Blog – Page 7 – Joanna Maciejewska

What Went Wrong With Netflix’s Altered Carbon

I’ve read Richard Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs series in my early twenties, back when I lived in Poland. There was a bit of hype about it, and I decided to check it out. Needless to say, a book that started with the main character dying on the first two pages had to suck me in (and I missed my tram stop because of it). I devoured all three books as they became available in Polish, and then—since there were no more Takeshi Kovacs stories—I moved onto other exciting reads.

When Netflix released its series based on the books, I hardly remembered the stories, only the setting, so it took me a while to actually get around to watching it. That delay allowed me to watch season 1 and 2 of Netflix’s Altered Carbon almost back to back.

If you had not watched the series, be warned—some spoilers ahead. (more…)

3 Comments

May 18, 2020

On Writing / Personal Rants

Invisible Writing Progress – Q1 2020

So far, 2020 has been an odd year for me. I might not be a person to make New Year resolutions, but I had plans, solid and detailed, and I was ready to see them through. Yet, as always in life, unexpected things happen, and my plans got derailed, so the first quarter of the year for me, although somewhat productive, has been affected by a sudden loss of direction and then need to rearrange my goals.

And although writing isn’t necessarily as lonely endeavor as some people might paint it, the writing progress remains invisible until a novel or a story is done and published. That’s why I thought I’d share how my writing life has been so far this year, and what else I’ve been busy with. (more…)

5 Comments

April 13, 2020

Personal Rants

Why I Don’t Write About Self-Isolation

This post a bit more personal than my usual offerings, so if you’re here for fantasy and science fiction, feel free to skip it.

Every few weeks, my acquaintance messages me to ask, “how is it going?” We then proceed to have a short chat, sometimes about updates from his life, sometimes about movies or games. Then, the conversation is over, but he’ll ask again in less than a month. In a way, it amuses me, because my life rarely changes and events that others would consider “exciting” are a rarity, so even months would not be enough for an update.

You see, I’ve been pretty much self-isolating for the last years. (more…)

2 Comments

March 30, 2020

Personal Rants

4 Years in the USA

Among the (not too) chilly aura of Virginia’s winter, among the business of my writing and freelancing, quietly passed four years since I moved to the United States and over twelve years since I immigrated from my own country. And nothing tells me clearer that I settled in my new home than the fact that I had to do math to figure out both numbers.

It’s hard to believe that 4 years ago I packed all the essential things (many of them being books, of course), gave or threw away over 8-years worth of living stuff, and embarked on a plane to carry me over the ocean to start a new life. (You can read more about it in my Of the Endings post.)

Now, after all that time, I can look back and see how that “starting went”.

(more…)

2 Comments

March 9, 2020

On Writing

Splitting a Novel

It’s been at least three years since I finished my epic fantasy novel, By the Pact. It was all revised, edited, and “ready to go”. But I wasn’t entirely happy with the compromises I had to make between the story, beta readers’ expectations, and the word count. But to address it, I would have to set myself back, adding a significant amount of work to my already-full schedule. And in the end, I did it. (more…)

4 Comments

January 27, 2020

Personal Rants

Remembering Mike Resnick’s Books

Last year, I came across information that writer Mike Resnick was sick, but people get sick all the time, and then they get better… except for when it’s the sickness which gets the better of them as it was in his case.

To be honest, I didn’t know Mike Resnick as a person. I didn’t even know him as a writer. But I did know his books, so when the news of his recent death reached me, I immediately thought of his works. I don’t have those fancy memories of meeting him in person, but I have all the memories of reading his books and how formative some of them became. So today, to honor his memory and let him live on within his words and worlds, I’m sharing the ones I liked the most with you. Who knows, maybe you’ll feel tempted to pick one up?

(more…)

2 Comments

January 13, 2020

As a Side Note

Melfka’s Best of 2019

Do end-of-year lists have a point? 355 days is enough time to both get acquainted with massive amounts of creations and… forget about a lot of them, no matter how good they were. Yet, those subjective “the best of” lists do have an appeal of discovery of another person’s favorites that in the next year might become mine.

Nowadays I’m more focused on creating rather than consuming, so I don’t have dozens of books or tv shows to pick from, but I still can point toward my favorites, so here’s a meager Melfka’s Best of 2019 list. (more…)

6 Comments

January 6, 2020

Gaming Writer's Saturday

Gaming Writer’s Saturday: Greedfall

I don’t game as much as I used to, with writing greedily taking over every available moment, but after I won NaNoWriMo a few days early, I gave myself a weekend of video gaming in reward. That meant finally getting to the end of Greedfall: a game that I came across by chance and that surprised me in many positive ways. (more…)

0 Comments

December 21, 2019

As a Side Note

Waiting for the Witcher

I first read the Witcher series in my early teens, grabbing the books off the bookstore’s shelf as soon as they were published. Through years to come, I’ve re-read the saga almost as much as I used to read one of my other favorites, The Count of Monte Cristo. At some point, I knew pieces of dialogue and descriptions by heart, and reading those books impacted my growth as a writer.

Yet, my relationships with the Witcher’s derivative works were—so far—very lukewarm. Can the Netflix’s upcoming series change that? (more…)

2 Comments

December 15, 2019

All Things Art

30 Inktober Witches

Back in October I took part in Inktober: a challenge for artists that encourages daily drawing and sharing art. It wasn’t my first time. Last year I had fun with quickly-drawn dragonflies (that later became regular guests on my social media), and this year I decided to push myself a bit more. By common demand (expressed via Facebook and Twitter polls), I was to draw witches.

I’m not very good with anatomy, so I had to settle for simplified humans rather than realistic ones, and many of the prompts pushed me far beyond my comfort zone, but all in all, I had fun, and missed only one day due to work overload.

If you weren’t following my witches on social media, you can find them here. (more…)

5 Comments

December 9, 2019