C. Rene Astle's Blog, page 3

Book cover design for A Spell of Death

Something you may not know about me: besides being an author, I’ve also designed and created all my book covers except the first one (which I provided the rough design for). Here are the three I created:

With A Spell of Death, book 3 in Bloodborne Pathogens, I had a challenge. I ended up two ideas that I really liked. I had to pick one, and I think it was the right choice, but I still love the other one:

The other image option

One of the biggest challenges that I’ve had is finding appropria...

What’s in a name

Authors spend a fair bit of effort coming up with names for their characters. For example, Mina Sun, star of Bloodborne Pathogens, got her name because it works as a Korean name but Mina is also a character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula…and the surname Sun for a vampire? Well, I couldn’t resist.

But what about my name? Astle is my actual family name, and it is somewhat unusual. So much so, I’ve always assumed I’m related to any Astles in Canada. Another author suggested having a pronunciation gui...

Bloodborne Pathogens Book 3 Release Day!

This is just a quick note to say A Spell of Death is out in the wild as of today.

Mina Sun

Check out the sneak peeks here and here. If you haven’t read the first two books, you can check out samples.

You can find it at all the best online retailers:

AmazonKoboThe Other Guys

Now on to the next shiny thing.

The post Bloodborne Pathogens Book 3 Release Day! appeared first on C. Rene Astle.

A Spell of Death – A Sneakier Peek

Here’s another scene from the beginning of the third Bloodborne Pathogens book. It releases August 30 and is available for pre-order on Amazon and Kobo. If you missed the first sneak peek, check it out here.

Cover of A Spell of Death

THE SHADOW HUNKERED behind the dragon, her black-gloved hand resting lightly on its haunches. It seemed a grumpy sort but it couldn’t complain about her presence, given that it was made of stone. The creature capped the mausoleum rooftop she’d clambered onto to...

A Spell of Death Cover Reveal & Sneak Peek

A Spell of Death, the third book in the Bloodborne Pathogens dark, urban fantasy series, will be available at all the stores at the end of August. You can pre-order it on Amazon now. I’m super excited. But no rest for the wicked — I’m already plotting what to work on next.

Cover of A Spell of Death

JACK WAS DROWNING in sludge and deafened by a thundering howl that roared through his head like a motorcycle. He blinked, trying to clear the bleary grey from his eyes. The blurriness dissipated bu...

Creature feature: 3 of my favourites

Writing scifi and fantasy, I need to come up with creatures to haunt my worlds and hunt my characters. But there is a lot of inspiration in the animals of our real world. Here are three great animals to base book beasties on.

Cephalopods

Mostly octopuses, but squid too.

Why do I love them? Well, the Kraken, for one. But seriously…

First they’re smarter than I expected them to be. I still remember the wow when I heard the story of the octopus that would go over to the tank next door to snac...

Dar and Rhys: A Tale of Two Characters

I’ve seen a few reviews of A Scarlet Fever asking whether there’s more about Rhys and Dar’s relationship future books in the series.

Yes! It’s still a side story but their relationship is definitely developed further in A Plague of Shadows.

I read all the reviews on my books. I hope you don’t mind. Whether they say things that are good, bad or indifferent, I want to know. If they say good things, they make me giddy as a raccoon in an overripe strawberry patch; if they say bad or indifferent...

A writer’s toolbox: software and hardware

I can be a little bit…nosy? I love seeing other people’s workspaces, their offices or studios. I used to love home tours when I had cable TV, and am now addicted to the tiny home videos on YouTube. Heck, going to an open house is an hour well spent.

Am I alone in that?

This isn’t a workspace tour because a tour of my kitchen table would be boring…and possibly messy. Instead it’s a tour of the tools I use to write my novels and short stories. This includes tools used in the whole process from...

7 books to read this summer

It’s summer here in the Northern Hemisphere (it’s official now that the solstice has passed). But it was around mid-May that I started to form a plan to read through some of the TBRL — To Be Read List. I had a number of second in series books, series where I loved the first book and really wanted to read the second. However, I’m not a binge reader, possibly because I always have so many books on the TBRL and feel I should read one of those next.

Side note : Because I’m not a binge reader, I s...

Travel and my magic power

I seemed to be charmed when it comes to travel. Whenever I travel somewhere that should be warm and sunny…well, it gets unusually warm and sunny at home and cold and rainy at my destination.

When I went to Spain in June a few years ago, it was 15C and overcast or rainy except for a few days. When I went to Costa Rica, same. On my recent trip to Croatia, there was even snow. The fact that we were up in the mountains might have had something to do with it, but I like to think I control the wea...