A pool in a Greek Hotel. Here's the next short story in my intention to give you one each week for the whole of 2026. I have a couple of anthologies of short stories, too, for those who love such collections. The one that would be most relevant for those who enjoy the one below …
Continue reading A Perfect Solution: A Short Story
Here's this week's free to read short story for your entertainment. This one was entered for a contest and published in the resultant anthology, 'To Hull And Back 2016'. An Eztraordinary Ezperience ‘If you don’t help me, I’ll make you sorry.’ There it was again. Every time he switched on the computer, the same threat …
Continue reading An Eztraordinary Ezperience: A Short Story
I last wrote about the WIP on the 8th of August. How is it possible I’ve allowed all those days to pass without a single catch-up piece?At that time, the MS stood at 122,237 words over 282 pages. As I write this, it stands at 120,705 words over 280 pages, having been through a number …
Continue reading Is There Progress In The Work In Progress?
What is ‘Outline’? Is it a novel, a collection of essays, a piece of philosophy, an account of the physical, mental and emotional wanderings of the gifted author? It is all these things, and more.Whilst I discovered it was possible to put the book down, it was not feasible to do so without finishing that …
Continue reading Outline, by Rachel Cusk: #BookReview
I'm going to attempt to place a short story here every week. Some will have been published, others, like this one, will never have been seen. I'm doing this to give readers an idea of the scope of my writing and as a way to stimulate my writing discipline. I intend to illustrate each with …
Continue reading Side By Side – A Short Story
For a few years now, my wife and I have accepted a challenge set by Country Walking Magazine to walk 1,000 miles in a year. The weekly milage required to achieve this is actually only 19.23, which is hardly a marathon. We both love walking, getting into the countryside and enjoying the freedom and serenity …
Continue reading Walk 1,000 Miles In A Year
Subtitled ‘A new author’s guide to publishing and marketing for success’ this book was recommended to me by another writer, who thought it might be of use to me. It is! First, I’m a published writer, both self-published and published with a small indie publisher, so, on the face of it, this book could seem …
Complex, moving, full of insight, and harrowing in places, this novel haunts the reader with its rich, expressive prose and its comprehensive depiction of its characters. Set mostly in Ireland and Africa, it uses the emergence of Eire as a republic and the difficulties that separation from mainland Britain imposes on that society during the …
Continue reading The Temporary Gentleman, by Sebastian Barry: #BookReview.
It’s that time of the year again. Time to bring a spot of horror to the coming night of terrors, eh? 'Julie, dressed just for summer fun, is coerced by controlling fiancé Kasim to visit her ancient Aunt Agatha at her isolated old manor house. Local rumours inform him the Folly in the grounds holds …
Continue reading Halloween: Time For A Tale Of Terror!
This slim volume of the, at the time, relatively revolutionary poetry of the Liverpudlian poet, Roger McGough, I discovered on the bookshelves at my brother’s home when visiting recently. This edition was published by Jonothan Cape in 1972, though the title poem was first published in 1969. I picked it up to read while waiting …
Continue reading Watchwords, by Roger McGough: #BookReview.
Subtitled ‘The Dry Crumbs Of An Adventure’, this is a humorous tale of unlikely events taking the reader from darkest London to even darker Egypt via routes made more convoluted than expected by the hapless participants.Two ‘gentlemen’, I use the term loosely for these men, earn their comfortable if confined living by producing an archaeological …
Continue reading The Curious Cliché of The Black Scarab, by Mark Millicent: #BookReview.
Subtitled 'Forget General Knowledge, here's the right stuff!'In common with the other books in this series, this isn’t a volume to sit down and consume in one go. It’s a pleasurable source of entertainment combined with education that deserves to be savoured so each tasty morsel provides the full flavour and nutrients to the knowledge …
This is my seventh post on the progress of my WIP. I suspect it won’t be the last. But I feel I’ve made real progress.The last post was on 19th July, when I was about to start work on Chapter 24 of 40, and the MS stood at 121,716 words over 280 pages. Today, it …
Continue reading How Goes the WIP?
Reviews for books are often overlooked by readers searching for something to read. So, I thought I'd share some short quotes from reviews of my books over the years. This one is a short book, available in digital form only. It'll appeal to those readers who enjoy some spine-tingling, a bite of horror, a delve …
Continue reading Sharing the Love
Author Stuart Aken with his published work. So, how’s the WIP progressing? I think the best description is ‘not as quickly as I would wish’. But I do have an excuse. A few weeks ago, I was diagnosed with a small hernia. Having been advised the waiting list for the necessary op was currently at …
Continue reading More Progress on the #WIP.
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Stuart Aken 