As the saying goes… because your wishes might come true. And no more that six weeks ago I was saying to myself what a damn chore – not to mention the expense – would be trying and putting together a decent collection of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire. A decent collection, mind you, not a complete one.
And now I found out Rebellion Publishing will issue the first 340 pages volume of the Trigan Empire in 2020. Finding the stuff is no longer a problem – but expenses might become critical. The series, written by Mike Butterworth and drawn by Dan Lawrence, ran between 1965 and 1982, and this means a lot of pages.
Having spent most of the day writing, I decided to take a break at 4 pm and dug out another Hard Case ebook from the big supply I have now on my reader. My friend Flavia posted about starting to re-read once again Stephen King’s Joyland, and I thought, why not? I always liked the cover of this one, time to see if the story is up to it.
I did not feel like working this afternoon, so I did a bit of writing for a project I’d like to see take off in the next days (due date the last of May), and then I brew me a cup of tea and dug out one of the (virtual) stack of Tor.com novellas I have here. Short, high quality fantasy fiction – what’s better on a rainy Saturday afternoon?
And so it’s here, in all its glory, the first volume of the definitive edition, in English by Vertical, of the manga version of the old Mobile Suit Gundam. A gift for my fifty-second birthday. And I have already discussed how, at the tender age of fifty-two, it feels weird to be so excited by a comic based on a cartoon I watched when I was fourteen. But like in that old song, it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to. Or I’ll enjoy Gundam.
Domenico Attianese is a writer, journalist and screenwriter based in Italy, and a good friend. I am therefore quite happy to point you in the direction of Point Nemo, the first boon in the Nemo Dynasty series. You can consider it, if you like, a pilot episode in a TV series.
The idea is simple – for generations the descendants of Captain Nemo have fought against the coming of the Great Old Ones, but now H.P. Lovecraft is about to unleash on our planet the scariest of these ancient horrors. So, OK, maybe simple is not the right word…
Like the unholy child of Alan Moore and Jules Verne, with more than a hint of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, Domenico’s story is fast, furious and fun, and mixes pulp action with ancient horrors and a nostalgic look at our childhood heroes. And yes, it leaves you wanting for more. But that’s the idea. So here’s hoping a lot of people buy this baby, so that the author will be motivated to write the rest of the series…
It is always good when a new job provides the opportunity to go back to a character we love. Right now, I am struggling with doctor John Watson’s voice as I try and finish my first Sherlock Holmes pastiche (the editor’s waiting), but in the meantime, I’ve had to dug out a few books about my old friend Conan the Cimmerian.
Of the various books, none is as thorough as GURPS Conan, but certainly none is as gorgeous as Roy Thomas’ huge Conan – The Ultimate Guide to the World’s Most Savage Barbarian (classy title, uh?), that has been sitting here on my shelf for ages, waiting for the right moment to be something more than a private pleasure, and turn into a research item.
I collect books about writing. I have at this point over 120 different titles on the subject, many in digital form, many in hard copy. Some of them are more useful than others, some of them are more entertaining than others, some of them I like better than others, each and everyone contains at least a little nugget of something that (I hope) helped me get better at the craft. I don’t think you can learn everything from a handbook, but maybe from a few dozens of them you’ll get enough tools to put together your own toolbox.
This morning I learned about the Humble Book Bundle “Write like a Writer”, and I happily shelled out 80 eurocents for the basic tier of the offer. The basic level includes a book I already own and that I highly recommend, The Tao of Writing, by Ralph L. Wahlstrom. This title alone is worth the expense. The rest is a selection of interesting How To books covering a few topics I am not very familiar with (like screenwriting) and a few I am familiar with (like writing non-fiction) that might still improve with the addition of new information.
Anyone willing to pay the full 15 bucks for the complete set will end up with 26 writing handbooks, and at that point they’ll have to chose whether to read or to write, but that’s always the problem, isn’t it?
Part of the money spent on the bundle goes to the National Coalition Against Censorship, and I think that’s a good thing, too.
Karavansara 