Click on book covers for reviews, previews and purchase options.
RealmShift
A race against time and the Devil
"RealmShift is phenomenal. If it’s not already on your bookshelf it should be."
MageSign
Believe in the blood 
"a gritty tale of blood rituals, mystery, and mysticism… grabs hold of the reader and doesn’t let go"
The Darkest Shade Of Grey
You can tell the story.
"...stunning supernatural noir..."
Ghost Of The Black
"Everything about it is bang on"
Write The Fight Right
“The best way for a writer to learn what’s really involved in brawling, short of going down the pub and starting something.”
Whether you like it or not, whether you think the whole thing is uber-hype or really as good as the hype would have you believe, you can’t ignore the Harry Potter phenomenon. J K Rowling’s success as an author and merchandiser are beyond doubt. Whether you think she’s any good or not, selling three...
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This is completely unrelated to words, but a bit of nepotism never goes astray. My wife, Halinka, the excellent artist whose webpage you can find in the links section on the left, had an exhibition open last night at MOP Projects. It was a great turn-out and her show looked awesome. Of course, I...
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Well, I made a promise to myself and I made it a public promise here on this blog too. I said I wanted to have a finished first draft of the sequel novel to RealmShift by the end of June. Just call me Mr Deadline. I wrapped up the first draft today, two days...
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Some time ago I tried to wrap up just what dark fantasy actually was. Seeing as that is how my writing is most often classified, I wanted to try to answer the question that forever arose: What’s the difference between dark fantasy and horror? You can use the Search box on the right to...
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If any of you fantasy fans enjoy a good fairy tale, do I have a tip for you. By “a good fairy tale” I’m not talking about some Disney bulldust with singing teapots and happy rodents. I mean real, dark, menacing fairy tales, just like proper fairy tales should be. Pan’s Labyrinth has just...
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“If someone commits suicide bombing to protect the honour of the prophet Muhammad, his act is justified.” Yes, that’s right. Adherents to the so-called religion of Peace are at it again. The quote above was from the Pakistani Religious Affairs Minister, Mohammad Ejaz-ul-Haq in response to the Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday honours list...
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There are a few people that have merged comedy and speculative fiction with outstanding results. The Polish writer Stanislaw Lem was one of the earliest sci-fi writers to get funny with it and some of his work is really worth a look. For anyone that has never heard of him before, I advise you...
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Remember that Catholic nutter George Pell threatening MPs with “consequences” if they backed a stem cell bill recently? Here’s the post from June 6th. Well, Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has requested a privileges committee investigation into Pell’s comments in order to determine if his they amount to contempt of Parliament. A very fair request...
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I’m still plugging away at writing the sequel to RealmShift and the first draft is nearly finished. I know I said that before, but it was nearly finished then and it’s still nearly finished now. A hundred thousand words and a hundred and ten thousand words are both nearly finished for a one hundred...
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The Washington Post Style Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter, and supply the definition of the new word. There have been some excellent entries in the past. Here are this year’s winners. See how many of them you can...
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He’s set himself a new record, appearing in the national media and, more importantly, here on The Word twice in the same week. Archbishop George “Don’t Cross Me” Pell It wasn’t enough for him to suggest that all Catholic educators should take the “oath of fidelity and profession of faith” in order to ensure...
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This is something rather ridiculous, and it’s not really word related, but check out the new logo for the London 2012 Olympics. Yep, that’s the official logo. More than that, it’s a trademarked brand. The response has been quite extensive and almost exclusively negative. Some of those negative responses have been deliciously eloquent. Stephen...
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lit·er·a·ture –noun 1. writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays. 2. the entire body of writings of a specific language, period, people, etc.: the literature of England. 3. the writings dealing with...
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The Sydney Writers’ Festival wound up last night and the closing address was delivered by the author Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Do a web search to learn more about this amazing woman. I was very pleased to see in the Sydney Morning Herald today an edited version of that closing address. I’m taking the unusual...
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In a bit of frivolous fun, Scribe’s website runs a flash fiction competition once a month. For those that don’t know, flash fiction is based around the idea of a very limited word count and a given theme. For May 2007, the word count was a maximum of 200 words and the theme was...
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Welcome to the website of author Alan Baxter.
I write dark fantasy, sci fi and horror, ride a motorcycle and love my dog. I also teach Kung Fu, hence the Warrior Scribe tag above. A friend once referred to me that way and I liked it, so it stuck. Learn all about me and my work by clicking About Alan just below the header.
Our world is built on language and storytelling. Without stories, we are nothing.
The Word is a place to learn more about me, my stories and the words of others. Click the links along the top for all kinds of stuff, search the sidebars for loads of other stuff, click on book covers for reviews and previews, enjoy the blog and don't be shy to share your words, in comments or send me an email:
alan [at]alanbaxteronline[dot]com
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