This is astounding, especially from a developed country in the year 2010 CE. I picked this up from the Metamagician blog. I’m basically just reposting the information verbatim as Russell did, because it speaks for itself. The short version is this: From 1 January 2010, the new Irish blasphemy law becomes operational. Blasphemy is...
Read More »
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.”
Religion
Blasphemy laws in 2010? Oh yes
Slice Of Life by Paul Haines – review
I’ll start by saying that I’m lucky enough to call Paul Haines a friend, so I don’t want any accusations of friendly bias. Think what you like, you cynical bastards. You may remember that I was going on about the X6 novella anthology from Coeur De Lion earlier this year. There was this post...
Read More »
Irony of the week, from Peter Jensen
Ah, this did make me laugh. It’s the belief equivalent of “my dad can beat up your dad”. From the Sydney Morning Herald: Speaking to the congregation at St Andrews Cathedral on Christmas morning, he said recent polling showed Australians were religious and still looking for an answer on...
Read More »
I’m starting a movement
And no, before anyone gets smart in the comments, not a bowel movement. More a movement in response to the season (which is a kind of bowel movement in itself). Christians are always bleating on about “Put the Christ back into Christmas!” I’m sick and tired of that. I’m starting a new movement: Get...
Read More »
The contradictions of belief in Australia
An interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald caught my attention today. One thousand Australians were polled by Nielsen on the subject of faith. You can read the whole article from the link above, but a few things made me shake my head. Firstly, it’s worth remembering that 85% of statistics are made up...
Read More »
The masters of double standards strike again
Those faithful believers in the best selling epic fantasy of all time, the Bible, are at it again. At what, you ask? Promoting amazing levels of hypocrisy and double standards, that’s what. According to today’s Sydney Morning Herald, the Catholic Church has been accused of derailing the second and third movie of Philip Pullman’s...
Read More »
Might need to reschedule
I was walking from King’s Comics to Galaxy Books this morning before heading back to Freecon and saw this. It gave me a chuckle. Hundreds and hundreds of years of systematic indoctrination, persecution and abuse? They might need more than an hour to fix that.
Read More »
Ah, humanity, you dichotomy, you
It says on the About page here that I’m an optimistic cynic. Sometimes it’s hard to be optimistic though. People can be so stupid. I was reading in the weekend SMH about this American-born Jew in Israel that “spends most of every day preparing for the arrival of the Messiah”. This guy is 44...
Read More »
International Blasphemy Day
I write about magic and monsters and demons and all that stuff. I love the fantasy, horror and sci fi genre and the ideas it plays with. I’m happy to admit that there’s an awful lot out there that we can’t understand and all kinds of things happening that defy rational explanation. I don’t...
Read More »
The missing day from the blog book tour
Ruthie over at Ruthie’s Book Reviews has got her internet connection back and posted the review of MageSign that was supposed to be part of the blog book tour. You can read the review here. There’s also a chance to get a free ebook copy of MageSign by leaving a comment on the review...
Read More »
Friday guest post – Our Saucy Medieval Heritage by Michael Fridman
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....
Read More »
Blog book tour Day 6
Today’s stop on the blog tour is a little delayed due to international time changes, but it’s worth waiting for. I’ve been very excited about this one as it’s something different for everyone, even if you’re a regular reader here. Those kind folks over at Wily Writers agreed to get involved with my book...
Read More »
Blog book tour Day 5
Today sees us at the halfway point of the book tour and so far it’s all going swimmingly. Thanks to everyone that’s been following along and those that are hosting me along the way. Some of the timing is a bit up and down, but that’s what happens when you have posts hosted in...
Read More »
Catholics shoehorn relevance into Gore’s plan
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...
Read More »
Black magic versus prayer in Islamic Indonesia
Talk about appealing to the lowest common denominator. I was both amused and disappointed when I read about this in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald. It’s one of those strange crossovers between real life and fantasy novels. Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous nation (with around 237 million people) and it has the largest...
Read More »
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
Click the icon above to add this blog to your feed and never miss a post.
------------------------------
------------------------------
TOP POSTS OF OLD
Stalk Me
Listen to my podcast: 
Myself and fellow Gryphonwood Press author, David Wood, talk about reading, writing and publishing in the thriller, action-adventure and speculative fiction genres.
Thirteen O'Clock Australian Dark Fiction News & Reviews: 
I'm a contributing editor to this site. Go there for all your dark fiction needs - news, reviews, submission calls, op-ed and more.
Subscribe
Receive an email whenever The Word is updated. Enter your email address:
National Archive
This website is archived by the National Library of Australia's Web Archive
Copyright © 2012 The Word. All Rights Reserved.
Magazine Premium created by Themes by bavotasan.com.
Magazine Premium created by Themes by bavotasan.com.