John Walters

Biography

John Walters recently returned to the United States after thirty-five years abroad. He lives in Seattle, Washington. He attended the 1973 Clarion West science fiction writing workshop and is a member of Science Fiction Writers of America. He writes mainstream fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and memoirs of his wanderings around the world.

Where to find John Walters online

Books

Opting In
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,860. Language: English. Published: August 7, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » General, Fiction » Adventure » Travel
(3.00 from 1 review)
An old man, feeling useless, leaves his daughter's home to go live in a homeless shelter. Following up on a tip from a fellow vagrant, he finds an alien being preparing to leave Earth who invites him on a journey from which he can never return.
Lady Linguist
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 5,890. Language: English. Published: August 7, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Literature » Literary, Fiction » Themes & motifs » Spiritual & metaphysical
After a near break-in at her apartment, a young Greek woman reassesses her life. She starts a blog under the alter-ego of Lady Linguist. As she ventures forth into the new and strange cyber-world, she finds herself confronted with the real-life decision of either huddling within the safe strictures of her culture, or stepping out into the unknown.
Plants
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,880. Language: English. Published: August 7, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Adventure, Fiction » Science fiction » Apocalyptic
A planet overrun by a single enormous connected plant is being evacuated, and refugee colonists must undergo purging to rid themselves of the plant's procreative spores. But one group of colonists refuses to leave, and a negotiator is sent down to find out why.
Opting Out and Other Departures
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 60,260. Language: English. Published: August 7, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories, Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical
These stories, some fantasy and others literary, concern misfits, outliers, wanderers, loners – those who have stepped beyond the norm. Each is confronted with the call of the open road. For some it is physical and for others metaphorical, but all must choose to either cower in mediocrity or set forth on the path of adventure and destiny.
Reviews and Reflections on Books, Literature, and Writing
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 76,320. Language: English. Published: April 20, 2014 . Categories: Nonfiction » Reference » Publishing & books, Essay » Literature
Because I cannot imagine a life without books, reviews are an essential part of radiating who and what I am. Reading is a voyage of discovery. And though a true reader wants the freedom to discover new worlds without restriction, a map with a few landmarks is a useful tool to save time. Reviews are one way of fine-tuning your discernment, to ensure that your reading experience is time well spent.
Maze; Revenants; Chiaroscuro in Chalk: Three Fantasies
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,800. Language: English. Published: March 30, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories, Fiction » Horror » General
Three dark fantasies. A traveler in the Himalayas trapped in a castle labyrinth must play a guessing game with death the penalty of failure. The undead arise from a surfing beach in California. A chalk drawing on a European sidewalk becomes a doorway into hell.
Sunflower: A Novel
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 68,710. Language: English. Published: March 2, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Travel, Fiction » Literature » Literary
(4.00 from 1 review)
In early 1970 Sunflower attends a rock concert at Altamont Speedway near San Francisco. Seeking a transcendent experience, she instead comes away covered in the blood of a man brutally stabbed to death in front of the stage. Disillusioned, she embarks upon an odyssey across an America torn by violence. Her quest leads her on a journey across continents.
The Ongoing Relevance of the Sixties and Seventies and Other Essays and Memoirs
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 8,930. Language: English. Published: January 8, 2014 . Categories: Essay » Literature, Nonfiction » Biography » Autobiographies & Memoirs
(3.00 from 1 review)
Essays and memoirs on the sixties and seventies, rock music, writing, travel, science fiction, and other topics. Includes: "The Ongoing Relevance of the Sixties and Seventies", "A Tales of Two Jackets", "Reflections on The Who's Performance of Quadrophenia in San Diego, February 5th 2013", "Loneliness Versus Solitude", "Standing Up to Intimidation", "On Attending ConDor 2013, San Diego
Do You Fear Death? and Other Memoirs
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 9,190. Language: English. Published: January 1, 2014 . Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Autobiographies & Memoirs, Essay » Literature
Memoirs on life, death, old age, family, travel, writing, and other topics. Includes: "Do You Fear Death?", "New York in the Summer", "It's Been a Long, Strange Trip", "Where You're Meant to Be", "The Cold", "Getting Old: A Journal; Part One: Scary Stuff", "Getting Old: A Journal; Part Two: Good Stuff".
Getting Out There and Other Essays on Writing
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 7,610. Language: English. Published: December 29, 2013 . Categories: Nonfiction » Publishing » Self-publishing, Essay » Literature
Inspiration and insight for writers. Includes: "Getting Out There", "Staying Put", "Step By Step", "Endings", "On Exercise", "Reality Check", "The New Hack Writers", and "The Lepers of Literature".
