This week I am delighted to welcome Diane Simmons to my blog.What genre would you say your books fall into, or do they defy classification?
I mainly write flash fiction. My
recently published collection, Finding a
Way is a series of connected flash fictions on the theme of grief. Told
from various points of view, it follows four people over a three and a half year
period as they deal with the loss of a family member
An
Inheritance, my forthcoming pamphlet from V Press, is a historical
novella-in-flash. It is a family saga dealing with the themes of money, greed
and inheritance.
What made you choose the genre for your books?
Having only ever written short
stories, I was introduced to flash fiction by Pauline Masurel and I embarked on
a flash course with Fish Publishing in 2011. Although I enjoyed it, I declared
that I didn’t think flash was my thing. But the course had provided me with
lots of material which I sent out to competitions and the pieces went on to do
quite well. Encouraged, I began to write
more flash and now rarely write anything else.
I first came across the idea of
connected flash fiction collections when I proofread some of Calum Kerr’s novellas-in-flash
(Saga, Graduation Day, Apocalypse). I
very much enjoyed them and was intrigued by the form. When Bath Flash Fiction
set up a novella-in-flash competition, I decided to have a go at writing one. This eventually became my forthcoming pamphlet
An Inheritance. Apart from the final
one in the pamphlet, all the stories in An Inheritance were specifically for the
collection.
Finding a Way came about in a very different way. After the death of my daughter, Laura, in
2015, I found that I wrote little else other than stories about grief. I eventually realised
that it could make an effective collection, perhaps helping those
dealing with grief themselves or for those not knowing how to help a grieving
friend or relative. As with ‘An Inheritance’, each story can be read
individually, but the book as a whole has a narrative arc.
Tell me something about yourself that readers might not know
I recently bought an outdoor table
tennis table after wanting one for years. It’s good to go out in the garden and
hit the ball about as a break from sitting at my desk all day. I tend to get a
bit obsessive about things and I’ve worn the grass out in places.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
My only real hobby has always been
reading fiction. But I love to socialise as well. In the last few years flash
fiction has greatly improved my social life and I enjoy reading my stories at
events. The flash community is a very lively and inclusive place and some
people I’ve met on twitter have become close friends. We all enjoy getting
together and talking about writing. I am a director of National Flash Fiction
Day and hospitality organiser for the Flash Fiction Festival UK and both those
roles keep me very busy.
When did you write your first book and how old were you?
I wrote a book when I was about
nine called The Trees of Treasure. It
was heavily influenced by Enid Blyton. Apart from the stories I wrote at school,
I didn’t write anything else again until I was forty-seven. Starting a creative
writing course with The Open University was a life changing experience for me.
How many books have you written?
Apart from the one when I was nine,
I’ve written two collections of flash fiction and have also had about another
seventy or so short stories/flash fictions published.
What is your work schedule like for your books?
I try to make writing the most
important commitment to a working day, but don’t always achieve that. I tend to
write best when there is something else I should be doing. I used to be very much a line a day kind of
person, but in writing An Inheritance
and Finding a Way, I worked at a much
quicker pace. With Finding a Way, I
set myself the challenge of writing the first draft of a new story every week
and enjoyed editing and improving the stories as I went along. With An Inheritance, the first version was
written within a few months as I had a competition deadline I had to meet. I used to have horrendous back problems and
at times have only been able to sit at a computer for a few minutes at a time.
But my back is now very much improved which helps with my output. I’ve learnt
to go for walks to give myself a break, but if I’m busy it annoys me having to
do it.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have on your
computer?
I have just the beginnings of a new
novella-in-flash that I started writing a few months ago. I’ve had to abandon
it for now while I get on with the edits for An Inheritance. I have quite a few unpublished short stories and
flashes on my computer, but I tend to finish a story once I’ve started it.
Do You Google Yourself? What did you find that affected you most (good
or bad)?
Yes, I love googling myself. I get
frustrated that I share the same name as a character in the television
programme Family Guy. I really
dislike many pictures of me that I find on the internet and dislike having no
control over them.
As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
I never really had a clue. My
parents always said that I wanted to be a nurse, but I have no memory of that
and there could hardly be a profession I am less suited to.
Diane Simmons is a co-director of
National Flash Fiction Day and part of the organising team for the UK Flash
Fiction Festival. For three years she was a reader for the international Bath
Short Story Award and has twice been an editor for Flash Flood. She has helped
judge several flash competitions, including National Flash Fiction Day’s Micro
Competition and Hysteria Flash Competition. In 2017 and 2018, she
co-edited the Flash Fiction Festival anthology.
Diane has been widely published and
placed in numerous competitions. ‘Finding a Way’, her debut flash collection
on the theme of grief, was published by Ad Hoc Fiction in February 2019
and was recently shortlisted in the 'Best Short Story Collection' category of
The Saboteur Awards.
You can find out more about Diane
on the following links:
Twitter: @scooterwriter
Critique Service for Writers
Writing Competitions
Join the D.I. Sterling Mailing List for News, Updates and Giveaways
No comments:
Post a Comment