While I appreciate all who purchase my work and read my stories, I would like to say a special thanks to those of you who have purchased one of my books during this time of Covid-19. My book sales only provide a small income, but during these times, it is my only income. So, please take a moment to feel good about yourselves for helping out a fellow human being. And for those of you that have offered to support me through subscriptions if I create a Patreon account, you are amazing people. You all are. Thank you!
Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why notcheck out his books here.You can also find his titles available in libraries.
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Many people are doing it tough around the world in the current environment and yours truly is no exception. Like many others, I’ve been looking at ways I can generate a bit more income while I’m out of work in these times of Covid-19. I read a statistic just yesterday that said you have a 0.5% chance of getting a new job in Brisbane right now. If you’re looking for work too – I know, it doesn’t fill me with confidence either, but hey, we’ve got to keep trying or that chance reduces to 0%.
It has been good to see communities helping each other out in these times. I’ve seen people volunteering to get groceries for other who are in isolation, businesses offering free courses, writers offering discounted books (myself included), friends playing games via Zoom, etc. I’ve even started learning the guitar again through a free online course from Fender. It has been a welcome distraction from everything else that’s been going on over the last couple of months.
I’ve also been finding it a struggle to write at present. You’d think this would be the ideal time to knuckle down and get some writing done, but it’s hard for me to get into the mindset with everything else going on around me. I will need to get more work out if I want to break even with my writing though. I do have some new short stories I have finished, but I need to get them edited and that costs money, so I need to hold off on those until I find a new job. I could put ads on my website, but I’ve always hated going to websites only to be inundated with them, so I’m very reluctant to use ads on my own website. I had arranged with a couple of local businesses to get some of my art up for sale on their walls. Then lockdown measures were put in place… that’s going to have to wait until the restrictions are lifted now (which thankfully isn’t looking too far away here in Queensland).
In the mean time I’ve been toying with the idea of adding one of those ‘buy me a coffee’ donation type plug-ins to my website. But then I got to thinking. My short stories cost less than a cup of coffee anyway – and my readers get something to read during isolation. It’s a win-win right?
So, if you want to help out this author in these uncertain times, don’t buy me a coffee, buy one of my books! You’d make this guy really happy, and who knows, you may even enjoy my stories.
How are you coping in the current environment? Feel free to let me know in the comments section below.
Happy Reading.
Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why notcheck out his books here.You can also find his titles available in libraries.
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I know I harp on about Joe Abercrombie (JA) being my favourite author, and that’s because he is, but I have been trying to find some new favourite authors to add to the list. So I put a call out through some of my groups on social media to find similar authors to JA, and this is what my contacts came back with:-
Anthony Ryan
Luke Scull
Daniel Polansky
Mark Lawrence
Scott Lynch
Brian McClellan
Richard Kadrey
Charlie Huston
Peter Newman
Ed McDonald
Steven Erikson
Jonathon French
Brian Staveley
Michael R Fletcher
Richard Morgan
Anna Smith Spark
Stephen Donaldson
A Z Anthony
Glen Cook
Jay Kristoff
I haven’t read all these authors yet, but I have added them to my list of authors to try. Of those I have checked out, I offer my opinions below:
Anthony Ryan – I love this author and have added him to my favourites. I read his novel Blood Song, and while I don’t get a JA vibe from his work, I really enjoyed the book. Anthony has his own style and tells a great story. I highly recommend checking him out.
Luke Scull – This is another great author that I have added to my list of favourites. I read his Grim Company novel and I found his world and characters to be very similar to JA. In fact I constantly found myself thinking this guy is so like 9 fingers, or I love these Northmen. Luke does have a style of his own and tells a unique story that is interesting and pulled me through the book. I highly recommend giving him a go.
Daniel Polansky – I read the novel She Who Waits by this author. I can’t say that I see any resemblance to JA other than the world is really gritty. I didn’t love this author, I enjoyed the book enough to finish it, but I doubt I will read anymore of his work. The world was not quite what I expected or wanted and it threw me off a little right from the start. If you like Grimdark that isn’t your typical medieval world, don’t discount this author. His style is sound, his characters are well rounded, and his writing is solid, his world just wasn’t what I was looking for and I don’t particularly like 1st person POV. If however you are chasing an author similar to JA, I’d give this one a miss.
