Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Thursday, December 19, 2024,
In :
Coming Soon
The Smashwords end of year sale is now on, which means it's time for me to make a few decisions, and put some changes into effect.
I transferred my books to Draft2Digital earlier this year as a result of the merger of the two indie publishing platforms. Since then, I haven't enrolled any of them in the Smashwords sales because authors either had to enrol all their books at the same discount or none. However, this has now changed (possibly because other authors also opted out). Consequently, u...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, October 29, 2024,
In :
Coming Soon
It's all over!
Tea Party of the Gods has had three performances by Theze Guyz, including yours truly, and like the aftermath of any party, I could be suffering post-celebration blues.
The performances took place over two days.
Tea Party of the Gods was the third play on, and I'm please to say that half the audience didn't disappear after the first two. I wouldn't say we were faultless, but we still got laughter and applause. Several of the audience approached me afterwards to say how much th...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Thursday, August 8, 2024,
In :
Inspiration
Am I the only one who finds it incredible that we are already more than two thirds of the way through summer? I confess to spending quite a lot of time watching lawn tennis and reading the pile of books I acquired at the last book group picnic I attended. However, I contend that I haven't been lazing around.
Tennis tournaments have a gladiatorial aspect with heroes and villains; past favourites against newcomers, athleticism versus experience, wiliness versus strength. How do the players cope...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, June 9, 2024,
In :
Inspiration
The week before last was exciting and scary in equal measure. I received an email saying that two of my three entries in the Wildfire-Words Flash Fiction 150 contest had been longlisted, then I received another congratulating me on winning second place, and inviting me to a showcase on Zoom of all the longlisted and winning entries.
When I'd come down from the ceiling, the reality of having to read out my entries and get to grips with unfamiliar technology hit me. My only previous experience...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, March 18, 2024,
In :
Coming Soon
Last Friday was a first for me. I attended the initial reading by Theze Guyz of my one-act play,
Tea Party of the Gods. It was a real pleasure to be there at the start of the play's first production.
Theze Guyz are an amateur company set up to give everyone, no matter their abilities or experience, a chance to perform. This year is the company's 21st anniversary, and they're planning to mark it with three performances of three plays. I'm honoured to have been asked to supply one of them.
Tea ... Continue reading ...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Thursday, September 21, 2023,
In :
Coming Soon
At long last I have some good news, not least that the things that have been distracting me are mostly positive and largely finished!
My story, 'A Real Party Animal' won a prize in the Henshaw Press Short Story Competition. If anything, this was a lesson in persistence. I wrote the story about 29 years ago. It's about a man whose wish is answered when he bemoans the fact that he has no one to take to a party. Over the years, I sent it out to 35 publications and contests. Of these, five ceased...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, February 7, 2022,
In :
Coming Soon
It had been one of those mornings. I had checked the submission requirements for several publications, sorted out the pieces of work that I thought would appeal to them, and formatted them according to the instructions. I went back online and filled in the submission forms, and in each case when I clicked on submit I received a message that submissions were closed for the time being. It was all the more frustrating because putting the message at the top of the submissions page instead would h...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, September 1, 2020,
I think I've mentioned before how googling yourself might seem like vanity or procrastination, but that it can throw up some interesting and useful results. In the past, I've discovered that I'd been shortlisted in one competition and actually won another. I've also found a mini-story on someone's website for a hobby related to its theme (origami–'Stone,Scissors, Paper'), and positive reviews of other work.
I'll confess to a little procrastination when I looked last week, but I'm so glad I ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, April 14, 2020,
It seems particularly cruel that the Easter weather was fantastic. For so many people this was bitter-sweet as they were unable to get out in it, or to share it with family and friends. There's virtually nothing that can compensate for that, but maybe some free entertainment can go a little way.
