Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Patreon


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Medium Plans

1_emiGsBgJu2KHWyjluhKXQw (1)I need some help.

Fact is, I am just totally fascinated by Medium.
It’s not just that it’s apparently very easy to set up, and promises to pay me if a lot of people read my stuff, but I like the idea of a primarily word-based platform.
Yes, one can drop an image in and all that, but from what I saw while I was working on another project, on Medium word is king (or queen, or whatever). And I like it a lot.

Uh, yes… for the uninitiated Medium is a sort-of-blogging platform that features some classical elements of other social media – like the possibility to upvote articles, and a focus on quality of contents.
And I like it, and I’d like to try and use it.

Only, what could I do on Medium that I am not already doing on Karavansara?
It would be the right place, I think, for more extensive and less improvised contents. I could write longer pieces, complete with bibliography and all the whistles and bells, somehow connected with my writing.
Articles about history, and about world-building.
It could be an idea.
A monthly thing, well-written and researched, but that would not steal too much time and energy from my other projects.

I guess my Patrons would see the articles first, and then I could post them on Medium.
Create a publication, maybe. [which means finding a title, designing a logo…]
Heck, my Patrons could even request articles!
Ah… ideas ideas ideas…
What do you say, ladies and gentlemen?
Help me make a decision.


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The Demoness with White Hair

I have just posted a 4000-words short story on my Patreon page, for all the members of the Five Bucks Brigade. Today I uploaded the English version, the Italian version goes up tomorrow.
It’s called The Demoness with White Hair.

As I explained, it all started with a 500-words test I did to apply for a gig as a freelance writer. I don’t have much faith in the result of the test, but I liked my piece, and others liked it too.
I got compared to Harold Lamb, of all things.
As soon as I stopped bragging to my friends, I decided I would like to expand that vignette, and do something more substantial with the barely sketched setting.
And I did it.

So, if you want to read my story, you’ll have to join the Five Bucks Brigade or hope and wait that I manage to sell the story to a magazine. But to kindle your curiosity, here’s some notes about the characters, and the setting. Continue reading →


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At the feet of a giant

41T7fyFa80L._SX350_BO1,204,203,200_I discovered Harold Lamb pretty late in my life, about ten years ago.
I had retrieved, as a kid, a pair of biographies written by Lamb, I had found in my grandmother’s attic. They were from my mother’s collection of young girl’s reads. I think one was Tamburlane, and the other might have been Theodora.
I don’t know what happened to those books – I guess my mother gave them away. I was not overly interested in historical biographies, at the time I liked dinosaurs.
Only much, much later I found the collections published by Bison Books and edited by Howard Andrew Jones, and it was a delight.
“Who,” my friend Claire asked, “Lamb the one of the Cossack?”

I knew, through my readings, that Harold Lamb was a great author of historical adventure, “always the scholar first, the good fictionist second” as one of his editors said, and I associated his names with Adventure magazine, that to me was possibly more iconic than Weird Tales or Astounding.

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Work in progress, June 2018

1966-200Just a quick roundup for those that like to keep track of what I am doing.

I am currently working on four big projects:

  • AMARNA is about to close, and the last episode will hit the shelves at the end of the months. Then work will start on the Italian translation and on the one-volume special edition. Basically, in 12.000 words from the end of this story, and it feels pretty emotional, all things considered.
  • LIVYATAN is shaping up nicely, and I plan on delivering it to the publisher by the end of the month, give or take a few days. Having found the right structure, this is writing itself pretty nicely.
  • MARTIAN ROULETTE (working title) needs to be ready by the beginning of July, and I am working on it in a rather different way from my usual, outlining it in depth, and then I will write it in two or three sittings tops. Being a 25.000-words story, it’s feasible.
  • THE MINISTRY OF LIGHTNING is going to be published as a serial on Patreon, and is probably the fastest writing I ever did. It’s a bit like having Felice Sabatini sitting here by my side, dictating his memoir. Right now, I’ve completed the prologue, and I’m looking at old maps, in search of the right place to set up a stunt I’ve been dreaming about since I was in high school. Last night we had a terrible storm here, and thunder and lightning chased each other across the sky for hours. I see it as a sign of approval from the Esteemed Personages in the Ministry of Storms.

Also, I’m writing short stories – I still owe one to my Patrons, and there’s a few submissions I’d like to hit.
To avoid the meltdown and explosion of what’s left of my brain, I’m working on a very strict schedule, morning and afternoon. In the evening, I’ll be doing some translation work, because the bills keep coming.


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The Ministry of Thunder – an announcement

OK, drop everything you are doing and listen, because I have to make an announcement.
A big one.

The Ministry of ThunderI have just learned from my publisher, Acheron Books, that The Ministry of Thunder is their bestselling title on the international marketplace.
This makes me really proud.
The Ministry of Thunder was my first published novel and it helped me learn a lot about writing, and it was a fun ride, and I love the characters in it.
Felice Sabatini is like an old friend.
I am completely and unashamedly in love with Helena Saratova, but I also sort of fancy Pat Neil.
And Captain Asamatsu is such a wonderful antihero.
And LaFleur… ah, we go back a long time with Jacques LaFleur.

So, before we go on, I would like to thank all the readers that bought and enjoyed my novel and my characters.
Thank you, from the heart.

This said, there is a storm brewing over Shanghai.
And Sabatini is about to get back in town.

The Ministry of Lightning is going to happen.

Soon.

Continue reading →


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No hangout tonight

Hangouts_IconI was planning a hangout session with my English-speaking patrons tonight, but I got no response.
My fault – too little advance time, and probably a time window that, by trying to satisfy everybody, it did actually satisfy no-one.
Oh, well, there will be more opportunities.

In the meantime, I am getting ready for a public writing session – this time in Italian, and hosted (so to speak) by an Italian ebook-enthusiast Facebook group.
To make things a little trickier, I asked the guys in the group to pitch in with story prompts.
The one that will get more votes is the one I will write, in Italian.

And as we are talking about writing in Italian…

transaltingIt’s been suggested to me that I do translate into English a few of my so far Italian-only stories.
And I thought, why not?
Now I have only to decide what to translate.
Eroi dei Due Mondi, my steampunk-ish series about assorted Italians on Mars?
Gli Orrori della Valle Belbo, my collection of horrors set here in the hills where I live?
Or maybe Asteria, my Sword & Sandal series inspired to old peplum movies?

I’d be REALLY partial to translating Asteria, but of course opinions and suggestions are more than welcome.