Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: My Projects


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Six Objects from the Turin Egyptian Museum

As I mentioned a while back, I was part of a MOOC hosted by the Manchester University, about Ancient Egypt as perceived through six objects in the collections of the Manchester Museum.

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As part of the course, I had to submit a short paper covering my choice of six objects, chosen to explore a certain facet of the Ancient Egyptian history or culture.

I chose six papyruses from the collections of the Turin Egyptian Museum – or Museo Egizio di Torino, in Italian – that show a different face of Ancient Egypt… and feature magic, murder, mayhem and naked women.

cropped-jewelry

Now that the course is over and my paper has been evaluated, I thought someone out there might be interested …

so here it goes

It’s a very simple, lightweight pdf document, eleven pages of loose text with some extra links for images1. You can read it online, or download it – it is distributed under a standard Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike license.

I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Comments are very welcome.
Cheers!

Related articles
  1. but who knows – one of these nights I might try and expand it a little and do a DeLuxe version… ↩


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Waiting for 2016 in the 1930s

Last day of 2015.
I’ve been planning the family dinner and some entertainment.
The local offering, both in terms of live entertainment, cinema or TV programming is bleak bordering on ghastly.
I could go for some music – my old tradition of listening a musical or operetta of some kind on new year’s eve.
51vp643XS-LAnd indeed, I had planned to listen to South Pacific this year – but apparently my copy (the José Carreras–Kiri Te Kanawa version) was misplaced or, more likely, never returned after borrowing.
And the neighbors get nervous if I listen music at a high volume anyway – their dog starts barking.
Do I really want to spend my New Year’s Eve wearing headphones?

So I decided for a Marlene Dietrich double bill – first Morocco, from 1930, and then The Scarlet Empress, from 1934 (the Criterion edition, with a lots of extra features).
Both directed by Joseph von Sternberg.
So yes, while 2016 arrives, I’ll be in the 1930s, in the company of Marlene Dietrich.

Marlene-Dietrich-in-Morocco-1930-2

Better than the ghastly New Year’s Eve the state television has to offer – ghastly, and paid with my tax money.
Ah!

See you on the other side, ladies and gentlemen.
And have a happy new year – no matter in what decade you decide to start it.


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Wisdom?

According to the Buddha, expectations lead to suffering… well, on the other hand, it’s sort of traditional, in the last days of the year, to review the days gone by, and to line up expectations and good intents for the days to come.

I did one of those Facebook online games that really have no meaning, and the result was, well… demanding.

Selezione_001

I mean… though decisions?
Again?

Continue reading →


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How did I spend my winter holidays?

9e33d787cff22008e9a188fcbf432cf9I think I already told you this, but one of the fun bits of writing pulp stories, to me, is the pleasure of doing research on weird subjects.

For instance – right now I’m working on a story tentatively called The Mark of Cortazàr, that I hope I’ll have out by the end of January/early February 2016.
Not only I had the fun of going back to my old Victor Von Hagen books, but I had the added bonus of doing some research on the subject of shrunken heads.
Now, isn’t this awesome?
How did I spend my winter holidays?
Looking up headhunters and shrunken heads. Continue reading →


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Le Corsair is on course to publication

RAVEN'S HEAD PRESS LOGOFollowing Michael Hudson’s announcement on his Facebook profile, I am happy to inform all interested parties that Chasing the Mermaid, the first story in the Le Corsair series has been picked up by Raven’s Head Press, and will be out in 2016.

I have talked before of my project for a series of thrilling adventure stories set in the 1950s, in the Mediterranean area.
Well, here goes.
Continue reading →


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Huaqueros

f7d3180b8e619e1ee49ad82f72d91bceIsn’t this business of writing a hoot?
For instance…

About five years ago I outlined an idea for a series of stories.
In a nutshell – the adventures of a team of disgruntled and hard-up university researchers that recycle themselves as “retrievers of ancient artifacts”.
Basically, a series of stories about a band of highly qualified looters1.

The series would have been called “Huaqueros”.
Nothing came out of it.
But… Continue reading →