I had the great pleasure and surprise of discovering my stage play,
Antarctica, which was recorded by The Playhouse Theatre in Northampton last year, has been uploaded to Facebook, so if you go to my ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Friday, March 13, 2020,
Having stupidly missed the broadcast of my play,
Wingbeats, on
http://www.wcbe.org, I couldn't wait for it to be uploaded to Midnight Audio Theatre's website (
http://www.midnightaudiotheatre.com). I finally got to listen to it a couple of days ago, and I'm thrilled.
The play is about a girl who emigrates and arrives on the doorstep of her aunt hoping to enlist her help to find work so she can send the money home. Everyone involved in bringing the play to life has done an excellent job. The po...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, March 1, 2020,
In :
Coming Soon
The long wait for
Wingbeats to be broadcast is over. At 11pm CST it went out on
http://www.wcbe.org as one of Midnight Audio Theatre's three winning plays of 2019. If you missed it, it will be available at
http://www.midnightaudiotheatre.com in a few days.
The first of the trio,
The Wild Hunt by Jim McDoniel is on the website now. I recommend listening to it. The play concerns a soldier's search for a man, thought to be the victim of a supernatural hunt. It's a chilling way to spend 20 minut...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Wednesday, January 8, 2020,
It's strange how things can be under your nose for months without you noticing them. It wasn't until I logged-on to my dashboard at Smashwords last week that I noticed it has a facility for checking which country your sales have come from. I've never noticed it before, but now I've looked at it, I think I'm hooked.
It turns out that most of the people who downloaded my books in the end of year sale came from the US. No surprises there, although I'm based in the UK. The sales in Canada and Aus...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Saturday, December 28, 2019,
In :
Coming Soon
For a writer, one of the best Christmas presents of all is hearing their work read by a professional voice-over artist. I was thrilled on Christmas Day to open my emails and find that the podcast of my prizewinning story in the Remastered Words contest is now available at
http://www.remasteredwords.com. For a limited time, you can listen to it FREE. There's also an interview with me about the story and my writing. I have to say that Sam Burns @Wysiwyg88 has really done the story proud
If poet...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, November 10, 2019,
In :
Coming Soon
Who says that folklore and sayings are rubbish? Not me. Last time I wrote this blog I'd had two pieces of good news (the publication of Poetry Nook's anthology with my poem 'Eternal Summer' in it, and 'In Cold Blood', a noir crime poem, selected for the Cozy Cat anthology due out on 1st December), and I was waiting for the third. Now, I have proof that good things do come in threes.
'The Enchantress's Pets' came third in the Remastered Words contest, and will soon be available in this year's ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, October 6, 2019,
In :
Coming Soon
In a world that seems to have gone a bit bonkers lately, I have two pieces of good news to share.
The latest Poetry Nook anthology, containing my sonnet 'Eternal Summer' is now available at
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939832152. 'Eternal Summer' was second in the Northampton Literature Group competition in 2010, and gained an honourable mention and publication online in Poetry Nook's weekly contest in 2016. I hadn't given it much thought since then, and was pleasantly surprised when I heard fr...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, April 16, 2019,
In :
Coming Soon
You could say I've lacked focus for the past week. It started well enough on Monday with a few thousand words of
Discord's Shadow written (I know, it's well behind schedule). This was despite receiving my contributor's copy of
Diabolical Plots Year Five book. Somehow, I managed to resist the lure of its 26 stories, as I want to binge read it and write a review, but it was still a temptation that diverted my attention.
Tuesday took me to a writing lunch with a friend, Trevor Smith. Trevor is a...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, December 16, 2018,
When someone finds out I'm a published writer, I can guarantee I'll be asked one of two questions: 'Does it pay well?" and/or "In anything I've heard of?" Whether it pays well depends on whether you're used to champagne and flying on private jets, or dine regularly in your bedsit on beans on toast. Some people think that unless your earnings are in the J. K. Rowling bracket you aren't a proper writer. Maybe a list of my credits would impress them more.
