The Third Good Thing

November 10, 2019
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 audio anthology, read by a professional audio artist. There'll be an interview with me in it too. Details can be found at http://remastered words.com. The anthology will include all the winning and shortlisted stories, and I'm really looking forward to listening to them and finding out more about my fellow authors. 
Actually, I've discovered another good thing this week: a review of 'The Inspiration Machine' at http://www.quicksipreviews.blogspot.com. The reviews on this site are analytical and offer readers more than  a simple value judgement or star rating–not that those are to be sniffed at from an author's point of view. The mere fact that someone has taken the trouble to comment on my work is encouraging. 
So, good things have actually come in fours for me–or is it that they came in a three and the fourth one was the first in a second trio? In which case, I have another two to look forward to. Yippee!

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

 

More Reasons to Be Cheerful

October 6, 2019
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. Posted In : Coming Soon 

 

Up the Garden Path

September 23, 2019
I'm amazed there aren't cobwebs and half an inch of dust over everything. Two weeks away from home and I find the spiders have taken over when I get back, and it's been longer than that since my last blog. I apologise. You've often been in my thoughts, even if I haven't been sitting with my fingers poised over my keyboard.
The fact is that when daily life hasn't muscled its way in to what I laughingly call my writing routine, I've succeeded in tripping myself up. With the only deadline for th...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration 

 

Not Such Bad Guys

August 5, 2019
Writers are prone to complain about the treatment they get from editors, but sometimes they keep their promises and more.
Take Brad McNaughton, Kain Massin and Sarah Knight, editors of The Blend, a new anthology from Altair Australia Pty Ld. I have the privilege of having a story, 'No Man's Land', in the first issue. I wasn't kept hanging around for months, or even weeks, waiting for an acceptance or rejection. I received the proofs in good time, was paid in advance, and even though the publi...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions 

 

Happy Accidents

July 27, 2019
I have to say thank you to all the people who listened to my attempts to speak Spanish with such patience and good humour while I as in Bilbao. As always, while I was away I jotted down a diary of what we did. It wasn't intended for publication, only to jog my memory, but the friend I was with said ominously that she would like to see it. I'm not sure about that, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to put an extract on here, so be warned. What follows is the written equivalent of being invited to a sl...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration 

 

Foreign Tongues

July 14, 2019
Here I am again–only a few days until I go abroad and having nightmares about it. Why do I do this to myself? Because I know I'll have a great time when I get there, and I'll find so much inspiration. On top of experiencing new places and cultures, I'm hoping that I'll gain more than new material.
I always try to learn at least a few words of the host country's language. I'm not sure how much use my few sentences of Castilian Spanish will be as I'm going to Bilbao (I'll at least learn 'yes...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration 

 

Optimistic Predictions

June 30, 2019
Grr... technology and I just aren't getting along these days. I'd get a divorce from it if I could, but then I'd have to say goodbye to most of my readers, so I'll have to stay joined. The current irritation is that after a break of two months from this blog, I try to add a new post and get a notice to say that Firefox no longer supports the text edit and I need to go on Google Chrome instead. Now, I'm not a fan of Google Chrome, I think it has secret plans to take over the world. Recently, I...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon 

 

Grasshopper Mind

April 16, 2019
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. Posted In : Coming Soon 

 

Late Night Listening

April 1, 2019
I had a cough recently. One of those itchy, tickly ones that can hide in the background all day only to come out at night and keep going until you've not only woken up the other half, but the dogs, and probably the neighbours too. Having coughed and coughed all the air out of my lungs, and seriously doubted whether I could inhale again before I'd pass out, I ended up sitting up in bed listening to BBC Radio 4 Extra. I was in luck, I thought, an adaptation of E.M. Forster's A Room with a View ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews 

 

Marching On

March 2, 2019
After a few months when nothing has seemed to move, everything has suddenly rushed on.
I've had news that my short radio play, Wingbeats, is one of the three winners of the eighth annual Midnight Audio Theatre contest. I don't have a date yet for when it will be broadcast, and as MAT is based in Columbus, Ohio, the chances are that you won't be able to listen to it then, but the theatre also has a weekly podcast. I'll post details as I get them.
My story, 'The Inspiration Machine', is due out...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon 

 
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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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