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

Rules for writing fiction from various authors

February 21, 2010

By alan

Thanks to Adrian for this one. A couple of articles in the Guardian (UK) about writing fiction. Various authors give their rules for writing well and there’s a lot to be learned from the places several authors cross over in their advice. The article is in two parts:

Part the first.

Part the second.

3 Responses to Rules for writing fiction from various authors

Nyssa on February 22, 2010 at 6:30 pm

Actually, I disagree with insane amounts of those XD I think that rules for art is kinda of pointless – it’s just such an individual thing.
alan on February 22, 2010 at 6:52 pm

Which is kinda what the variation in all these proves!
Michael on February 23, 2010 at 1:28 pm

Lots of useless stuff but a few gems there, here’s my favourite:

Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.