Books By Alan

Click on book covers for reviews and previews.

RealmShift

"an inventive and action-packed story"

"a gripping, thought-provoking tale"

"a novel I am loath to put down. A most surprising read. Quite a ride"

"fast-paced and engrossing"

"RealmShift is phenomenal. If it’s not already on your bookshelf it should be."

MageSign

"a fast-paced ride through a visceral reality"

"a fast paced supernatural adventure that will leave readers rethinking how they view the Cosmos"

"a gritty tale of blood rituals, mystery, and mysticism… grabs hold of the reader and doesn’t let go"

"fantastic qualities … horrific at times... I highly recommend it"

"Alan Baxter takes the reader right to the edge and then pushes us over. And I thank him for it."

Ghost Of The Black

"Excellent pacing"

"I’ve found myself not wanting to stop reading"

"Everything about it is bang on"

"very, very readable."

Wise Words

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot." - Morpheus, The Sandman - Dream Country (Neil Gaiman)

"A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensly right words in a book or a newspaper the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt." - Mark Twain

"At the beginning there was the Word - at the end just the Cliche." - Stanislaw J Lec

The Stoakes-Whibley Natural Index of Supernatural Collective Nouns

November 1, 2009

By alan

I have to thank Michael over at aNadder for this one. I’m a big fan of collective nouns. There are the old favourites like a murder of crows or a parliament of owls. But what about collective nouns for supernatural creatures? We’ve all heard of a host of angels. Well, thanks to Michael pointing this out to me over at Wondermark, here’s a full list of all the collective nouns for supernatural critters you could want. I have no idea how accurate or made up this is, but I like it nonetheless. There are some absolute blinders listed here:

11 Responses to The Stoakes-Whibley Natural Index of Supernatural Collective Nouns

BT on November 1, 2009 at 8:06 pm

Very cool – but I’m not supposed to be reading ultra cool things like this on the net – I have other things to do…………
alan on November 1, 2009 at 8:09 pm

Yes. Yes you do!
Ellie on November 1, 2009 at 9:51 pm

this is fantastic. I enjoyed it immensely. thanks for sharing. I shall forever know how to describe a gossip of mermaids and bureau of mole men.
Alan on November 1, 2009 at 10:10 pm

Glad to be of service.
Michael on November 2, 2009 at 2:29 am

The best bit is the “All Entries Verified!” at the bottom right, just makes the whole list doesn’t it?
Drew Neil on November 2, 2009 at 10:10 am

I’m running a little experiment encouraging people to submit novel collective nouns to All Sorts. It works by searching Twitter for the #collectivenouns hashtag. If you see one you like, you can retweet it, and it counts as a vote. That way the best suggestions bubble up to the top.
Dave on November 2, 2009 at 8:27 pm

Collective nouns? I thought this was your Christmas wish list (at least the harem of sexbots part).
alan on November 2, 2009 at 8:31 pm

Dear Santa

For Christmas, please send me:

A harem of sexbots
An opulence of succubi
A delectation of nymphs
A cavalry of valkyries
A gossip of mermaids
And maybe a large tub of Viagra

Thanks!
alan on November 3, 2009 at 12:27 am

Drew, sorry – lost your comment in spam. Good luck with it!
Ki on November 12, 2009 at 5:52 pm

Interesting AND useful. I’m currently writing a novel featuring nephilim, and I had no idea they were collectively known as a tromp!
alan on November 12, 2009 at 6:00 pm

Excellent!