Technology behemoth Amazon is in the firing line of publishers, authors and the combined might of the literary world again today. Like the ultimate alpha predator Godzilla on a rampage across Tokyo, Amazon crushes a little bit more of the publishing industry just by moving. And it’s about as worried by the protests of writers asContinue reading “Amazon is not a bookseller, and why that matters for writers”
Author Archives: Damien Walter
Only a creator culture can save us
We’re trying to rebuild a failed consumer culture. We need to make a new creator culture instead. Published in Culture – A Reader for Writers, editor John Mauk, Oxford University Press. I arrived in Leicester in the late ‘90s as a student, a year after losing my mother to cancer. Having little support, I workedContinue reading “Only a creator culture can save us”
We DO need diverse books.
Watching the #WeNeedDiverseBooks hashtag scrolling up the screen on Twitter. Hundreds and thousands of people a minute adding their voice to the conversation on diversity in writing. We need diverse books, writers, characters and more. I needed to see this today. The genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy that I enjoy reading and write inContinue reading “We DO need diverse books.”
The future is queer
I spent most of my youth being told to get a haircut. As a boy of slight build who usually had hair down around my shoulders, I looked a bit too much like a girl for the comfort of the home counties. Society gets angry when gender roles are blurred, precisely because those roles areContinue reading “The future is queer”
Superhero teams. Proof positive that women are at most 25% of the human population
For most of my life I’ve been led to believe by statistics that women represented some 50% of the human population. Scientific people have suggested that the ratio of male to female births is around 106 boys to 100 girls, but scientific people also argue about this ratio. External factors like gender-control and gendercide furtherContinue reading “Superhero teams. Proof positive that women are at most 25% of the human population”
Capitalism dialogues with Creativity
Capitalist – Right. We need you to create something so we have something to sell. Creator – oh ok no problem just give me a moment here. Capitalist – noweneeditnow Creator – But I’m kind of busy… Capitalist – NOW! Creator – …creating something here. Capitalist – What? What are you creating? Tell us tellContinue reading “Capitalism dialogues with Creativity”
Writing Practice: why it’s time to stop thinking of writing as a profession
If you go to a good art school (and yes you STEM readers out there, such places do exist) they teach you to think of your art as a practice. And to think of yourself as a practitioner. There’s a purpose to this tradition. Admittedly, it takes most art students – myself included – untilContinue reading “Writing Practice: why it’s time to stop thinking of writing as a profession”
Are we already living in the technological singularity?
news has been turning into science fiction for a while now. TVs that watch the watcher, growing tiny kidneys, 3D printing, the car of tomorrow, Amazon’s fleet of delivery drones – so many news stories now “sound like science fiction” that the term returns 1,290,000 search results on Google. The pace of technological innovation isContinue reading “Are we already living in the technological singularity?”
The improvised word leaves space for you
Improvisation is a powerful part of art. Dancers, musicians and actors – those things we name the performing arts – all learn to improvise as part of their craft. Their work is temporal and transient. Once the move or note is performed it is gone forever. A recording of Miles Davis playing Kind of BlueContinue reading “The improvised word leaves space for you”
A Nebula award shortlist that makes me feel good about SF
The Nebula award shortlists have just been announced by the Science Fiction Writers of America. And they are excellent. Focusing on Best Novel… We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Marian Wood) The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review) Fire with Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen) Hild,Continue reading “A Nebula award shortlist that makes me feel good about SF”
Welcome to viral book selling
UPDATE: sadly Baboon Fart Story reached #9 on the narrower >General bestseller list, selling a mere 21 copies before being pulled by amazon. But still an interesting example of a book catching some viral publicity. Today a book called Baboon Fart Story climbed to #9 on the Amazon bestseller list. The book featured the wordContinue reading “Welcome to viral book selling”
You are not going to improve the world
Human beings are largely engaged in wasting enormous amounts of psychic energy in attempting to do things that are quite impossible. All sensible people therefore begin in life with two fundamental suppositions. You are not going to improve the world. And you are not going to improve your self. You are just what you are.Continue reading “You are not going to improve the world”
Damien Walter 