Some years ago I had a friend who didn’t believe recipes had any place in the kitchen. He would start cooking a meat pie, then decide it needed some fruit. Too sweet? Add some paprika. Maybe it’s not a pie after all. Now it’s a desert. Cover it in honey! I’m not joking. My friend valuedContinue reading “Yes stories are formulaic. No that’s not a bad thing.”
Author Archives: Damien Walter
Why does literary fiction hate genre?
Literary fiction is an artificial luxury brand but it doesn’t sell. So nobody benefits by fencing it off from more popular writing. It’s always a problem when one of literature’s big beasts wanders off the reservation into the badlands of genre. The latest to blunder through the electric barriers erected around the safe zone isContinue reading “Why does literary fiction hate genre?”
When it comes to fighting monsters…why the bat?
Jennifer Brozek’s new YA series, the Melissa Allen trilogy, features a young female protagonist who carries a baseball bat when she’s fighting monsters. In this special guest post, Jennifer explains why Melissa named it Mister Bat, and how it became a repeating factor in all three books. While most people might think a baseball batContinue reading “When it comes to fighting monsters…why the bat?”
There is only one choice for the new World Fantasy Award
Most readers of this blog will already have read the news that, after a long debate within the community of fantasy writers and readers, H P Lovecraft is to be replaced as the face of the World Fantasy Award. Not everyone is taking the news gracefully, not least critic S T Joshi who performed anContinue reading “There is only one choice for the new World Fantasy Award”
The awesome power of science fiction’s megastructures
The imaginary constructions of science fiction fill us with awe at their alien vastness. Which have you explored, and what was the most overwhelming? Sci-fi fans call it “sensawunda”, that awe and amazement that the best science fiction stories can inspire in us. The entire world felt it recently when scientists declared that observations ofContinue reading “The awesome power of science fiction’s megastructures”
Gus. A case study in Sad Puppy ignorance.
The Sad Puppies are, once again, frolicking in my twitter feed after WIRED magazine’s take on the 2015 Hugo awards was republished in an extended form. It’s a good read, followed by the usual tail of comments with members of the Mad Harpies “movement” publicly humiliating themselves by repeating the same old tired excuses forContinue reading “Gus. A case study in Sad Puppy ignorance.”
The Reengineering of Fantasy
Look. I like Conan. If stories let us play out our secret fantasies in widescreen technicolor, then clearly there’s a part of me that longs to be a muscular barbarian, crushing my enemies and hearing the lamentation of their women. While Robert E Howard’s original Conan stories aren’t quite as good as the epic JohnContinue reading “The Reengineering of Fantasy”
Open Thread : How can writers protect themselves from social media?
As some of you will know, I took a week week long sabbatical from social media last week. I’ve done this four times this year, each time for one to three weeks. For reasons I’ll come to, I find it essential. I love social media. Twitter is my favourite platform, it connects me with hundredsContinue reading “Open Thread : How can writers protect themselves from social media?”
Won’t somebody please think of the billionaires!
As levels of inequality continue to sky rocket, the plight of the rich is getting worse by the day. We’re not saying it’s as bad as what orphans, women, people of colour, plague victims, the undead or supermodels who marry short rockstars have to go through…oh wait maybe we are. by Richelle Richenstein The poorContinue reading “Won’t somebody please think of the billionaires!”
A sci-fi history of Mars
Mars has always been, as cosmologist Carl Sagan wrote, a “mythic arena onto which we have projected our Earthly hopes and fears”. For the ancient Greeks, the red dot in the night sky was an aspect of Ares, god of war, who unleashed conflict when the balance was lost between Apollo – god of reasonContinue reading “A sci-fi history of Mars”
The Player of Games : why learning to win at games can make you a loser
The Player of Games by Iain M Banks makes a powerful argument for peace as the ultimate strategy.
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REVIEW – The End of All Our Labours
Will the world end in fire? In ice? Or grey goop? A review of The End of All Our Labours by Potassium Cockburn. I am, on the issue of humankind’s near future, an optimist. As humans we have a historic tendency to predict the worst, and yet our history has been one of steady progress.Continue reading “REVIEW – The End of All Our Labours”
Damien Walter 