Brief Opportunities

July 29, 2018
There isn't much time left before the Smashwords Summer-Winter sale ends. Wait until Wednesday to make your choice and you'll be too late. No time for novels? There are plenty of books of short stories to download either at big discounts or completely free, as well.
    Take Artists and Liars, for instance. It's a collection of short stories, flash fiction and poetry–11 works in all–linked by an art theme. Do you know the difference between a collector and a connoisseur? What goes through the mind of a model? Is conceptual art child's play? All angles are covered! You don't have to scroll through lots of pages to find it. Simply go to https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ksdearsley where you'll find Artists and Liars FREE, along with Discord's Child and 50% off Discord's Apprentice.
    You don't have to wait for a sale to enjoy free short fiction. Many ezines give you free access to their contents, particularly speculative and literary publications. Even publications that don't make everything available usually have archived material for you to sample. This is not only great for readers, but helps writers looking for potential markets. The best way to find out whether your work would fit in somewhere is to read an issue or two. This means you can enjoy a good read and justify not writing instead by calling it research.
    Don't forget the Smashwords Summer-Winter Sale closes at midnight Pacific Time on 31st July.
 

Boomerang!

July 22, 2018
There's a school of thought that says, as soon as a story, poem or novel etc. is rejected you should send it out again. Like a boomerang, you should throw it straight back to another publisher. This is probably the best antidote to rejection, because it doesn't give you time to worry or get depressed. Your writing is your product, and as with any other business, it isn't going to enhance your reputation or improve your bank balance until you sell it.
    Those are the pros, but there are some ...
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Home Thoughts

June 30, 2018
I've just spent some time in beautiful Verona. The home of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and his Two Gentlemen of Verona, it would be a poor writer who didn't find some inspiration in this city. So why, you might wonder, didn't I post a stream of Facebook bulletins and tweets while I was out there?
    The problem with being a writer is that you can't even leave a note for the milkman without wanting it to be well written. 'No milk today' might suffice for some, but what about the back stor...
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It's Festival Time!

June 7, 2018
Trust me to get my timing all wrong. At long last my play, Antarctica, is performed again, and where am I? No, not in the theatre. It was chosen for the final night of The Playhouse Theatre's One-Act Play Festival in Northampton, which featured nine plays altogether. Apparently, it was very well-received and the team involved in the performance enjoyed it, and that's the main thing. As it's been recorded, I will eventually be able to see it for myself, even if I missed out on the atmosphere o...
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Whoopee!

April 15, 2018
In fact, triple whoopee! I can at last put an end to Ro going around in circles, and get her on the road again in The Exiles of Ondd III. I know, I've said this before–more than once–but this time she's actually broken free. That won't mean a lot to anyone who hasn't read Discord's Child or Discord's Apprentice, but for anyone who has, and is beginning to get tired of waiting to find out what happens next, this is good news. I'm so relieved I could dance around the room, but I won't–pro...
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Dangerous Words

March 25, 2018
What are the world's most dangerous books? My vote goes to dictionaries. My reason isn't that they give you the means to express ideas persuasively, to pretend to a background or education you don't possess, or to understand people and ideas that would otherwise remain mysteries. The most dangerous thing about dictionaries is the way they steal your time.
    You innocently pick up a dictionary to look up a word that's been on the tip of your tongue, but before you find it, your eye is caught ...
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Take Note

March 20, 2018
Some places still have snow, but as far as the birds and the daffodils around here are concerned, it's already spring. In fact, when the sun's out, it feels like spring to me as well. My advice to anyone venturing outside to see whether the birds and daffodils are right, is to take a notepad with you. This is a time of year that tends to stir inspiration, and it's a time of change. Without a notepad you risk forgetting the ideas and sensations around you.
    You can record things on your phon...
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Mother's Day Verse

March 11, 2018
In the UK, it's Mothering Sunday. This is the day when everyone is supposed to worship at their mother church, which is their parish church, or where they were baptised. Traditionally, people in service were allowed a day off to go home, and their mothers baked them a cake! Somehow the day has now become joined with Mother's Day, which was invented in the US to commemorate mothers and the hardship they suffered during the American Civil War, and takes place there in May.
    However it started...
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Warm Wishes on a Cold Day

March 6, 2018
We're lucky where I live, we rarely get the extreme weather that's suffered in other parts of the country, but even here there have been a few inches of snow in the past few days–enough to persuade most people that they'd rather stay indoors.
    Snow can be magical, but it can also give everyday things a feeling of unreality. This got me thinking about how snow and cold affect the senses; how they change the light–especially at night, how sounds can seem muffled or echo, the way the air ...
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Living Language

February 26, 2018
A few days ago, I finished reading a book called Mother Tongue: The English Language by Bill Bryson. A linguistics study of the English language and the foreign, social and cultural influences on it might not sound much of a page-turner, but I found it fascinating.
    There are many facts in it with which to dumbfound your friends at parties, such as how many different ways William Shakespeare spelled his name, but to my mind, what is most interesting is how English has always evolved and ada...
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About Me


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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