After a month of May that felt like November but without the cheer, a suffocating hat has come to the Belbo Valley and the hills of Astigianistan are sunk in a Cambodian humidity.
Sometimes a chopper flies by, and it feels like a rerun of China Beach.
Soon I’ll start working at night, and spend the days in a state of semi-comatose stupor.

But, because one has to make a living, I sent out two book proposals this morning. Very sketchy, as these are the opening shots, but promising.
Also, these are (fingers crossed) sure things – both publishers are positive the things will be published, and indeed they were the ones that asked me to provide proposals and work plans.
These are books I will write – maybe by night, but I will.
The worst that could happen is for the editors to tell me they’d rather have it differently from the way I plan to write it. It’s OK.

Both the projects will be quite fun, and this is good, because writing for hire can be soul-crushing. One book will be a sword and sorcery yarn with a Mediterranean/Ray Harryhausen twist, and the other a non-fiction book about explorers and adventurers – a proposal I landed last month at the Turin Book Fair. One will come out in English, the other in Italian.

It’s been a good morning, despite the heat.