I've had hundreds of pieces published or...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, April 15, 2018,
In :
Coming Soon
In fact, triple whoopee! I can at last put an end to Ro going around in circles, and get her on the road again in
The Exiles of Ondd III. I know, I've said this before–more than once–but this time she's actually broken free. That won't mean a lot to anyone who hasn't read
Discord's Child or
Discord's Apprentice, but for anyone who has, and is beginning to get tired of waiting to find out what happens next, this is good news. I'm so relieved I could dance around the room, but I won't–pro...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, October 15, 2017,
In :
Coming Soon
It occurs to me that I've been writing more for writers lately than for readers, so this week I aim to redress the balance. I have three pieces of work due for publication in the near future. In fact one, 'The Enlightened One's Blessed', is already available online–and it's free to read.
The story is one of 15 fiction finalists in Pen 2 Paper's contest aimed at raising awareness of disabilities. The other sections are non-fiction and poetry. When you visit
http://www.txdisabilities.org/p... Continue reading ...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, July 4, 2016,
In :
Coming Soon
What are the similarities between them? Sometimes you can go ages without one and then several arrive at once. I seem to have hit a plentiful patch.
My feature on taglines: how to write them and why you need them, is now online at
http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com. I also have a story, retitled 'Ready, Steady, Chop!' in the July issue of Take a Break's Fiction Feast. There's news of two other publications I can look forward to. 'The Enchantress's Pets; has been accepted for Horrified Pres...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Wednesday, March 2, 2016,
In :
Inspiration
It took more hours than I care to admit and my jaw still aches from gritting my teeth, but I've done it! I've fought my way through a first draft of the story that didn't want to be written. It isn't fit for anyone else to read at present, but at least I have something I can work on and shape. If I had given up, I'd have nothing. Sometimes all you can do is plod on.
When you're struggling through a patch when it's tough to find the right words–or any words, for that matter–it's all too...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, January 12, 2016,
In :
Competitions
I treated myself yesterday. I showed no self-restraint at all. I binged on mini-stories in the Binnacle 12th Annual Ultra-short Edition 2015. My intention was to eke them out, to save them as a little pick-me-up whenever I needed something more substantial than a tweet but not demanding the time commitment of a short story.
Of course, I was curious to read the winning entries and find out how 'Harvest-time', my Editor's Pick entry, measured up, but I already knew from previous years that t...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, January 3, 2016,
In :
Competitions
Happy New Year! Welcome to my first blog of 2016.
One of my favourite television dramas in the run-up to Christmas was series three of The Bridge. Everything about it was excellent–the performances, the lighting, and particularly the script, which was full of twists and turns that kept the viewers guessing, and taut dialogue. No doubt the writing was top notch in this and other Scandinavian crime novels and series, but does this alone account for the explosion in their popularity? Do all...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, December 14, 2015,
Following the excitement of last week's performance of my one-act play, Antarctica, I have some more good news to report: I have a feature in the January issue of Writing Magazine. It covers ways in which you can break the accepted rules of writing successfully.
Anyone who knows my attitude to misplaced apostrophes and similar slips might think this makes me a hypocrite, but I assure you I'm not advocating sloppiness or turning into a grammar rebel. For proof, I'm afraid you'll have to get...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, December 6, 2015,
In :
Coming Soon
On Friday (4th December), the premiere performance of Antarctica took place. It was on a terrific programme of Walter Swan Trust Playwriting Award winners and runners-up at Ilkley Playhouse. Sadly, I wasn't able to attend, nor will I be able to get to the Courtyard Stage at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds for the second performance tomorrow. I know if I'd been there I would have gained far more than an evening's entertainment.
Scripts, whether for stage, screen or radio, are never a comp...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Saturday, October 10, 2015,
In :
Coming Soon
Today I've got good news and bad news. First, the bad news. The excellent Writing Short Fiction site, which is full of news and tips, may soon be no more due to the ill-health of the man behind it, Bruce Harris, who has decided he needs to save his energy for his own work. Unless someone offers to take it over in the next week or two, it will go. Find out more at
http://www.writingshortfiction.org.
The better news is that Plasma Frequency Magazine is probably going to be resurrected. The m...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, August 25, 2015,
In :
Reviews
I can think of 10 good reasons to read issue eight of Fantasy Scroll Magazine–make that 11.
