It’s a great pleasure for me to invite author Allison Symes to my blog for the first time today. Hopefully it will be the first time of many!
I’ve always loved stories. I loved composition lessons in English. The thought of inventing stories, sometimes with a set theme, sometimes not, was wonderful. I never understood why many groaned when we were set this. That should have told me writing was likely to be in my life. It took me decades to wake up to that idea.
Roll forward many years. I’ve just had a significant birthday and given birth – two major life events. It occurs to me, though I knew I always had an interest in writing, it might be a good idea if I got on and did some, just to see if I could.
I started with a novel. Hmm… not the best idea, Allison, was it? Talk about walk before you can run. Having said that, I learned so much from writing this book. I learned I loved writing for a start. I put the book through a professional editor twice, winced at their first report, rewrote the book, felt pleased with the second report, and eventually that novel ended up 13th out of 70 for a Debut Novel competition. It is still unpublished. I hope to return to it one day.
Meantime I discovered short stories and then flash fiction. I went to events to learn more about writing. Many rejections later, I started having acceptances. CafeLit, who published many of my short stories online and in their print anthologies, issued a 100 word challenge and from there I discovered the fantastic world of flash fiction.
Roll time forward again. I now have two flash fiction collections out there – From Light to Dark and Back Again (2017) followed by Tripping the Flash Fantastic (2020, which wasn’t the best year for a book launch thanks to the pandemic!). A third book is in the pipeline.
I write because I love stories and I want some of mine to be out there. I want to put something of mine into the literature pool as a thank you for the pleasure books and stories have given me over decades. You take out, you put back in, right? I want to get better at what I do. I would love to see more books with my name on them out there. I write because I must. I want to keep on inventing interesting characters and working out what they get up to. I write because I find it fun.
Everyone has a creativity streak in them somewhere. I can’t knit, crochet, draw etc but I can write.
Writing gives me creative satisfaction while it also encourages me to write more and better. I have made so many friends thanks to writing. One of my joys is having books on my shelves written and signed by author friends. They have books of mine too. There is nothing to dislike here!
Author Bio
Allison Symes, who loves reading and writing quirky fiction, is published by Chapeltown Books, CafeLit, and Bridge House Publishing. Her flash fiction collections, Tripping The Flash Fantastic and From Light to Dark and Back Again are out in Kindle and paperback. There is a third collection in the pipeline. Her short story work has appeared in almost 20 anthologies, with another coming out later in 2023. She is also an editor, runs workshops in person and on Zoom, especially relating to flash fiction, though many of the techniques used for that can be applied to other forms of writing.
Website: https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com/
Books: http://author.to/AllisonSymesAuthorCent
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@allisonsymes
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/Allison.Symes.FairytaleLady
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllisonSymes1
