At Last!

January 29, 2026

It can be very frustrating when you have some good news but you aren't allowed to share it. Before Christmas, one of my stories was accepted for publication, and I was bursting to let the world (okay, my friends and followers) know. However, not all the details of the anthology concerned had been finalised, and until they were, I was sworn to keep my lips sealed.

Well, now the news is out, and I can tell everyone that my story, 'The Silent War', will be appearing in Flame Tree Publishing's Dreams Divine anthology, due out in June. I'm delighted on two counts.

The story has always been one of my favourites. Don't ask me where the inspiration came from (see my last blog), because if I ever knew, I've long forgotten. It was one of those stories that seemed to flow of its own accord. Sometimes it's the stories that you struggle over that turn out best, but this one simply felt right. 

Thankfully, other people thought so too, because it won the QWF competition. That was years ago, and I hadn't really sent it anywhere else since, until late last summer, and I'm delighted to find that I haven't been fooling myself all this time, as Gillian Whitaker, the senior project editor, liked it enough to publish it too.

Flame Tree Publishing specialises in anthologies of speculative fiction based around a theme. Dreams Divine will be a hardback book containing 25 romantasy stories inspired by the meeting between wishes, dreams and reality. The company was established in 1992 and among the authors it has published are Ramsay Campbell and Paul Du Noyer. Dreams Divine will include a great range of authors, and I'm excited to be in their company. 

For the full list, and more information about the anthology visit https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/romantic-fantasy-contents-announcement-dreams-divine

There you go–something to look forward to in 2026.

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

 

Out of Thin Air

January 20, 2026

"Where did your inspiration come from?" It's a question that many authors dread. My answer is usually: "If I knew, I'd bottle it." Last year, I wrote a blog for Bacopa on the subject, especially about how fragile inspiration can be and how easy it is to crush it if you try too hard to catch it. Yet the question about how an idea arrive keeps cropping up, so I've decided, where possible, to make a note of it after I've jotted it down.

I'm hoping that this will have another benefit beyond being...


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

 

Seasonal Shortcomings

January 11, 2026
It's the same every autumn. Maybe the air nips my exposed fingers first thing in the morning, or a weighty sky presses upon me the thought that a season of perpetual twilight is approaching, and I realise that if I want to write something appropriate for winter, the solstice, Christmas, the season of good cheer etc., I'd better get on with it. My intention is always to write something profound or beautiful, but it never turns out that way. However wonderful the piece I have in mind is, the re...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration 

 

Don't Panic!

December 28, 2025
It is all too easy at this time of year to take everything too seriously and stress about things that really aren't worth it. So you forgot to buy the sprouts–who cares? The cat wrecked the Christmas tree.: it isn't a disaster. In future years it will be one of the fond memories you share.
To lighten the mood, and in the spirit of seasonal silliness, here are a couple of pieces to make you groan or laugh. They aren't perfect, but that's Christmas for you. Relax and enjoy it.

Inspired by Bald...


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

 

Break a Leg

November 8, 2025
Not literally, of course, but at the moment I almost wouldn't mind having a leg in plaster if it meant I didn't have to go on stage tonight.
I've never thought of myself as an actress and only agreed to take the part to help a friend. I should have known better. I suppose I was flattered to be asked, and the previous productions I've taken part in have been good for me. I've enjoyed meeting the rest of the cast, I've learned much about what makes a good script and I've had fun. This time, how...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration 

 

Bonfire Season

November 2, 2025

Few writers arrive on the literary scene fully formed like Athene from the head of Zeus. There are 'instant' successes, such as Zadie Smith whose first novel White Teeth was a bestseller, but most writers have to learn when they start out–me included.

Recently, I came across a publication that had an open call for a particular type and length of story. The only ones I had that I thought might be made to fit the bill, were some that I wrote when I first started trying to get published. They w...


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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.

 

Read All About It!

October 16, 2025
Writers don't have to resort to fake news to influence how readers will interpret what they write. It is not only what they say that is important, but how they say it.
Inevitably, a certain amount of editing is involved. It is impossible to include all the facts and details of even simple stories or issues. There has to be some decision on what to include or exclude. What kind of language is chosen is also influential: is it formal, authoritative, chatty etc.? This might in part be influenced...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Linguistics 

 

Playing God

September 15, 2025
The first time I remember being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said I wanted to be a vicar. For a child who wasn't particularly religious, it was a strange choice. I don't know now what I thought the job entailed or what attracted me to it, but I pretty soon decided that I'd rather be a ballerina instead. Then I found out that you had to start dance lessons by the time you were seven and wafting around the living room like a cross between a demented pixie and a bulldozer was no s...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Biographical 

 

To Buy or Not to Buy

August 13, 2025
There is a library that gives borrowers a ticket showing them how much they have saved by going to the library instead of buying the books. No doubt, the intention is to encourage more readers to use libraries, but surely the purpose of libraries is to make books available to those who cannot afford them, and to encourage readers to experiment with their choice of reading, not to deter those who can afford it from buying books.
Among the arguments for and against the practice put forward by m...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.

 

Broadening Horizons

August 5, 2025
Self-publishing isn't for the indecisive. As if agonising over whether it's better to use this word or that, or to cut or not to cut, isn't enough, when you self-publish you're faced with a seemingly endless stream of choices about how you want your manuscript to look.
I've been putting together the Iyessi song lyrics that I originally wrote as chapter headers for the Exiles of Ondd novels. I want to publish them on Kindle and Draft2Digital as well as an illustrated paperback. As the digital ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration 

 
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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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