never really understood the conflict. It is just a question of which format suits you, the reader.
But most of all, enjoy what you read. Life is too short not to do so!
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I also hope you love your Christmas stories and books and that a very happy year of new and old favourite books lies ahead for us all!
I've just finished reading a Morecambe and Wise joint biography and it was a great read. It also brought back some very happy memories.
I hope to catch up with a lot of my Kindle reading soon. I love both ebooks and paperbacks, both have their advantages, so have never really understood the conflict. It is just a question of which format suits you, the reader.
But most of all, enjoy what you read. Life is too short not to do so!
December 16, 2017
Stories at Christmas
My favourite stories at Christmas are the Nativity and Charles Dickens's marvellous A Christmas Carol.
My favourite poem/carol is In the Bleak Midwinter (Christina Rossetti). I adore the imagery in this. As for Scrooge's story, I love redemption stories and this is the classic one.
I like to watch the Muppet Christmas Carol (with Michael Caine as Scrooge) every year. One thing I love about it comes right at the end when Gonzo recommends reading the original book by Dickens. How many films promote reading the original book?!
My favourite time on Christmas Day itself comes in the evening when there really is nothing for me to have to do and I can curl up on the sofa and pick which book I was given as a present to start reading first. Naturally, there is a nice drink beside me too!
I'm hoping for a couple of historical books (non-fiction) this year. One lovely thing about having a writer in your life is you won't run out of present ideas. We either want to read something or to have things that will help us write our own tales. So just ask and we will give you a list!
It does take something special though to add to Christmas traditions and Dickens and Rossetti both achieve that.
My favourite poem/carol is In the Bleak Midwinter (Christina Rossetti). I adore the imagery in this. As for Scrooge's story, I love redemption stories and this is the classic one.
I like to watch the Muppet Christmas Carol (with Michael Caine as Scrooge) every year. One thing I love about it comes right at the end when Gonzo recommends reading the original book by Dickens. How many films promote reading the original book?!
My favourite time on Christmas Day itself comes in the evening when there really is nothing for me to have to do and I can curl up on the sofa and pick which book I was given as a present to start reading first. Naturally, there is a nice drink beside me too!
I'm hoping for a couple of historical books (non-fiction) this year. One lovely thing about having a writer in your life is you won't run out of present ideas. We either want to read something or to have things that will help us write our own tales. So just ask and we will give you a list!
It does take something special though to add to Christmas traditions and Dickens and Rossetti both achieve that.
December 8, 2017
Crossing Genres
This topic has come up as my Chandler's Ford Today post this week is Part 1 of a two-part interview with Jennifer C Wilson, author of the Kindred Spirits series. She crosses historical fiction with ghost stories.
I cross flash fiction with fantasy, sometimes crime, sometimes horror, sometimes character studies. It occurred to me that, despite all the advice I've come across in my time to NOT cross genres, some of my favourites stories and books have done exactly that!
When well done, crossing genres breathes new life into both of the genres the new story uses. So mix away! I do think you need to love and know well both genres you're writing for but as Jennifer says in her interview, the most important thing is getting the story down and worrying about what genre it fits into much, much later on.
Is it me or is creating new sub-divisions of fiction a healthy thing? I see it as creative, inventive and good for storytelling as a whole.
I cross flash fiction with fantasy, sometimes crime, sometimes horror, sometimes character studies. It occurred to me that, despite all the advice I've come across in my time to NOT cross genres, some of my favourites stories and books have done exactly that!
When well done, crossing genres breathes new life into both of the genres the new story uses. So mix away! I do think you need to love and know well both genres you're writing for but as Jennifer says in her interview, the most important thing is getting the story down and worrying about what genre it fits into much, much later on.
Is it me or is creating new sub-divisions of fiction a healthy thing? I see it as creative, inventive and good for storytelling as a whole.
December 3, 2017
Getting Out and About as a Writer
I had the great joy of being at the Bridge House Publishing/Cafelit/Chapeltown Books and Red Telephone celebration event in London on 2nd December.
