Any regular readers here will know how I feel about Xmas and pretty much any other religious festival. Or any religion for that matter. But I do try to enter into the spirit of a small part of Xmas, that being the whole hanging out with family and sharing gifts thing. Of course, that’s...
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Books By Alan
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.”
Monthly Archives: November 2010
Give books generously this Xmas
How many of the Top 100 have you read?
There’s this meme going around Facebook at the moment, so I thought I’d drag it out of the social network and onto my blog. It’s pretty flawed, as these things always are, but interesting nonetheless. (Although I am confused by 14 and 98 – bit of a cock up there). Anyway, it goes like...
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Don’t say Face!
In a quick bit of nonsense news from teh intertubes, my mate Graham pointed out to me that Facebook are trying to trademark the word “Face”. According to the news article: The Facebook empire has just had a trademark application accepted for any use of the word “Face” in any product or service that...
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Independent Inkwell: Australian Small Publishing, a half hour documentary
Independent Inkwell: Australian Small Publishing is a half hour documentary delving into the motivations and stories of small and independent publishers. It’s a fascinating bit of television, not least because I’m in it. Wearing my small press publisher hat rather than my writer hat I was asked to participate on behalf of Blade Red...
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A few funny words
I’m often entertained by notices in public places, from street signs to restaurant menus and everything in between. Sometimes it’s a case of English as a second language creating the funnies. Other times it’s people trying too hard to say the right thing. After Freecon this Saturday a bunch of us went out for...
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Cheap books or surviving business?
I recently posted about how Aussies can get great prices on books right now because the Aussie dollar and the US dollar are at around 1:1 for the first time. Chuck McKenzie, recently wrote about how cheap online stores are a real threat to bookshops. He cited my post in his own. Chuck’s a...
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Freecon this weekend in Sydney
I’ve been remiss in mentioning this, so apologies for the incredibly short notice. Freecon is on in Sydney this weekend and it’d be great to see people there. It’s a science fiction and fantasy convention and, as the name suggests, it’s free. It’s also a very small and intimate affair, so it makes for...
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Site upgrade
Apologies if you spot any weirdness on this site over the next few days. We’re upgrading from the Basic theme to the Premium theme, which gives us a lot more options. The front end (this bit you’re looking at) shouldn’t change much at all, you may not even notice. But if we fuck something...
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Christmas shopping solved by SpecFaction NSW
Thanks to the amazing generosity of many people within our local speculative fiction community – SpecFaction NSW are hosting a fundraising Ebay auction. You can bid on an original print from Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan or a bundle of autographed fantasy, science fiction or horror novels from a huge list of Aussie authors including: Sara...
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Phantoms of Suburbia – an exhibition
Today I’m using my blog for some nepotism. And there’s nothing wrong with that. My wife, Halinka Orszulok, is an artist and has a show coming up, so I wanted to talk a bit about it. Her artwork is not unlike my writing – dark and suggestive, subverting commonly held perceptions. She’s been kind...
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Skyline – movie review
Skyline is an alien invasion movie that my friend described as War Of The Worlds meets Cloverfield. That’s a pretty solid description of the film. It opens with these strange lights descending from the clouds in the middle of the night. The lights settle on the ground and people are drawn to the beauty...
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You have to dream big
I’m a big believer in reaching for the stars. If you only ever have mediocre dreams, you’ll probably only ever have medicore results. I firmly believe in working your arse off and holding onto those dreams of great success in whatever it is you want to do. If you don’t have faith in your...
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My mind to your mind…
I’m honoured to say that I was invited to be part of an S F Signal Mind Meld. You’ll know if you read here regularly that I’m a fan of the S F Signal blog. They regularly do these Mind Meld things where they ask a question of a broad range of people in...
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Help get The Price by Neil Gaiman made into a film
The internet is a truly wonderful thing sometimes. There’s this website called Kickstarter where people can post up project ideas to see if they can get backing. Neil Gaiman tweeted about this the other day, so I checked it out. A guy called Christopher Salmon is looking for backers to make an animated film...
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Dollar parity book bonanza
This post is more for the Australian readers than the international ones. Sorry international people, no offence. But read on, it might interest you anyway. You see, for the first time the Aussie dollar has hit parity with the US dollar. In fact, at the time of writing, the exchange rate is AU$1.00 =...
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The Word
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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