Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: My Projects


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New surprise project, and Scrivener

OK, so yesterday I got an idea for a new non-fiction book in Italian – a fun thing that might have a market and is based on the classic 36 Stratagems by Sun Tzu.
A nice intersection of some stuff I’ve been doing recently and my long-standing interest for Chinese culture.

Scrivener (software)Currently I have a lot of stuff on my plate, but this is the sort of sweet and easy thing I can do in my spare time, and it’s probably going to find a lot of readers and sell nicely.
In the spirit of doing the maximum work with the minimum expenditure of energy1, I set out to outline and plan the book as a sort of ultrafast, guerrilla project.
Scrivener, the software i normally use for big projects, was pretty useful.

Here’s how I planned the thing, in case you are interested2… Continue reading →


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14 Common Misconceptions About Self-Publishing

I was in a lot of discussion, these last few days about self-publishing.
Now, I am actually what’s called a hybrid author – meaning that like the Gill man in Creature from the Black Lagoon, I live in two worlds: some of my stuff (such as The Ministry of Thunder, or all of my gaming-related writing) is traditionally published, while other stories (like the Aculeo & Amunet adventures) I publish myself.

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Being a hybrid offers a number of perks…

I actually like this situation, and find it conductive to the right mix of creative freedom and professionalism.

So, we were talking about this topics, here in the Old C Block of the blogsphere, shaking our heads and sighing for the amount of prejudice and silliness that still gets attached to self-publishing. And I thought… why not make a list?
Lists are good, right? Continue reading →


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A new story’s coming!

And so I started a new story, a novelette that’s supposed to be the first in a series.

I already discussed this project in the past – a series about the adventures of a lone character moving around the Mediterranean in a small sailing ship called The Corsair (or Le Corsaire, French-like).

Edith Gray home

I have started and stopped dozens of times – despite detailed outlines and tons of research material.
But today I needed to write, to get the gears in motion.
It felt like a good idea, starting something new on my birthday.
And while I was waiting in line at the supermarket, the right idea came to me, and I saw where my story should start. Continue reading →


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Starting up again

And so, having delivered my manuscript to the editor, and having spent a long weekend basically reading, eating and sleeping – not necessarily in that order – I am ready to start working on the next project.

Or am I?

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Right now, there’s a full plate of stuff to do for my game writing job – books to author or co-author, stuff to be researched, plans to be made.
This is not much a matter of inspiration – the projects are more or less solid – but of scheduling the work to be done and then stick to the timeline. Continue reading →


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Off with their heads!

457Today looks like I’ll be talking about social media.
Second post on the subject…
Fact is, starting… uhm, let’s say one month ago, maybe a little more, I decided to implement a stricter control over my online interactions.
And in particular over the space I am going to allow third parties to take on my blogs, profiles and all that…

What gave me the idea was the gentleman that started harassing me because he wanted me to admit I am a failure, based on his (wrong!) interpretation of what I had written on this blog.
Like I’m not a cheerful, optimist sort of guy!

And then all the rest.
I realize my patience is growing shorter by the day.
Must be the old age encroaching.

So, off with their heads! Continue reading →


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Getting to grips with Twitter – part one

41LRx+h-EsL._AA160_Yesterday I got me a copy of Twitters fro Writers, by Rayne Hall.
Basically, I have a very conflicting (meaning, messy and discontinuous) relationship with Twitter, and I enjoy very much Rayne Hall’s books – both her fiction and non-fiction.
So, it was not a hard decision.

My main problem with Twitter comes from the fact that I never really studied the thing – I browsed a few tutorials, but I never sat down to learn the ropes. Continue reading →


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Back to school (but did I ever leave?)

what_is_moocYes, I know, I already told you about MOOCs, and I’m probably boring you to death.
Fact is, my own MOOC curriculum is expanding fast, and I’m currently as busy as I was when I was studying for my degree – with two substantial differences.

First – I’m not paying a fortune in taxes.
Second – I’m studying quietly at home, basically improving my culture instead of watching old movies or silly TV shows on the telly.

And I can see a pattern emerging. Continue reading →