K.A. Ashcomb's Blog, page 70
January 22, 2019
Book Review: The Illustrated Eric by Terry Pratchett, Josh Kirby
Be careful what you wish for! And the rest you know. Eric by Terry Pratchett is a fun short story. It is lighter than the usual Discworld books, but it is one of my favorites. I like the whole play on Hell being turned into our world with a corporate structure and relatives showing pictures of their holidays. Maybe that is because I agree with Pratchett what Hell looks like, or because I have always found demons and eternal damnation tragicomic.
The book is about we are clueless with our own...
January 17, 2019
Self-Publishing: Aggression and Success?
The question is simple, is aggression the only path to succeeding as a self-publishing author (or in the world)? I don’t mean foolish aggression like bashing or shouting at others or another form of verbal abuse. What I mean with aggression is the ability to make oneself seen and heard, so basically assertiveness. In a way, the book business is a popularity contest, and as a quiet and nice wallflower, it gets trickier to be noticed behind those who have no trouble saying me, me, me!
The thing...
January 15, 2019
Book Review: Bolos: Their Finest Hour by Keith Laumer
This book is a collection of stories featuring Bolos which are weapons/tanks with sentient AIs. Keith Laumer’s stories are from the sixties, and the rest are from the nineties. Most of them center on some military situation Bolos involved (hence the name), revealing titbits from the backstory, history, and the world around the tanks.
I would have liked a better knowledge of the world while I read the short stories. It wasn’t because they were badly written. It was because it would have deepen...
Book Review: Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
This was the second Discworld book I ever read after Hogfather, and it strengthened my ties to the series. Wyrd Sisters is an amazing mixture of Terry Pratchett’s world and Shakespeare, and a true opening for Granny Weatherwax. One of my favorite characters. And there is Nanny Ogg and Magrat. Those three women convinced me that this series is for life. (So this review like most of my Discworld reviews are biased.)
This is my fourth time reading the book through, and some of that initial excit...
January 10, 2019
Writing: A Mechanical Writer or a Creative Dreamer?
I have been talking with a friend about impulses, pleasure, and self-control. And it once again came painfully obvious that I’m one of those people who like structure, discipline, and who like to torture themselves. To be noted, I’m also one of those people who hate if that structure and discipline is given from outside not to mention torture. I alone have a right to beat my head against the wall (floor was my preferred choice as a child, or so I have heard, I have no recollection) or make my...
January 8, 2019
Book Review: The Nurture Effect: How the Science of Human Behavior Can Improve Our Lives and Our World by Anthony Biglan
More self-help books and pop-science. Nurture Effect is about how nurturing can affect our family life, environment, how we live and increase the well-being of society. The book is written from a behavioral psychology perspective. How rewarding good behavior is a better way to get the desired outcome. How aggression and spiteful speech transfer into children, causing depression and anger plus all other sorts of bad behavior. I agree rewards are better motivators than punishment. However, I di...
Book Review: The Art of Communicating by Thich Nhat Hanh
I came across this book by coincidence, and I read or in this case listened to anything that comes in my way. The book is based on Zen Buddhist teaching and mindfulness. I didn’t listen to the book either of those premises.
Thich Nhat Hanh has written the book for the modern era, addressing the problems we face nowadays like loneliness, hateful speech, depression and so on. The basic idea of communication is compassion. Compassion to others and yourself. Your speech and actions should stem fr...
Book Review: Does It Fart?: The Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence by Dani Rabaiotti, Nick Caruso, Ethan Kocak (Illustrator)
I and my husband have been reading this book quite a while now. It is part of our bedtime routines where we alternate who reads aloud a passage from a book. We read one to three flatulence cases a night. Does It Fart? has been a blast. I’m sad it has come to an end, and I have no farts waiting for me before I shut my eyes.
The book is amazing. It is fun, informative, well written and the illustrations are a nice addition (especially the last one). I loved it. I don’t have a single criticism t...
January 3, 2019
Book Review: Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut
Opening a Vonnegut book is like going home. I get this fuzzy good feeling, and this time wasn’t any different. The first words of the Deadeye Dick welcomed me to serenity, and then for the next thirty to fifty pages, I was lost. I couldn’t get into the book. The story felt pointless. I persisted as this is Vonnegut we are talking about and it paid off. I got my mood set, taste palette reset, and I entered Rudy Waltz’ life.
Deadeye Dick is a bittersweet story in the way only Vonnegut can tell....
January 1, 2019
Writing/Self-Publishing: Risk Management and Writing
Yesterday, I was talking with a friend about the game industry and how risk management is one reason new type of games aren’t being published. That games that succeed are sequences to the previous ones or copies from existing and proofed games. He is a veteran of the industry, and he said developing a new style of game is a huge gamble which demands both time and money and the results aren’t guaranteed. Therefore big game studios don’t always go for something new. (Consider they have bills to...