The magazine contains 10 speculative short stories, including my own offering 'Haze' about how first contact with mankind could be the beginning of the end for a planet's inhabitants. The other stories vary from futuristic tech-based SF to dark fantasy. The one thing they have in common is being irresistible. Once you start reading, you can't stop. You'll find believable characters struggling with...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, August 17, 2015,
In :
Inspiration
Apparently, Christopher Lee used to read The Lord of the Rings once a year. This was a habit he began decades before playing Saruman. He isn't alone. Many people have a favourite book that they read over and over, without it ever becoming stale. If you ask me, the definition of being a successful author is writing something that people not only remember, but enjoy re-reading. Strange as it may seem, not every novel on the bestseller lists has that quality. What is it that keeps readers coming...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Saturday, June 27, 2015,
My apologies to anyone who has visited this blog recently hoping to find something new, only to be disappointed. I hope to make up for that now, not only with a round-up of what's been happening lately, but also with the relaunch of my website, which I hope you will agree, is brighter and a lot easier to use.
You may notice that some things seem to have disappeared from the menu and other things have taken their place. Let me assure you that all the previous information is still there, it...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Thursday, May 14, 2015,
In :
Coming Soon
I was beginning to think this day wouldn't arrive, but I've finally managed to get
Discord's Apprentice on
Amazon and
Smashwords for pre-order. Order a copy before the launch date (1st June 2015) and you can take advantage of a special low price. To celebrate having got this far, I've also reduced the price of
Discord's Child and included the first chapter of Discord's Apprentice at the end. Now all I have to do is make sure everyone hears the news, so tell all your friends and come back ofte...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, 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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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, November 16, 2014,
In :
Competitions
You never can be sure what the consequences of submitting work to a publication or entering a competition might be. It might seem straightforward: your work is either accepted, or it's rejected. However, even when the editors or judges don't select your submission/entry you might still end up a winner.
After my story, 'Salvage', appeared in
Daily SF, Paul Coles of
Beam Me Up Podcast asked if he could broadcast it. Of course, I grabbed the offer, and I'm privileged now to have had dramatis...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, October 6, 2014,
In :
Competitions
Sometimes life is strange. I've had the privilege of being interviewed several times lately. They've all been internet interviews. Okay, so the Alfie Dog ones were questionnaires and by no means exclusive to me, but it's the same principle. The questions were emailed to me, so I had time to consider my replies. Not only did I have a chance to try to come up with interesting answers, but I had the opportunity to review what I put. Hopefully, I haven't said anything that might come back to haun...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, September 14, 2014,
In :
Coming Soon
This has been one of those weeks when it's been time to catch up with a few bits and bobs.
I was given the opportunity to have a poem ('Bare the Body and Hide the Soul') on
Songs of Eretz Review, which required a short bio and 'poet's notes'. I'd no sooner sent them off than Steve Gordon put them online for the Poem of the Day on 9th September.
