Author Archives: John Walters

Triumphs in the Creative Life

Recently I wrote an essay called “Setbacks in the Creative Life.” It was a reaction to a publisher deciding to cancel an upcoming anthology to which I’d sold a story. It focused on the necessity of putting aside the many … Continue reading →

Posted in On Writing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A Christmas Gift for My Blog Followers

As a Christmas gift to readers, I have enrolled electronic editions of some of my books and stories in the Smashwords End of Year Sale, which runs through January 1st. Complete books are half price, marked down from $3.99 to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Setbacks in the Creative Life

For almost a year I have been looking forward to the December publication of an anthology with one of my stories in it. Some stories I write just for fun, but this one was particularly important to me. It fit … Continue reading →

Posted in On Writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 7 Edited by Neil Clarke

The first thing that appealed to me about this substantial six hundred page collection of science fiction stories is that it is ensconced in a well-bound book with an easy to read font. Much as I enjoyed the late Gardner … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Books Make Great Gifts!

After Thanksgiving has come and gone, people commence a search for holiday gifts for family members, relatives, friends, acquaintances, in-laws, outlaws, colleagues, and sometimes total strangers. If you’re looking for fun, sophisticated, lively, intense, flamboyant, and otherwise variegated literary fare, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review:  Being Michael Swanwick by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Although Zinos-Amaro is listed as the author of this book, it is in fact a collaborative effort. It consists of a series of interviews between prolific science fiction and fantasy writer Michael Swanwick and Zinos-Amaro. These interviews cover Swanwick’s stand-alone … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, On Writing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review:  Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri; Part Two

Like the stories in Lahiri’s earlier collections Interpreter of Maladies and Unaccustomed Earth, several of the tales in Roman Stories deal with cultural clashes: affluent foreigners who have chosen for various reasons to relocate to Rome, or laborers and domestic … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review:  Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri; Part One: Background

I have long appreciated Jhumpa Lahiri’s writing. I first came across it by accident. I was living in Greece, where my then-wife and I were raising our family; I often browsed for books at the library of the elite high … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review:  Borges and Me: An Encounter by Jay Parini

This book appears to be and reads like a memoir, and in most ways it is; however, Parini explains in an afterword that the events, though true, took place fifty years ago, and though he had “a handful of notes, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review:  The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald

This work is presented as a novel, but it is not really a novel in the conventional sense. The plot is very thin. The narrator takes a walking tour of Suffolk, a county in eastern England. He describes what he … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment