Author Archives: John Walters

On the Writing of World Without Pain: The Story of a Search

Writers are divided on the issue of writing with keyboards or by hand. Some swear that for the first draft they require the immediacy of pen and paper, while others consider that method too slow – or they like to … Continue reading

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On Rereading Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey

Not long ago I did some research and wrote up a list of books on solitude. I thought that if I could absorb some of the viewpoints of other writers on the subject I might find some clues on how … Continue reading

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On Rereading The Best of the Nebulas Edited by Ben Bova; Part Four

John Varley’s novella “The Persistence of Vision” is a deeply troubling story; at least it troubles me. The narrator is an unemployed middle-aged man who, in the late 1980s, decides to hit the road rather than endure poverty in the … Continue reading

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On Rereading The Best of the Nebulas Edited by Ben Bova; Part Three

The novelette “Slow Sculpture” by Theodore Sturgeon has two characters: a woman with breast cancer and a disillusioned genius. They meet in a field where the man is conducting an experiment, and when she informs him of her plight he … Continue reading

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On Rereading The Best of the Nebulas Edited by Ben Bova; Part Two

And now we come to the novelette “Gonna Roll the Bones” by Fritz Leiber, which first appeared in Harlan Ellison’s groundbreaking anthology Dangerous Visions. It is ostensibly a classic deal-with-the-devil fantasy, albeit unusually rich in descriptive detail and stylistic depth. … Continue reading

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On Rereading The Best of the Nebulas Edited by Ben Bova; Part One

Having a strong urge to get back to my literary roots, I picked up the weighty tome The Best of the Nebulas and began to read. As Bova, the editor, explains in the introduction, these stories were selected by members … Continue reading

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The Genesis of The Dragon Ticket and Other Stories

The Dragon Ticket and Other Stories is the first of my thirty-five books. Although most of the stories in it take place on the Indian Subcontinent, I was living in Greece when I wrote them. I had lived in South … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Tolstoy by A. N. Wilson; Part Two: The Spiritual Seeker

After writing Anna Karenina, Tolstoy went through profound spiritual changes. He did not abandon literature, but the tone of his writings changed, reflecting his inner metamorphosis. Scorning the Orthodox church, he adopted a personal faith that included extreme pacifism, renunciation … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Tolstoy by A. N. Wilson; Part One: The Writer

This is a complex, opinionated biography of a literary genius. It is at its weakest when Wilson attempts to introduce his personal observations and impressions of Tolstoy’s life and thoughts as if they were the only possible interpretation, and at … Continue reading

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Life in a Storage Unit; or, How to Declutter Without Losing Your Sanity

This all began with my desire to do a deep cleaning of the apartment. As I contemplated the task, I began to realize how difficult it was due to the overwhelming presence of – stuff. All kinds of stuff that … Continue reading

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