There were proofs to go through for my feature in
Thresholds about Samuel Beckett's story, 'Ping'. That should be online tomorrow (Monday 15th S...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, September 2, 2014,
In :
Competitions
The good news this week, is that my entry was a runner-up in the Haynet and Lavender & White Equestrian Short Story competition. 'Horse Sense' is about a man who tries to reignite the spark in his marriage by taking his wife on holiday in a horse-drawn caravan. When things go wrong, it takes horse sense to save the day. All the runners-up will be published on the organiser's site at
http://www.hay-net.co.uk in the near future, and you can already enjoy the winner, 'Be Careful What you Wish Fo...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, August 11, 2014,
In :
Coming Soon
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 fro...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, July 1, 2014,
In :
Coming Soon
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...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, May 26, 2014,
In :
Competitions
Recently, I gave links to a few free competitions, but there was one I forgot to mention: Spinetinglers. I was reminded of this in the nicest way possible–by winning! My SF story, 'No Good Deed', is already on their website at
http://www.spinetinglers.co.uk and is due to appear in their print anthology. Don't worry that my omission means that you've missed your chance to enter, as Spintinglers runs a short story competition every month with prizes of £100 for first, £50 for second and thr...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Tuesday, February 18, 2014,
In :
Competitions
One of the great things about being a writer is that sometimes work you did a long time ago rewards you out of the blue. This week I had a request to publish my story, 'Blind Alleys', from the organisers of the Yeovil Literary Prize. It was commended in the 2012 competition, and I had thought that was that. Now, I have publication in an anthology to look forward to in the autumn. It will bring together the winners and commended entries in the short story and poetry sections of the competition...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, February 2, 2014,
I did one of those online quizzes this week that's supposed to discover what the ideal job is for you. It's only a bit of fun, but (surprise, surprise) it turns out that the perfect career for me is as a writer. How they came to that conclusion by asking whether I preferred The Lord of the Rings or Star Trek, and whether I'd rather take food or a friend with me to a desert island I don't know. All they really needed was to ask four simple questions. Am I a control freak? (I like making my cha...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, January 26, 2014,
Alfie Dog Fiction is my new four-legged friend. Four of my stories are now available on the site, priced 39p each. They range from literary and historical to feelgood. Here are the blurbs.
'Bare Earth'–Keen gardener, Peter, has hopes of finding a girlfriend when his new neighbours move in. He is encouraged by their reaction to his floral presents and DIY help, but it is not long before he discovers a rival.
'Between Lives'–The narrator meets Greta and her young son when she is fleeing the...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, January 19, 2014,
In :
Coming Soon
Alfie Dog Fiction has just accepted four of my short stories. (See my tail wagging?) Each of them is already a prizewinner and/or previously published, but no longer in print (to my knowledge). There aren't many publishers or competitions that take previously published material, and it seemed a waste not to make them available somewhere. I could have self-published them, but feel Alfie Dog will introduce my work to a wider readership.
Alfie Dog Fiction publishes individual stories, collection...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Wednesday, January 15, 2014,
In :
Competitions
The chocolates might all have been eaten and the decorations have gone back in their box, but I've still been enjoying plenty of sparkle and the sweet taste of success. That's because I've received The Binnacle Ultra-shorts 10th Edition. Not only is it exciting to read my work in it, but there are 56 other works to enjoy.
My favourites are 'Hoopty Time Machine' by Christopher DeWan, which one the prize for best prose, and 'In the Parking Lot' by Wayne Scheer. Despite the 150 words restriction...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, December 15, 2013,
In :
Inspiration
This week I was privileged to be invited to give a talk about being a writer to a school reading group of around 20 11-year-olds. I alternated between excitement and terror beforehand. It's a long time since I was 11, and I was unsure of the right level at which to pitch what I said. I was also conscious that most of my audience wouldn't have met an author before and might be expecting someone far more witty and glamorous than me. If I disappointed them, I might turn them off writing forever....
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, June 2, 2013,
In :
Coming Soon
I've spent much of this week so far outside my comfort zone that I haven't even been able see where it is–not that I should complain, because it's all been prompted by some rather nice things. I've had a poem commended in a competition and another shortlisted, but what really got me moving was when someone contacted me to ask where they could find my short stories.
I've been planning to put a themed anthology online for some while and this seemed like the ideal prompt. As The Grid has a co...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, May 12, 2013,
In :
Reviews
Today, I have good news and... good news! The latest Iyessi song is now on my
Discord's Child page, and my flash story, 'A Matching Pair', which came third in the
Bowers Gifford & North Benfleet Residents' Association competition, can be read on the association's website. It's great when your work appears somewhere new and you can feel that it's being read by people who otherwise would never come across it. Will it last generations? The odds are against it.
