Writing to the sound of the coffee-grinder

24 March 2015 by Davide Mana Leave a comment

My CPU fan is busted for good – and as a consequence my PC makes a noise like a coffee grinder.
The emergency replacement two weeks back was just a way to buy time.
While I wait for the delivery boy to deliver the new fan, I’m struggling through the final chapters of my second novel – thank goodness for Portable Apps.

And in the meantime, while I also keep the GreyWorld Project going, I’m also planning future activities.

There’s a new Aculeo & Amunet story in the works – and once again I’d love to place it in a magazine instead of self-publishing it.
It’s not a matter of getting a badge of real-writer-dom – it’s just that I feel like Amunet and Aculeo might benefit from the sort of exposition a magazine might give them¹.

So I’m writing.
I’ve set my sights on a number of magazines, and I’ll see if I can write something good enough for the international professional market.

I’d also like to go back and differentiate – I’ve been called “fantasy author“² too many times, in the last few days.
Now, I’ve been writing fantasy (as in sword & sorcery), science fiction, horror, adventure and espionage for much of my life, and I hate being pigeonholed.
Especially if pigeonholing means being snubbed by idiots.
So yes, I’m planning a few non-fantasy stories – again with an eye for magazine sales.
Will I make it – ah, that’s part of the fun of writing on spec.

AND there’s a few other projects going, better defined and ready to fly, but I am not at liberty to discuss them here.
So, yes, I’m keeping busy.
And the coffee-grinder on my desktop helps me stay awake and write.

and yes, we know what the results of my last attempts in that direction have been – but let’s say I learned something. ↩
is pronounced as gnat ↩

Author: Davide Mana

Paleontologist. By day, researcher, teacher and ecological statistics guru. By night, pulp fantasy author-publisher, translator and blogger. In the spare time, Orientalist Anonymous, guerilla cook.