I'm published by Chapeltown for From Light to Dark and Back Again of course but am also on Cafelit (a lot of my flash fiction starts life there!) and have been in Baubles and Alternative Renditions, the Bridge House anthologies.
It was fabulous getting to meet fellow authors once again. I read some pieces from From Light to Dark and Back Again, which was great. (It is ALWAYS nice to know you have a sympathetic audience!).
I thoroughly enjoyed the other stories that were read out and thought the standard very high. I was at an event in Winchester the week before where I read some of my flash fiction out and one lovely comment was a lady who really enjoyed being read to as an adult.
There is something special about it because you are either reading to your children (which is also a fabulous thing to do and hopefully encourages a lifelong love for books in them) or you are reading your work out for editing purposes. To be read to for sheer entertainment is bliss and audiobooks are wonderful for this.
So read and be read to! Enjoy!
And I am already looking forward to next year's Bridge House event!
I'm published by Chapeltown for From Light to Dark and Back Again of course but am also on Cafelit (a lot of my flash fiction starts life there!) and have been in Baubles and Alternative Renditions, the Bridge House anthologies.
It was fabulous getting to meet fellow authors once again. I read some pieces from From Light to Dark and Back Again, which was great. (It is ALWAYS nice to know you have a sympathetic audience!).
I thoroughly enjoyed the other stories that were read out and thought the standard very high. I was at an event in Winchester the week before where I read some of my flash fiction out and one lovely comment was a lady who really enjoyed being read to as an adult.
There is something special about it because you are either reading to your children (which is also a fabulous thing to do and hopefully encourages a lifelong love for books in them) or you are reading your work out for editing purposes. To be read to for sheer entertainment is bliss and audiobooks are wonderful for this.
So read and be read to! Enjoy!
And I am already looking forward to next year's Bridge House event!
November 25, 2017
Appreciating Books
I was at the Winchester Discovery Centre on 25th November as one member of a group of local writers invited to take part in the Centre's 10th-anniversary celebrations. I used to work in Winchester and passed the Centre countless times but had never been in there before. It is a stunning building and the library is beautifully laid out.
I'll be writing more about today's event for my Chandler's Ford Today post this week but I wanted to say now how good it was there were so many people in the Centre and that books are appreciated. Sometimes I've had the impression books can be sidelined. There ARE other forms of entertainment after all but to my mind you can't beat curling up with a good book, whether that is in book, audio or electronic format.
It was good to talk to people about what flash fiction is and, better still, read a couple of examples out from From Light to Dark and Back Again. Loveliest comment of the day was from someone who relished my reading to her as an adult! Perhaps we "grown ups" need to be read to much more often!
I'll be writing more about today's event for my Chandler's Ford Today post this week but I wanted to say now how good it was there were so many people in the Centre and that books are appreciated. Sometimes I've had the impression books can be sidelined. There ARE other forms of entertainment after all but to my mind you can't beat curling up with a good book, whether that is in book, audio or electronic format.
It was good to talk to people about what flash fiction is and, better still, read a couple of examples out from From Light to Dark and Back Again. Loveliest comment of the day was from someone who relished my reading to her as an adult! Perhaps we "grown ups" need to be read to much more often!
November 15, 2017
Being Read To
I was thinking about this for my post on my From Light to Dark and Back Again book page on Facebook tonight.
The reason the topic came up is because I'm looking forward to reading a couple of my 100-word stories from the book at the upcoming Bridge House/Cafelit/Chapeltown event in London in December. But I'm also looking forward to being read to by the other writers taking part then. I've always loved being read to from a very young age.
A good narrative voice can add so much enjoyment to a story. I love the audiobook versions of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (the ones read by Tony Robinson) and we often have those on when on a long car journey. Makes the time just fly. You can hear the characters literally being given their own voice.
I find reading my own work out loud is a fantastic way of showing up where my dialogue is not quite so easy to read as I thought it was! If I trip over it, any reader would so out comes the old editing pen. I don't know what it is about the spoken word showing up faults in the word as it is written, but it does do so and I find reading out loud a vital part of my editing.
