Absolutely Fabulous Twiction

August 11, 2014
Twiction Addiction has accepted another two of my tweets in response to its regular prompts. The most recent one went online on 9th August. So far, I've submitted tweets on paper, custard, collar and congregation. Not only has the man behind Twiction Addiction, Mark Connors, invited me to be its featured author for October, he's also introduced me as "the fabulous Karla Dearsley". I'm dead chuffed. Now, all I have to do is live up to it. 
Check out @TwictionAddict to read lots of twiction from many 'fabulous' authors, or to join in the fun yourself. You can find all my tweets, as well as lots of retweets of others' work that has caught my eye at @KSDearsley.
Anyone who's worried that I'm spending time on Twitter instead of getting on with Discord's Apprentice can find a couple of extracts on my blog on Goodreads as proof that the exiles of Ondd are moving on.

Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon 

 

No Pruning Required

August 4, 2014
Having recently been to Florence, I took the opportunity on a sunny afternoon to sit in the garden and read E. M. Forster's A Room with a View. I watched the film again the night before I went away, and I'm glad to say that it's very faithful to the book. That's quite remarkable, especially for a novel of that period (early 1900s).
    Usually, novels have to be pared down for the screen, but Merchant-Ivory's adaptation has kept every character and scene. Practically every line of dialogue in ...
Continue reading...

Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews 

 

Don't Fight It

July 28, 2014
It's been almost too hot to think. It's hard to plot stories or craft beautiful sentences when you're wilting. Not that I'm complaining. Who knows how long the lovely weather will last? I would encourage everyone to avoid spending all day at their computer, if they can. Slap on the suncreen, don your sunglasses and possibly a hat, and set your chair up in a shady spot outside.
    You can write just as well with paper and a pencil. Should the piece you intended to work on become a sluggish tri...
Continue reading...

Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration 

 

Waste Not, Want Not

July 20, 2014
Researching a novel can be fun or frustrating, but it's always time consuming and, all too often, the facts that you find the most fascinating never make it into the finished work. That doesn't mean that the hours spent checking websites, hunting out books and talking to experts are wasted.
    The more background information you have, the more confidently you can write. You'll know your characters better and won't have to waste time rewriting because you've placed them in impossible situatio...
Continue reading...

Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration 

 

A Room with a Different View

July 14, 2014
When you go on holiday, it isn't unusual to see people taking photo after photo, barely taking the time to focus. In fact, they're so intent on getting the shot that they don't even really look at the things they're taking photos of. When they look at them afterwards they probably have trouble remembering that they were there.
Writers are always told to carry a notebook with them, and I second that, but there's a danger of becoming like those photographers. Somehow a balance needs to be found...
Continue reading...

Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration 

 

It's a Hard Life

July 5, 2014
There'll be no blog next week. I shall be hard at it carrying out research, interviewing people, trudging around the heart of the city... okay, I'll come clean, I shall actually be eating ice-cream and sampling the local vino. Who could pretend that visiting Florence will be anything other than a joy? However, I shall be taking my notebook and camera and hope to return inspired by acres of art, wonderful architecture and glimpses of characters who could people any number of works of fiction, ...
Continue reading...

Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration 

 

Dates for Your Diary

July 1, 2014
I have a few publication dates coming up for various bits and pieces, so at the risk of jinxing things and causing delays, here they are.
    TwictionAddict has four tweets of mine. Two are on the prompt 'collar', due online on 6th and 29th July, and two are on the prompt 'custard' (a subject close to my heart), due online on 9th and 31st August. Read them as they come out, or save them all up for a commercial break or the next time you're waiting at a bus stop.
    Alfie Dog Fiction is running...
Continue reading...

Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon 

 

Bits and Bobs

June 23, 2014
In my search for free to enter competitions, I came across The World's Best Birthday Ideas competition for humorous birthday verses. The closing date isn't until 30th June 2014, so there's still time to enter. I did, and you can read my effort at http://www.great-happy-birthday-ideas.com/made-it.html.
    On another subject, my efforts to write in another language have gone off at a tangent. One language doesn't translate exactly to another. If language is an extension of the way people think,...
Continue reading...

Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions 

 

Time-wasters

June 15, 2014
Strange how those little jobs that you thought would only take a minute or two have a habit of eating up half your day. Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, can be a great help to writers as a means of publishing their work and of keeping up with what else is going on in the 'literary' world, but if you aren't careful, you could find that there's no time left for anything else. Coming up with a strategy to keep them within bounds makes sense.
    Be clear what it is that you want to ach...
Continue reading...

Posted by K. S. Dearsley.

 

Temptation

June 10, 2014
What makes someone buy a particular book? That's a question I've been asking myself.
    Unless I'm looking for a particular author, or a book that's been recommended to me, the first thing I usually look for is the genre. If your book doesn't fit one genre exactly or crosses genres, that could be a problem unless you can persuade the bookseller to display it in both. My novel, Discord's Child, is epic fantasy and although it was written with adults in mind, it's also suitable for young adult...
Continue reading...

Posted by K. S. Dearsley.

 
« Newer posts
Older posts »
 

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.

Blog Archive

Make a free website with Yola