All Spruced Up Alfie Dog Fiction

March 3, 2015
There are at least two 'A's in my alphabet. The first is Alfie Dog Fiction, which has had a thorough makeover. The site has hundreds of short stories available for download, mostly priced 39p. It's now a lot clearer and easier to use, both for readers and authors.
    You can find stories either by category or by author name, and I'm glad to report that mine is now listed under 'K' again. (For a while it had gone off to sulk with a few other 'K's and 'J's at the end). The new version of 'Your Downloads' helps readers avoid inadvertently buying the same story more than once, and it's easier to buy stories–or novels from Alfie Dog's impressive list–as gifts. Plus there's a new 'Reviews' page. I was delighted to find that a review of one of my stories, 'Between Lives', is included, written by Henry Mitchell, who is no mean short story writer himself.
    If you fancy yourself as a reviewer, a Reader Competition has just been launched for reviews of stories you have downloaded from the site. There is no entry fee other than the price of the story you review, and you could win £100 or one of two prizes for runners up.
    Check out http://www.alfiedog.com for all the details. My second 'A'? You'll have to wait and see!
 

A is for Alphabet

February 22, 2015
Sometimes subjects to blog about are obvious, for instance, when there's news of a publication or event. At other times, it isn't as easy. The trouble isn't that I can't think of anything, but that there are so many subjects, it's hard to pick one. Today, I have come up with a solution. Starting next week, I shall choose a subject to blog about according to the alphabet. I've already made a list, and I have enough ideas to keep me going for at least the next five years! They are the usual mix...
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Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo...

February 15, 2015
Life's full of difficult decisions. Lately, I've had lots of different writing-related tasks to do, and I've found it hard to know what to tackle first. Time to make a list! I have a story waiting to be written, a feature half-researched, work to rewrite, a story to key-in, potential markets to check and marketing to do. Thankfully, nothing has a deadline, but that leaves no clear favourite to start with, so I've put together a series of questions that might help me to avoid wasting time dith...
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Anti-social Media

February 8, 2015
This week I was invited to an adult education class. The tutor had to hang around at the main entrance to let all the students in, and as they arrived at the classroom in dribs and drabs I was struck by a certain lack of hospitality. I would happily have introduced myself and tried to make small-talk to break the ice, but everyone was too busy texting, playing games or looking something up on their mobiles. Their impoliteness was not confined to ignoring me, but ignoring each other as well. T...
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Putting a Name to a Face

February 1, 2015
A recent BBC documentary about the artist Hans Holbein, who painted so many of Henry VIII's court, was fascinating, and not only for the insights his work provided into the sitters' personalities. He had written Anne Boleyn's name as 'Anne Bollein'. Spellings in Tudor times were not as standardized as they are now, and Holbein probably wrote the name as he heard it pronounced. As the artist's surname also ends in 'ein' this could mean that it was pronounced the same way. So Anne Boleyn was ei...
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Hoots!

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

January 18, 2015
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

January 13, 2015
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

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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Normal Service...

December 13, 2014
Sorry to everyone who expected a new blog before this. I've had a fall, and although I feel fine, the plaster cast on my arm is slowing me down rather. Normal service wil be resumed when it comes off.

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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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