Author Archives: John Walters

Nordic Celebration

Seattle has a multitude of fascinating museums, and since I haven’t been able to accomplish long-distance physical travel lately, I have been taking advantage of a museum pass to mentally travel not only to distant locales but to other times … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood by Ed Zwick

I have read several books on filmmaking from top directors and screenwriters, including Chasing the Light by Oliver Stone, Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino, and Adventures in the Screen Trade and Which Lie Did I Tell? by William Goldman, but … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

I’m about halfway through this book but I have some thoughts that can’t wait. Knife is a memoir of Rushdie’s recovery after a near-fatal attack by a knife-wielding assailant. It is deeply ironic that this happened at the opening of … Continue reading

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“Sink or Swim” Is Now Available!

My novelette “Sink or Swim: A Near-Future Tale” is available as an e-book from various online bookstores or in print as part of my short story collection Road Signs: Tales of the Surreal and Fantastic. It is especially prescient in … Continue reading

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Book Review:  The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

In the introduction, Ta-Nehisi Coates clarifies that he is addressing his latest book The Message specifically to his students and more generally to “young writers everywhere whose task is nothing less than doing their part to save the world.” I’m … Continue reading

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Getting to Know SAM

Poverty has its advantages, among them the ability to snag a free ticket to the Seattle Art Museum through the national Museums for All program. So it was that I ventured forth into the chill morning fog to take a … Continue reading

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Book Review:  The Years by Annie Ernaux

Before I came across a description of The Years in a library listing, I had never heard of Annie Ernaux, or that she had won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2022. I suppose I should keep closer track of … Continue reading

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Write Better Stories

In a recent Facebook post, a well-known author posed the question, “What is the best writing advice you have ever received?” There were many excellent answers, most having to do with not listening to criticism, persevering in the face of … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Andrea Pitzer

Not long ago I read and reviewed Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk by Buddy Levy. It takes place in the early 1900s and tells of a ship caught in polar ice off … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Solo Passage: 13 Quests, 13 Questions by Glenda Goodrich

This memoir is Glenda Goodrich’s first book, and it is a powerful one. At the age of fifty the author began a series of wilderness quests, sometimes yearly and sometimes with gaps of several years. They would begin in a … Continue reading

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