C. Rene Astle's Blog, page 4

A surprising character

Do you fall in love with members of the supporting cast? Do you love Merry and Pippin? Do you wish there was a movie starring Lando or Chewie? This happened to me while writing Bloodborne Pathogens — there are a number of supporting characters who I fell in love with, and now I need to tell their tales.

One of those characters is Bee. Bee’s interesting because she started life as a man. However, a friend who read an early draft suggested that he might be better as a she. And I have to agree....

Going to the Sauna

You might think this is a blog post on Finland or maybe the spa. But you’d be wrong. It’s a continuation of my series about my time in Korea.

I’ve written about my journey to Korea and my first few days when I thought I’d made a horrible mistake. In this post, I talk about my first trip to a Korean sauna…fwiw, this does involve nudity.

Sick as a dog

That sense of having made a mistake that I mentioned in the previous post didn’t stick around long. Once I stepped in front of a class of Korean...

A big ship and a great ride

I actually read A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe last autumn, but I’m catching up on book reviews.

It’s funny because after I bought the book, a friend came by and mentioned she also had it on her to-be-read shelf. Then I took it on a friends’ getaway, and one of the people on the trip also had it. 

It was a great vacation read!  

Science fiction + fantasy = awesome

[image error]I didn’t realize this book by Alex White was science fantasy when I bought it. So the fantastical elements were a surprise...

Fess up…a review

Yes, English is a messy, quirky language. But I love that, and as a language and a history buff, it’s no surprise that I stumbled upon the History of English podcast, hosted by Kevin Stroud.

I sometimes post book reviews on this site, but today I’m doing something a little different. This is a podcast review. Fess up obviously isn’t the name of the podcast (though there might be one called that). No, it’s the word that struck me while listening to the podcast and inspired me to write this rev...

The year ahead: 2019

This is the time year when people tend to reflect on the past year and make resolutions for the next. I’m not exactly making resolutions, but I think putting goals in writing can be helpful.

2018 in review

I didn’t really do a 2018 wrap-up (other than the ‘books read‘ round-up), but it was a pretty productive year despite always having more on the to-do list than I can get done. I finished A Plague of Shadows, book 2 in Bloodborne Pathogens. It’s published and available in your favourite book...

2018 book round up

This is my year-end wrap-up of the books I read in 2018. Well, it’s not all the books I’ve read, just some of the best ones (most of these were not released this past year).

My reading trends in 2018

I read a lot more books by Indie authors, which meant a lot more eBooks. There’s definitely a trend — the eBooks I read are using by Indie authors, while the traditionally published books are usually print. 

I also read a lot of first in series this year, both Indie and traditional. Which means I...

What’s up with ‘u’

In case you didn’t know, I’m Canadian. Reading some of my past posts, you might have guessed — or I might have mentioned. What does that have to do with ‘u’?

Some random person in a toque

I made the decision early on to write in Canadian English. So what does this mean in practice? Well, I write flavour instead of flavor and travelled instead of traveled (in keeping with the English) but realize instead of realise (in keeping with the Americans). Throw in a few Canadianisms like give’er, skoo...

A donkey’s rear end

I have a thing for donkeys. I think they’re adorable. My favourite character in Winnie-the-Pooh was always Eeyore. But this isn’t really a post about donkeys.

So what is it about? Honestly, I’m not sure. It could be about my anal retentiveness in not deleting any photo until I see it on a big screen. It could be about taking a second look at something that seems to be trash before throwing it out. No, it’s really just an excuse to share one of my favourite photos that I’ve taken. And it’s som...

Putting in the klicks

No, that’s not a typo in the title: klicks is slang for kilometres. What follows is my musing about how running and writing, two habits in my life, are alike.

So, how is writing like running? My drowned rat impression

And no, it’s not because it’s painful or because it gives you an excuse to have chips and beer (or chocolate and wine, as the case may be). Reviewing the list below, I think running might be a metaphor for life in general, not just writing.

I’ve already written a post about writ...

Plotting a novel: focused creativity

I recently signed up for grocery delivery, part of which is a produce box with a selection of produce. Having this pre-selected produce might seem restricting but I’ve actually found that it fires up my culinary creativity.

Instead of spending my time thinking about what I could make from all the ingredients available in the grocery store, I can focus on what I can make with this small selection of produce. There’s some limited ability to swap items out but I haven’t done much of that — I’m e...