It’s really hard to overstate how much I agree with this post on using fiction techniques in journalism. Short form and blogging may not leave much scope for storytelling, but once you get up in to long form and feature writing, narrative techniques become essential. Facts nad information won’t hold a reader for thousands ofContinue reading “Use Fiction Techniques to Write a Great Journal Article”
Author Archives: Damien Walter
Genre needs a lot more cruel and nasty reviews
I’ve reviewed my fair share of sci-fi genre novels. I started right here on this blog…eek!..about 8 years ago. Not long after that I began doing reviews for The Fix. I began blogging and reviewing for The Guardian waaaaay back in the historic mists of 2008. And I’ve contributed book reviews here and there toContinue reading “Genre needs a lot more cruel and nasty reviews”
A digital renaissance for the science fiction short story
A man wakes up from a car crash to find that he is an “electric ant”: an android programmed to believe it is human. At home he uses micro-tools to open up his own chest and discovers a tiny spool of tape inside. Punching new holes in the tape makes new objects appear in hisContinue reading “A digital renaissance for the science fiction short story”
Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux
STRANGE BODIES by Marcel Theroux – Literary body horror goes existential. “Am I just a body?” Asks the four year old daughter of Nicholas Slopen, unfortunate protagonist of Marcel Theroux’s metaphysical thriller Strange Bodies. The answer Slopen gives us the reader, “not even that”, is less than comforting. The quest to discover what it isContinue reading “Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux”
Can sci-fi ever not be political?
When is a giant lizard not a giant lizard? When it’s a metaphor for the might of the military-industrial complex. Audiences turning up for the latest cinematic incarnation of Godzilla have expressed some disappointment that much of the battling kaiju action was kept off screen. In its place director Gareth Edwards makes the smart decisionContinue reading “Can sci-fi ever not be political?”
A modest proposal to combat Amazon (oh and piracy)
My last post on Amazon for a little while, I promise. As previously noted Amazon have cornered the digital marketplace for ebooks, which has the potential to mean the end of booksellers and publishers as we know them. Once Amazon have destroyed the industry infrastructure, there is little doubt they will bring down the 70%Continue reading “A modest proposal to combat Amazon (oh and piracy)”
Why Author Earnings makes sense
Hugh Howey and his team have published the latest Author Earnings update. And the story, as with all previous updates, is that self-published authors (working primarily through the Amazon Kindle marketplace) are doing very nicely thank you. In fact, much better than debut authors published by the Big 5. The data and methodology used toContinue reading “Why Author Earnings makes sense”
Amazon is not a bookseller, and why that matters for writers
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”
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”
Damien Walter 