Welcome!

This is my word garden on the internet. I’m Michael Walters, author of The Complex, a novel out with Salt Publishing. I’m deep in the writing of a follow-up. I also have a PATREON where you can follow me and get more about my writing in particular, including notes on the novels I’m reading.

And check out my film collections in the sidebar—I do love a film challenge!

George and Kathryn reach to kiss across the kitchen table.

March 13 2025, 19:46

Black Bag

George works for a British intelligence agency in London and is tipped off someone in the service is trying to sell a deadly secret. Known for his tenacity, he quickly assembles a list of suspects and begins to unpick their various motivations, but his wife, Kathryn, is also on the list.

Nasha and Mickey look straight out at the camera.

March 09 2025, 09:51

Mickey 17

Mickey Barnes owes money to sadistic loan shark Darius Blank. To avoid a tortuous death, Micky enrols on a colonising mission to a new planet as an ‘expendable’, a person digitally copied so they can be endlessly recreated after kamikaze scientific tasks. But Mickey 17 doesn’t die before Mickey 18 is created, which makes them both question everything.

The author with headphones in as a shadow on a piece of abstract art.

March 07 2025, 17:09

Art funnel

I have a pitch to myself. I want to get better at speaking in public. I also want to be more actively engaged in the research I’m doing for my next book. I love doing #31DaysofHorror, but the pace is not sustainable. Instead, I could drop the goal aspect, add books to the mix, and at the end of the month post a short video about them for Patreon.

The author looking miserably at his own reflection in a dusty monitor.

March 05 2025, 19:56

What’s good to share?

I posted a short story to Patreon this week. That’s real content. I’ve been ambivalent about doing that for years, but fuck it, I’m ready to start experimenting with new approaches. I want to create good work and lots more of it. Getting it into the world is energising.

February 21 2025, 16:14

Glass full

Life feels tough this month. There’s a lot going on at work, I’m doing physio rehab, there are tradesmen in the house making a mess, the world seems to be in an awful place and getting worse, and I’m too tired in the evenings to read or write. I am grateful for all I have, but my body and brain is at full capacity.

January 30 2025, 19:02

Glutes 2

Last August I posted about my gluteal tendinopathy. I remember writing it in a penthouse flat overlooking St Ives, an amazing spot, where I was stuck for the day because I’d messed my tendons up on the hills and flights of stairs. I was miserable. Five months on, I thought I’d give an update.

A rainbow over the rooves of houses in a modern estate.

January 11 2025, 10:28

Switching

I’ve always switched between interests. When I beat myself up over it, it never ends well. Different parts of my life need attention at different times—when I neglect one, it invariably comes up as a desire in some shape or form sooner or later, and ignoring that intuitive reminder is when the trouble starts.

A pile of Dad’s nooks for the local library.

January 02 2025, 12:07

Seen, Read: 2024

All the films seen and books read in 2024.

A woman is on the phone listening to a dangerous crank caller.

December 31 2024, 21:54

Black Christmas

In the days before the Christmas break, a killer breaks into a sorority house and begins to pick off the girls one by one. The girls are also being plagued by obscene phone calls from someone who calls himself Billy. It’s a richly layered film with plenty of political meat on its bones for what could have been a cheap thriller for teens.

December 31 2024, 14:03

2024: Films, books, music

More lists! Nine films came out in the UK in 2024 that I gave 5 stars and a heart to on Letterboxd. (A heart means it’s to my particular taste). That rule of nine continued with nine film discoveries, nine books that got my brain engaged, and the nine albums I listened to the most on Apple Music.

December 31 2024, 13:18

2024: Life projects review

I do love an earnest end-of-year blog post, and I appreciate a quality summary of anything. I don’t have much time this year, and I’m low on energy, so instead here’s an earnest end-of-year list.

Two men with a red car await the arrival of a ferry.

December 30 2024, 21:06

The House with Laughing Windows

Stefano arrives in a half-empty Italian town at the behest of the mayor to restore a fresco inside a local church. An impeccably crafted but scuzzy Italian folk horror. The final fifteen minutes are wild.

December 30 2024, 18:07

Dario Argento: Panico

This is the documentary that gave me the idea to watch all of Dario Argento’s films this year, and it was interesting to watch it again at the end of the project.

A woman sits cross-legged on the floor with her arm in a cast and a bandage around her head.

December 29 2024, 20:34

Cuckoo

After her mother dies, Gretchen moves with her estranged father’s family to a resort in the German Alps. To stave off boredom, Gretchen takes a job at the resort reception, where she notices the odd behaviour of the residents and of her boss, Herr König.

December 28 2024, 19:57

Dark Glasses

Diana, a sex worker, is chased by an unknown assailant, leading to a car accident that kills the parents of a young boy and leaves her blind. She slowly adapts to her new life and temporarily takes in the orphaned boy, but the killer returns to finish the job.

Mina Harker looks at books in Count Dracula’s library

December 26 2024, 20:11

Argento’s Dracula

There’s a moment when Rutger Hauer’s Van Helsing arrives two-thirds in and my spirits lifted because perhaps the film could be saved, but the moment he started to say his lines, I knew it was actually a stake through my heart.

Two skulls grin from a wall over the shoulders of ayoung man.

December 24 2024, 11:32

MadS

Romain tries a new drug from his dealer before going to a house party in the suburbs of a French city. He picks up an injured woman who might have escaped from a nearby military facility. From there things get progressively darker—what is real and what might be a bad trip?

December 23 2024, 17:26

The Hound of the Baskervilles

This was a dose of good cheer after watching Dario Argento’s Giallo. A Hammer Studios production, Peter Cushing, André Morell and Christoper Lee, as well as a supporting cast of luminaries, play off each other beautifully. Fisher made this not long after Dracula, and the sets and costumes are similarly lush.

A detective with a goatee looks behind at something.

December 23 2024, 13:21

Giallo

Inspector Enzo Avolfi specialises in finding serial killers. In Turin, someone is cutting up and killing beautiful young women, and when model Celine fails to arrive to meet her sister, Linda, Avolfi has to help her search the city before Celine becomes another victim.

A priest regrets digging up a magical box.

December 22 2024, 07:50

Mother of Tears

A grave containing a rune-covered box is discovered outside a churchyard in Rome. Art restoration student Sarah Landy helps her tutor open the box, which contains magical artifacts including a tunic that bestows great power to the still-alive medieval witch Mater Lachrymarum.

A beach with houses nestled under a cliff and a headland stretching out to sea.

December 20 2024, 15:22

A true note

I called this website ‘Notes from the Peninsula’ with the intention of posting personal thoughts and mixing in reports from a character on a quixotic quest on the coast of an imagined peninsula.