May 5, 2017
They say tomorrow never comes, but they forgot to tell the scientists who have just developed a way to do something in real life that I had as a central discovery in a story I recently finished set in the near future. That'll teach me not to procrastinate! To be fair to myself the length of time it took me to get from the original idea to the finished story was due more to making several false starts than slacking off. After a lot of trial and error, I finally came up with an experiment that worked–much as I imagine the scientists did.
Now I'm left with a dilemma: do I rip up the manuscript and throw it away, or do I try to salvage it? I've put too much effort into making the story work to abandon it entirely, so I think I'm going to have to see if I can rejig the plot. If I'm to avoid reinventing the wheel, as it were, I shall have to do some research, but investigating new subjects is one of the joys of writing.
No matter what the setting or situation is in a story, whether it's science, running a zoo, fraud or whatever, it's always the human dimension that's most important. How is the characters' behaviour affected? What's the impact on their relationships, etc.? That's why tales such as The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells still grips readers, even though we now know that if aliens did ever invade Earth, they wouldn't be Martians. I'm not claiming to have written a classic, but as the main focus of my story is how a scientific discovery has unexpected implications for the characters and the society they live in, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to rescue it.
I suppose the moral is: if you're setting a story in the near future, get on with it!
Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
April 10, 2017
It took a couple of days longer than I'd planned, but Discord's Child and Discord's Apprentice were finally unleashed as paperbacks from CreateSpace and Amazon last Monday (3rd April). There was a last minute hitch–the discovery that moving one little hyphen had had a knock-on effect throughout a whole chapter. I could have left it, I've seen other novels with words hyphenated across pages, but once I'd spotted it, I would never have been happy knowing it was there. Anyway, the paperbacks a...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
March 31, 2017
With the print publication of Discord's Child and Discord's Apprentice with
CreateSpace due on April Fool's Day, I've been getting really fidgetty. Reading always helps me to relax, so I treated myself to Third Flatiron Anthology's
Principia Ponderosa.
I love Westerns. I was raised on them. In fact, I can't read the word Ponderosa without hearing the Bonanza theme tune. Regular readers of this blog might have noticed that I also love SF and Fantasy. Purists might think that the genres shou...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
March 17, 2017
I'd like to say thank you to everyone who downloaded Discord's Child last week–I hope you enjoy it. Read an Ebook Week is now over, but The Exiles of Ondd novels are still available from Smashwords and Amazon. I'd also like to say thank you to all the other authors who took part in the event. I had great fun browsing through the fantasy titles that were discounted or free. My problem was how to choose from the hundreds that were available.
Even ruling out the titles that are always free,...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Reviews
March 5, 2017
It's Smashword's Read an Ebook week again until 11th March. I've enrolled
Discord's Child in it, so all you need to do is visit
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ksdearsley, click on the novel and use the code SFREE to download a copy for free. This is a really good opportunity to 'try before you buy' if you're unsure whether to get the next in the series,
Discord's Apprentice, or to treat yourself to the paperback versions, which should be available from CreateSpace and Amazon from 1st ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
February 27, 2017
My blogging schedule has gone out of the window once again. My apologies. I have a really bad habit of seriously underestimating how long it takes me to do things, especially if they involve a computer. A big tip to anyone involved in writing or publishing is to work out how long you think you'll need to do something, double it and then add at least a fortnight! I'm hoping I'm back on track now, but as soon as I finish keying this in, I'm going to recross my fingers. It hasn't helped that I'v...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
February 5, 2017
Wow! The proofs of Discords' Child and Discord's Apprentice have arrived early. They're looking good, although I do say it myself. I've yet to go through them with my nit-picking comb, but all being well, they should be on sale from Amazon and Create Space by Easter, so you'll have something to read while you're scoffing your Easter eggs. Once I know everything's okay and I have a firm date, the details will be on here straight away. I want to offer some introductory deals, so watch this spac...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
January 30, 2017
I've finally done it–I've clicked on 'order proof' and am now nervously awaiting the arrival of print copies of
Discord's Child and
Discord's Apprentice.
The process so far has been relatively painless. I used my files for the Kindle copies and pasted them onto Create Space's template. With print there are extra things to think about concerning the layout, fonts and sizes etc., but at least the manuscript should be free of typos and grammatical errors (I hope!). I also adapted the digita...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
January 23, 2017
Reading classic novels to improve your writing might be useful, but it does have pitfalls. The bestsellers of yesteryear might have stood the test of time, but that doesn't mean they aren't dated.
In the mid-19th century, the narrator often broke off from telling the story for a long passage of moralising or description, which probably wouldn't go down well in a contemporary work. They mention public figures who were once famous, and occupations or household items that were commonplace bu...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
January 16, 2017
It's been a couple of weeks since I posted a blog, but I haven't been slacking. In fact, the past fortnight's been rather productive, if a little tedious in places.
After the end of the year hiatus, there have been quite a few mid-month deadlines and submission periods to prepare for across drama, short story and poetry competitions, Then there are the themed hashtag Twitter accounts I've discovered including #MuseMon, #2bitTues, #1lineWed, #Thurds, #SciFiFri, #SchemingSaturday and #6WordS...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
