What Lies Beneath

December 13, 2016
I recently visited an art exhibition that included a portrait section. Among the works included were several of celebrities that had clearly been done from photographs, either film stills or publicity shots. They were skilfully done, but they got me thinking about what a portrait is.
    There are many paintings and drawings of people–real people, not simply figures painted from the imagination–that are not classed as portraits even though their physical features are recognisable. To be a portrait a drawing's intention is surely to capture the essence or some aspect of the sitter's inner character or life. Does a drawing from a film still do that? Is the image of the person, the actor or the role? The person playing the role might be nothing like that character in real life. Did the famous portrait of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth depict Ellen Terry or Lady Macbeth?
    How sitters choose to have themselves painted can also tell you much about them. Were they fashionable or conventional? Were they flaunting their wealth and possessions, their ancestry or the dynasty they hoped to create? While the outer image might not be accurate, at least it shows the viewer how the sitter thought of themselves and/or how they wanted to be seen.
    There's also the other person present in portraits, and that's the artist. What the artist observes, what they feel is important about people, what they choose to put in or leave out, inevitably influences the viewer. When creating a portrait of a person they have never met from a photograph, they can only include things someone else has already selected.
    You might ask what all this has to do with writing. It's relevant when you're describing characters. You can go into a meticulous description of their physical appearance, but it won't necessarily tell you much about their personality. In fact, the detail may obscure what's actually significant. You have to go a step further and show how their appearance relates to their character or background. A little boy with a tuft of hair that sticks up might be a tearaway but if he continually tries to flatten it, this could show irritation, self-consciousness etc. If you'd only seen a photo, you wouldn't know about the gesture. To my mind, this is the difference between a drawing or physical description and a portrait.
 

Guilty Pleasure

December 5, 2016
I confess: I like A Town Called Eureka. The series, which is on Pick, is not exactly the most realistic show on television. In fact, the other half says it's ridiculous, and with my critical head on, I'd have to agree. I got into watching it, because it's on straight after Monkey Life. The series about Monkey World Primate Rescue Centre in Dorset seems to be on a loop and I'm currently watching something like the fifth circuit, plus the new series. I'm addicted to the chimpanzees and the capu...
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Aliens and Humans

November 28, 2016
Why do people write and read fiction or poetry? I believe it's to make sense of the world, to learn about themselves and/or the human condition. Even if a science fiction or fantasy tale has no humans in it, it won't work if there's no humanity in it.
    When you write about the vastness of space, describe dust clouds around planets, or the power of black holes you have to do so in such a way that the reader can relate to them, have feelings e.g. fear of their power, awe at their beauty, or ...
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Blogathon

November 20, 2016
I've been engaged on a blogathon. I'm conscious that I haven't been posting here as regularly as I'd like, and how irritating it can be for readers to visit a site and find nothing new. That's why instead of writing one blog for this week, I've written half a dozen to make sure that if life gets in the way of creativity, for the next few weeks I'll still have something fresh to post.
    I hadn't really intended writing more than one when I sat down at the computer, but the ideas kept coming....
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Open Channel D

November 13, 2016
Most writers can name a particular author who inspired them to write, but I owe a great debt to Robert Vaughn and David McCallum as Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Pitched somewhere between James Bond and The Avengers, the show had style and sophistication, due largely to its stars, who could talk into pens rather than write with them, escape killer foam or prevent baddies melting the polar ice-caps as if it was all perfectly plausible. My favourite was Robert Vaugh...
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Chilling Tales for Hallowe'en

October 28, 2016
This is going to be a short blog. My apologies, but I can't wait to get back to reading two new anthologies that I'm honoured to have stories in.
    If you aren't into carving pumpkins or dressing up as a zombie, I can recommend celebrating Hallowe'en with Killing It Softly instead. This is a collection of dark fiction by female writers, including my story, 'Graffiti'. Order it at https://amazon.com/dp/B01LX96Q69 before 1st November and it will only cost 99 cents. There are 466 pages of stori...
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Keystone Chronicles Review

October 7, 2016
Some while ago, I seem to remember promising a review of the Third Flatiron Keystone Chronicles anthology, so here, at last, it is.
    The anthology contains 19 stories, so I expected at least two to come up with the same interpretation of the keystone theme, but the variety was impressive, covering everything from prophesies of doom to tongue-in-cheek wordplay. For me, stand-out stories were Judith Field's nature fantasy, 'Telling the Bees', 'Every Planet Has One' by John Marr, a tale of the...
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Keep Mum!

September 5, 2016
It's never a good idea to respond to rejections. By all means whip off a page of scathing comment if you've had one that you feel totally misses the point or that's full of spelling mistakes, but don't send it. I repeat: DON'T SEND IT! Of course, if you really think the editor's an uneducated moron you aren't going to submit anything else to them, so it won't matter–or will it? You have no way of knowing where that editor might move to in the future, or who they might tell now. You absolute...
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The Other Olympics

August 26, 2016
For the past few weeks it's been impossible to miss the Rio Olympics or the upcoming Paralympics. The competitors are national heroes whether they win or not. Reporting on the games heads the television and radio news bulletins and it's splashed across the front pages of newspapers instead of being confined to the back. You might find it strange then, that I wish there was more.
    There is another Olympiad that I had never come across until about 12 years ago, and I only heard about it then ...
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Sporting Drama

August 19, 2016
Searching for an Olympics-free zone? Perhaps you've sought refuge in music and found inspiration for the Proms contest I mentioned in my last blog. If you're a television fan, the likelihood is that some of your favourite programmes have been replaced by sport. It's also the time of year when many series come to an end too, so you could be feeling withdrawal symptoms. In my case, it's missing The Musketeers and Versailles. But you know what they say: 'If you can't beat them, join them.'
    T...
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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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