The advent of the internet has had many effects, not least of which is giving a voice to pretty much everybody. We’re all sitting at keyboards making noise, like a flock of a billion seagulls fighting over one bag of chips. It’s not a bad thing, as far as I’m concerned. The really strong...
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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.”
Feedback
Free fiction and the value of our efforts
Don’t be a dick online
There’s been a lot of debate recently about how people comport themselves online. There are stories of teachers losing their job for complaining about students, other people losing jobs for complaining about said job, or their boss. Lovers discovering spouses and vice versa. Seriously, it’s a minefield out there. But that’s just life. I’m...
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Book trailers – wank or worthwhile?
The title of this post says it all, really. I’ve been keen to have a book trailer for RealmShift for ages but just not got around to it. Recently I decided to make it a priority and started looking into it more seriously. And that made me wonder – would it really help to...
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Keywords and phrases so far this year
It’s been a while since I did one of these posts and they’re fun, so I thought it time for another. Using Google Analytics, I keep track of the various hits to my website here. I can track what are the popular posts, how long people stick around, where they come from and so...
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Write what you want to read
You may remember that Book Lover’s Club on Facebook published a really great review of RealmShift recently and, as part of the subsequent promotion, ran a contest to win a signed copy of the book. They asked people to suggest topics for me to blog about and the one I liked best would win...
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New Age of Publishing – Guest Post 5 – April Hamilton
My new publishing series continues today with a post from April Hamilton called “How Meaningful A Metric Is Your Book’s Amazon Sales Rank?”, which is, obviously, all about the sales rank on Amazon. It makes for some pretty interesting reading. Check the links is April’s bio at the end, as there’s some good stuff...
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Facebook competition winner and other suggestions
You may remember that there’s been a Facebook competition going on for a signed copy of RealmShift, run through the Facebook group, Book Lover’s Club. It started with this great review of RealmShift, then the Club asked people to suggest topics for me to blog about. The topic that I liked best would win...
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A great review for Xmas
Those lovely people over at Book Lover’s Club, a group on Facebook, have reviewed RealmShift. Here’s an excerpt: RealmShift builds pace as the story progresses, rocketing us towards the ultimate showdown, never releasing us from its grip until the climax. Not only is it thought-provoking in its exploration of religious beliefs, but contains magic,...
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Versatile Blogger Award
Lorna Suzuki was kind enough to award me a Versatile Blogger Award today. She said: Alan Baxter – not only is he a martial arts master, he is a master storyteller! He blogs about writing and business, and the business of writing. I wonder if she’s thinking about a different Alan Baxter? This is...
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Spam comment of the week
I get a lot of spam comments here. It’s inevitable, I suppose. Once you’ve been blogging for a while a certain amount of robots and fuckwits are naturally drawn to the comments section where they shit their rubbish all over the place, telling me what a great blog this is or what an interesting...
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Ooh, right in the brand
So yeah, this does nothing for my personal branding. But it’s a very kind gesture nonetheless, and I’ll take it in the spirit it was intended. Maybe it can be beautiful in the way that arterial spray from a swiftly rent throat is beautiful. These things are little more than glorified chain letters, morphed...
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Bitten By Books reviews of RealmShift & MageSign
I love it when my books get reviewed. I really love it when they get positive reviews. It makes me do little happy dances around my study when they land 5 star reviews. Or, in this case, 5 out of 5 headstones. For both of them! Bitten By Books is a site that provides...
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New RealmShift review at Horror Bound
I was very pleased to read a new review of RealmShift over at Horror Bound today. Among other things, the reviewer said stuff like: “You’ll be hooked. And then, you’re in for a fast-paced, white knuckle ride.” “Alan Baxter excels at writing action.” “All in all, Realm Shift is a worthwhile read. At the...
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Damn Wolfman movie ripping off Twilight
Yes, you read that right. One of the mailing groups I’m on was shocked by this recently, so I thought I’d share. A young Twilight fan wrote a letter to the website latinoreview.com. I had no idea there was a Latino Review site, but there you go. This letter writer does nothing for the...
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Some nice recent reviews
I’ve just noticed a couple of new reviews around the place. There’s this one for RealmShift on Smashwords: Review by: Laurens Leurs on Dec. 13, 2009 : 5 Stars An interesting and strangely compelling read. This books is a pretty unusual mix of fantasy, action and horror but much to my surprise this actually...
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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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