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Book Review – Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by David Gerrold

Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy

Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by David Gerrold

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Worlds of Wonder – How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by David Gerrold is a non-fiction title for writers who are looking to learn about the craft of writing in the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

The Cover: I really wasn’t sold on this cover. It didn’t really suggest the book was non-fiction, the picture didn’t really work for me, and I really didn’t like the font used on the title and author name. It made the book look less professional to me. If I took the text away from the cover all together, this could have been a sci-fi, horror, or thriller novel in my opinion.

The Good Stuff: Wow! I thought the last book I read on the craft of writing was good, but this book blew me away. This has to be the best book for writers that I have read. David Gerrold really has a firm grip on the craft. I am the target audience for this book and it did its job, really hitting the mark for me. The chapters are succinct, no waffle, no filler, no repeating the same thing 3 times, just solid direct writing. The words run smoothly and make perfect sense to me as a writer and to top it all off, my version was published in 2001. David Gerrold’s text is relevant today as much as it was back then and seems to be timeless.

The Bad Stuff: I’m pretty sure I have covered all the bad stuff in the cover section.

Overall, I found this book to be pretty amazing. If you can only afford to buy one book on writing this year I would recommend you make it this one. It is clear and concise, covers a wealth of information, provides some solid advice, and the writing is interesting. This one is getting a star making, writer creating 5 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

Want to know if you agree with my review? Grab your own copy from these links:

Amazon.com
Amazon.com.au
Kobo

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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Have You Done Your Christmas Shopping Yet?

selective focus photography of gift box on brown wooden surface
Photo by Thais Araujo on Pexels.com

Hello Readers,

It’s almost Christmas! With everyone shopping for pressies, I thought it would be a good time for me to apply to become an amazon associate. What does that mean? Well, if I’m accepted as an amazon associate and you go to amazon and purchase something via an affiliate link on my website, I get a small payment for the referral. But don’t worry, you do not get charged anything extra on your purchase, the payment I receive comes out of amazon’s pockets. So heads up… I will be using affiliate links in this post and on my site from now on.

With Christmas just around the corner you can pick up some great deals from amazon, and if you get in quick, they still have their Black Friday deals on.

For those fantasy readers out there, here are a couple of my own personal picks for you:

How about one of Australian author Alicia Wanstall-Burke’s fantasy novels:

Blood of Heirs (The Coraidic Sagas Book 1)

Blood of Heirs,

and her new release,

Legacy of Ghosts (The Coraidic Sagas Book 2)

Legacy of Ghosts,

Or if you’re thinking of taking a break from reading over the festive season, these escape games will get your mind working. And if you’re a writer, maybe they will give you some inspiration for your next novel.

Thames & Kosmos Exit Games: Polar Station, Forbidden Castle, and Forgotten Island (Set of 3)

Exit The Game

Happy reading and I hope you enjoy your Christmas shopping.

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

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Do You Like Fantasy Creatures? Here’s A Few To Cast Your Eyes Over.

Hello Readers,

I’ve come to my last post depicting some of the miniatures I painted when I was younger. I’ve saved a group photo for this last post. I hope you enjoy it.

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This one is a band of orcs and goblins. These are a mixture of plastic and metal cast figures. Personally I prefer to work with metal figures, but I also do not mind the resin ones. Plastic is my least favourite, they just don’t have the same feel to them and I find they tend to lack the level of detail you get on the metal cast figures. At least they did when I used to paint them many tears ago.

I wish the picture quality was better, but alas this was the best I could do with photos that were taken on film many years ago. None the less, I hope you got some satisfaction out of them and that somehow they have tweaked your creativity.

If you’re looking for some more modern Orc’s, I recommend you check out Games Workshop.

What are you’re favourite fantasy creatures? Leave a comment to let me know.

Happy Reading!

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

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Do You Like Fantasy Creatures? If So, Here’s A Few More Miniatures For You.

Hello Readers,

Here’s another post in my miniature series. Unfortunately I only have one more photo that is clear enough to put up and I will do that in a final post in this series. I have started all my previous miniature posts with a dragon, so I thought I would keep that trend going in this post.

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This first photo is of a baby Green Dragon, I love how the reptilian features stand out on this one. The base was made with an old lid of a jar covered with Plaster-of-Paris. The mushrooms and chili like plant were made by carefully heating/melting the plastic frame the skeletons in the last post came in (they were plastic moulded figures that come in pieces so you can mix and match to make personalised figures). The tree was from a model railway set.

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This one is a Hill Giant. You can’t really tell from the picture, but he is missing a finger on his left hand – hence the blood splatter. This one reminds me of a cross between a Muppet and Ben Grimm. Still, I wouldn’t like to bump into him in a dark valley.

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This next one is another Minotaur. I really like the way this one turned out, but the quality of the picture doesn’t do it justice here… Sorry!

If you are looking at getting some miniatures yourself, why not have a browse online.

Anyway, once again I hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures. If they help stimulate your imagination at all, then it has been worth posting them.

I have one more photo for my next post, until then.

Happy Reading!

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

If you liked this post, why not share it on social media?

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Do You Like Fantasy Creatures? Then have A Look At These.

Hello Readers,

Here is my third post on fantasy miniatures. Again, I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures, but these are digital photos, of paper photos, of the minatures I painted many years ago.

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This first one is a Red Dragon (Pretty obvious really). I like to think of this one as a nephew of Smaug. A fraction of the size, but just as mean.