My Emancipation Proclamation and Other Essays on Writing
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 7,330. Language: English. Published: December 15, 2013 . Categories: Essay » Literature, Nonfiction » Publishing » Self-publishing
Inspiration and insight for writers. Includes: "My Emancipation Proclamation", "Freedom", "Paper Dragons", "The Elusive Pursuit of Literary Fame and Fortune", "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer", "One True Reader", "The Tortoise Manifesto", "What it's Like to Self-Publish".
Portals: A Fantasy
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,170. Language: English. Published: November 24, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories, Fiction » Themes & motifs » Spiritual & metaphysical
Abruptly, without any warning, portals to another dimension opened up all over the world. Hundreds of thousands entered; none returned. Now, months later, one representative exits each portal with a message. The doorways lead to a better world, and whoever wishes to enter must do so quickly, as the portals will soon disappear forever.
Opting Out: A Story of the Road
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 10,640. Language: English. Published: November 17, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
It is the near future, and due to easier availability of alternative energy, fossil fuels are becoming outlawed. Fleeing south along the coastal highway from state government threats to confiscate the gasoline-fueled camper-van he lives in, a homeless man comes across a seemingly-idyllic communal refuge for homeless people set up by a philanthropic dot-com billionaire.
A Gathering of Shadows and Evermore: Two Fantasies
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 5,050. Language: English. Published: November 3, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories, Fiction » Thriller & suspense » General
Two fantasies of strange and wondrous visions: A man comes out of a coma to warn of an attack of shadow creatures that only the comatose can see. And... A woman travels back in time to offer Edgar Allen Poe a chance for a new start in the future.
Slug: A Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,400. Language: English. Published: October 20, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Apocalyptic, Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
In a decimated post-apocalyptic suburb, a couple stumbles upon a deranged gamer who forces them into a virtual competition whose consequence is real physical death for the loser.
The Precedent: A Near-Future Fantasy
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,860. Language: English. Published: October 12, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Themes & motifs » Legal, Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
When his mother sues him for his wasted life, a homeless man becomes a national phenomenon.
America Redux: Impressions of the United States After Thirty-Five Years Abroad
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 49,240. Language: English. Published: December 12, 2012 . Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Autobiographies & Memoirs
In 1976 John Walters left the United States in search of adventure and literary inspiration. He lived for many years in India, Bangladesh, Italy, and Greece. Finally, faced with the economic catastrophe in Greece and the lack of opportunities for his sons, he returned to the land of his birth. Without home, without job, without resources, he confronted his own country as if for the first time.
The Misadventures of Mama Kitchen: A Novel
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 74,210. Language: English. Published: August 15, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Literature » Literary
In the late 1960s a hippy girl leaves her middle-class home and wanders first to a wilderness commune, then to Haight/Ashbury, and finally to Woodstock. On the way she encounters many strange characters. Though often disillusioned, she believes hippies should unite to create a better world. It's a wild tale: sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, sometimes violent, sometimes sexy, always extreme.
After the Rosy-Fingered Dawn: A Memoir of Greece
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 41,210. Language: English. Published: July 1, 2012 . Categories: Nonfiction » Travel » By region » Europe, Nonfiction » Biography » Autobiographies & Memoirs
Greece has always been regarded as the birthplace of western civilization and a Mediterranean paradise. In The Iliad and The Odyssey Homer uses the magical epithet rosy-fingered dawn to describe the sunrise over a land of myth, fascination, and mystery. But when preconceptions and illusions are swept aside, what is Greece really like?
The Perspicacity of Soaring Eagle
Price: $1.49 USD. Words: 5,490. Language: English. Published: May 29, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
After a devastating fireflood the Earth has been newly terraformed. Soaring Eagle, searching for the spirits of his ancestors, finds a frigid island in the far north inhabited by huge bears which are supposed to be docile but have turned savage. Then a woman arrives who is bent on avenging a past wrong. A quest for fulfillment becomes a struggle for survival.
Noah and the Fireflood
Price: $1.49 USD. Words: 7,180. Language: English. Published: May 29, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
(4.00 from 1 review)
After the Earth's atmosphere ignites and burns and the surface of the Earth is destroyed, with the help of an enigmatic genius called the Time Tiger a young woman travels backward in time in a desperate attempt to save the Earth's fauna from extinction.
Tasting the Forbidden Fruit, or, If This is Hell Then Why is Everyone Smiling?
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,710. Language: English. Published: May 29, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
Aliens finally arrive, landing at many locations, wandering about as if tourists, ignoring humans. In the aftermath of their departure cults spring up of devotees awaiting their return. Years later an apostate re-enters one such commune to which his wife has returned, to persuade her to come away with him again. What he encounters is a bizarre, deteriorating culture of unrequited longing.
