Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Armchair adventuring


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Budgeting the Pharaohs

Just as an experiment, I’m trying to budget my trip to the Museo Egizio di Torino using various Internet resources.
As I am doing it I thought – why not write everything down and do a post on the subject.

Let’s see… I’m planning my outing for the end of this month or early the next, on a weekday to avoid the hordes of tourists. I’ll be traveling light – me, my camera, my cell-phone, a notebook and a bottle of water for the trip.

convention_torino_panorama_2

In this period Turin is also hosting the Holy Shroud exhibition, and the place will be crawling with people, while bars and eateries will touch up their prices to make more money1.

I hope for good weather – I’ll move early to spend the hottest hours of the day in the air conditioned rooms of the museum.
The idea is to travel light and spend as little as possible. Continue reading →


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Wisecracking heroes and real life

Let’s have a good laugh, shall we?
Or, rather, let’s talk about laughing.

Yesterday I read a review of a book.
The reviewer was not very merciful in his analysis and basically he confirmed my starting opinion – that I better save my money.
But there was an observation, in that review, that struck a wrong note.

It is not believable that during a zombie pandemic people still feel like joking.

No, I said, this is wrong.

DH-JohnMcClane

And I know it’s wrong because I grew up with stories filled with wisecracking heroes, of course.
But also because I read a fair selection of history books and memoirs.
And if there seem to be a constant in real life accounts of battles, natural disasters, assorted catastrophes and personal drama, is the fact that humor is a human traits that helps survival. Continue reading →


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Back to the Silk Road – three blogs (and more!)

coverfinalsmallThe Silk Road was one of the inspirations for this blog1 – it even says so in the About page.
Ever since I was a kid I spent lots of time reading books about the history of the Silk Road, and even planned an ill-fated adventure travel along the Road, that never happened.

I wrote a non fiction book about travelers along the Silk Road in the early 20th century (Avventurieri sul Crocevia del Mondo, available only in Italian) and of course the history and legends of the Silk Road are part of the series of novels and stories I started with The Ministry of Thunder.

The world wide web has been called the New Silk Road and indeed a lot of features of the old caravan tracks can be found on the internet – from the mingling of cultures to the trading of goods, from the exchange of ideas in meeting places to crime and banditry.
And a wealth of resources is available for those that would like to know more about the Silk Road.
Some you can find in the links section here in the sidebar, but I’d like to single out a few. Continue reading →


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5 Tools Everyone Writing Adventure Stories Should Be Using

toolboxIt was suggested to me I do a list of five about adventure writing and about the sort of tools that can be a real life (or time1) saver when you are writing adventure tales.

Yes, of course, Wikipedia and Google Translate, these are quite useful. And Google maps.
And a good reference library does help, too.
But is there something more, or something more suited to writing, and adventure writing in particular?
These are of course my fave tools, and I am sure many out there are using other software/websites/services.
If you’d like to add to the list of suggestions, please do so in the comments sections.
It’s always nice discovering something we don’t know, and that might get handy.

As for me, here goes my list of five. Continue reading →


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Faces

0966b1ee5915ce28f719351792d175f1OK, time for a little personal pet peeve.
I know, you don’t come here to hear me peeving pets or other, but bear with me for a moment.

It all started with yesterday’s writing prompt.
Did you get that?
The photo is here again on the right.
Beautiful photograph by the way.

So, what happened…
The moment I decided i wanted to do some character exercise using photos1, I took the obvious choice.
I went to Pinterest and wrote Portrait in the search window. Continue reading →


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The end of the Empire

british_empire_board_game_boxMy course on the British Empire and its Controversies, held by the teachers and researchers of Exeter University and hosted by Futurelearn ends this week.

It’s been a great learning experience – fun, thought-provoking and all-around satisfying.
As part of the last installment, I have to write a 300-words-minimum essay.

“We’d like you to write a minimum of 300 words about what you think the legacy of the British Empire has been.”

And I thought… why not start and think about it and jot down some notes here? Continue reading →


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When you go fake you never come back

A few years back, my brother, fresh from his Japanese Language Proficiency exam, got in a job interview for a post in which Japanese was a requirement.

“Here it says you know Japanese,” the interviewer said, waving my brother’s CV. “Why should I believe you?”
“I have a Proficiency Certificate.”
“That’s just a piece of paper, for all I know you printed it in your basement.”
“Try me, do you have a text I can translate…?”
“I don’t know Japanese.”
“Well, if your company has Japanese customers, call one up and I’ll be able to talk to him to your satisfaction.”
“I won’t waste an international call for that. I’ll just assume you don’t know Japanese. CVs are always full of bullsh*t, anyway.”

This sort of self-mutilating preventive mistrust is bleeding into the literary scene – authors post artificially pumped-up bios, publishers doctor sales figures, and everybody seems to think positive reviews are fakes.

Now, my own bio is available by clicking on the link up there in the right corner. It’s not been doctored, fixed or pumped up.
And yet… maybe it’s fun.
Yes, It’s certainly fun.
So, why not devote today’s post to my Official Fake Biography?

Let’s see… Continue reading →