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.”
I like words. That much is blatantly obvious to anyone who knows me and most who don’t. Language, words and stories are the foundation of everything we’ve become as a cultural animal. Language and words evolve too. You might hate it when people say arks instead of ask, as in, “Can I arks you...
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I’m still pretty tied up in the Kung Fu seminar, but it’s nearly at an end. My wife will be very glad when I get home and start pulling my weight again. In the meantime, I had to mention this bit of news. Some time ago I sold a reprint of my monster short...
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I apologise if things are a bit quiet around here for a couple of weeks. As most of you probably know, my “day job” is teaching people to kick butt – I’m a Warrior Scribe. Martial arts practice and instruction, just like writing, requires constant practice and improvement, and the taking of every opportunity...
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The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is one of my favourite literary events. It’s a brilliant idea. It stems from the awful writing of Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. You probably think you’ve never heard of him. But I can almost guarantee you have. Here, see if this is familiar: “It was a dark and stormy night;” Yep....
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The Pink Floyd Effect – The process of a name becoming perfect for its subject through familiarity with that subject and/or its actions. Names. Very powerful things. Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with demonology or the occult will tell you what a powerful thing a name can be. If you know something’s true...
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Cities across Australia and the world are meeting points today for thousands of people who plan to take part in a SlutWalk. There have been many walks already and many more are planned. The idea was born when one Canadian policeman said women needed to take responsibility in the prevention of sexual assaults by...
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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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There’s this thing Google have put together which is really addictive. It’s called Ngrams. Essentially, when you enter phrases into the Google Books Ngram Viewer, it displays a graph showing how those phrases have occurred in a corpus of books. You can set various parametres of time, which types/language of books are searched and...
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My brother-in-law sent me this one from the New York Times (thanks Ade!) and it blew me away. I’m guessing that people already know about the controversial project by Google to digitise every book in the world. If you don’t, it’s easy to find out a bit about it. Just Google it. *sigh* Now,...
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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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I love xkcd.com for so many reasons, not least of which is the effort and research that goes into some of the comics. Coupled with an awesome concept, we get absolute gems like this:
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I was reading the paper over the weekend and this story caught my eye. The story is basically about a plan to start coal seam gas drilling and there’s controversy because it’s going to be near the Warragamba dam, which holds a lot of Sydney’s drinking water. The controversy comes from the fact that...
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I’m a stickler for getting things right. We all make mistakes, we’re only human, but some things are not mistakes. They’re ignorance. One of the most pervasive forms of ignorance, and one that really bothers me as a writer, is the incorrect use of language. The other day I was having a conversation with...
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Danger or poetry? This is absolute gold. Cat Sparks emailed me this from the LikeItHateIt website. It’s a Portuguese menu with English “translation” that has ended up being a work of art. Some of the translations are just awesome. Among my favourites are: Clams in the manner of the ever-fighting duck Grilled codfish with...
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I found this article called A Dictionary of the Near Future at the New York Times online thanks to Marc Pesce on Twitter. I love the things I find through Twitter – the interwebz is a playground of joy. This is an article by Douglas Coupland, who says, “The thing about the future is...
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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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