My Projects | Karavansara

12 December 2017
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Crooks in history

I have just delivered a 33.000 unproofed manuscript to all those that last summer supported my crowdfunding for the fist Italian-language outing of BUSCAFUSCO.
The book is called La Storia Fatta coi Cialtroni (literally “History made with slobs”) and it is a first collection of eccentrics, adventurers, loose women and other assorted crooks and cranks across the last three centuries.

The proper book will come out (hopefully) for Christmas or (more likely) for Twelfth Night, and it was a hoot to put together and a cow to edit.
That’s why I sent off an unproofed version.

My Patreon supporters will probably get new excerpts of a second volume, and some English-language snippets of the first.

Because it’s fun.

11 December 2017
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

“Fever” is out

Basic RGB The Pro Se Thriller of the Week is, to me, a fine example of a simple idea elegantly executed: four thriller series, new episodes coming out alternatively one er week.
The offer includes the techno-thriller of THE OUT OF TIMERS, the police procedural of MURDER, AR, the sophisticated caper thriller of AKA THE SINNER and the supernatural thriller of HARRIDAN.
Four series, six episodes each, each episode written by a different writer.
A total of twenty-four novellas, one per week for six months, at a ridiculous price.

The tag-line of Thriller of the Week is the future of digital storytelling.

And I am part of this, having sold four stories to Pro Se Productions, one for each series.
And today, my first story hit the shelves – it’s called Fever and it is the second episode of THE OUT OF TIMERS.

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African guerrillas, rapacious companies, a deadly virus, a dastardly plot… what else do you need to keep you happy for Christmas?

11 December 2017
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Hussars & Hackers – return to Drachenstahl

Back in… oh, it was probably 1984, I first tried my hand at a series of short stories set in a post-catastrophic future, in which micronations (but they were not called micronations back then) were the last surviving bastion of order in a world in which environmental and economic disaster had created billions of refugees.
I had just read a book about the coming ice age (it looked legit), so I threw that idea in.
ruritania_zenda_1938_by_mbhdesign-d8zcnf3 I had been reading The Prisoner of Zenda for the first time, too, and I sort of wanted to mix the small operetta nation/state of the book with a sort of futuristic and cyberpunkoid stories.
Hussars and Hackers, if you will.
So I imagined this small Alpine nation, called Drachenstahl (which means something like “stolen from the dragon”), served by airships and with a solar/geothermal energy economy, in which a small unit of “technology cops” operated – people charged with keeping an eye on the diffusion of new technologies and the abuse of those technologies. Continue reading →

11 December 2017
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Jolanda and Me

It is always a pleasure receiving your author copy of a book you contributed to. When the book was edited by the likes of Franco Pezzini and Fabrizio Foni, it is an extra pleasure because you know it’s a high-quality volume.
So here I am, in my very messy library…

jolanda

… with my copy of Jolanda & Co – le Donne Pericolose, a far-ranging survey of dangerous women in popular fiction.
I contributed a piece about a classic trope, the Queen of the Lost City in fiction from Haggard to the 1930s – and took the opportunity to once again show my affection for the Egyptian Amenartas.

And now the book’s here, and it’s a beauty, and I am very proud of being part of this beautiful project.

8 December 2017
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Patreon: the New Deal

As Styx used to sing, Nothing Ever Goes as Planned – I launched my Patreon page on the 1st of December 2017, and about a week later Patreon announced they are changing the payment system.
The following is the suggested text I should post for my followers, to explain to you what’s going to happen:

In the past, I was covering Patreon’s 5% fee and all of the processing fees in full for all of my patrons. This meant that every month I saw anywhere from 7-15% of my earnings taken out to cover those processing fees.
Starting December 18th, Patreon will apply a new service fee of 2.9% + $0.35 to each of your individual pledges. This service fee helps keep Patreon up and running and standardizes my processing fees to 5%.
This ensures that creators like me keep more earnings in order to continue creating high-quality content. I hope you understand and continue your pledges on Patreon. You can read even more about the service fee here.

*I hope you understand…** my goodness! Continue reading →

The Singing Mummies

8 December 2017 by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Fiendish Yen Sin! I should have thought about Singing Mummies in AMARNA!

7 December 2017
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Hope & Glory, Analytical Engineer

Work on the basic handbook for Hope & Glory has accelerated as the end of the year approaches, and I receive daily sketches that will become interior illustrations.

So, why not share?
This one, for instance, is called Analytical Engineer, and is the work of the excellent Alberto Bontempi.

analytical engineer_matite