October 24, 2017
Continuing on the theme from the last blog, I want to highlight a place where readers in the UK can enjoy unlimited free books–at least for the time being. Public libraries have books for all ages and tastes, whether you want to read for fun, for research, or to learn more about the area where you live. You can read them on site or take them home. If you can't find what you want, the librarian will help you, and if they don't have the title you want in their catalogue, for a small fee they can order if from a library that does. You don't even have to take your books back to the same library, and you can renew them online if you'd like to keep them a little longer. Some areas enjoy the services of a mobile library, so anyone who struggles to get out can still enjoy a good read.
There's so much more to libraries these days too. They are great places to find out about what's happening in your area, for parents and toddlers to meet each other and enjoy stories, to listen to talks and meet authors, and all in an environment that's safe and welcomes people from all walks of life, thus encouraging people who might otherwise be introvert couch potatoes to get out regularly and meet people.
Sadly, in many places, public libraries are now under threat. Northamptonshire County Council is proposing either to try to persuade volunteers to run all but eight of them, or to close all but these eight completely. It intends scrapping mobile libraries altogether. Maybe the powers that be (who saw fit to spend around £55 million on new offices that they no longer have the staff to fill) believe that libraries are a luxury, or that they won't be missed. They're wrong!
Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
October 15, 2017
It occurs to me that I've been writing more for writers lately than for readers, so this week I aim to redress the balance. I have three pieces of work due for publication in the near future. In fact one, 'The Enlightened One's Blessed', is already available online–and it's free to read.
The story is one of 15 fiction finalists in Pen 2 Paper's contest aimed at raising awareness of disabilities. The other sections are non-fiction and poetry. When you visit
http://www.txdisabilities.org/p... Continue reading...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
October 2, 2017
I always try to keep a notebook cum diary when I'm on holiday, so I can stock up on ideas and tweets. On my recent holiday, what I wrote about mostly was the weather, not just any weather, but more specifically rain. As I once tweeted, 'England's been having such changeable weather–sudden downpours, drizzle, persistent rain, showers, light precipitation, squalls... ' A fortnight of heavy showers interspersed with steady rain has added to my store of descriptions.
There's the type of rai...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
September 26, 2017
I've just returned from the rainiest holiday I've ever had. The week I spent in Brighten when I was 10 comes close, but my memory of that is coloured by a child's perspective and my desperate desire to play on the beach.
It would have been nice to see the sea last week without it being screened by rain, but as a writer, being kept indoors shouldn't depress me (you might think). What an opportunity to write without any of the usual distractions! If I can produce a few thousand words with th...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
September 4, 2017
September. Can you believe it? The summer's gone, the children are heading back to school, and the holidays are over. Before the gloom sets in, this means that many of the magazines that were closed to submissions over the summer are now open again. Theatres that were dark are now launching their autumn seasons too. Even places that hadn't closed tended to be short-staffed, but now they'll be getting up to speed again.
Any work that's been languishing in slush piles might now get read, and...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
August 23, 2017
At long last I've caught up with reviewing some of the books I've read lately. Indie authors can find it hard to get their work noticed, and it can be equally hard for readers to know whether a novel by an indie author will be their kind of book. Reviews act like word-of-mouth personal recommendations, and help readers decide whether they fancy reading the sample, so I would always welcome honest, constructive reviews, and I hope the ones I write will be useful to both authors and readers.
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
July 30, 2017
Third Word Press has accepted my 80-word story, 'Turning to Stone', for its anthology
A House of Music and Other Stories, which is being sold to help the homeless. The 80 stories of 80 words each were selected from entries to its fortnightly competitions, and I'm looking forward to reading them.
When I told a friend about it, she couldn't understand what I meant by 80-word stories. How could a story have a beginning, middle and end when it was so short? Surely it must be an extract from so...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
July 11, 2017
One of the joy's of self-publishing is that you're free to do what you want with your work. No one might read it, but at least the decisions are yours and no one can insist on a different cover or cutting out your favourite scene. All the responsibility and the rewards are yours–as well as all the chores.
It's easy to see publicity and marketing as 'housework'–jobs that need to be done, that take up far too much time when you could be actually producing something, and whose benefits ca...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
July 1, 2017
Do writers ever really take a holiday? I recently spend a week on Rhodes. It's a beautiful island with something for everyone whether they prefer the beach or mountains, wild forests or orderly olive groves and vineyards, ancient ruins or nightclubs. While I had a wonderful time, there was a part of my brain that never switched off. Whatever I saw or did, I wanted a better record of it than a photo. That's why I always carry a notebook with me on holiday. A snapshot can give you a flat visual...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
June 10, 2017
You know the game–someone says, "If you could invite anyone, alive or from the past, to dinner, who would you choose?" If I was doing the cooking, it would either have to be guests who knew me very well or who were used to burnt offerings, as I'm no candidate for Masterchef.
Perhaps I could invite Ray Mears to cook us up a campfire feast from ingredients he'd foraged in the wilds of central England. Between his cooking duties, he could fascinate us with tales of survival, or maybe give ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
