Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Media


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P.C. Hodgell on writing

God-Stalk-P.-C.-HodgellI am having a wonderful time reading the God Stalker books by P.C. Hodgell1, and it was ages since I had enjoyed a fantasy series so much. Sprawling is a word that comes to mind, but in a good way.
P.C. Hodgell therefore went straight into my short list of authors whose technique I admire, and whose skills I’d love to emulate.

So, fueled by my fanboy-ish enthusiasm, I did a little search on YouTube, and found these two snippets of interview, that I think I am going to share.
Always interesting, listening to writers talking about their work.
I hope you’ll like ‘em, and maybe check out her books.

  1. in case you are interested, you can get the first four in the series as two hefty paperbacks by Baen books. The covers are nothing to write home about, but you are not buying books for their covers, right? ↩


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Change the world with music

No, this is not a post about some 1970s disco extravaganza.
75168In a post about the late Robert F. Young a few days back I mentioned his influence on a Japanese anime called RahXephon.
I was first interested in the thing when it was described to me as Evangelion’s smarter brother.

Confessions of an Anime viewer: I was never able to get Neon Genesis Evangelion. I know it was a huge success and a smash hit and all that, but I tried it and I did not like it.
The fact that there were at the time self-styled otakus shouting ceaselessly about how the series was better than anything that had gone before and anything that would come afterwards sort of cooled my already not-very-hot enthusiasm.

But RahXephon came with that comment, the reference to Robert F. Young’s masterful short story The Dandelion Girl and the discovery that it was somehow related to Churchward’s work about the lost continent of Mu.

So I gave it a try, and while I still have some misgivings, I’ll admit I was positively impressed. I do not normally cover anime on this blog, but once in a while, during the Silly Season… why not? Continue reading →


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Ruth St. Denis

e1304c33db9a1336312a4b6d2f846ad0I am not a fan of ballet. I grew up on radio and 45s. I grew up with pop, rock and, a little later, with jazz. I can dig folk and country (of the non-truck-driver sort). My tastes in classical music are still considered “quirky” by those in the know, and I had a hard time coming to terms with opera.
Ballet–no, not yet.
Let’s say I’m working on it.

But I write, and so I do searches for reference images, and I was looking into old photos of Oriental costumes and so I stumbled on Ruth St. Denis. Continue reading →


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Autumn & De Lint

I am longing for Autumn.
I’m a guy for half-seasons, Spring and Autumn are fine with me. Winter is too cold and dark here where I live, and summer is too damn hot and lonesome.
But in Spring and Autumn temperatures are acceptable, and it rains, and the countryside has wonderful colors. And I tend to prefer Autumn because it comes without an extra of hay fever and allergies.

Langhe-Roero-e-Monferrato-720x380

I was thinking about autumn last night as I was writing a scene in which two gypsy wagons cross a hilly country in late September. I knew what I was looking to achieve, but I failed to. Continue reading →