Tag: Book

Fated to Meet You, by Despoina Kemeridou: #BookReview.

On By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Reading, ReviewLeave a comment

49 pages Time Travel Romance This short book has a gentle, naïve charm. It is, essentially, a fairy tale. But a fairy tale for adults. As a reader, I enjoyed the story. As a writer, I found some elements in need of editing, but that’s so often the case these days that it hardly merits …

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Dust & Lightning, by Rebecca Crunden: #BookReview.

On By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Reading, Review6 Comments

124 pages Dystopian Science Fiction This science fiction novella is listed under the ‘dystopian’ tag. However, it contains the currently essential ingredient, hope, so leaves the reader in an uplifted mood after a journey through some pretty dire times. It’s a well-written piece, with very few editing needs. Most importantly (to me, anyway) it’s easy …

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A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin: #BookReview.

On By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Literature, Reading, Review13 Comments

304 pages Children’s/Science Fiction and Fantasy It may seem like an odd time of life to be reading children’s literature. In my defence, I bought this book ‘blind’ as one of a number I ordered after being gifted a book token for my 70th birthday. I’d heard of Ursula Le Guin, had her books recommended, …

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A Place Called Schugara, by Joe English: #BookReview.

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Every serious work of fiction should carry at least one underlying message. Some manage this with such subtlety it barely makes a conscious impression, others let it blare out loudly, covering their story with a condescending layer of preaching. Most lie somewhere in between; a reasonable balance of theme and story. In this extraordinary tale …

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Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.

On By stuartakenIn Author, Creative Writer, Fiction, Mars, ProgressLeave a comment

As there's still nothing new to report re the WIP, and therefore no true progress on the book, I thought I’d continue along the lines of last week’s post. This time, I’m looking at the content; in particular, the inclusion of sex and nudity in my work. So, if you’re at all prudish, narrowminded, easily …

Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.

Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.

On By stuartakenIn Creative Writer, Fiction, Mars, ProgressLeave a comment

More movement! The first content edit is now complete up to Chapter 25, meaning I’ve 49,560 words, an increase of 17,481 since the last report. I hope to have even greater progress to report next week, now I’ve had an opportunity to properly set-up my new PC, and dealt with the basic stuff for the …

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To Enter the Path, by Stephanie Flores: #BookReview.

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Within this book is a great story trying to get out. The main protagonist, a young woman overtaken by a demonic magic spirit, is very well imagined and drawn. Her companions are equally well created. The problem is that the story is somewhat swamped by the repetitive nature of the challenges and solutions. The book …

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Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making

On By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Fiction, Mars, ProgressLeave a comment

This is a robot reporting (metallic synthetic voice mode). The post was scheduled before I started my annual break from all things digital: the only way to protect sanity in a world driven round the bend by constant calls on our attention. So, no movement in the files for the work in progress, only within …

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Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.

On By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Mars, Progress2 Comments

I’m currently reading each chapter and then feeding them through grammar checker, Prowritingaid.com. This removes unintended repetitions, weak verbs, and many of other small errors the eye misses when reading from the screen. It’s a fairly intense process. So far, I'm at page 165 of 412 in a Word doc that's double spaced. After that …

Continue reading Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.

Progress on the WIP: #SciFi in the Making.

On By stuartakenIn Author, Book, Creative Writer, Fiction, Mars, ProgressLeave a comment

A short progress report. The week has gone well, with some new research done (there’s a lot happening regarding Mars at the moment!). I’ve added 13,345 words to last week’s start, making the total word count 18,145 to date. The story continues to flow and the characters are developing. I wake up at night sometimes …

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