My Projects | Karavansara

30 October 2017
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Getting ready for the Halloween Mask

OK, so tomorrow is the day.
The 31st of October.
The day in which I said I’ll write a new short story and post it on Karavansara for all my readers to read it.

Let’s see, the story will be based on this exchange between my friend Claire and me…

Claire: The moment we prepared in the not-quite-wings, and I truly raised the Copper Mask before my face for the first time (as opposed to trying it on), with the audience’s buzz dying down with the lights, was pure magic. Suddenly I felt timeless, and manipulative, and cruel – and perfectly safe. I hadn’t truly acted in front of an audience in more than twenty years, but really: nothing could go wrong behind the Copper Mask.

Me: And you know of course there is a story, in this.
A small, nasty little horror piece, about the Mask, and its cruelty…
I’ll send you the first draft.

So the story will be called Behind the Copper Mask. Continue reading →

28 October 2017
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

A Wisp of Smoke, online

wisp cover small The KDP morlocks did their job, and right now A Wisp of Smoke, Rising is live on Amazon.

A Wisp of Smoke, Rising is a horror story set in Japan in 1960.
It is also a spy story, a mystery of sorts.
It is also a homage to the media through which my generation discovered Japan.
And it has a historical twist, in more senses than one. Continue reading →

27 October 2017
by Davide Mana 4 Comments

A story for Halloween

As I am writing these, the gnomes in the service of Jeff Bezos are hard at work converting my file into an ebook.

wisp cover small

Hopefully this will be available in time for Halloween.
Which is good, considering it is a horror story.

25 October 2017
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

AMARNA

I have just contacted and contracted an excellent artist for the cover of my new project.
I have already mentioned I am going to do a serial, a number of self-contained episodes pushing forward an overarching plot, so that readers will be able to enjoy each episode but in the end will also have a full novel in their hands.
It’s the first time I try something like this seriously.
Writing a proper serial, I mean.
I did something that might have looked like a serial when I was in high school, to entertain my classmates and try to win the affection of a certain blonde. It was fun, and it did fit my extremely underdeveloped ability to carry a story for more than thirty pages. And in the end I won the affection of a brunette.
But in retrospect, it was not a very good story. Continue reading →

23 October 2017
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

NoNaNoWriMo

crest_square-b23dbe8d9b80265765b27ccd9b5d4811 I mentioned NaNoWriMo, in a previous post.
I will not be doing the NaNoWriMo – but this does not mean I do not respect and support the brave souls that give it a spin.
Way to go.

My suggestions:

get yourself a good writing software: I am partial to Scrivener that usually is available at a discount in this time of the year (you find a link in the sidebar)
get yourself the free and excellent WorkRave or a similar software that forces you to take pauses and do relaxation exercises
stock tea and biscuits or your comfort food of choice
tell naysayers to get lost

The reason I will not be doing the NaNoWriMo, now, is… Continue reading →

23 October 2017
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Last week before Halloween

It’s the last week before Halloween, so let’s see…

I have to finish and deliver a 12/15.000-words supernatural thriller (think Kolchak, but set in the present day), by the end of the month.
The story is already outlined and I have a fair chunk of story, but now I’l have to start working on a map of Memphis¹ (don’t ask).

memphis-map