Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: My Projects


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Back to the Arabian Nights

I have often mentioned my passion for the Arabian Nights, or if you prefer the 1001 Nights, the collection of Oriental fantasies that fascinated me as a kid, and has been one of the fixed points in my interest for the fantastic. This blog, too, owes a little to my interest in the Nights.

Now, for a number of reasons, I am going back to the stories, and I am also reading or re-reading non fiction on the subject. Looks like, yet again, I am about to turn a hobby into something more defined and structured.

And I thought, why not share a few resources with you guys?

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The Last Ride

I have been experimenting with flash fiction, recently – that is, short-short stories, under 1000 words. They are reasonably fast to write, and there seems to be quite a market for the format out there, so, why not?

And as the man said, I’ve suffered for my art, now it’s your turn – and therefore I’ve just posted a 1000-words story called The Last Ride to my supporters, as a Patreon exclusive.

It’s a very small thriller set inside an elevator.

It’s good to be my patrons.


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On the other hand…

Having explained (sort of) how I am going about my new story, mixing improvisation with a minimum of planning, I find myself in quite a different situation with a new project. And before you go, man, how many projects have you going? The answer is, as many as I can, because the bills keep on coming. But it’s more complicated than that.

Case in point – a publisher I respect has put up three calls for three different anthologies. Not much money in the thing, but as I said I respect the publisher, it is a new market, and it would look good on my CV.

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Structure on the go

Structure is essential in a story, especially if it is a long story. Even more so if it’s being written in a loose, impromptu way – the way I’m writing Parabellum Serenade. Once the story is finished, it will have to have a symmetry, like a crystal, a rhythm like a piece of music. The trick, because I am playing fast and loose, is finding a way to provide the story with hooks, with hard-points that will be used during revision to strengthen the structure of the narrative.

Parabellum Serenade (note to self – nice title, now you’ve got to get yourself a cover) is a story about a bunch of characters that served in the army and that, ten and odd years later, come together again for one last mission, to help a friend. They will find out they are about to take a larger bite than they can swallow. So, for starters, I am using a typical set-up for this sort of stories – the Five Man Band.

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Maybe not a good idea

You are tired, still cranky for the long tail of a bad case of the flu. It’s cold and the forecast says snow. You have been having strange dreams when you manage to sleep,and have been listening to Japanese music these last three months. You are short on money and have a ton of stuff to write in the hope that someone will pay you and you will have enough to pay the next mortgage installment.

So you spend the whole night up, drinking green mint tea and writing the first four thousand words of a new story. One that you might, it’s true, pitch to a publisher, but that’s the mother of all the long shots.

And you do not just go and start a new story. No, you start writing a new frigging novel. But wait, it gets better than that. You start writing the first novel in a series.

That’s crazy.

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