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

It’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
A Month of Writing / On Writing

A Month of Writing – February 2016

MoW-ENAs you might know, February was the month of a big move for me. Busy with wrapping up various official things, packing my belongings, and cleaning my apartment, I didn’t have time and energy to write much, and not only I didn’t manage to write every day, but also didn’t meet my goal of the average 1000 words a day. Have I failed this month’s 365k Club challenge?

No.

I’d rather say February was quite a success for me. (more…)

11 Comments
March 7, 2016
Personal Rants

Of The Endings

8 yearsin IrelandFor the last several weeks I’ve been quite literally sorting out my life. My one bedroom apartment, full of things I needed, loved, or forgot I have, became a game of choice. Items went into boxes, trash bags, or into hands of my friends. I sorted them as necessities that would stay with me till the very end, and as things that could be shipped early, to await for my arrival in the new place. I found old notes for stories and rediscovered some of the earrings I haven’t worn for a while. I made decisions of what I need, and what can be bought again if necessary. And my brain constantly re-listed the things I still needed to do before leaving Ireland “forever”.

For the last several weeks I swung in a triangle of stress, excitement, and nostalgia. (more…)

12 Comments
February 22, 2016