Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: My Projects


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Life on Mars

As I am seriously thinking about ditching my TV set for good (and thus escape the blood-dripping 120 bucks TV tax our friendly government imposes us), I am once again using the web and MOOCs in particular for my entertainment and edification – and as a break from reading and writing.
And therefore, in October, I will be on Mars, for a short survival course…

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This free online course will introduce the key scientific concepts needed for humans to survive on Mars, where there is no air to breath, no water to drink and no food to eat. The course will also examine interdisciplinary skills and meticulous planning required to sustain human life in such a hostile environment. Case studies and insights from leading experts in the field of Chemistry, Astronomy, Physics and Geology will demonstrate the basic science and problem solving skills you can use in everyday life.

The course is offered by Monash University, through the Futurelearn platform.
It’s free and it will last four weeks.
I think my brother will join me on this one, too.
If you’re interested, see you on Mars next month.


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Cheap (and great!) travel books

Despite (or maybe, who knows, because) of my current reduced circumstances, I’m getting real good at catching excellent books for real cheap – because I can go without food (for a while, at least) but I need good books to read.
So, why not share my discoveries?

Consider the following: the fine folks of Humble Bundle have teamed up with Lonely Planet to offer up to 17 travel books and guides for a tiny tiny offer.
For one buck, you get five great titles – and then you can upgrade.

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Here is wonderful opportunity to both bring home a lot of excellent books, and to help the National Parks Service on its 100th Anniversary. The Parks guys will get a percentage of what you spend.
Cool, right?

Follow this link, and check out this offer.
There are still a few days before it closes.


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Beautiful Meritamun

My interest for Ancient Egypt is on record – I talked about a book on Egyptian archeology just a few days ago, I used to hang out at the Museo Egizio in Turin as a kid, and I’ve been writing a series of stories featuring an Egyptian sorceress.
I love this stuff1.
And I liked very much a recent article posted on the website of the University of Melbourne, about a complex, wonderful work of reconstruction carried out on the head of a mummy in the university collection: a young woman of 18/25 years called Meritamun.
It is a type of study called forensic archaeology, and it’s quite interesting: the researchers’ and the artists’ work is extraordinary, and Meritamun is absolutely beautiful2.

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If you’d like to read more, here is a link to the original article, which features a wealth of information, and also some fascinating videos.

  1. and it turns out it’s a family thing: not only my brother followed a few courses of Egyptology when he was in university, but my mother, my uncle and his late wife shared this passion. It runs in the family. ↩
  2. and yes, I am thinking about my Amunet. ↩


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Spreadsheets and series writing

Today I will bore you guys with a post about writing.

Back in 2014 I did a piece on how I use a spreadsheet to plan my action scenes.
And of course there is the good practice of keeping track of word count and time spent writing to improve productivity1.
Today I found out another interesting application for spreadsheets: explore an ongoing series of stories, trace character arcs and keep the new material fresh.
And maybe I’m re-inventing the wheel, but…

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Writing a series, especially if we are writing the different episodes out of chronological order, presents a number of pitfalls.
How many sword & sorcery stories – not to mention roleplaying scenarios! – start in a tavern? How many times did our old friend Conan fight a giant snake? How many times the bad guys motivation boiled down to “evil”? Continue reading →


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Curse of the Pharaoh

cover89385-mediumI must admit I was rather skeptical when I started reading I.L. Cohen’s Tuthankamun’s Curse Solved, the first volume in a series called Research in Egyptology.
The legend of the ancient pharaoh’s curse has been done to death ever since the 1970s, and as a kid of the ’70s I was exposed to a number of pseudo-scientific books that were great fun and excellent fodder for my Cal of Cthulhu games, but were sometimes a little jiggly when it came to science.

I.L. Cohen’s research, if nothing else, is presented in a well-documented, believable way, and if some of the researcher’s conclusions are still pretty wild1, some of the arguments that this book raises are worth be explored further.

Based on modern analysis of both the reports of the mysterious deaths of many of the Carter/Carnarvon expedition, and a lot of other sources about the deaths of many aegyptologists, and some of their finds, Cohen comes to the conclusion that radiation could be the cause.
The Egyptian archaeological record could be filled, according to the author, with evidence for massive, widespread radioactive pollution and consequent deaths.
He also proposes – and here is where I get a bit skeptical again – the existence of an elite in Egyptian society that knew about radiations and their effects, and that basically handled nuclear emergencies in ancient times.
From here on, things get wilder, but in a scientific, well-documented, somewhat believable way.

The book is very good, well written and filled with informations, quotes and extracts from classical studies, and it is both entertaining and thought-provoking2.

  1. in my opinion, of course, and I am just an armchair archaeologist. ↩
  2. the sort of I-must-write-a-story-about-this tought-provoking, which is just fine. ↩


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Ladies in Red Anthology: Second Call

As I have announced previously, I am working as the editor for a project called Ladies in Red, an anthology of strong, uncompromising horror featuring strong female characters, to be published by Horrified Press.

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The call did go somewhat like this…

They have been the focus of horror movies for decades: the scream queens, the final girls, running upstairs to escape the masked killer…

The time has come for them to be brought center stage in a collection of blood and guts stories with a difference.

Uncompromising, in-your-face horror with a strong female focus.
Let’s get physical.
We are not looking for paranormal romance. No sexy vampires, no lustful werewolves.
We want hard-hitting, gut-wrenching tales of fear. Blood. Gore. Body horror. Twisted psychology.
And women, standing among the carnage and mayhem.

Because where angels fear to tread, a woman will hold her own.

We are looking for stories and poetry.
Reprints welcome.

Now, there are still five or six available slots before we close the project, and we are working on a relaxed but careful schedule: I’d love for this baby to be out for Halloween.

So, please, think about submitting your story or your poetry.
You find all the sordid details here, at the very bottom of the page.

In Brief: 2000/6000-words stories, hard-hitting horror with a strong female lead.
Reprints ok, poetry ok.
The stories will be paid with a share of the royalties.
Info: here in the comments, or using the contact module in the right upper corner of this blog, or should everything else fail davide(dot)mana(at)gmail(dot)com

Think about it.