fantasy – Page 10 – Joanna Maciejewska

Pride and Prejudice and Other Classics I Didn’t Read

Some time ago, I stumbled across people discussing some reference to Pride and Prejudice. To my surprise, one of the points raised was that one cannot consider oneself a book-lover if one has not read Pride and Prejudice. That gave me a pause. I definitely consider myself a book worm, but at the same time, I haven’t read anything by Jane Austen. And come to think of it, I haven’t read a bunch of other books considered classics either. (more…)

23 Comments

September 17, 2018

Personal Rants

Watching Novels: Thoughts on Book Adaptations

Sometimes, when you look at Hollywood’s movie repertoire, it seems they only release remakes and book adaptations. Some people cringe, hoping for more original content and fresh stories, and as much as I’d love to see more originality as well, I do have a soft spot for book adaptations. There’s something enchanting in seeing the story I loved (or at least enjoyed) envisioned by someone else. It’s almost like sharing thoughts on a book and learning someone else’s perspective. (more…)

9 Comments

February 19, 2018

The Origin of a Story

Miye’s In: The Origin of a Story

In the Origin of a Story series I’ll be sharing insights of how some of my stories came to be. What inspired them, and what kind of process followed it. All of that spoiler-free, so you can still enjoy the story if you didn’t have a chance to read it yet. For the first installment, I chose Miye’s In, a fantasy short story, published back in 2013 by Fiction Vortex. You can now read it on my website. (more…)

4 Comments

December 18, 2017

Gaming Writer's Saturday

Gaming Writer’s Saturday – Divinity: Original Sin 2

A year ago, I was writing about Divinity Original Sin, and how the game surprised me with its rich storyline and great writing. I was already waiting for the second installment of the game, having backed it on Kickstarter in 2015, and even though the game came out later than I expected, it was definitely worth the wait.

Being a backer meant that I had access to the in-development version of the game, but even though I couldn’t wait for to play, in the end I didn’t spend much time with this version. I wanted to taste the finished product instead of guessing how it was going to look like. (more…)

5 Comments

November 18, 2017

A Month in a Writer's Life / On Writing

A Month in a Writer’s Life – September 2017

Yet another month goes by in my writer’s life. This time it was full of excitement: some planned and long-awaited, some unexpected. I also managed to be quite productive, as if with the summer gone, my body woke up from the “heat slumber”. (more…)

3 Comments

October 9, 2017

As a Side Note

3 Interesting Sci-Fi and Fantasy Movies

We all hear about blockbusters like Avatar, Lord of the Rings, or movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Some are great, some meet our expectations, and some are just entertaining enough to ignore their shortcomings. There are many sci-fi and fantasy movies that any fan could readily name. But what about the less known titles? They aren’t necessarily worse, and sometimes they offer some fresh ideas, because they aren’t bound by the blockbuster requirements of how the story should be written.

I’m sure there are many great ones out there, but today I’d like to share three that I really liked. They aren’t without flaws, and they aren’t the most recent blockbusters, but they all provide decent entertainment and some inspiration too. (more…)

4 Comments

October 2, 2017

On Writing

All the Novels I Write

Even though I usually end up focused on one project at the time, it’s never the only one that is brewing in my head. I’ve mentioned before I usually have several projects going, in different stages of (de)composition, as this is my way of escaping the dreaded writer’s block. If one project feels tiresome or boring at the time, I can always jump into another one and get my writing momentum back.

(more…)

7 Comments

November 21, 2016

Gaming Writer's Saturday

Gaming Writer’s Saturday: Inquisitor

Inquisitor is a game developed by a Czech studio, Cinemax Games. This game sat in my GoG library, insignificant and forgotten, until I got a real craving for some good old-style RPG and I decided to give it a go. (more…)

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November 12, 2016

On Writing

Fantasy: The (Not So) Easy Genre

Everybody says that writing fantasy is easy. You don’t have to do research, and you can create just about anything your imagination conjures. It’s all inexistent anyway, right? As a writer of speculative fiction, both fantasy and science-fiction, I can say from my experience: quite to the contrary. I think fantasy is one of the most difficult genres to write. (more…)

12 Comments

July 25, 2016

Gaming Writer's Saturday

Gaming Writer’s Saturday: Arcanum

I played Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura when it first came out in 2001. I waited for the game only because three of its developers were the people involved in Fallout 2 which I loved, and Arcanum promised a similar game-play, rich story and turn-based combat. I still remember the doubtful thoughts when I’ve learned that Arcanum would not transfer me to a post-apocalyptic world, but instead invite me to the world of fantasy. What interesting and fresh could there be about fantasy in the games mostly dominated back then by Dungeons & Dragons cliches?

Oh, how little I knew. The game had charmed me, and now, after fifteen years, when I came back to the game, it’s still the same. (more…)

5 Comments

July 16, 2016