Poetry Power

October 8, 2023
National poetry day took place last week. I never used to regard myself as a poet. I felt my efforts at traditional verse with rhyme and metre came out as contrived or clichéd, and doubted my free verse was much better. Since then, I've been lucky enough to enjoy some success, but even when I thought the results were poor, the process of writing poetry was invaluable.
Distilling my thoughts and ideas into exactly the right words required a balance of focus and freedom that shut out any trivia or anxieties I might be experiencing, in addition to leaving those worries on the page. No one should be put off by doubts about their talent from writing poetry. The most important thing is that what you write has meaning for you. However, if you really don't feel that you can write your own poems, explore what others have written. People have sought to bring order into their lives and views of the universe from ancient times. Whatever style you prefer, you'll find poetry that finds the words to say what you have difficulty expressing. You will discover that you are not alone in thinking and feeling as you do, which can be a great relief. Reading poetry really can make you feel better.
You could try taking this a step further, and learn the poems that resonate with you. At the very least it's a good work-out for your memory and concentration. What is more, no matter your situation, you will always have that poem with you. You can recite it in your head whenever your thoughts need a distraction, or if you can't sleep, to prevent boredom when waiting for a bus, or you can recite it aloud to impress your friends. Whether you choose a limerick by Edward Lear to make you laugh, or a sonnet by Shakespeare that captures the power of love, a W. H. Auden description of grief, or simply want to experience the abstract beauty of words with a John Ashbery poem, you are never alone with a poem.
To be going on with, you'll find some of mine on my poetry page or some Iyessi songs on the Exiles of Ondd page.
Enjoy!
 

Persistence Pays

September 21, 2023
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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Where Did It Go?

July 2, 2023
How did that happen? One minute I'm posting a blog here about the Smashwords Read an Ebook Week sale and the next it's the start of the Smashwords Summer-Winter Sale and three months have passed. 
Did I prick my finger and fall asleep throughout spring? If so, I'd like to know what the prince who was supposed to wake me with a kiss was up to in the meanwhile. Maybe I was sucked into a black hole and have only just been spat back out, in which case I shall blame Einstein for the delay. More li...
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Don't Put It Off

March 8, 2023
As a writer, I'm an expert at procrastinating. However much I would like to have written something, pinning myself down to actually get the words on the page can seem practically impossible. After all, the cupboard under the sink needs sorting out; there might be a documentary on the radio that would be useful for research, and I need another cup of coffee before I get started... 
This week there's another reason not to pick up my pencil, namely Smashwords Read an Ebook Week sale. I could spe...
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Good News and Bad

February 17, 2023
I'm all disappointed. One of my favourite sites for market listings has closed. Ralan.com specialised in speculative fiction publications in all genres–horror, science fiction and fantasy throughout the spectrum–and all lengths and forms from poetry to novels, audio to print. Over the years I found many of the publications my work has appeared in there. I don't know why it's closed, but the site must have required considerable time and effort to keep up, and I'd like to give the guy behin...
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Back Again

December 21, 2022
Hi, it's good to be back. The place hasn't changed much while I've been away (thank goodness, life's been unpredictable enough without more surprises).
This year has been full of detours, and what I hoped and expected to get done seems to have had all kinds of things put in its way. I've hardly written anything worth reading for months–not even a tweet–but I started several short stories with the intention of submitting to various themed publications before I got knocked off track. Not al...
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A Narrow Escape

August 10, 2022

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Catch-up

July 21, 2022
It's been a few weeks since my last blog, so it's high time for an update on what's going on. There's good news, and there's no news really.
The good news is that one of my plays, Antarctica, has been published by Silver Birchington Plays. You can purchase a copy for yourself or for your company, and if you decide to produce it, the cost is deducted from the licence fee. Self-publishing a play is easy, but handling the performance rights is more tricky, so I'm hoping this will make life easie...
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And the Award Goes to...

June 21, 2022
Not me, sadly. The results have been announced at last for the British Science Fiction Association Awards 2021. Discord's Shadow didn't make it onto the prizewinners' roster, but I'm not crying. Who could object to losing out to a book like Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shards of Earth? It was an honour and a thrill to find Discord's Shadow had been nominated, and makes all the doubts and hard work worthwhile.
I shall use the boost being nominated has given me to get going on some of the Exiles-relat...
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New/Old Discoveries

May 26, 2022
It wasn't quite the age of steam when I started writing, but it's long enough ago for me to have used a typewriter to produce my manuscripts, including carbon copies! (Even writing that makes me feel ancient.) In some ways, computers have made life far easier: mistakes can be corrected without making a mess; you can produce a copy at a click, and can easily accommodate different formatting requirements. In addition, you save on postage and stationery. Another advantage is how much cupboard sp...
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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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