Generation Gap
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,040. Language: English. Published: May 29, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
In the aftermath of a conflict in which all adults are killed or driven away by their progeny, children and teens roam the streets of a ruined city. When they near the age of 21 they must play the ultimate game, snuff sport, to prevent themselves from becoming hated adults. When a lone grown-up re-enters the city, he is captured and put on trial for his life.
Life After Walden
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,320. Language: English. Published: May 29, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
In a future gone over to virtual simulations, a man escapes to Walden Pond, site of Henry David Thoreau's classic "Walden". When a group of friends, thinking him unbalanced, come to bring him home, they are instead one by one pulled into the simple reality of the natural life. Then a relative takes a more violent approach to make them all see reason.
Dark Mirrors: Dystopian Tales
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 56,260. Language: English. Published: May 29, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
These tales offer terrifying glimpses of Earth's future gone wrong. From the author's afterword: "Dark literature is not meant to overwhelm us. It is meant to purge us, to provide catharsis. It is a cleansing and purifying process. We must be aware of the evil within before we can clean it out."
Brown-Eyed Girl: A Romance of the Future
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,380. Language: English. Published: January 25, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » General
In the future all prisons have become redundant. An old man who has spent most of his adult life behind bars, abruptly set free into a strange new world he does not comprehend, sets out to search for the girl he once loved.
The Earth-Born: A novelette of the future
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 15,480. Language: English. Published: December 18, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » General
A fireflood brought on by the wars of humanity has devastated Earth, and an island on the newly terraformed world is being used as a penal colony. When a representative arrives to offer the prisoners' children who have come of age a chance at relocation and education at an off-world facility, he and the children are hunted by the disgruntled prisoners.
The Customs Shed: A Story of Life After Death
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,010. Language: English. Published: December 4, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
Those who wish to cross the river of death must first be purged within the customs shed; but within await the mysterious customs agents. What will they require as the price of passage?
Dark Mirrors: A Story of Alien Invasion
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,490. Language: English. Published: October 23, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
The people of Earth are losing a war with aliens that they themselves provoked. Everyone is being called up to fight, even prisoners; those who refuse are threatened with dismemberment to provide spare parts for wounded soldiers. A battle-hardened general enters a prison to recruit a woman who refuses to fight, but who may have a most unusual special ability that can turn the tide of the war.
Downloading Catherine: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,170. Language: English. Published: October 23, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
A man journeys across the post-apocalyptic landscape of Asia and the Mid-East to Europe to attempt to construct a replicate of his lost loved one.
This Won't Hurt A Bit: A Story of the Future
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,780. Language: English. Published: October 16, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
An accidental malfunction causes a teacher to discover that a microchip had been implanted within her forehead, causing her to lose her power of individual decision-making and become manipulated by the government. She determines to rescue the orphaned children in her care from a similar fate.
Mendocino Mellow: A Fantasy
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 8,090. Language: English. Published: October 10, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
A government scientist develops a strain of marijuana that gives those who use it psychic sensitivity. From all over the country people are drawn to him, and he is determined to use the drug's special power to find a way for them all to time-travel back to the original Woodstock Music Festival.
Wolf in a Cage and The Gift: Two Fantasies
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,250. Language: English. Published: October 2, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
In the wilderness of Alaska a man escapes the attack of a pack led by a savage black wolf. Many years later, in the ruins of Jack London's Wolf House a wanderer discovers the trapped spirit of a wolf pacing back and forth. But who or what is it, and is it benign or malevolent? And... A musician busking in the Athens subway system encounters another musician who can play the souls of men.
War Horse and The Ghost of Halkidiki Past: Two Fantasies
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,650. Language: English. Published: October 2, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
Fleeing a war that has devastated her homeland, Lisa encounters an enigmatic white horse. Where has it come from, and can it help her escape? And... In a remote village in post-apocalyptic Greece, a man is confronted by a mysterious stranger.
Basketball as a Metaphysical Experience: A Memoir
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 2,330. Language: English. Published: August 11, 2011 . Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Autobiographies & Memoirs
Basketball can be much more important than simple recreation, as evinced in this autobiographical essay by the author of the memoir "World Without Pain: The Story of a Search". It can give you stability, depth, creativity, and peace of mind.
Love Children: A Novel
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 51,290. Language: English. Published: July 20, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » General
In the mid-1970s the Love Children, raised from birth by benevolent aliens, come home to Earth. Sexually free, telepathic and honest to the extreme, they find that the world they left behind is full of darkness and deceit. As they set about using their extraordinary powers to bring light and unity back to their world, they run up against a sinister alien force intending to keep it in darkness.
Painsharing and Other Stories
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 55,360. Language: English. Published: July 11, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
In these gripping science fiction tales John Walters explores possible futures on Earth and other worlds.
