Stuart Aken's Blog, page 210

Running for ME/CFS no. 51

Part of my track through the forest.

It’s getting close to the event. In fact, 2 weeks today I’ll be pounding the tarmac for 13.1 miles.

Progress this week?

Wednesday I was due to run for 4 minutes followed by 1 minute of walking, repeated 7 times. That’s 35 minutes of exercise. I chose to do this along my 3.3 mile loop in the forest. It rained almost the entire time, but that’s okay: I need to experience different running conditions and I completed the run in the required time.

Friday I was...

Cut Out Fat; Make Your Writing Lean: #Tip 01.

For inspiration.

Life’s finally a little more settled, so I can return to posting about the mechanics of writing, as I used to on my old blog. I’ve found many writers welcome the sharing of ideas that might improve our craft.

So, let’s chop the fat from our writing. Make it lean and trim. Readers will thank us.

In this series, I’ll look at some common redundancies.

But, reading this and nodding wisely in agreement won’t do. We need to stay alert to those extraneous words that sneak into text,...

#Tips for Sharing Posts Online

Time and again, I read a post on a writer’s site (or some other interesting blog) and want to share the information with my own readers and/or friends. And, time and again, I discover the blogger hasn’t provided any sharing facilities. That makes it awkward to share, so I often don’t bother. And, yet, it is so simple to provide share buttons on your site. Have a look at the foot of this post to see what I mean. Those buttons are dead simple to use and allow readers to share your post across...

Running for ME/CFS no. 50 and #Free Books

Raising money for Action for M.E.

Charity Registration No. 1036419

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) is a disabling and chronic illness, devastating the lives of 250,000 people in the UK. Action for M.E. provides support and information for those touched by M.E., and campaigns for better services and invests in research to ultimately find a cure.

I’m taking part in the Great North Run, a half marathon that takes place on 13 September. Like most of the 57,000 participants, I’ve been training f...

People Who Don’t Read

stuartaken:

A sensible and thought-provoking piece.

Originally posted on Quoth The Wordsmith:

As much as I love to read, I also know that there are people who do not. There is a bit of nasty snobbery that attaches itself to some avid readers that makes them believe that people who do not enjoy books are sub-par. That anyone who doesn’t read the classics is perhaps uneducated or at a lower intellectual level than them.

You see content about why this person would never date someone who doesn’t r...

Science Fiction in Print

A short announcement.

The dystopian science fiction novella, The Methuselah Strain, will soon be available in print form. Copies will all be signed. This is a limited print run, so you’ll need to get your order in quickly. The book isn’t launched yet, but you can pre-order by clicking on this link.

More on this later.

Filed under: Author, Book, Fiction Tagged: Author, Book, Sci-Fi

Running for ME/CFS no. 49

One of the wider parts of my forest run.

Three weeks tomorrow I’ll be running the Great North Run. A half marathon that’s been going for a long time now. I’ll be one of 57,000 participants and, like most of them, I’ve been training now for a few months.

This week’s programme involved a reduction in distance and time spent running. I suspect this is due to the extra effort required for the eight and half miles I ran last week. Muscles and joints need time to recover, after all. So, Wednesday I...

Wellbeing for Writers, by Jennifer Barraclough, Reviewed.

This is a handy little ebook that sets out to suggest strategies for writers that will help them get the most from their time and effort. I’ve been around for a long time, and been writing for many of those years, so there isn’t actually a great deal here that’s new to me. However, it’s useful to have information I’ve previously gleaned from magazine articles and blog posts combined into a small book.

It’s an easy read; full of good advice that has been proven to work. This isn’t a technical...

Running for ME/CFS no. 48

Graph showing the gradients on the run, provided by the sponsors, Morrisons.

A brief update for those readers who expect one of these posts on a Monday.

First, let me direct you to the two previous posts for more details. You’ll find post 46 here and post 47 here.

Suffice it to say that training last week went according to plan and I’m well on track for the full run, which takes place in under 4 weeks. In the information sent for the race was a graphical representation of the gradients for th...

Monster of the Apocalypse, by C. Henry Martens, Reviewed.

This dystopian science fiction novel grips from the start. Set in the not-too-distant future, it portrays a world devastated by plague. The few inhabitants left alive display all the emotions, characteristics and personality types that exist in the real world, so it’s easy to empathise with the players here.

The story is different from many in the genre and certainly not at all formulaic. It’s a character–driven narrative and all the events are credible, even though there’s some pretty unple...