Authors Electric

Image Credits:-   Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One photo from The Writers’ Summer School was taken by me, Allison Symes. Another two were kindly taken by Penny Blackburn at two Open Prose Mic Nights at Swanwick and used with permission. Book cover image is from Bridge House Publishing. AI images avoided. When this post goes live on 18th June 2026, my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side , should have been published by Bridge House Publishing  via their imprint, Chapeltown Books . The book has been a long time in coming and it is a joy to see it out there.  I’ve long thought what a pity it is you can’t bottle the feeling you have when your book comes out to draw on for encouragement and inspiration during the tougher times of the writing life. I’m busy preparing for launches. The book will have a physical launch, so to speak, at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in Derbyshire in August. It has been a recent development for th...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Images of the north-east coast of Scotland were taken by me, Allison Symes.   By the time this goes out on Authors Electric , I would have just returned from a wonderful week away on the beautiful north-east coast of Scotland, which is somewhere I am always pleased to head. Going here makes me feel as if I have got right away from it all.   But how would our characters have the change of scene which does them the world of good and can be a pivotal story point? Would they have to literally get away from where they are based or would the right conversation with a mentor like character be enough to give them a change of scene in terms of seeing what they now have to do when before they could not? A change of scene doesn’t need to be for something as dramatic as for a quest story, though it is the obvious route to go. A minor change can often be enough to get the character through something.  For example, ...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. AI images avoided.   Fiction reflects life in all its shades of grey (I believe someone once thought there were fifty of those and then considered there were another fifty after that). At either end of the spectrum, fiction has its light and dark sides.  I’ve written both kinds in my flash and short story work. Indeed when I was putting my debut flash fiction collection together, the moods of the stories inspired the title, From Light to Dark and Back Again . This was also useful as the moods of the stories helped me with my ordering for this collection.  I always prefer writing and reading the lighter side of fiction but know that for some of my characters at least, the darker side of the spectrum is where they “fit”. This is due to their being of a darker nature or their situation is such the likely outcome will be on the darker side. The important thing here is it will ring true and that truth matte...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. I trust it’s not too late to wish you a Happy New Year. January does seem to go on for ever and ever, amen. There is a wonderful Brian Bilston poem about that ( Mnemonic ), which is worth looking up if you haven’t come across this. It always makes me grin. There is a plus side to January. As the month goes on, we are literally approaching the light. The evenings seem longer (especially noticeable if you are taking the dog out).  I like to write and read a mixture of light and dark stories. In the latter, I want there to be some sense of hope. For light stories, I want some “bite” to them. Humorous stories can make you think while they’re entertaining you.  I prefer my characters to be a mixture of dark and light given nobody is perfect and I don’t like wishy-washy, too good to be true portrayals. I suppose this is why I identify far more with Jo March from Little Women than I do with her sister, Beth. I al...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.   Firstly, may I wish you a happy Christmas and New Year. Secondly, may I hope you receive many wonderful books as presents.   One of the joys of the post-Christmas and pre-New Year period is having more chances to curl up on the sofa with a good book. I make the most of this. My Christmas reading consists of books I receive on the big day (these always jump up my To Be Read pile) plus I catch up on writing magazines.    In the run up to Christmas I take in a number of related stories usually via film. To my mind, the best rendering of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is The Muppet Christmas Carol. Sir Michael Caine is superb in that. After that, comes the Patrick Stewart version.  Hogfather by the much missed Sir Terry Pratchett is the Discworld’s answer to Christmas and the story is a cracking thriller. Who is trying to get rid of the Hogfather and why and can Death, assisted by h...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.  One thing which makes a character, and their story, more real to me is when they have memories. I  think it is a great way to ensure your characters aren’t cardboard cut outs. A character recalling a memory is showing something of themselves, which shows they have more than one dimension. Memories can be played on by the character to generate sympathy. Memories can be used against a character to make them fall into line with what someone else wants - emotional blackmail. Characters can use memories to blackmail others in the more traditional ways too. Sometimes, as in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, memories can be used as a tool for redemption. Scrooge didn’t want to face up to his past but until he did, he could not move on.   In The Lord of The Rings, memories dictated what elf leader, Elrond, wanted to happen to the Ring of Power. He knew it was what should have happened before but, due to the weakn...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One photo taken by me, Allison Symes, at the Hiltingbury Book Fair. It may be the season of mellow fruitfulness (which is a wonderful expression and for me conjures up autumn beautifully), but it is also the signal Book Buying Season is here again.  Now for me, every part of the year is book buying season but with a certain event only being two months away, and books are excellent gifts as everyone knows, you can’t blame the publishers for focusing so much on sales in the next few weeks or so.  Equally naturally when I put certain lists together, the first thing on mine will be the books I’d like to see under the tree this year. There would  be something seriously wrong with me not to request any! Of course with book buying season well underway by the time this blog goes out, it will be accompanied by Author Event season too. I think the biggest challenge to all writers is encouraging those who don’t r...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. It is the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of my favourite authors, Jane Austen, later this year (16th December to be precise). I’m fortunate enough to be able to easily get to Winchester Cathedral where she is buried and they have had exhibitions celebrating her life and work.   Indeed there is an exhibition running there from 23rd May until 19th October 2025 called the Jane Austen Poetry Exhibition which looks at the friendship between her and Anne Lefoy, who was a mentor to Jane. (I find it encouraging mentors are nothing new for writers). Jane wrote a poem regarding the death of her friend and that poem is one of the objects on display here. I discovered the joy of Austen’s work, especially Pride and Prejudice, thanks to it being one of the books I had to read at secondary school. I would say its impact was to show me irony was a thing in fiction.  I’ve had good cause to appreciate that since...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. Do you have favourite themes in writing, whether this is in your work or someone else’s? I’ve always wanted to see justice done in stories. This is one reason I still love the classic fairytales, as well as the more obvious home for this topic, crime fiction. Even as a child, in the fairytale world I knew the rotters wouldn’t get away with it. Pity that’s not more true in life! I will often use themes as my way into creating characters and stories. If I know my theme is going to be honesty, say, I will create a dishonest character and show them not getting away with it, or I will show a truthful creation being rewarded for their honesty (not necessarily in money).   I lead an online flash fiction group for a Christian writing organisation I’ve been a member of for years. It’s fun to do and this has led me to rediscover the joys (and otherwise) of PowerPoint after a break of many years from it.  But I’ve fou...