Browsing Archive: January, 2015

Hoots!

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, January 25, 2015,

Today is Burns Night, the annual celebration of Scotland's national poet. He wrote in his own dialect, and while many people (including, I suspect, some Scots) might struggle with it, every poet owes him a debt. Robert Burns broke the chains that bound poetry to classical forms and helped us all to escape the 'thees' and 'thous' and archaic language.
Now, poets can write sonnets or haiku, odes or free verse. They can write about eating the plums someone had saved in the fridge ('This is J...
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Free Competitions

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, January 18, 2015, In : Competitions

I've been writing a short story, which seemed simple enough before I started. I'd got the beginning, middle and end, and I'd even jotted down parts of a couple of scenes. Yet as I scribbled away, it began to wriggle around. Would the story be better set in the past or the present day? Should I aim it at youngsters or adults? After a couple of false starts and much crossing out, I finally reached the end only to discover that the story isn't about what I thought it was at the outset at all. Ne...
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Tempus Fugit Again

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, January 13, 2015, In : Coming Soon

I've been plagued with clichés buzzing around my head while I've been trying to write, but I'm holding out for my own fresh metaphors, similes and turns of phrase. Clichés might be accurate, but everyone has heard them so often that they have become meaningless. Maybe a heroine does 'go weak at the knees', but readers will no doubt forget her unless she does it in an original way. Notice that I haven't provided an alternative myself. Devising good ones isn't easy, but it's well worth making...
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New Beginnings

Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, January 4, 2015,

Happy New Year! My festive season was quiet, to say the least. Injuring my elbow was more frustrating than painful, and it prevented me doing things like sending Christmas cards (I could write them, but not get them in the envelopes) or keying in Discord's Apprentice, although I did succeed in completing another rewrite. Typing in this blog one-handed is as much work as I've attempted at the computer.
The enforced inactivity gave me a chance to reflect on a number of things. Mine is a rela...
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About Me

K S Dearsley

Northampton, England

My writing career began as a freelance feature writer for the local press, businesses and organisations. Now a prize-winning playwright and short story writer, my work has appeared in numerous publications on both sides of the Atlantic. I write as K. S. Dearsley because it saves having to keep repeating my forename, and specialise in fantasy and other speculative genres.

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