My Projects | Karavansara

Terribly late, today – I’ve been writing, because as I said, the sprint for House of the Gods is on. NaNoWriMo has nothing on ditching 20.000 words in a 35.000 words draft and having to rewrite the lot in two weeks.
But I am making it – even if I find it a bit taxing, physically.

But anyway – one thing I’m having fun with is, of all things, the good old Tyrannosaurus rex. Because really, you can’t write a novel featuring dinosaurs and leave old T rex *out of it.
*Iconic‘s the word.
But why not have fun with it?

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And the best way to have fun with the old T rex is, believe it or not, through science. Continue reading →

16 September 2016
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Fawcett’s Dream

While I wait for the movie about the expedition of Colonel Percy Fawcett – one of the most famous cases of missing person in the golden age of exploration – I spent some time to re-watch a Discovery Channel documentary on the man’s disappearance, called Colonel Fawcett’s Dream.

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A lean, entertaining feature, the documentary was short on details about Fawcett’s expedition, but more than compensated with gorgeous shots of the sector of the Mato Grosso where Fawcett and his son disappeared¹. Continue reading →

15 September 2016
by Davide Mana 1 Comment

A most disreputable book

51iu0ea3n7l-_sl500_sy344_bo1204203200_ One of the fun bits – well, if you are the kind that finds such stuff fun – of doing research, is that you get a lot of weird stares for some of the books you are reading, or re-reading.
And because in these days either I am at home typing or I am sitting in a waiting room somewhere, I usually read my books in public.

And in the weird stares/odd looks department, my current perusal of a very very old and badly mangled used copy of Ralph Shaw‘s Sin City is certainly setting a record.
Yes, it’s because of the cover.
And the title, that even in an English-illiterate area such as the Astigianistan hills can be pretty obvious. Continue reading →

13 September 2016
by Davide Mana 7 Comments

Ruminating about sword & sorcery

scan0001 I am writing an article about sword & sorcery.
Now, mind you, I have written a lot about the genre – a lot of scraps of ideas, scattered here and on my Italian blog, basically me, talking out loud in a vain attempt at putting my ideas in order.
But this time it is different – because I have pitched an article to a learned magazine, and therefore I must write something that will, hopefully, make sense.

I have been through a lot of discussions, in the last few weeks, about the definition of sword & sorcery – and indeed a good friend of mine just posted on his blog a thing called The Definition of Sword & Sorcery (According to Myself), grab yourselves a translation system and check it out, it’s not bad, not bad at all¹.
But I still find it extremely unsatisfactory.
And of course it’s just me – so here I am once again talking out loud to myself, trying to give my ideas some order. Continue reading →

13 September 2016
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Joseph von Sternberg at the Great World

220px-great_world_entertainment_center_in_the_1930s I’ve been re-visiting Shanghai, in these nights – both for my Ned Land story and for another project that was stumped by the chaos after my father’s death, and now has started again in earnest.

And so I was checking my details both in my library and online, and stumbled once again on the Great World Amusement Center, established in 1917 and bombed to hell by friendly fire in 1937 during the Battle of Shanghai… the place was full of refugees from the Chinese districts, sure they’d be safe as the Japanese were not supposed to attack the International Settlement.

The place was rebuilt, weathered war and revolutions, and is still going strong – even if I doubt it’s up to its old standard as a wretched hive of scum and villainy – and here’s an insider’s view, from Joseph von Sternberg’s Fun in a Chinese Laundry… Continue reading →

12 September 2016
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Final sprint for the House of the Gods

The clock is ticking – and while I struggle to close two long overdue projects and juggle other engagements¹ – the deadline for the delivery of the first draft of House of the Gods looms closer.
I’m pretty excited about this book.
First because it’s a novel, and I’m notoriously a short-fiction sort of guy and writing a novel is an adventure in itself.
Then, because it’s the first job for a high-profile international publisher, so I have to show my best game.
And finally, because it’s a pulpy story full of adventure and dinosaurs and you know how much I love this sort of stuff.

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