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!

July 12 2020, 05:28

Reality Bites

Reality Bites is still surprisingly affecting. I had low expectations. I’m not sure why. There is something about your early twenties that is particularly painful and potent.

May 25 2020, 08:56

Writers on lockdown

I miss the opportunities to write in a coffee shop, with the ritual of a double macchiato to get me into the groove, especially on my way into work.

May 18 2020, 06:09

Leaving Rebecca

It’s hard to pinpoint when I stopped reading Rebecca. I started in the middle of April, and I chose it for many reasons. There were so many little cues from the universe that it felt rude not to read it.

May 16 2020, 11:40

Website as digital garden

I’m doing okay in my little lockdown bubble. We live in a relatively rural spot, we have a garden, and we are working remotely pretty successfully. The days are going really fast.

April 21 2020, 14:22

The inner Wonder Woman

Last night, I had a deep dream of stasis and being held. I seemed to accept it, though there was a suggestion of pressing against constraints. I can’t remember any details. It’s a feeling from a fragment.

April 17 2020, 10:34

My favourite five books of 2019

In 2019, on Goodreads, I set myself the challenge of reading 52 books. Here are my favourite five.

April 12 2020, 15:55

A walk around my writer’s block

It took me thirty years to get from wanting to write a novel to finishing one. I walked away from writing several times, but I always came back...

March 31 2020, 22:21

Escape room

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed all of us back into our homes, and my writing room is now where I also do software development work for my employer.

January 29 2020, 19:22

First post, best post

I find it liberating to write whatever is next in my thoughts. The train doesn’t ever stop, not even for sleep.

November 23 2019, 18:12

Minimalism

I’m into minimalism this week. It’s been a useful concept as I try to solve some tricky problems.

November 15 2019, 11:10

Writing and reviewing

I’m a writer not a critic, but I have critical thoughts about other people’s books — what does it mean if a writer is a critic too?

November 14 2019, 19:10

Blogging with Jekyll

I’ve updated this website, hopefully in ways that aren’t obvious to the reader, but that let me have more control (and fun) in the months ahead.

July 12 2019, 17:12

On writing ‘The Complex’

The first shoots of the ideas that would combine to become The Complex appeared way back in November 2012, when I was fascinated by Lars von Trier’s film, Antichrist.

February 03 2019, 18:12

Anomalisa (2015)

Everyone looks the same to Michael Stone. He is in Cincinnati to give a talk at a conference. He is desperate for something real in his life, an authentic person who is not like everyone else.

August 20 2018, 11:15

Point Break

It’s tricky to find films that my fifteen-year-old son will want to watch with his forty-something parents, but this seemed to sit in the sweet spot — surfing, armed robbers, a cocky young hero, skydiving, a love interest and lots of banter.

August 19 2018, 09:15

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Siblings Sally and Franklin come to a remote part of Texas to make sure their relatives remains haven’t been dug up from a local cemetery in a bizarre, gruesome local crime. But Franklin’s curiosity gets them into trouble.

August 15 2018, 19:35

Exhibition (2013)

A married couple, D and H, have created their own emotional ecosystem, balancing intimacy and distance, in a big modernist house somewhere in Central London.

March 03 2018, 20:09

High Rise

I read several Ballard books in the late nineties — my mid-twenties — starting with short stories, before being entranced by the original shiny silver paperback cover of Super-Cannes, and then going back to his earlier work.

January 01 2018, 11:11

I like being at home

Woke up late. My son is in Sydney for three weeks and when I walk past his bedroom the quiet inside makes me sad. I'm trying to be more mindful as I go about my low-key morning.

December 31 2017, 16:25

Red cabbage

It was mid-afternoon. I ate some of the cabbage wrapped in a slice of bread. It felt like a treat. Red cabbage. Simple pleasures.

December 30 2017, 21:15

Written on the Body, Let the Right One In

Week 1. I'm going to try to read a novel and watch a film each week in 2018. In time, I'll work out what I'm doing with it. We'll see if it sticks. I love the idea.