K.A. Ashcomb's Blog, page 22

Book Review: Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

I found this book randomly and leaped in without reading the synopsis. I was happily surprised that the story was entertaining enough, and the personal conflicts the characters had were interesting enough to keep me reading—a rare occurrence. I’m not sure if it’s because I have become picky or because my taste has changed a lot recently.

This book is about two estranged sisters who are pulled back together because their family secrets have surfaced. Esther has been running her whole life, bel...

Book Review: What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael J. Sandel

In this world of ours, we can buy almost everything. You can buy a separate cozy prison cell if you are rich enough. You can shoot an extinct rhino for the right kind of money, and you can purchase a homeless to queue for you to Congress so you can lobby your agendas. Sandel looks at our systems and argues that money corrupts the meaning of an act, that there shouldn’t be a price for everything, and that not every deed and act should be able to be bought.

The book’s premise is sound, and Sand...

Book Review: My Brother’s Keeper by Tim Powers

Emily Brontë and her dog Keeper roam the moorlands and hills, and one day, they find a stranger who is badly hurt, and nothing is the same again. This is a book about the reimagined life and death of Emily Brontë while she is writing Wuthering Heights with werewolves and ghosts.

I could imagine Keeper by Emily’s side on the rainy hills with her wool coat flickering in the wind, her harsh lines, and the body that could walk miles upon miles. I fell in love with this imagery. If I close my eyes...

Book Review: If Found, Return to Hell by Em X. Liu

A cozy little book situated in a wizard call center. This is one of those perfect books without too many consequences that let you switch off your brain and just enjoy the journey. At first, it took me time to adjust to the second-person narrative. I’m not a big fan of you, but Em X. Liu knows how to play the narrative so that it works and draws you in. The You is kind enough and relatable enough to make the connection with the reader.

The book is about Wen, you, who works at the wizard call ...

Book Review: Exordia by Seth Dickinson

When I saw the synopsis of this book and read the first pages, I was instantly sold. This was going to be a fun ride into the unknown. The story of Anna, a Kurd, a survivor of a genocide, and an alien had to be told. It was written in the book: the Universe is about stories. They matter. I couldn’t put the book down; I needed to understand what was going on and what Anna’s deal was. Why she doesn’t fit anywhere? And I was in awe of the prose. I was sure this would be a perfect book I will cheris...

Short story: A Resolution

She woke sweating heavily, staring at the doorway of her bedroom. It was the same nightmare that always woke her up—the one she had had since her childhood. There was always that thing at the door, staring at her. The creature she had searched for in all books seemed to exist everywhere and nowhere. There it was. Always there. Waiting to take her away.

It never left her. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and opened them again. There was only darkness and the light from her alarm clock. She t...

How To Be An Author In Current Markets?

This is an odd post I have wanted to write for a long time. As you know, I’m a self-published author, and I consciously chose to be one. It was a decision I made when I listened to world-class authors on a WorldCon seven years ago. Publishing is a cut-throat business, and while there’s a potential for brilliance, success, and liberty, rarely anyone will get that, even the ones we thought who “made it.” It was eye-opening to hear authors speak honestly about how they are treated in the book marke...

Book Review: Colleen the Wanderer by Raymond St. Elmo

There are books where imagination, magic, and a dream-like state meet, and Colleen the Wanderer is one of them. I have always been in awe of St. Elmo’s books and how he manages to catch this reality that makes sense and doesn’t make sense at all at the same time. It’s the same with Colleen the Wanderer. Reading the book felt like standing in the Twilight Zone in a storybook- kind of way, and wondering where the story leads. I needed to know.

The book is about the destinies of men or the saint...

Free Books

Hi everyone!

I decided to put my first three books free on Amazon to celebrate my fourth book. You can get them free on Amazon until fifth of October.

Here they are:

Please get them and read and review them! It helps and a lot.

Have a wonderful day

The Council Of The Dead

Hi everyone,

It’s such a surreal feeling to write this post and say that my fourth book, The Council Of The Dead, is finally out and can be bought on Amazon. For the past couple of years, it felt like the book would not see the light of day. Not because I didn’t aspire to it or wanted to, but because circumstances were out of my hand. That’s the odd part of being a writer that: it’s not mechanical. I’m not an AI who can push out of text just by command of a few outlines. I’m made of flesh and...