My Projects | Karavansara

2 April 2014
by Davide Mana 6 Comments

The turn of a friendly card

I can’t find my tarot deck anymore – it’s here somewhere, but ever since I moved to the country, I’ve been unable to find it.
Misplaced, not lost.

I had an interest in the subject, in cards and divination and so on, as a kid – what with dabbling in stage magic and reading the Tarot books by Piers Anthony.
I got my tarot deck as a joke, in the mid-80s.
A set of Hanson-Roberts cards – beautifully drawn.
With time I learned how to read the cards, and I read some good books on the subject (Alejandro Jodorowski!), and so on.
Now, let me get this straight

Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?

My answer, Janine, is No.
And yet…

Continue reading →

19 March 2014
by Davide Mana 4 Comments

A world of popular mechanics

A few nights back I was talking about dieselpunk with a friend.
Now, I’m getting rather tired of the -punk subgenres – which are certainly effective commercially, but often are just new names for well-established fare.
And dieselpunk is in this sense a heavy offender, as basically an awful lot (if not all) dieselpunk is just pulp adventure with the number plates changed.

Anyway, we were discussing dieselpunk, and one thing led to another, and talk turned to baroque esthetics, brass fittings, engines as objecct d’art, 1940s style pinups, black scary uniforms and Soviet architechture, and a lot of other stuff, all of which, to me, is not indispensable in defining dieselpunk as literature – it might define dieselpunk as an aesthetics, but not as a narrative genre.

So, what does?
Even better, what, in the dieselpunk subgenre, allows me to write stories I could not write in any other subgenre? Continue reading →

5 March 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Working on a new story

I am proud to announce that one of my stories, A Spider with Barbed-Wire Legs, will be part of the rewards for the backers of the Kickstarter for the Dennis Detwiller collection of short stories Tales from Failed Anatomies, to be released by Arc Dream Publishing.

My story was set as a stretch goal for the target of 20.000 dolalrs – a target achieved a few hours ago.

It will be excellent to be part of such a great project, and to see my story released side by side with the works of many authors I respect and admire.

My story is going to be a horror/espionage number, and is set in Paris in the ’50s (but it does include some Orientalist elements).

Right now, I’m doing some background research on the time and place, to spice-up my tale.
As usual, I’ll collect a cartload of photo references.
Might as well start a Pinboard on Pinterest… I’d call it “Paris, When it Sizzles“.

In the meantime, there’s still 6 days to go and many interesting rewards to be unlocked by financing the Kickstarter.
Check it out.

3 March 2014
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

How I revealed the Secrets of the Triads

Sounds pulpy, right?
The title, I mean?

Well, it went like this – in 2009 I was asked to submit a learned article about the statistics of organized crime in Hong Kong.
As a paleontologist, I am quite proficient – or so they say – in statistical analysis of ecological data.
The idea was – can we look at crime from an ecological point of view, and define statistically behavioural patterns and rituals in gangland violence?
And should patterns emerge, do they conform to the known rituals of the criminal organization?
Is there a map in the numbers? Continue reading →

27 January 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Small adjustments

Monday has come around again
I’m in the same old place, the same old faces always watching me
Who knows how long I’ll have to stay?
Could be a hundred years of sweat and tears at the rate that I get paid
[Supertramp, From Now On]

Ah, January 2014 is almost gone, and here I am again, trying to do too many things at the same time.

Karavansara’s been lingering in a twilight realm thes last few months – more of a PR media outlet about my writing than a true blog.
The first year of Karavansara has been good, but not exceptional – mostly because I think I was not often personally engaged with my posts. Continue reading →

19 January 2014
by Davide Mana 9 Comments

Lair of the White Ape

Lair of the White Ape, the new Aculeo & Amunet novelette, is finally available!

“Soon after the last of their Mediterranean adventures, Aculeo and Amunet leave Tarsus and the agents of the Cult of Isfet behind, and ride north into the Caucasus, seeking a safe place in which to winter. This is the bailiwick of the Twelfth Imperial Legion – Duodecima Fulminata… “

Continue reading →

10 January 2014
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Into the Great Unknown

Today’s post is an anomaly.
Yes, sorry, no prompt today.

Fact is, as you are reading this, I’m either at the printer, printing and binding my PhD dissertation paper, or at the office of the delivery service, packing and sending it off to my university, in Urbino.

My former university, to be exact, as the delivery of the dissertation means our collaboration is over for the time being – there will be the final ordeal of the oral presentation, but ok, as you’re reading this it’s over – or it’s almost over.

Then what?
Nice question.
I do not know.
The Great Unknown looms.

But I’m at ease with the Great Unknown.