Brian McClellan – I read Wrath of Empire from this author, and I loved it so much that I have also added Brian to my list of favourite authors. I didn’t draw any similarities between his work and JA’s. Brian has his own style, a great world, great characters, and a good storyline. I thoroughly enjoyed his work and would definitely recommend him, just don’t expect his work to remind you of JA.
Richard Kadrey – I didn’t actually read this authors work, I picked up one of his books and read the first few pages. It didn’t grab me because it seemed to be more of a western world and I was after good old medieval fantasy. So, I can’t really make any comparisons to JA for this author, nor recommend/criticise his work.
Peter Newman – I tried to read The Vagrant by this author and it’s the one book on my DNF list. I didn’t like the authors style or the world the story was set in. I certainly wouldn’t compare this author to JA. I do not recommend reading this authors work if you’re looking for something similar to JA. I’m not saying don’t give him a try, I’m just saying this author isn’t for me and I can’t see any similarity to JA’s work. I do know people who have read and enjoyed this author, so make your own mind up on this one.
Well, I’m still working through the list myself and this is as far as I’ve gotten. I’m keen to give Mark Lawrence, Scott Lynch, Steve Erikson, Brian Staveley and Ed McDonald a go. So I’ll probably prioritise these above the others, but hopefully I will find a few more gems on this list that will be added to my favourite authors list.
Happy Reading!
This post was updated Sept 29, 2024. Check out the updated version here.
If you’re feeling like you’ve seen some of my posts before, don’t worry. I am in the progress of re-posting book reviews from my old wordpress site (so they can all be found in the one place). As some of these reviews were written a long time ago, I have also been making some small changes to them to standardise the format and improve them a little. However, I’m not rewriting them completely and therefore they may seem a little less informative than usual. Sorry about that, but I feel I would need to re-read the books to write more comprehensive reviews… and that would take me forever. I guess what I’m trying to say is they are a little rough around the edges compared to my more recent reviews. Anyway, I hope there are one or two you haven’t already seen and that you get some enjoyment from them (even if it just highlights how much my reviews have improved).
Happy Reading.
Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why notcheck out his books here.You can also find his titles available in libraries.
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So, Dracula has started on Netflix. I’m 3 episodes in already and they run for around an hour each, so they cover a fair bit of ground. Episode 1 got off to a great start with me. It really came across like Bram Stokers Dracula. The make-up/effects are pretty good and it starts close to the original story, but as it got further into the episode it started to go a little down hill for me. Episode 2 again starts pretty well and then dwindles some. And don’t get me started on episode 3.
In my opinion the series tries to be both scary and funny, but doesn’t quite pull either off. I find Agatha Van Helsing really annoying (but to give full disclosure, my better half – AKA “My Amazing Woman” – really likes Van Helsing’s character). And that’s not all I don’t like… The vampire tropes are confused, the story jumps into the future, and apparently all a known deadly vampire needs to be released into the human-smorgasbord-of-a-world, is a good lawyer. No arguments. That’s it. Bon appetite!
I wanted this show to be truly dark and scary, I wanted to love it, I wanted it to be great, but in fact I find I have an ambivalent relationship with it. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don’t. It isn’t awesome, but it isn’t that bad that I won’t watch it. There are some great scenes in it. It just isn’t what I wanted it to be.
So what do you think? Feel free to comment below.
Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why notcheck out his books here.You can also find his titles available in libraries.
Or if you’d rather read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, you can purchase yourself a copy from the links below (P.S. There are so many versions out there I will leave it up to you to pick which one is for you):
I must admit that I am a big fan of Grimdark/Dark Fiction and I am also bit of a movie lover. So it is no surprise that I have long awaited the release of the Witcher series on Netflix. The computer game was highly regarded and raved about by many back in the day. I have yet to read the book, but it has high reviews and a relatively small amount of disappointed readers. As for the series… That has been compared to Game Of Thrones. I’m not sure I would put them on the same level, but one thing is for sure, there seems to be a lot of mixed feelings about the TV adaptation.
