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!

Lady Rowena offers a rose to Vernon Fell.

April 13 2024, 10:29

Ligeia

Ligeia, by Edgar Allan Poe, is a six-thousand-word hallucinatory tale about an intense marriage that survives beyond death. The narrator is looking back, remembering his wife, Ligeia, who he idolised.

April 07 2024, 12:03

Physical media

Continuing my interest in how fiction and films work together, I picked up Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land’s End, part of the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series, a collection I’ve owned for a few years and never read...

March 17 2024, 12:37

Evening classes

I’ve created a reading list my gut tells me is related to my work-in-progress. I went around the house scanning shelves and pulling out the books that tugged at my attention.

A bronze sculpture of a stern-faced woman placing her hand on the shoulder of a child clutching a loaf of bread.

March 07 2024, 21:11

Losing myself

I finally sorted the two big bags of books I brought back from Dad’s last weekend. He loved Stephen King, and he bought lots of King’s books as first edition UK hardbacks. I don’t currently have shelf space for this many books.

March 05 2024, 20:18

Writing is simple

I complicate things unnecessarily. Writing is simple. You write and edit until the piece of work feels complete and there is nothing more to do.

Bright window with glass cabinets on the left.

February 20 2024, 20:54

The joy of making things up

It took optimism to enrol on a creative writing MA — I can be a writer! I can be published! — but as I get older, I've also developed a pragmatism, tipping into cynicism, which can easily become procrastination, or even complete avoidance.

February 17 2024, 11:04

Back to the path

I spent the weekend before my father’s funeral sorting through his books. He had them on shelves in different rooms, but they were also tucked in drawers, stacked at the bottom of wardrobes and piled behind old televisions.

January 27 2024, 12:39

My father died

Dad died last week. He was eighty-eight. Looking back, it was a miracle we got him home from hospital for one final Christmas. He had a long life, he was loved, and he left peacefully.

The corner of a brown brick old cinema and a painted white brick wall with an interesting mix of guttering and vines.

January 13 2024, 16:01

Nostalgia

I’m in Wales at short notice because Dad’s been admitted into hospital. The co-morbidities have gathered and decided to strike. He’s in bad shape. Around visiting times I’m looking for peaceful, distracting activities.

January 07 2024, 14:28

Fidelity

I’ve deleted my Patreon creator’s account, which was beginning to feel like I was cheating on my website (or the other way around, I’m not sure). Two places for almost the same words.

January 01 2024, 12:00

Seen, Read: 2023

All the films seen and books read in 2023.

December 30 2023, 21:06

Best film discoveries and fiction of 2023

My favourite ten film discoveries (ranked) and ten favourite fiction books (not ranked). (Letterboxd is a hella sexy website. I wish GoodReads made more of an effort.)

Christmas tree lit up in a window with closed white slatted blinds behind.

December 24 2023, 12:07

Reflections

Somehow the year has tightened all the bolts on my rickety life, and I’m hitting the Christmas holidays in a good place.

November 25 2023, 12:07

Keep the ghosts happy

I was celebrating a new job, looking forward to an unexpected week’s holiday, when my father fell at home, so I’m spending that week in Wales.

November 11 2023, 09:51

Brief bliss

I was caught in a work storm for a few months over the summer. Things settled enough for me to take a small risk, which paid off, which means I can finally tack for calmer waters.

A man in a white Halloween mask along a suburban street staring at us.

October 31 2023, 19:21

Halloween (1978)

It has a purity that other slashers don’t have — the crisp cinematography, Laurie’s naive, nerdy charm, the simple (perfect) motif of the score. I can’t fully explain it.

Someone in a motorbike helmet watches the street with apartment blocks behind.

October 30 2023, 05:40

Enemy (2013)

My favourite discovery of the month. Barely ninety minutes, looks beautiful, has a startling final image, and I’m still thinking about it a day later.

The head of the Statue of Liberty on a Manhattan street.

October 29 2023, 05:36

Cloverfield (2008)

Feeling insignificant in the face of a fictional disaster, whether natural or alien, has its psychological comforts. Sometimes you just want something big to fuck shit up.

Someone in an animal mask stares blankly ahead.

October 28 2023, 06:53

You're Next (2011)

It’s bleak fun with some good twists. Everyone apart from Erin, our survivalist heroine, is awful. Is this where the current trend of violent final girls began?

A man in a dusty phone booth making a call.

October 27 2023, 06:10

Duel (1971)

I watched Duel dozens of time on television as a kid, as well as it’s rip-off cousin The Car, so it was a treat to revisit it. I didn’t remember the crisis of masculinity.

A woman shivering in a graveyard in the rain.

October 26 2023, 06:10

Return of the Living Dead (1985)

The gang of punks hanging out in the graveyard are everything I wish I’d been as a teen — vibrant, trashy, horny, loud, and sometimes naked in public.