A to Z Challenge

A to Z Challenge: E is for “Enemy Mine”

EFor my A to Z Challenge, I’m going back to books that influenced me in some way or left an unforgettable impression, and for letter E I struggled to pick one title out of the three that readily came to mind. The decision turned out to be quite tough, but once I realized I might mention two of the titles in my other posts, I was left with just one book, or rather a novella, which I’ve read only once. And it was over twenty years ago. (more…)

6 Comments
April 6, 2016
A to Z Challenge

A to Z Challenge: D is for “Diaries of Adam and Eve”

DThe fourth entry of my book-related impressions and memories in the A to Z Challenge, I have a little gem. A little, because the book itself is very short, but it’s still one of the reads that stayed with me for a long time.

I’ve known Mark Twain as the creator of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, sadly not because of the books he wrote, but thanks to the anime series shown on tv. Later, I’ve read the book later, but I can hardly remember my impressions about it. I think I liked it. It was only in high school, when I learned that Mark Twain wrote also a very different story. We only had excerpts covered in class, so I went hunting on my own. (more…)

7 Comments
April 5, 2016
A to Z Challenge

A to Z Challenge: C is for “Count of Monte Cristo”

CFor the letter C of the A to Z Challenge I had a difficult choice to make. On one hand, I had the Count of Monte Cristo, a nobleman with a mysterious and painful past, on the other, Conan the Barbarian, a warrior in a classic tale that started the fantasy genre. But since I’ve already mentioned Conan in last year’s Myk Book Tag, I decided to give this post entirely to the count, or rather, to the book that tells his story. (more…)

9 Comments
April 4, 2016
News

Guest Post on Double Edged (S)words

This weekend I have a pleasure of being a guest on Double Edged S(words), Marcin Dolecki's website, with my A Good Reason to Write (in a Second Language) post. Hop over to check it, and check other posts by Marcin who is both a writer and a philosopher.

5 Comments
April 3, 2016
A to Z Challenge

A to Z Challenge: B is for “Blindsight”

BFor today’s A to Z Challenge and letter B, I have my impressions about “Blindsight” by Peter Watts.

I came across this book thanks to Uczta Wyobraźni (The Feast of Imagination) great series by a Polish publisher, featuring most interesting, imaginative, and original writers of the contemporary speculative fiction. My acquaintances and friends kept telling me it’s brilliant and fresh, but they often quietly added the “challenging” part.

I had no choice, I had to read it, and see for myself. (more…)

6 Comments
April 2, 2016
On Writing / Personal Rants

Music Inspirations – part 4

Music InspirationsIt’s been a while since I’ve shared my music inspirations with you (feel free to check previous posts). Not because I haven’t found new inspiring music, but because I have a habit of putting a song in a loop while I write, usually picking the one that fits my mood, not the scene I’m working on. It’s useful in a way, as I can recycle songs for many scenes and stories, but I don’t associate them with a particular scene or project anymore. Except for the few ones that you’ll find below. (more…)

5 Comments
March 28, 2016
News

Changes on Melfka.com

NewsENIf you’re visiting the Polish version of my website, you might have noticed there haven’t been any blog updates since the beginning of 2016, while the English version posts kept being published.

I’ve made a decision to cease the translation of the posts into Polish, as it often messed up my schedule and resulted in a rushed translation which I wasn’t fully satisfied with. And since most of my visitors chose the English version, maintaining the Polish version of the blog seemed a bit pointless.

The Polish version of the website will still have all my publishing/releases information available, in the new tab called “News” (also available in English for those who’d rather skip my personal rants), and the personal blog posts will be in English only, and on a separate subpage. (more…)

2 Comments
March 28, 2016
As a Side Note

A to Z Challenge: Theme Reveal

A2Z-BADGE_[2016]I’ve known about A to Z Challenge for a couple of years now, but I never got around to joining it. Mostly because I never considered myself a blogger, and my posting schedule is still at best “shaky”, with merely a post a week (or even less). But, as you can guess, this year is different and I’ll be doing my best to post 26 posts throughout April (Sundays excluded, everybody needs a bit of rest!), each related to one letter of the alphabet.

And today is the challenges day for theme reveal. (more…)

36 Comments
March 21, 2016
Gaming Writer's Saturday

Gaming Writer’s Saturday: Shadowrun Hong Kong

1With all the positive impressions I’ve had about Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun: Dragonfall, it was certain I’d play the newest installment of the acclaimed cRPG series. As the Kickstarter campaign hit stretch goal after stretch goal, I expected the game to be even better and more exciting than the previous parts, yet I hope the developers would manage to keep what was the best in the previous games: Shadowrun’s mood, interesting characters and engaging story. Did they succeed? (more…)

7 Comments
March 12, 2016