A Land Despoiled, a short story for you. This one would be labelled 'Sci-Fi' or possibly 'Dystopian fiction', but I see it as the fruit of my imagination on passing through an area entirely dominated by the acid yellow flowers of oil seed rape. A Land Despoiled No one had been this far south for …
Continue reading A Land Despoiled; a Short Story
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 …
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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 …
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Sure, we all know sometimes tech needs to be updated to flow in synchronicity with other tech, and that’s an accepted necessary evil. But why, oh why, these constant changes in style, appearance, and especially, connections to bloody AI? We are the customers, the consumers of your products. We BUY them. Don’t we deserve a …
Continue reading Technology: Why, Oh Why Those Constant Updates?
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 …
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.
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?
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.
My books feature on another author's website that examines the emotional aspect of writing fiction. You'll find this very interesting post here.
This 500-page encyclopaedic tome is one of a set of art books I was given by a kind and generous stranger, a woman neighbour from a nearby village. I’m conducting research for a novel, and the visual arts feature significantly in the story. Whilst I have some knowledge of the art world, working as a …
Continue reading What Great Paintings Say, by Rose-Marie & Rainer Hagen: #BookReview.
Jacques Louis David “Love of Paris and Helen”, from the Louvre Museum in Paris. 22nd June 2025 When I last reported on progress, in May, the book in its developing form, stood as follows: 270 pages, a word count of 116,291, and 40 chapters. As I pen this update after my writing has been much …
Continue reading Further Progress on the #WIP.
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Stuart Aken 