The Reviews Continue to Come In!

Had another couple of reviews of ‘An Excess Of…’ so far this month. As writers and readers will know, reviews are never easy to get, unless you’re willing to spend a fortune on them, but paid for reviews have never struck me as a genuine way to discover the true value of a book.I’ve copied …

Continue reading The Reviews Continue to Come In!

Lessons from our Peers.

Short Stories in Print As writers, we often rely on our peers for advice, comment, even insight relating to our output. I suspect there are few other occupations as mutually supportive as the writing community. I recently submitted a short story, written some years earlier, to a small print magazine, Scribble, that publishes quarterly. The …

Continue reading Lessons from our Peers.

The Imposition of Restrictions

Published on Medium here.

10,000 Comments on My Blog!

Is 10,000 comments some sort of milestone? I don’t know. But it seemed worth celebrating, so I thought I’d put up a photo of my published books in a stack. The picture in the background is of a modern sculpture depicting a man reading. I came across it in a park in Lyme Regis, Dorset.Do …

Continue reading 10,000 Comments on My Blog!

Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen: #BookReview.

Fiction Classics/Literary Fiction288 PagesJane Austen’s first published novel ‘Sense and Sensibility’ manages to capture all her humour and dissatisfaction with the age in which she lived. I felt the language was a little more convoluted and, occasionally, more obtuse than in the better known ‘Pride and Prejudice’, making it sometimes hard work to ascertain her …

Continue reading Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen: #BookReview.

And Another 5-Star Review of ‘An Excess Of…’

5 Star review from Mojgan Azar December 21, 2021 An Excess of … Stuart Aken’s “An Excess of” is a story about human nature and the conflicts we hold within each of us. The journey takes us from the deck of a sinking ship to the sands of a strange shore and deep into the …

Continue reading And Another 5-Star Review of ‘An Excess Of…’

Another Great #Review for An Excess Of… 

Here’s another lovely review for my latest novel, posted to Goodreads. Aithal Aithal's review Jan 08, 2022 really liked it This book is not just a story but a very thought-provoking piece of work. Several times, I found myself nodding in agreement. The subject matter is interwoven as the story progresses. Stuart Aken masterfully makes …

Continue reading Another Great #Review for An Excess Of… 

Hey! Enjoy the Next Few Days!

Footvote, by Peter F. Hamilton: #BookReview.

This sci-fi short takes a wormhole as its escape route from the reality of the UK of the early 21st century. A time of confused politics and general unrest, it may well have been the first real step on the road we now follow, but that’s for a different written piece. The story is written …

Continue reading Footvote, by Peter F. Hamilton: #BookReview.

The Lost Villages of England, by Maurice Beresford: #BookReview.

This is history, obviously. I generally enjoy reading about the past, learning about life long before I was born. Unfortunately, this book, a scholarly work, was just a little too dry for my tastes. For those seeking the statistics, fine details that are available, and the names of those involved in the various landgrabs that …

Continue reading The Lost Villages of England, by Maurice Beresford: #BookReview.

Short Stories; Do You Read Them?

I suppose we should first decide what constitutes a short story. Roughly, because these things tend to be a matter of opinion rather than fact, a short story is a work of fiction with a word count somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000. So, do you read them? It’s clear lots of readers do. I belong …

Continue reading Short Stories; Do You Read Them?

Looking For an Absorbing #Read?

You want adventure, peril, romance, conflict, survival, love, threat, humour, hate, teamwork, isolation and hope of rescue? You’ll find all that, and more, in ‘An Excess Of…’ where three discordant men and three very different women find themselves stranded on a desert island after their ship sinks. Will they survive? Will they ever return to …

Continue reading Looking For an Absorbing #Read?

Parky, by Michael Parkinson: #BookReview.

400 pagesTelevision/Performer Biographies Subtitled ‘My Autobiography’, this illustrated account of the life of the TV journalist, Radio and TV presenter, and occasional Quizmaster, reads as though the man is speaking to you. A Yorkshireman (my own home county) through and through, Parky relates his life through events, family, the multitude of personalities he’s met and …

Continue reading Parky, by Michael Parkinson: #BookReview.

An Excess Of…Competition?

Picture via Pixabay Humanity is sometimes credited with evolving through competition. While this may be true of the need for early humans to compete with other wild animals for food and shelter, the need to compete with other humans was less an issue in those early times as there were far fewer of us around. …

Continue reading An Excess Of…Competition?

An Excess Of…Stuff? 

Black Friday: what is this event? Is it really anything more than an encouragement to buy more stuff we don’t need? Is everyone who's so eager to ‘save’ money even aware of the recent COP26 discussions where world leaders finally began to understand the dangers facing humanity? So, what has consumerism to do with the …

Continue reading An Excess Of…Stuff?