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This one is a Cave Giant. You probably can’t appreciate the size of him because there is no reference to gauge it against, but it is probably about 3 times the size of a human figure.

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And here we have a Minotaur, fearsome guardian of the labyrinth. The strange thing about this one is he has one clawed hand and one human hand. Still a scary Mo-Fo if you ask me and I’m guessing his breath isn’t too good, but I’m sure never getting close enough to one to find out!

I like to browse through the figures in store to choose the ones I like, but you can find a great selection of miniatures and the gear you need to paint them online.

I reckon I’ve got enough photos left for one or two more posts, we’ll see. Either way, I hope you’ve enjoyed them so far and that they have kicked your imagination into gear.

Happy Reading!

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

If you liked this post, why not share it on social media?

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Do You Like Fantasy Creatures? Here’s A Few More Fantasy Miniatures For You.

Hello Readers,

On the back of my last post I have a few more fantasy miniatures to share with you. These can make good writing prompts if you’re a writer and if you like fantasy I think you’ll appreciate them too.

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Here is a Black Dragon and the Sorceress that is controlling it.

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A graveyard of undead rising up to grow their army,

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And a Balrog, possibly a cousin of the one Gandalf slayed, who’s come looking for his vengeance.

Looking for your own dragon to paint? You can find some fearsome creatures online.

I hope these inspire you, whether it is a prompt for your writing or a piece of art, motivation to watch a good movie, or inspiration to pick up your next great book.

Happy Reading!

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

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Do You Like Fantasy Creatures? Here’s A Few Fantasy Miniatures I Thought You’d Like.

Hello Readers,

I thought I would do something a little different today, yet still fantasy related. A short time ago I mentioned that I used to paint miniatures and had some photos of a few buried in the back of a cupboard somewhere that I would try to dig out. Well, I found them!

The photos are not professional and these are photos of photos (Yep… the originals are the old fashioned paper kind) so please forgive the poor quality, but they are clear enough. If you are a writer you could use these images as writing prompts, and if you’re a reader, well I hope they stimulate your imagination. So for your enjoyment (I hope…), here are a few:

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The first one (as shown above) is a Serpentine Dragon.

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This one is a Centaur rocking a punk-rock mohawk and travelling with a band of dwarves. I’m not sure if things have changed, but when I bought these they tended to come with plain black plastic stands like the ones in the photo above.

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And I believe this one was labelled as a goblin rider on boar back (but I think it looks more like an orc rider). I went the extra step with this one and made a more ornate stand. It wasn’t hard, I used a model railway tree that I stuck some green stuff on it, glued some tea leaves on the base and painted them greenish brown, then popped a home made mushroom in the background.

If you’re interested in miniatures but don’t know where to lay your hands on any, Games Workshop have a great range to choose from. You can even get whole packs to start your collection.

I hope you enjoyed these photos, I will post a few more over the coming days. Until then, Happy Reading!

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

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Book Review – Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction by Lisa Tuttle.

Writing Fantasy & Science FictionWriting Fantasy & Science Fiction by Lisa Tuttle

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction by Lisa Tuttle is a non-fiction book for writers that covers off on everything you need to know to become a good speculative fiction writer.

The Cover: I have the 2nd edition of this title and the cover is the perfect fit for this non-fiction title. It is simple, has a clear title, an image that suits a book on writing, and strong, clear fonts.

The Good Stuff: I found this to be one of the best books for writers that I have read. It is written in a very natural, smooth flowing way that makes it easy to understand. The advice within this book is sound and will help writers of all genres. It covers off on pretty much everything you need to know as a writer and contains all the information I have obtained from numerous other titles, all in the one place, without waffling on with pages of unnecessary words.

The Bad Stuff: I acknowledge that this title was printed in 2005. It has plenty of information on Style, character development, plotting, etc… It also gives details on agents, publishing, editing, and cover letters. While this content is all perfectly valid and I believe still current, the book would be even better if it had some reference to Indie publishing and e-books. Maybe this will come in a newer edition.

Overall, this is an excellent book for new writers and I feel it would make a good addition to many experienced writers book shelves. I found it an interesting and easy read with valuable information on the craft of writing. This one gets a well-deserved, writer-making, story-forming 5 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

Want to know if you agree with my review? Grab your own copy from these links:

Amazon.com
Amazon.com.au

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

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Do You Like Book Quotes? Here’s One From ‘Low Life’.

Hello readers,

Here is another quote I’ve dug up for you, this one is from the short horror story ‘Low Life’.

FB Quote 3 LL

What are your favourite book quotes? Let me know in the comments.

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

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Have You Found Your Halloween Read Yet?

Hello Readers,

Halloween, All-Hallows-Eve, Samhain, what ever you call it, it is almost upon us. It is a night renowned for spooky happenings, scary sights, and frightening tales. It is a time where the boundary between the spirit world and the physical world can more easily be crossed. Making it a night where ghosts are more likely to come visit. This is any true horror readers dream night to get stuck into a scary tale. So what have you chosen to read? Something a little frightening? Something a bit Gorey? or something that will plain old scare the pants off you and have you hiding under your covers all night?

If you haven’t found anything yet, why not check out one of my short horror tales listed below:

Low Life
Easy Prey
Making Magic
Darkness in Shadows

And here’s a little book trailer I’ve resurrected from the past to whet your appetite:

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

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