December 16, 2012
I've always been a fan of the Pre-Raphaelites. They aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I've always loved the stories/poems that inspired them and the inspiration the paintings provide, their stained glass colours and the way they capture the moment. For me, the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde at Tate Britain was unmissable.
Even though I had seen many of the paintings before at exhibitions, on television or in books, I found the exhibition dazzling. Reproductions certainly don't do them justice. The colours are vibrant and the detail incredible. I found reflections, pet dogs and figures in the background that I'd never noticed before. I also realised how the asymmetric composition of some was reminiscent of Japanese art. The then new-fangled photography evidently also had an influence. Would Ford Madox Brown have included the partial figures in 'The Last of England' without the artist having seen photographic 'snapshots'?
What I loved most were the expressions the artists captured, such as those of the diners in John Everett Millais' 'Isabella'. That said, my two favourite paintings were William Holman-Hunt's 'Our English Coasts' ('Strayed Sheep') because it reminded me of summer evenings driving to Hanging Houghton, and Holman-Hunt's 'Lady of Shalott; for the madness of its loom, the wonder of the details and the hyper-real colour.
For those who don't like the Pre-Raphaelite style, the paintings nevertheless provoke a host of stories. Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde runs at Tate Britain until 13th January 2013. I thoroughly recommend it.
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
December 9, 2012
Plasma Frequency 3 is now available in print and free online versions, containing my fantasy story, Job Satisfaction. The magazine is a great mix of fiction from action or poetic to tongue-in-cheek. One of my favourites is The Glass Hill by Joanna Michal Hoyt, which is a beautiful tale about the reaction of a young musician to the mockery of his less talented schoolmates. Check it out
here. I've also seen the cover of Otherwhere and Elsewhen from Bridge House, which will include my science f...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : FantasyFiction
December 4, 2012
When you write to commissions you don't get to choose the subject you write about. Sometimes it can be something you've never been interested in. Instead of turning work down (and if you do, be prepared never to hear from that customer again), do your research.
Always ask the customer/editor whether there's a particular angle or aspect that they want you to focus on. You need to be enthusiastic otherwise your writing will be dull and won't hold the reader's attention. Speaking to people who a...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
November 25, 2012
You can never tell what's around the corner. I've been to book fairs and not bumped into another author, yet when I went to the Christmas get-together of the Samba Bandits (the band I used to play with) recently, I was introduced to Heather Day, who happens to be an author of erotic fiction.
It was good to be able to chat about the joys and the problems of writing, and to hear another person's experiences. Writing's a solitary activity, and even with all the writers' forums (fora?) that are ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
November 18, 2012
It's been an irritating week in many ways. I won't bore readers with the details, but the problem's been people rather than the usual inanimate objects. While I might not enjoy waking up at four in the morning with things whirling around in my head, at least events have woken me up in other ways too.
It's all too easy to get settled and forget where you were heading when you started out, to get locked into certain ways of thinking. This week, I've found myself with renewed motivation and...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
November 11, 2012
The news is, I now have an author page on Goodreads with details of Discord's Child. Of course, I shall still be reporting any news on my website, but the
Goodreads page will allow me to do a few extra things without overloading visitors there who are more interested in other areas of writing. There will be updates on the progress of the next novel in the series, as well as about my quest for a new cover for Discord's Child. (I've just sent the novel to an artist. I'm looking forward to heari...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : FantasyFiction
November 4, 2012
'If the oak before the ash, then we'll only get a splash. If the ash before the oak, then we're sure to get a soak.' I blame the rhyme for the way I always felt about ash trees. It wasn't that I disliked them, only that I never felt the same warmth towards them that I felt for oaks or hawthorns or limes. Somehow, they became associated with dismal, depressing days. I've always taken ash trees for granted, but since the news that they may now fall victim to an invasive fungus in the UK that ha...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
October 28, 2012
Last week, I reviewed Anna Karenina. This week it's Looper. Let's face it, you don't expect a Bruce Willis film to be sensitive or intellectual. What you go to see is wham-bam action, witty one-liners and (if you're lucky) clever plot twists. Looper had the first, but was rather short on the rest.
The plot puts a new spin on the Sci Fi time-travel cliché about someone returning to the past and being killed by their younger self, and the way Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as the young Bruce Willis...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
October 21, 2012
I wasn't sure that I wanted to see the latest adaptation of Anna Karenina. (SPOILER ALERT!) I've never read Leo Tolstoy's novel, but previous adaptations that I've seen on TV and film have shown it's all too easy for them to descend into depression and hysteria along with the eponymous heroine. However, this version, starring Keira Knightley as Anna, was creative, subtle and beautiful. The film is 'staged' in a theatre. A bedroom set becomes a real bedroom, the flies become a train platfor...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
October 14, 2012
I've just joined Good Reads. I've seen it recommended in several places, so I thought I'd give it a try. So far, I haven't done much with it, I haven't even included a proper profile. The trouble was, I got caught up in rating all the books I've read in my chosen genres. It was amazing (not to say scary) how many I can't remember properly, not because I didn't like them, but because it's been so long since I read them. I will take a thorough look at the site and no doubt enjoy all that it...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
