Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: My Projects


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For all the Gold in Tibet – part 2

Picture 11

The Panchan Lama had decided to break all historic precedent by appointing a Foreign Devil to the Upper (smaller) House of the Tibetan National Assembly.
The Incarnation, it seemed, had ordered his cabinet ministers to seek a foreigner to serve as technical adviser. Such a foreigner, the man-god specified, must know flying and airplanes, he must be an American, and he must know something of Tibet, if possible.
Why an American? Because His Serenity was mindful of the Tibetan proverb, epitome of Asia’s bitter experience: wherever a white man goes, an army follows. The Panchan Lama felt that this would not be true of an American.

So… who was Gordon B. Enders? Continue reading →


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A new Aculeo & Amunet story!

A&A new logo 230A very short note today, for fans of my Aculeo & Amunet sword & sorcery stories: I’ve just signed a contract and sold a new story about Aculeo & Amunet to a magazine.
This is really big news for me because it is the debut of the series outside of the self-published arena.
The Altar of the Toad is a short adventure set along the coast of the Black Sea.
Watch this space for updates.


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The first Corsair: Chasing the Mermaid

I am very happy to announce that the first story in my new series, The Corsair, is out and available for purchase.
Called Chasing the Mermaid, it is the first novella in the planned series1 of stand-alone yarns in the style of the old adventure pulps.

 

chasing the mermaid cover small

The Corsair, Chasing the Mermaid is published by the fine gentlemen of Raven’s Head Press, and it is available through Amazon2.

In the next few days I’ll bore you to death with details and stuff, but right now I’m happy to leave you with the words of the great Bobby Nash…

Davide Mana’s Chasing The Mermaid is pure pulp fiction in the truest sense of the world. Tough as nails hero, hard-core action, nail-biting suspense, adventure and danger around the globe, and of course, a vile villain and beautiful women. Who could ask for anything more? This is a fun pulpy read.
— Bobby Nash – Author: Alexandra Holzer’s Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt, Domino Lady: Money Shot

Sounds good, right?

  1. the second volume already in the works as I write this, and there are two more stories outlined. ↩
  2. an it is free on Kindle Unlimited! ↩


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A darker and stranger place

Some people I love live in Bruxelles.
As some live in Paris, in Ankara, in New York.
In London, in Rome.
I have friends and loved ones in a number of places, all over the globe – I am lucky like that. And as the situation grows more confused, I sometimes wonder if I am doing anything to help. Then, about fifteen minutes ago, I read this…

    Year by year, the world is turning into a darker and stranger place than any of us could want.
Somewhere, there is always a war.
Somewhere, there is always the threat of an act of terrorism.
Somewhere, there is always a woman or a child in peril.
Nature itself delivers devastating tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes.
In the light of this onslaught of shadows, is it naïve to try to shine a little light into the darkness? After all, these stories are only small flashlights of prose and who knows how long their batteries will last?
I don’t know. But naïve or not, I will continue to do so for as long as I can find the stories, or for as long as they find me.
I’m a writer. And this is what I do. This is the only thing I do that has potential to shine a little further than my immediate surroundings.
So these stories are important — to me, at least. Each one is a little candle held up to the dark of night, trying to illuminate the hope for a better world where we all respect and care for each other.
(Charles De Lint, introduction to Triskell Tales 2)

Sounds like a plan to me.
Keep writing.


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Writing ghosts

I’m writing a ghost story.
You know I like the genre, and I think it’s a pity there are not more opportunities for writing spooky tales.
Contrary to my usual line, it’s a pro bono effort – for an anthology that will raise funds to help the children.
This is, to me, a good reason to give away my work for free.

christmas-ghost

Being a pro bono effort, it will have to be fitted between paying jobs – which is the reason why I’m working on it on the weekend and the reason why this is the only update for Karavansara today.
I’ve got a stack of books to read, I’ve got posts to write, but this takes precedence.

The story will be called The day we played at Middle Ages, and is shaping up nicely.
As soon as it’s out, I’ll be happy to spread the news, because it is for a good cause.


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Technical difficulties

The blackouts and brownouts of the last week, following the extraordinary snowall of the past weekend, have taken their toll – my PC display just flicked and died.

Lightning_strike

I’m currently working with a low res monitor waiting to get enough money together to have the old video fixed or to buy a new one.
This means there will be some delays in the updates for a while.
But we’ll be back – the current set-up allows me to write and handle the basics (but working on maps and images is an absolute pain).
More news as stuff happens.