The reason the topic came up is because I'm looking forward to reading a couple of my 100-word stories from the book at the upcoming Bridge House/Cafelit/Chapeltown event in London in December. But I'm also looking forward to being read to by the other writers taking part then. I've always loved being read to from a very young age.
A good narrative voice can add so much enjoyment to a story. I love the audiobook versions of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (the ones read by Tony Robinson) and we often have those on when on a long car journey. Makes the time just fly. You can hear the characters literally being given their own voice.
I find reading my own work out loud is a fantastic way of showing up where my dialogue is not quite so easy to read as I thought it was! If I trip over it, any reader would so out comes the old editing pen. I don't know what it is about the spoken word showing up faults in the word as it is written, but it does do so and I find reading out loud a vital part of my editing.
November 9, 2017
What Your Book Choices Reveal
What do your book choices reveal about you? Well, for a start, hopefully, that you have excellent taste in books!
Your choices should also reveal you are widely read, with a good selection of non-fiction books, as well as fiction, on your shelves.
Certain titles give themselves away, of course. Having the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook on your shelves points to there being a writer or artist in the household!
Your choices should also reveal which genres are your favourites as these will tend to dominate your bookshelves. (In my case, it's humorous fantasy and yes I do have a shelf full of Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt's works).
On the non-fiction front, your choices should reveal what your favourite genre is here (for me, it's anything historic.
Your choices should also reveal you are widely read, with a good selection of non-fiction books, as well as fiction, on your shelves.
Certain titles give themselves away, of course. Having the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook on your shelves points to there being a writer or artist in the household!
Your choices should also reveal which genres are your favourites as these will tend to dominate your bookshelves. (In my case, it's humorous fantasy and yes I do have a shelf full of Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt's works).
On the non-fiction front, your choices should reveal what your favourite genre is here (for me, it's anything historic.
November 2, 2017
Flash Fiction Skills
I believe all writers, regardless of their usual genre, would benefit from writing flash fiction from time to time. Why?
Firstly, writing flash fiction really hones up your editing skills. You can kiss goodbye to weak word choices.
In a form where every word has to earn its place in your story, you do learn to select the strongest words possible. No more of the "He made his way quickly up the hill". It will be "He raced up the hill".
The image is so much stronger in the second version (yes, you could use "ran", but I think "raced" is superior. To me it shows more effort being expended).
Secondly, if you can summarise your story or non-fiction work as a flash fiction piece, well you've just written a good basis for your synopsis and/or blurb, which I know most writers dread writing.
Thirdly, you have to have strong, memorable characters. As flash fiction is so short with no room for much narrative, I find the tales must be character led.
Therefore, those characters must stick in a reader's mind. Developing strong characters like this can help you in writing them for longer fiction works too.
Fourthly, you can set your character in any genre or time with flash fiction. You never know but in doing this, you might find a genre you didn't know you liked to write in becomes a favourite. That's exactly what happened to me with flash fiction. I gave it a go and quickly became hooked!
Good luck if you do try writing flash fiction and have fun. It is a great form for experimenting with and that is one of the joys of writing overall: to discover new ways of story or genre you want to explore further.
Firstly, writing flash fiction really hones up your editing skills. You can kiss goodbye to weak word choices.
In a form where every word has to earn its place in your story, you do learn to select the strongest words possible. No more of the "He made his way quickly up the hill". It will be "He raced up the hill".
The image is so much stronger in the second version (yes, you could use "ran", but I think "raced" is superior. To me it shows more effort being expended).
Secondly, if you can summarise your story or non-fiction work as a flash fiction piece, well you've just written a good basis for your synopsis and/or blurb, which I know most writers dread writing.
Thirdly, you have to have strong, memorable characters. As flash fiction is so short with no room for much narrative, I find the tales must be character led.
Therefore, those characters must stick in a reader's mind. Developing strong characters like this can help you in writing them for longer fiction works too.
