January 4, 2015
Happy New Year! My festive season was quiet, to say the least. Injuring my elbow was more frustrating than painful, and it prevented me doing things like sending Christmas cards (I could write them, but not get them in the envelopes) or keying in Discord's Apprentice, although I did succeed in completing another rewrite. Typing in this blog one-handed is as much work as I've attempted at the computer.
The enforced inactivity gave me a chance to reflect on a number of things. Mine is a relatively small injury, so how much more disruption and pain do those with more complicated and/or long-term conditions have to cope with? How does it affect their lives and thinking? I've had to find other ways to do simple tasks like filling the kettle, and had to rely on others to wash my hair or do the ironing. Many things have required greater effort, and if I lived on my own the difficulties would have multiplied. My husband deserves a huge 'thank you' for keeping our home habitable and for looking after me.
Ultimately, I hope my accident has given me a greater understanding of and admiration for what so many people have to put up with every day of their lives. It might not make me a better person, but at least it might improve my writing.
As to what 2015 might bring–who knows? But it's already got off to a lucky start for me, as one of my tweets was voted Twiction Addict's Tweet of 2014. If that isn't encouragement to keep going, then nothing is.
Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
December 13, 2014
Sorry to everyone who expected a new blog before this. I've had a fall, and although I feel fine, the plaster cast on my arm is slowing me down rather. Normal service wil be resumed when it comes off.
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
November 30, 2014
I don't usually use this blog as a platform to complain about society (apart from errant apostrophes), but the behaviour of the bargain hunters who stormed the shops on 28th November prompts me to break my rule.
What on earth did people think they were doing? Whatever happened to the British tradition of queueing? There was no politeness or consideration, and very little common sense. Wheelchair-bound people were knocked down and trampled over, shoppers were rugby tackled and people had go...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
November 24, 2014
How many times can you rewrite a first chapter? I think I'm heading for a record. The first few pages of a novel are crucial in hooking readers' interest and persuading them to keep going beyond the free sample. It's always going to be hard to get it right, but with a sequel it's even harder. How much of the previous novel's events should I fill in? Do I need to describe the characters again? There's a real danger that I'll end up info dumping–having characters tell each other things they a...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
November 16, 2014
You never can be sure what the consequences of submitting work to a publication or entering a competition might be. It might seem straightforward: your work is either accepted, or it's rejected. However, even when the editors or judges don't select your submission/entry you might still end up a winner.
After my story, 'Salvage', appeared in
Daily SF, Paul Coles of
Beam Me Up Podcast asked if he could broadcast it. Of course, I grabbed the offer, and I'm privileged now to have had dramatis...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
November 2, 2014
Another magazine of speculative fiction has closed its doors only a few issues after it launched. In explaining why, the people behind it complained that there had been little take-up from advertisers and readers, and that people seemed more interested in writing stories than reading them. This may be correct. However, they went on to say that writers and would-be writers should spend $10 a week (around £6) on subscriptions to magazines.
Ideally, writers should always read at least one is...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
October 27, 2014
I've made a dreadful discovery: I've developed an addiction to 'as if'. It happened while rewriting the latest incarnation of Discord's Apprentice. Every other sentence has 'as if' in it, and the ones that don't, have 'seems' or 'like'. It's funny how you can fall in love with certain words or phrases and not notice how often you use them.
I suppose 'as if' is a result of wishing to 'show not tell'. Instead of writing: 'He gestured as if grabbing something out of the air...' I could put: ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
October 19, 2014
Woohoo! At last I've started the next stage of the rewrites of Discord's Apprentice. This novel's turning into a real marathon. I thought it would take six months at most, but fate has a way of making your plans look silly. Setting myself unrealistic goals doesn't help. I inevitably think I can get more done than I can. The result is, I miss the targets I've set myself and if I'm not careful, I feel a failure. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Before I go further, I'd like to say that I ...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
October 6, 2014
Sometimes life is strange. I've had the privilege of being interviewed several times lately. They've all been internet interviews. Okay, so the Alfie Dog ones were questionnaires and by no means exclusive to me, but it's the same principle. The questions were emailed to me, so I had time to consider my replies. Not only did I have a chance to try to come up with interesting answers, but I had the opportunity to review what I put. Hopefully, I haven't said anything that might come back to haun...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Competitions
September 14, 2014
This has been one of those weeks when it's been time to catch up with a few bits and bobs.
I was given the opportunity to have a poem ('Bare the Body and Hide the Soul') on
Songs of Eretz Review, which required a short bio and 'poet's notes'. I'd no sooner sent them off than Steve Gordon put them online for the Poem of the Day on 9th September.
There were proofs to go through for my feature in
Thresholds about Samuel Beckett's story, 'Ping'. That should be online tomorrow (Monday 15th S...
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Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Coming Soon
