Author Archives: John Walters

Book Review: World’s Best Science Fiction 1967 Edited by Donald A Wollheim and Terry Carr

I found this old paperback volume on a wire discount rack at Half-Price Books and bought it for a dollar.  It seemed that there were several classics by well-known science fiction writers within, and my plan was to compare what … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer; Part Two: The Frog in the Pot

Coming to the end of a great book is an exhilarating experience tempered only by the fact that the ride is over.  This book, though it is a work of nonfiction, concludes like a novel, with a buildup in a … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer; Part One: My New Year’s Resolutions

You might be wondering what this book and my new year’s resolutions have in common.  Never fear, all will be made clear in due time.  I am a little more than halfway through the book, and it is one of … Continue reading

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Book Review: Year’s Best SF 17 Edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer; or, What Constitutes a Good Story

Amazing how circumstance has a part in our lives sometimes.  My current poverty necessitates my getting most of my reading material from the local library, rather than used from the Internet as I prefer.  In my most recent foray there … Continue reading

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The Lepers of Literature

I was prepared to launch a tirade, but I see now that it is unnecessary.  That which prompted this essay is not a threat.  Rather, it is a sad, anachronistic, misguided assessment of what is happening in the world of … Continue reading

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Book Review: Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders

I peruse the yearly shortlists of the major awards in search of good reading material. I don’t read it all, or even most of it – only what catches my eye. But because I am always reading something and can’t … Continue reading

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The Cold

The main life event I am experiencing right now is the excruciating cold here in Yakima, Washington.  As I write this at the desk in my bedroom, the window is frozen shut and icicles hang along the inside of the … Continue reading

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Book Review: Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall

Even more than the Korean War, the Vietnam War defined the political, cultural, sociological, and diplomatic landscape of America in the second half of the twentieth century. I grew up in its shadow, as anti-war protests enflamed college campuses and … Continue reading

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On the Publishing of Independent Short Stories

Usually I do not make a special announcement when one of my short stories gets published digitally as an individual entity.  I wait until I collect the stories together in both print and digital form, and then I let you … Continue reading

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Sunflower: A Novel by John Walters – Now Available!

“Sunflower”, my third novel, is now available on Amazon in a print edition here, and in an electronic edition here. This is what the back cover copy says: “In early 1970 a new era, the Age of Aquarius, is dawning. … Continue reading

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