June 10, 2017
You know the game–someone says, "If you could invite anyone, alive or from the past, to dinner, who would you choose?" If I was doing the cooking, it would either have to be guests who knew me very well or who were used to burnt offerings, as I'm no candidate for Masterchef.
Perhaps I could invite Ray Mears to cook us up a campfire feast from ingredients he'd foraged in the wilds of central England. Between his cooking duties, he could fascinate us with tales of survival, or maybe give me some tips that my characters could make use of.
Speaking of characters, I'd like to share a meal with Ro, the protagonist of The Exiles of Ondd books. She could tell me what she gets up to in the next in the series. Of course, I know the big stuff that happens, but she could fill in the details that there aren't room for in the book.
If Ro was there, then there would have to be music, so I'd invite Domenico Scarlatti. He wrote over 550 keyboard sonatas. They're so evocative, I can imagine a story in every one. I could ask him what inspired him, and whether it was more than desperation to meet the next deadline.
We'd probably end the evening with a song or two (I'd have to mime as my voice is as good as my cooking), so I'd also invite the neighbours to forestall complaints. Or maybe we'd end the evening with a game. How about trying to choose our desert island discs? Now, what would my luxury be?
Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
June 1, 2017
I've been trying something completely different. Usually, I know I want to write about a subject, or I've had an idea, and I plan as much as I can before I start writing, but for the past few days I've simply written whatever comes into my head. I haven't had any characters or story in mind, nor have I attempted to shape my thoughts. I've simply daydreamed on paper. In fact, as far as possible, I've avoided censoring or editing what I've written. If I try to think of what might happen or deli...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
May 12, 2017
Is there anything worse than getting a critique from a competition judge who didn't like your story? Mostly, I appreciate feedback, even if I don't agree with it, because it makes me look at my work with fresh eyes, and maybe consider things that hadn't occurred to me before. However, I once had my entry to what purported to be an open competition with no theme or restrictions on style or subject, returned with the comment that "I used to like fantasy stories in my teens, but then I decided t...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
May 5, 2017
They say tomorrow never comes, but they forgot to tell the scientists who have just developed a way to do something in real life that I had as a central discovery in a story I recently finished set in the near future. That'll teach me not to procrastinate! To be fair to myself the length of time it took me to get from the original idea to the finished story was due more to making several false starts than slacking off. After a lot of trial and error, I finally came up with an experiment that ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
April 10, 2017
It took a couple of days longer than I'd planned, but Discord's Child and Discord's Apprentice were finally unleashed as paperbacks from CreateSpace and Amazon last Monday (3rd April). There was a last minute hitch–the discovery that moving one little hyphen had had a knock-on effect throughout a whole chapter. I could have left it, I've seen other novels with words hyphenated across pages, but once I'd spotted it, I would never have been happy knowing it was there. Anyway, the paperbacks a...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
March 31, 2017
With the print publication of Discord's Child and Discord's Apprentice with
CreateSpace due on April Fool's Day, I've been getting really fidgetty. Reading always helps me to relax, so I treated myself to Third Flatiron Anthology's
Principia Ponderosa.
I love Westerns. I was raised on them. In fact, I can't read the word Ponderosa without hearing the Bonanza theme tune. Regular readers of this blog might have noticed that I also love SF and Fantasy. Purists might think that the genres shou...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
March 17, 2017
I'd like to say thank you to everyone who downloaded Discord's Child last week–I hope you enjoy it. Read an Ebook Week is now over, but The Exiles of Ondd novels are still available from Smashwords and Amazon. I'd also like to say thank you to all the other authors who took part in the event. I had great fun browsing through the fantasy titles that were discounted or free. My problem was how to choose from the hundreds that were available.
Even ruling out the titles that are always free,...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
March 5, 2017
It's Smashword's Read an Ebook week again until 11th March. I've enrolled
Discord's Child in it, so all you need to do is visit
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ksdearsley, click on the novel and use the code SFREE to download a copy for free. This is a really good opportunity to 'try before you buy' if you're unsure whether to get the next in the series,
Discord's Apprentice, or to treat yourself to the paperback versions, which should be available from CreateSpace and Amazon from 1st ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
February 27, 2017
My blogging schedule has gone out of the window once again. My apologies. I have a really bad habit of seriously underestimating how long it takes me to do things, especially if they involve a computer. A big tip to anyone involved in writing or publishing is to work out how long you think you'll need to do something, double it and then add at least a fortnight! I'm hoping I'm back on track now, but as soon as I finish keying this in, I'm going to recross my fingers. It hasn't helped that I'v...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
February 5, 2017
Wow! The proofs of Discords' Child and Discord's Apprentice have arrived early. They're looking good, although I do say it myself. I've yet to go through them with my nit-picking comb, but all being well, they should be on sale from Amazon and Create Space by Easter, so you'll have something to read while you're scoffing your Easter eggs. Once I know everything's okay and I have a firm date, the details will be on here straight away. I want to offer some introductory deals, so watch this spac...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