Even authors who write the bestsel...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, April 1, 2013,
In :
FantasyFiction
I'm celebrating. Not my birthday, not even Dr. Who's birthday, but two of my stories going public. 'The Enchantress's Pets' appears in the April 2013 issue of
Writing Tomorrow. There's a short article giving the background to how and why it was written too. You can also listen to 'Salvage' on the
Beam Me Up Podcast, episode 359. I love the characters' voices and the way listening to the story has made it totally fresh. Thanks go to Paul Cole, the man behind Beam Me Up, for his hard work.
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, March 24, 2013,
In :
Competitions
How hard it must be for Olympic athletes to get all the way to the final only to be pipped at the post by less than a nose! There are no prizes for coming fourth, so all the training, self-discipline and (possibly) neglect of loved ones have been for nothing. On another day, they might have left the blocks a fraction faster or felt fresher, their competitors might not have been as focussed or have eaten one too many Shredded Wheat. Another day they might have won–they were so close. It can ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, March 11, 2013,
Writers are usually advised to target their work at a particular market. Up to a point this makes sense. If a magazine only accepts certain genres or lengths, or has a dislike of present tense narrative, it's usually wasting your time and theirs sending them things that don't fit. Most competitions have strict rules and often have a theme, but are more flexible with regard to style. How far should you go in adapting what you write to fit the requirements of editors and competition organisers/...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, February 10, 2013,
In :
Reviews
Otherwhere and Elsewhen, featuring my science fiction story, 'Heavy Air', is now available from
Bridge House Publishing. You can either find it on their website or at Amazon, priced £3.80 plus VAT. Edited by Gill James, the anthology is a collection of 12 stories with a loose theme of another 'time and another space, light years from here'. As well as 'Heavy Air', you'll find stories by Philip T. Brewster, Julie-Ann Corrigan, Phil Hodgkiss, Dawn Knox, Jeff Laurents, Shirley Percy, A. J. S...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, January 20, 2013,
It's wonderful hearing from people who like what you do. I've been fortunate to have received positive feedback and kind words from people who call themselves my fans this week (imagine that–me having fans!). They aren't family members or people whose opinion I've solicited, but readers who took the trouble to let me know that they appreciate my work.
Before I put everyone else off by blowing my own trumpet, the main point I wanted to make is that a little praise goes a long way. Everyone l...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, January 13, 2013,
In :
Competitions
You can wait ages for work to get from acceptance to publication then, like buses, several come out at once. This week I received the latest wonderful edition of The Binnacle Ultra-Short. Included are the winning prose, poetry and humorous entries in the annual competition along with a host of pieces receiving honourable mentions, including one of mine, 'Plucked from Obscurity'. The edition is in paperback form, plus a box with each work on a separate business-sized card, which you can mix...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Thursday, January 3, 2013,
In :
FantasyFiction
It's no good having a fragile ego if you're a writer. It isn't like being a mathematician or a scientist, there are no absolute right or wrong answers or ways to do things. All the rules can be broken as long as you know that you're breaking them and have a reason for doing it. The problem is that writing is subjective.
Some readers will happily ignore the occasional grammatical error or typo if there's a cracking plot, or will forgive a slow pace or digression if the language is beautiful...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, December 9, 2012,
In :
FantasyFiction
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 on Sunday, September 30, 2012,
I had news this week that my story, 'Job Satisfaction' has been accepted for Plasma Frequency, a new magazine of speculative fiction. I'm not going to get rich on the proceeds, but it's great to be seen in a new publication. Who knows where this magazine might be in 10 years' time? It could be a respected SFWA approved market, have vanished completely, or have a cult following.
Submitting to a new, or relatively new, magazine can be chancey. Will the editors deliver what they promise? Wi...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Monday, September 17, 2012,
Two weeks away on holiday equals two weeks' worth of emails to sift through. Amongst the Amazon, Facebook and Linked In updates I found several pieces of good news.
There was an offer from the organisers of the Frome Festival Short Story competition to send my entry to a magazine publisher. The proof of the Bridge House Science Fiction anthology, Otherwhere and Elsewhen, arrived, so it shouldn't be long now before it's available. Lastly, my story, 'Salvage', has been accepted by Daily Scie...
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