Worth Waiting For

November 9, 2023
I've said this before, I know, but the anthology with my SF story, 'The Adult Prodigy', in it is about to be published. I've finally been given a launch date of 18th November, so it looks as if patience really does pay off.
The anthology is called Dark Horses and features stories by local authors and Arts Lab members from around the UK, including the renowned Alan Moore. It's been put together by Donna Scott, whose story, 'Smiley Wakes Up', also appears. I've already read all the stories. They cover a wide spectrum of the SF genre, and there isn't a dud amongst them. There's a foreword by Robin Ince, the cover is by Scott Jeffery and you'll be able to possess all of this for £12.99. As soon as I know the stockists I'll let you know.
It will be great to actually hold a copy, and even better to meet my fellow authors at the launch. We'll certainly have something to celebrate.
Meanwhile, here's a preview of the cover to be going on with.

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.

 

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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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.

 

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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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.

 

A Narrow Escape

August 10, 2022

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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.

 

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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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.

 

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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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.

 
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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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