Stephen Jaques
An Accidental Author
Debut Novel - nov 24
Bonkas
Patrick Brady has lost everything. His wife Teresa. His business. His sense of purpose.
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Now, he finds himself at Treetops, a supported housing facility for vulnerable adults, trying to rebuild what remains of his shattered life. Among the damaged souls, Patrick appears to be just another broken man seeking redemption. But beneath Treetops' mundane routines, something darker stirs. And Patrick's carefully constructed narrative starts to crack, revealing glimpses of a truth far more disturbing than grief.
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Who can you trust when the storyteller is unreliable?
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A debut novel that strips away comfortable assumptions about victimhood, sanity, and the faces evil wears.
New Novel Release - Jan 26
The Barn Door Stayed Closed
The barn door was always meant to be open.
Some doors, once closed, stay that way.
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We're familiar with where broken children come from in literature: concrete estates, cramped tower blocks, city streets. County lines and gang loyalty. Turf wars and violence. The familiar landscapes where damaged children are made, right?
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But trauma doesn't respect postcodes.​
​​Twelve-year-old Alex lives in different geography entirely. Stone farmhouse walls. Open fields. His status comes from his grandfather's patient teaching—lambing sheds before dawn, reading frost patterns, measuring wheat growth. Life cycles instead of violence cycles. Beauty instead of brutality. Safe walls. Open spaces. Generations of stability.
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Except trauma doesn't respect postcodes.​.... And when it finds Alex, it destroys everything.
WELCOME - A BIT About ME...
My working life has been varied. Carpentry and joinery have been the backbone of my income - building things, fixing things, working with my hands.
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In 2022, my wife Tracey passed away after a battle with cancer. I was fifty-three years old and had never considered writing anything beyond work reports. But grief does strange things.​ & completing my first novel stirred something unexpected. I wanted to know if I could do it again.
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​​​In 2025, I took a summer away in Canada and the USA to focus on completing my second novel. “The Barn Door Stayed Closed” - a very different book from my first.​
​Living in Newport, South Wales, I’m still learning this craft. I hope I’m growing as an author with each attempt, and I’m committed to continuing to improve and bring more work to my portfolio.
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Two novels written. More stories to tell.