The Coma Killings
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 5,170. Language: English. Published: June 13, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
Detective Steven Stone has a secret: he is an alien disguised as a human. While searching for missing persons of his own kind, he stumbles onto a group of rogue aliens bent on taking over and using human bodies for their own pleasure, thus killing the humans in the process. Somehow he must foil their plans without becoming one of their victims himself.
Beyond Purgatory
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 5,400. Language: English. Published: June 4, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
On a far planet the ultimate civil punishment is to be genetically deformed into a monstrous beast and forced to live in the forbidden compound called Purgatory as slaves of the State. When authorities arrest and condemn the woman he loves, Justus determines to find and save her, even if he must search Purgatory itself.
Fearful Symmetry
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 5,930. Language: English. Published: May 28, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
Visitors from Earth sent to a far planet to re-establish contact with an isolated colony discover that a group of white tigers with enhanced intelligence are terrorizing the locals. One of the visitors saves a young crippled girl from a tiger attack, and then while escorting her back to her distant village realizes that they are being hunted.
The Left-Handed League: A Conspiracy Story
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 5,310. Language: English. Published: May 24, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
Long has the Left-Handed League been a shining light against majority right-handed prejudice and discrimination. Now in the face of a new threat of government-enforced ambidexterity, the League must fight, or face extinction.
The Lost Poem
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,850. Language: English. Published: May 23, 2011 . Categories: Nonfiction » Travel » Essays & Travelogues, Nonfiction » Biography » Autobiographies & Memoirs
This is an excerpt from the memoir "World Without Pain: The Story of a Search". In the 1970s, while hitchhiking through southeastern Iran on his way to India, another traveler stole Walters' passport. Forced to return to Tehran, totally broke, he begged on the streets for weeks while trying to obtain a new one. The lost poem arose from his despair.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Sadhu
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 6,120. Language: English. Published: May 22, 2011 . Categories: Nonfiction » Travel » Essays & Travelogues, Nonfiction » Biography » Autobiographies & Memoirs
This is an excerpt from the memoir "World Without Pain: The Story of a Search". In the 1970s, as a young writer hungering for experience, Walters journeyed from Sri Lanka through India and into the Himalayas in Nepal. Near-penniless and alone, high in the mountains, he was confronted with a life-changing choice.
World Without Pain: The Story of a Search
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 47,880. Language: English. Published: May 15, 2011 . Categories: Nonfiction » Travel » Essays & Travelogues, Nonfiction » Biography » Autobiographies & Memoirs
In the mid-1970s Walters hit the road, first to Europe, then to the Indian Subcontinent. He sampled Buddhism and radical Christianity; he wandered alone in the Himalayas; he listened to strange gurus spouting stranger doctrines. As he traveled onward he became fascinated with the road itself. He wondered what it was that gave the road its alluring power, and forsook everything else to find out.
The New World
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 8,410. Language: English. Published: May 14, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
In post-apocalyptic Sicily a megalomaniac has taken over one of the last outposts of an interstellar colonization program, and organized crime has assumed political control of the island. A man caught in the middle of these conflicts struggles to save his wife and with her join a team making one last effort to reach the stars.
State of Grace
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 6,360. Language: English. Published: April 22, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
Sister Mary Grace is part of a group of nuns who have settled in isolation on a far planet to devote themselves to prayer for humankind. When she is sent on an errand of mercy she realizes that in the guise of another colonist evil has followed her even to this remote place, and that it lusts after her and seeks to trap her in a horrifying prison.
The Orpheus Equation: An Adventure at the Solar System's Edge
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 7,850. Language: English. Published: April 20, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
At the edge of the solar system an interstellar spacecraft is ordered by an unknown power to change course and fly to Pluto; when it refuses to comply the entire crew is mysteriously killed. An unlikely team goes to investigate and discovers a life-or-death conundrum stranger than anything they could have imagined.
Painsharing: A Fable of the End of Days
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 2,140. Language: English. Published: April 17, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
In the far future the Earth is about to be consumed by its bloated red sun. What requiem should be offered for a dying world?
Leilani: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,160. Language: English. Published: April 3, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
After nuclear war, a survivor of the monster-populated ruins of Oakland California joins the crew of a clipper ship sailing the waters of the Pacific. A typhoon shipwrecks him on a tropical island whose inhabitants share a bizarre secret.
Under Calcutta
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,970. Language: English. Published: December 31, 2010 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
Calcutta has a problem with rats and bubonic plague and the authorities have called in the World's foremost extermination expert to deal with it. But he finds out that the rats are not just rats, and the problem is much worse than anyone imagined.
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John Walters' tag cloud

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