In my opinion it is slow to get started, but the more I watch it the better it gets. I really didn’t start to enjoy it much until episode 3, and after finishing the 1st season, I certainly would not liken it to G.O.T. It is nowhere near on the same level for me. If I had to make a comparison, I would compare it to the TV series Hercules or Xena. To be honest, I find Geralt’s character quite boring, but I think this is because the series portrays him to be void of emotions (and I am not sure if this is how the book portrays him). I find some issues around this as he clearly displays feelings for other characters, such as Yennefer. What Geralt lacks is made up for in the character of the bard, Jaskier. He can be annoying, but he’s funny and brings that little extra something to the show. I also like Yennefer’s character, she is likeable, but she has her own personal issues and a darkside to her that makes her very interesting to me.
Watching this series has prompted me to add the book to my ‘To Read’ list, and if you are after a copy of your own, you can purchase it from the following links:
Anyway, overall I enjoy the show and will continue to watch through the next season when it comes out. If you have watched the show yourself, I’d love to know what you think of it. Just post your comments below.
Happy Reading!
Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why notcheck out his books here.You can also find his titles available in libraries.
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I hope you have had an amazing festive season and are all ready for the year ahead. As I mentioned in my last post, I was going to take a look at what I achieved last year and set some new goals for the year ahead.
So here’s what I accomplished in 2019:
I met my goal to write 4 short stories,
I am just about half way through my double diploma,
I got a new job,
I have made 3 new author collaboration contacts,
I increased my mailing list from 350 to 959 (smashing my goal of 600),
I read 13 books (1 more than my target),
I garnered 11 new reviews.
And here are the goals I didn’t quite reach:
I didn’t get to finish 2 stories that have been on the back burner for some time now,
While I managed to get a new job, I gave it up 4 months later because it just wasn’t what I was looking for and I am yet to find another,
Although I am about half way through my double diploma, I had planned to have it completed by the end of 2019,
I did not hit my target of 12 new author collaboration contacts,
I didn’t manage to release the anthology of short stories I was planning,
I didn’t hit my goal for reviews I wanted to garner.
That’s quite a bit not achieved isn’t it? Well, I still consider this a success. I had set goals on what I wanted to achieve through 2019 and this gave me some direction. While I didn’t achieve them all, I did make progress. Progress I may not have made if I didn’t set the goals to start with. I am sorry I didn’t release anything new over the year, but considering the tumultuous year I’ve had with redundancy and job seeking, I am pleased with the progress I have made.
Now, what’s on the cards for 2020? These are the goals I have set myself:
Find a new job,
Target to write 6000 words a week,
Gain 10 new reviews,
Get my 4 short stories edited,
Create and release anthology of 10 short stories,
Finish 2 partially completed stories,
Read 12 new books,
Write 12 reviews.
As you probably noticed, I have carried across most of the goals from last year in a hope to complete them this year. A lot will swing on getting a new job, as the time taken searching and applying for roles is quite substantive and I will need a steady income to pay for editing, but I am hopeful I will get there.
So, what are your goals for the new year?
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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Wow! Another year over. It seems to have flown past. Why is it that time seems to go so much faster the older you get? Whatever the cause, it is all the more reason to make each and every year count. I hope you had a fantastic year and achieved some great things. Now is a good time to reflect on all the things you achieved and to set new goals to make the most of the year ahead. That’s just what I am going to do, so keep an eye out for my post on that, it will be out soon.
In the mean time, I wish you all a fantastic new year and hope you achieve all your goals, whatever they may be.
Thank you for following my blog,
Allan.
Happy New Year.
Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why notcheck out his books here.You can also find his titles available in libraries.
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Another year is almost over and I just wanted to wish you and your families a very merry time over the festive season. I hope you have a great time and enjoy a nice little break, wherever in the world you may be.
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,
and her new release,
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.
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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