Fourthly, you can set your character in any genre or time with flash fiction. You never know but in doing this, you might find a genre you didn't know you liked to write in becomes a favourite. That's exactly what happened to me with flash fiction. I gave it a go and quickly became hooked!
Good luck if you do try writing flash fiction and have fun. It is a great form for experimenting with and that is one of the joys of writing overall: to discover new ways of story or genre you want to explore further.
October 25, 2017
Favourite Non-Fiction
My favourite non-fiction is usually history, based on an era I know reasonably well, but which then goes on to show me aspects I had NOT known.
A good example of this is The Maligned King by Annette Carson, who re-assesses Richard III's reign and uses source materials to do so. It is a fascinating read.
I like the whole Wars of the Roses history (though thankful not to have lived through it!) but the story of Richard and the "did he or didn't he?" motif is a particular favourite.
There is so much material here I had not heard of and there has been an update to the book recently given the discovery of the King in the now infamous Leicester car park. I had the original book in hardback, the update gave me the perfect excuse to download it to Kindle!
I am, of course, open to reading about other eras I know less about but, given limited reading time, I "target" my reading accordingly. Why is there never enough time to read as much as you'd like?
A good example of this is The Maligned King by Annette Carson, who re-assesses Richard III's reign and uses source materials to do so. It is a fascinating read.
I like the whole Wars of the Roses history (though thankful not to have lived through it!) but the story of Richard and the "did he or didn't he?" motif is a particular favourite.
There is so much material here I had not heard of and there has been an update to the book recently given the discovery of the King in the now infamous Leicester car park. I had the original book in hardback, the update gave me the perfect excuse to download it to Kindle!
I am, of course, open to reading about other eras I know less about but, given limited reading time, I "target" my reading accordingly. Why is there never enough time to read as much as you'd like?
October 21, 2017
Why do you Read?
Why do you read? Like me, I suspect you have several answers to this. Mine include:-
1. For entertainment.
2. For education.
3. For research (for a story or post I'm writing. Not quite the same thing as for education above. I define that as reading to learn but for its own sake and not necessarily to "use" elsewhere).
4. Because I always have read and reading is simply part of what I am and do.
5. The book is nearly always better than the film!
6. I like to read at bedtime to help me unwind and have a better night's sleep.
7. To widen my tastes in books and stories, I have to be prepared to try genres new to me so I see this as a kind of exploration of what's out there. I have no idea at this stage whether I'm going to like what I read or not so can't say if I will be entertained!
8. I'm thrilled to be published myself and I do see it as necessary to support the industry I've entered. How can I best do that? By buying and reading books! (A kind of self-help here I think).
9. To enjoy what my friends are writing!
10. To explore literary culture. In the last two years, for example, I've read and seen more Shakespeare plays than I ever have done and part of this is to expand my knowledge here. (It's a very enjoyable exploration too and I love National Theatre Live for making it easier to go to see productions).
There is no right order for any of the above reasons for reading but they strike me as all being very good ones to do so!
1. For entertainment.
2. For education.
3. For research (for a story or post I'm writing. Not quite the same thing as for education above. I define that as reading to learn but for its own sake and not necessarily to "use" elsewhere).
4. Because I always have read and reading is simply part of what I am and do.
5. The book is nearly always better than the film!
6. I like to read at bedtime to help me unwind and have a better night's sleep.
7. To widen my tastes in books and stories, I have to be prepared to try genres new to me so I see this as a kind of exploration of what's out there. I have no idea at this stage whether I'm going to like what I read or not so can't say if I will be entertained!
8. I'm thrilled to be published myself and I do see it as necessary to support the industry I've entered. How can I best do that? By buying and reading books! (A kind of self-help here I think).
9. To enjoy what my friends are writing!
10. To explore literary culture. In the last two years, for example, I've read and seen more Shakespeare plays than I ever have done and part of this is to expand my knowledge here. (It's a very enjoyable exploration too and I love National Theatre Live for making it easier to go to see productions).
There is no right order for any of the above reasons for reading but they strike me as all being very good ones to do so!
