K.A. Ashcomb's Blog, page 77

Self-Publishing and My Doom!

Doom, doom, doom, do-be, do-be doom. I had one of those mornings. Doom. I took my cat, went back to bed to reset my brain. It worked fine until the cat decided I was too hot and went away. Its fault, the little furball of heat. The cause for my feelings of doom (okay, not saying the doom word again because of it causes Gir’s Doom song playing in my head, and that would take the gloom away) was I woke up thinking my tax forms. Now you get me. I got advanced taxes for the possible income coming...

Book Review: Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji, Anthony G. Greenwald

I don’t know if I have ever mentioned that I studied Social Psychology at the University. Nevertheless, I did. I judged this book as someone familiar with all the concepts introduced in there and almost all the experiments used as examples. Boring start, I know, but what I’m trying to say is due to my education I can honestly say: “Read this book!” Everyone should know how our unconscious mind affects our actions and thus the society.

There are so many cultural beliefs and psychological tende...

Book review: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Dear Hemingway, why aren’t we a fit? I read your A Farewell to Arms and first fifty pages you gripped me, but then I couldn’t wait but to be done with you. With the Old Man and the Sea, I gave you a second chance to convince me you could be my classic as well. I grew up in a sea town, and I know the deep dark blue waters and their secretive nature. I waited for your book to speak to me like you did to so many others. I wanted to hear your words about aging and man versus nature, but I heard y...

Book Review: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I had high hopes for this iconic feminist classic, and it failed me. Maybe it was because I didn’t find a secret to womanhood or any better understanding of psyche or it was because of all those experiences the main character had and said about herself and the surrounding society didn’t feel novel, new, and most importantly strange. That those same feelings of emptiness, inadequacy, and neuroticism are already in me. That all I heard with this book was bells ringing the same old tune.

As I wr...

Self-publishing: Keywords and Categories

Ha, I came back to keywords and categories, and I still remember promising you to tell about my adventures with setting up a business bank account. However, I won’t bore you with that now, just with exciting things like categories to push your work into. If you are groaning already, I promise there’s a dance at the end (boring one, mind you.) No gifs as I have to admit I have never tried to produce one. I’m helplessly old-fashioned that way. You might laugh to know I’m writing the first draft...

Book Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

This was one of those books I kept putting off, the reason being I saw it too many times praised for on blogs and on everywhere else. And for some odd reason, that is a put-off for me (yes, we already have established that there is something wrong with me.) Then I “forced” myself to buy the book as it kept popping up as a recommendation on Goodreads. When I opened it and read the first sentence I was hooked.

I eagerly read every word even the footnotes. The world of Susanna Clarke is perfect,...