March 16, 2015
Could you sum up who your are in 50 to 100 words? The chances are, if you have something published you will be asked to. Many magazines like to include a short paragraph about the writer after their work or on a contributors' page. Having a few basic sentences ready can save a lot of time.
You need to show a little of your experience or what makes your writing different. There's no room for a CV. The information you include will probably be similar to what you would put in a cover letter, but even more condensed. Not having previous publications isn't a drawback. You could mention relevant training or work. For example, if your story is set in a department store, readers will be interested if you were inspired to write it because you used to work in one. If you have been published before, you could drop the names of a couple of the most prestigious publications and/or the widest ranging. Personalise you 'bio' by including a hint about how you live. Finally, if you have a website, book or something else to promote, such as the fact you give talks, make sure you mention it.
Once you have the basics, tailor the bio to the particular publication. If it's a crime fiction magazine, your publishing record in women's magazines might not be as impressive as having studied law. Check the bios in earlier issues, if possible, to give you some ideas.
I'd advise against being too zany, because you can guarantee that anything you put that's off the wall is the part that will appear out of context on any internet search. I speak from experience. One publication my work appeared in asked for a bio that included two false facts and one true one, now I keep seeing my name connected with weather vanes. I won't go into details, I wouldn't want to make things worse.
Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
March 8, 2015
I was recently sent a copy of
Acumen, and I've been dipping into it whenever I've had a free moment this week. It's a literary journal containing mostly poetry and fairly scholarly interviews and reviews. The poetic forms and the content match, following a loose, freer style that fits modern themes. Some of the poems are in a light vein and some cover eternal subjects, but in the issue I've seen there were no traditional forms or classical subjects. Nonetheless, the poems were written with di...
Continue reading...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
March 3, 2015
There are at least two 'A's in my alphabet. The first is Alfie Dog Fiction, which has had a thorough makeover. The site has hundreds of short stories available for download, mostly priced 39p. It's now a lot clearer and easier to use, both for readers and authors.
You can find stories either by category or by author name, and I'm glad to report that mine is now listed under 'K' again. (For a while it had gone off to sulk with a few other 'K's and 'J's at the end). The new version of 'Your...
Continue reading...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
February 22, 2015
Sometimes subjects to blog about are obvious, for instance, when there's news of a publication or event. At other times, it isn't as easy. The trouble isn't that I can't think of anything, but that there are so many subjects, it's hard to pick one. Today, I have come up with a solution. Starting next week, I shall choose a subject to blog about according to the alphabet. I've already made a list, and I have enough ideas to keep me going for at least the next five years! They are the usual mix...
Continue reading...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
February 15, 2015
Life's full of difficult decisions. Lately, I've had lots of different writing-related tasks to do, and I've found it hard to know what to tackle first. Time to make a list! I have a story waiting to be written, a feature half-researched, work to rewrite, a story to key-in, potential markets to check and marketing to do. Thankfully, nothing has a deadline, but that leaves no clear favourite to start with, so I've put together a series of questions that might help me to avoid wasting time dith...
Continue reading...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
February 8, 2015
This week I was invited to an adult education class. The tutor had to hang around at the main entrance to let all the students in, and as they arrived at the classroom in dribs and drabs I was struck by a certain lack of hospitality. I would happily have introduced myself and tried to make small-talk to break the ice, but everyone was too busy texting, playing games or looking something up on their mobiles. Their impoliteness was not confined to ignoring me, but ignoring each other as well. T...
Continue reading...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
February 1, 2015
A recent BBC documentary about the artist Hans Holbein, who painted so many of Henry VIII's court, was fascinating, and not only for the insights his work provided into the sitters' personalities. He had written Anne Boleyn's name as 'Anne Bollein'. Spellings in Tudor times were not as standardized as they are now, and Holbein probably wrote the name as he heard it pronounced. As the artist's surname also ends in 'ein' this could mean that it was pronounced the same way. So Anne Boleyn was ei...
Continue reading...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Linguistics
January 25, 2015
Today is Burns Night, the annual celebration of Scotland's national poet. He wrote in his own dialect, and while many people (including, I suspect, some Scots) might struggle with it, every poet owes him a debt. Robert Burns broke the chains that bound poetry to classical forms and helped us all to escape the 'thees' and 'thous' and archaic language.
Now, poets can write sonnets or haiku, odes or free verse. They can write about eating the plums someone had saved in the fridge ('This is J...
Continue reading...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
January 18, 2015
I've been writing a short story, which seemed simple enough before I started. I'd got the beginning, middle and end, and I'd even jotted down parts of a couple of scenes. Yet as I scribbled away, it began to wriggle around. Would the story be better set in the past or the present day? Should I aim it at youngsters or adults? After a couple of false starts and much crossing out, I finally reached the end only to discover that the story isn't about what I thought it was at the outset at all. Ne...
Continue reading...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
January 13, 2015
I've been plagued with clichés buzzing around my head while I've been trying to write, but I'm holding out for my own fresh metaphors, similes and turns of phrase. Clichés might be accurate, but everyone has heard them so often that they have become meaningless. Maybe a heroine does 'go weak at the knees', but readers will no doubt forget her unless she does it in an original way. Notice that I haven't provided an alternative myself. Devising good ones isn't easy, but it's well worth making...
Continue reading...
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
