C. Rene Astle's Blog, page 2
September 1, 2021
The #1 lesson to learn about book cover design
I’ve written before about how I’ve bought books based on their cover (and sometimes not bought them), but I don’t know if I mentioned that I also design book covers under the moniker Rook Book Designs.
When I started writing, I had some Photoshop skills but needed more practice before I could turn the ideas in my head into covers (especially around typography — fonts, treatment and hierarchy). But let me tell you, not being able to create covers straight away was a good thing: if I’d had the...
July 3, 2021
Judging a book by its title
I often judge books by their covers — might have something to do with why I’m also a cover designer — but sometimes I also buy them because of their titles.
That’s what happened with The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry. How I could I not buy it?! The same thing happened with A Natural History of Dragons.
The book tells the story of Dellaria Wells, a down-on-her-luck fire witch talks her way into a plum job as a lady’s bodyguard.
Delly Well, the heroine, is complex with many layers, ...
April 24, 2021
Ruins, Rambles and Raki
In case you haven’t guessed, I’m a bit of a history buff. Especially civilizations that aren’t a part of common WASP history: the Indus Valley, the Maya, the Minoan. It was the latter that led me to Greece.
Greece was my first walking tour trip but that happened by happenstance. I knew I wanted to visit Santorini where Akrotiri is located. I had to fly into Athens so that was also on the itinerary. But I needed something to flesh out the trip, and discovered a walking tour through the countr...
March 28, 2021
Pura Vida: Costa Rica travels
I’m starting to think about travel again, as more and more people are getting vaccinated for COVID-19. But it’s still going to be a while before I’m comfortable booking a trip. So I’ve looking back at previous trips. I have great memories of this trip to Costa Rica, even with the night of apocalytic rain, fer de lance nightmares, and spiders getting cozy. And I’m glad I took the proper camera.
The National Theatre – unfortunately my photo of the best statue is blurry.
Just a really coo...
April 13, 2020
Cast one’s bread upon the water
My bread and butter. The greatest thing since sliced. Know what side ones bread is buttered on. To break bread. Man cannot live by bread alone.
There are a number of sayings with bread in them. Including cast ones bread upon the water, which I had never heard of but quite like apparently it means to act generously because it is the right thing to do, not because you expect a reward (Collins).
My Red River Cereal Bread I know this is supposed to be a blog about writing and weird things, but...
March 17, 2020
Why science fiction and fantasy?
One thing Im struck by the few times Ive sold books at local markets is the number of women over a certain age who, when presented with a sci-fi or fantasy book respond with oh no, I dont read that stuff. I dont know if this is a gender thing or an age thing, and those are probably waters too deep for me to navigate. All I know is, as someone who was assigned female at birth (I think AFAB is the acronym for the cool kids) and who still identifies as such, Ive always read sci-fi and fantasy...
January 26, 2020
Sleepwalkers: a podcast about our relationship with AI
Do you feel like you ought to know more about artificial intelligence? Machine learning? Skynet? I suggest checking out Sleepwalkers, a podcast about the potential — and the potential perils — of AI.
I found Sleepwalkers via another podcast (I can’t remember which one). I wanted to learn more about AI and the impact it can have on our society. Sleepwalkers fit the bill. The podcast is very even-handed. It doesn’t demonized the technology, but also doesn’t worship it. And it presents...
January 19, 2020
Book review: The City of Brass
I have a goal this year to write reviews for the books I read most of the books I read. The first book I finished this year is The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty.
The story centres around Nahri, a woman making her way on the streets of Cairo in an alternate past. An orphan for as long as she can remember, she’s tough and resourceful, doing what she has to to survive. Including using a power she keeps hidden.
La Mezquita (the location doesn’t play into the story but made me thing of the...
October 20, 2019
Gimjang: how I make kimchi…and why
One of these days, I’ll finish my series of posts about my time in Korea but not today. Instead, this is sort of a tangent to those posts: how I got into making kimchi.
Okay, so there is a bit about my time in Korea. I don’t think I’d ever had Korean food before boarding the plane to Seoul. So I decided that would be a good time to try kimchi. After that initial taste, I decided I would never eat kimchi again.
Haahahaahaaha. Oh, my sides.
Over my first few months, I did try kimchi again. And again. At first...
October 6, 2019
Forged in Fire, Born in Blood
Now that I have your attention, let me introduce you to Bertha.
Beautiful, blood-thirsty Bertha My axe. My beautiful axe. My beautiful throwing axe to be precise. She was indeed forged in fire and there was a blood sacrifice in her making. We share one soul now.
Okay, I got the side of my thumb caught in the handle of a vise, but it bled like stink! You can see the blood on the shirt!
A friend of mine decided she wanted to take a blacksmith class. I said ‘that’s sound cool, I’ll join you’,...
