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.”
My wife spotted this in the paper the other day. It was a full page ad showing fifteen different bras on sale at Myer. The one that really caught her eye was this one: You’d think that a marketing department would avoid suggesting that a piece of clothing minimised comfort. Ladies, we present the...
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My friends on Twitter @keikomushi and @IronMan1176 were having a conversation and languages came up. IronMan said he was studying a bit of Spanish before bed. Keiko said: “I tried to learn Esperanto a few times, but I have always had trouble with languages.” I opened my virtual mouth and caused a bit of...
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Yooo.. I kno it has nothing to do with what you wrote, but have you ever heard of http://www.scumscumscumbastard/ringtones.php . They seems to promise free ringtones PS. Dont be an ass, this is NOT spam Yes it fucking is, you scumbag. We all know that spammers are some of the lowest, parasitic, bottom-feeding bastards...
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For the ever more infrequent Friday Guest Post, here’s something very entertaining from Michael Fridman, fellow Blade Red Press author and all-round interesting fellow. In this post he explores the legacy of language derived from our less than prudish past and some stories that are worth checking out for some olden days racy fun....
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I read about this in the Sydney Morning Herald today and it gave me quite a chuckle over my cereal. The Catholic Church, along with pretty much every other religion, is no stranger to desperately shoehorning “facts” into things to keep their dogma relevant. Anyone that’s ever read the Bible knows that it takes...
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I read an article in The Sydney Morning Herald today that talked about a poll conducted by Galaxy. They asked 400 people in Sydney and Melbourne aged over 16 to spell eight commonly mis-spelled words. The words in question were: embarrass accommodation accessory February guarantee opportunity eighth receipt According the article, people should be...
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Remember at the end of May I posted about the Global Language Monitor celebrating the immient arrival of the one millionth word in the English language? At the time I questioned the accuracy of their studies. In fact, my exact words were, “Personally, I think it’s all bollocks.” As the comments in that thread...
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According to the Global Language Monitor, an association of academics that tracks the use of new words, the English language will celebrate its one millionth word next month. Just what that word might be is obviously the subject of much speculation. With the rapid growth of language recently, it could be something very weird....
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I’m a big fan of using words in powerful ways. I suppose that’s a given, seeing that I’m a writer. But regardless, when people are clever with words and language and create something more than it first appears to be I always applaud the effort. This is a great example, originally created for the...
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I can’t help jumping on the bandwagon with this one. My blog is all about words and stories, after all, and no one can mangle words and abuse the English language quite like George W Bush. I won’t be sorry to see him go when he leaves office, but I will miss him just...
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Michael over at aNadder posted about some very curious keywords that people had used in 2008 that had subsequently led them to his blog. He did do a series of posts about sexual ethics so you might expect some weird searches to lead to him. Still, he suggested that anyone else consider themselves tagged...
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I know that anything I write is already art and pretty hard to improve on, but I found this interesting nonetheless. I picked up a couple of clever little webby toys over at the Blurred Lines blog, and this one is my favourite. It takes any body of text (including an RSS feed) and...
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The modern corporate environment is ripe sowing ground for word abuse. Primarily, the use of weasel words is becoming more and more prevalent. Weasel words are “… typically used to create an illusion of clear, direct communication.” Some people become experts at using many words but imparting very little information. For some people, it’s...
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I don’t know if this is real or not, but it made me laugh. .
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With reference to my prvious post, I’m pleased to say that our friend Michael has pointed me in the direction of the full list of words on the chopping block. From The Times Online via Editorial Ass, here’s the list of 24 words in trouble: Abstergent – Cleansing or scouring Agrestic – Rural; rustic;...
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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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