January 27, 2020
Does anyone remember 'Urban Dog'? It was a column in The Telegraph about the real life 'adventures' of a Scottie dog, Parker, and its owner, Will Cohu. I used to love it, and when my husband and I brought home two Bichon Frisé puppies, it prompted me to start a puppy diary.
Our previous canine companion had died two years earlier, and while I had many wonderful memories of what she used to get up to, I was sure there was much that I'd forgotten. I didn't want that to happen with Harry and Sophie. Twelve and a half years later, the puppy diary has been renamed the doggy diary, and although I can't claim that it would entertain anyone else, I don't regret a moment spent writing it.
At the very least, it has kept me writing regularly. Even though the diary will be read by no one except me, it makes me think about style and vocabulary, beginnings, middles and endings. If William Carlos Williams can make poetry from a note on a fridge door ('This is Just to Say'), I should be able to make something readable of the dogs' antics. Looking back through it, I find myself automatically proofing and editing it. It's all good practice, but for me it's much more.
There have been many ups and downs with the dogs over the years. They've brought us new friends, made us laugh, ensured we get exercise and fresh air–even in the rain and mud–and given us love on days when we felt unlovable. Now, they're growing old and have various health issues, it's good to have a record of when they were active and comical, and everything was fun. Bichons rule OK!
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
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.
December 28, 2019
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. Posted In : Coming Soon
December 24, 2019
How did it get to be Christmas time? So many things still undone and the days so short! Never mind, they are going to get longer again now–time to look ahead to what 2020 might bring.
It seems a lot of theatre companies agree with me, because there are some excellent opportunities coming up for playwrights. In addition to the BBC's annual call-out for dramas, which can be for stage, radio, film or television, which ends on 6th January (
https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/send-a-script), there...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
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 ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
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
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
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
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
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
