Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: My Projects


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New contract, new book

Boy was it fast!
I am happy to announce that my pitch for a big sea monster story (see previous post) has been accepted1, and the contract signed and delivered, so yes, I am going to write a book about a rampaging Livyatan melvillei… or half a dozen of them.

livyatan_melvillei_by_teratophoneus-dao0x8d

The general story, plot and structure are well defined, and I have a list of characters. So I’ll devote two hours each day, staring today, to outlining and to the preliminary documentation of the book – I’m writing science fiction, I want to get the science right. Continue reading →


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Finding a giant monster

boy-throwing-baseball-c1930s-h-armstrong-robertsclassicstockI am about to pitch a new story to one of my long-suffering publishers.
I’m probably working on too many different projects at the same, but when a good idea and an opening appears, I like to jump at it. I can do without sleep for a few days, but not without a steady income – and as a freelance writer of genre fiction, this means writing a lot, and selling as much as possible.

And actually, I am currently working on three separate pitches, that will hit different publishers in the next few days…

  • One for a surreal fantasy story, put together upon request by a fine Italian publisher. I should call this an”urban fantasy”, because the setting is a city in the modern day, but my story does not share any of the basic elements today associated with Urban Fantasy – no teenage Goth girls in love with angels, no tattooed badass biker chicks hunting vampires, no witches bickering.
  • One for a collaboration, a very fun fantasy project we’ll pitch to both Italian and English-language publishers.
  • And one for a big monster novel.

And talking about big monsters… Continue reading →


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The sleep of reason generates monsters

il-sonno-della-ragione-2-1And now something special.
My cellmate Alex Girola is expanding into the world of indie gaming, and I just got my copy of Il Sonno della Ragione (The Sleep of Reason), a neat little game that’s so cool, I blackmailed Alex into allowing me to contribute material.
And while the Mana Brothers are hard-at-work already on a set of scenarios, we are also discussing an English edition of the game.
It would be cool.
So consider the following a sort of preview. Continue reading →


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Teaching foreign languages through adventure fiction

Languages-512A few days back a friend asked me to give her English lessons through the web – to improve her reading and writing skills first and foremost, and then to help her with her spoken English.
I was happy to comply – she’s a friend, and also, it’s a good way to start a new project and possibly a new source of income and help me pay my bills through the rest of the year.

I’ve taught English to Italians and Italian to English-speaking foreigners for a number of years, about fifteen years ago, and I had developed a few tactics to help my students

  1. Get familiar with the basic phrase structure – to learn, in other words, what goes where in an Italian or English phrase.
  2. Acquire as large a vocabulary as possible
  3. Keep going and practice while having fun

Continue reading →


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A story of the non-wanker kind

I just submitted a story for the 20th anniversary issue of Inferno!, the Black Library magazine covering Warhammer 40.000.
After my post yesterday a WH40K-playing friend of mine pointed out to me the open call for the magazine. It was sort of, OK, mister so-superior-to-this-stuff, let’s see if you’re so hot.

The submission requested a one paragraph pitch and a 500-words scene.
I checked the deadline – April the 10th.
And I thought, why not?
The worse that could happen is, I might get a rejection slip and lose two hours of my life. I can live with that. So I wrote a positively non-wanker story set in the WH40K universe, and sent it along. Let’s see what happens.

Screenshot from 2018-04-06 01-53-47


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Bastet

bastetBeloved Bastet, mistress of happiness and bounty, twin of the Sun God, slay the evil that afflicts our minds as you slay the serpent Apep. With your graceful stealth anticipate the moves of all who perpetrate cruelties and stay their hands against the children of light. Grant us the joy of song and dance, and ever watch over us in the lonely places in which we must walk.
– Ancient Egyptian Prayer to the Goddess Bastet

[the things one finds researching the next episode of AMARNA]


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Meet Garr the Cunning

unnamedThis post was published three days ago for my Patrons, who got to see it first.
They also got a full preview of the first scene of the forthcoming 12.000-words story I’m writing, and that they will get for free.
It’s good to be a Patron of mine.
Just saying.

I have been working on the 12.000-words “caveman fantasy” story I have promised my patrons as a celebration for reaching the 100-bucks-per-month tier.
As I usually do, I planned this story as a first in a series. I grew up on series and serial fiction, and I like exploring and expanding my characters and my worlds. So there. And once I started, it’s been a highly educative experience.
So, here is a preview AND a look at my process – hoping you are interested.

Let’s start with the learning side. Continue reading →