Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Other


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Revive the Drive: an interview with Lesley Conner, Apex Magazine’s managing editor

It is a commonly accepted fact that if you are reading genre fiction, and you want to keep up with the state of the art, and see new ideas and trends as they are born and evolve, the latest award-winning novel is OK, but you really have to read the short the stories that are being published in the magazines.
That’s where the new and exciting stuff happens.
Apex Magazines is one of the places where new and exciting things are happening right now, and they are relaunching their subscription drive these days – they are calling it Revive the Drive.

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Subscriptions are what keeps a magazine alive, and keeping Apex alive is a good thing. More magazines on the market means more outlets (and opportunities) for authors, more diversity, a healthier market, and more stories for the readers.
So here is where I say Go and Subscribe to Apex!, but there’s more – first, because in the Revive the Drive Store you’ll find not only subscription opportunities but also books from the Apex Book Company, goodies and even some special opportunities if you are a writer.
Second, because Lesley Conner, Apex Magazine’s managing editor, has been so kind she answered a few questions of mine about her magazine, her job, her experiences, and a few fun facts.

Go on and read the interview below.
And then Go and Subscribe to Apex! Continue reading →


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PC problems

Like some guys say, when it rains, it pours – last night my PC caused me a bad panic attack, as it simply went dead dead dead on me.

I was able to backup all the essential data using an old laptop and a wonderful thingie, a cable that allows me to access a HD as if it were a USB drive, and after much cursing and a few hours spent copying data… my PC started up again.

But it’s not a good sign.
So, should I disappear all of a sudden for a few days, you’ll know it’s because the PC died, and I don’t have the money to buy a new one or have the old one fixed.

In the meantime, I’ll haver to write faster.
More work done, more money paid, maybe a second-hand coal-powered PC on the shopping list in case of emergency.


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The 6 Biggest Fantasy Blunders

selection_555Another good one from the Portent Content Idea Generator.
Because let’s be serious – we all have read some very bad fantasy in our day. And I use the term fantasy in its broader sense, from sword & sorcery where mighty-thewed barbarians roam to the shaded forests of high fantasy in which elves of all stripes can be found, to the slithery shadow of horror, to the dusty and sun-baked landscapes of planetary romance.

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There’s some excellent stuff out there, but there’s also a fair amount of duds.
And if reading the good stuff is essential to write good stories, reading a fair amount of drivel – as long as we recognise it as drivel – is also useful, because we all learn from mistakes, and when it’s other people’s mistakes it sort of feels good, doesn’t it?

So, having read my more than fair amount of fantasy drivel, here’s my list of blunders, ugly choices and bad ideas behind some of the worse fantasy I ever read. Continue reading →


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How Tits & Sand isn’t as Bad as You Think

I said I’d do it and I did it – and Portent hit me with the title above.
That is workable.
It’s been a while since I last posted on Tits & Sand movies, in the wonderful definition of Maureen O’Hara. In case you missed those posts, we are talking about Technicolor extravaganzas with a generic “Arabian Nights” inspiration, and a fair amount of sand and nubile women in odalisque costume.
The genre ranges from fundamental films like the 1940 wonder The Thief of Baghdad (actually a British production) to backlot B-movies like the Universal Pictures 1965 feature The Sword of Ali Baba, that actually recycles scenes from a 1944 movie.

And there’s a lot of things we could complain about Tits & Sand movies – the trite plots, the general lack of political correctness, the often offensive attitude towards women, the glaringly miscast stars…
And we could take our cue from Maureen O’Hara herself, the fiery redhead often cast as a Persian beauty or an Oriental temptress.

But it’s not as bad as you think. Continue reading →


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Putting Portent Idea generator to the test

I just discovered the Portent Idea Generator, that is one of those things that are supposed to help bloggers do their thing, that is, write blog posts.

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Portent Idea generator is a web-based thingy in which you drop a word, the subject of your hypothetical post, and it generates a full post title.
Then you write that post, and people loves it.
Or something.

So here’s what I’m gonna do, what with today being Mardi Gras and all that: I will drop five words in the Portent Idea Generator and generate five titles, and then write five posts… and see what happens as I publish them once a day through this week.

The words are

  • Adventure
  • History
  • Fantasy
  • Orient
  • Old Movies (yes, I know, this is two words, don’t hate me)

We start in a few hours. Let’s see what happens.
And I admit I have half a mind of putting in also

  • Tits & Sand

as a sixth input.

And yes, the title is misleading – this will not put the thingy to the test – it will put to the test my writing chops. Which is good, because we must test our chops once in a while (not bad – sounds like a fake Lao Tsu or Bruce Lee quote).


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Pressure

b332c24b69f3e33711f9475fd148e953I was taught to be grateful for the small things.
Today was a bad day – bad news, discussions, a tonne of bills to pay, the loss of a pair of paying markets, some gratuitous aggression, dark clouds on the horizon.
Which is nothing special, mind you – there’s a lot of people out there that’s in much worse trouble. But it is heavy, because you see everything unravel and it’s beyond your control. It makes working harder, it makes writing harder, because too many preoccupations clog your mind.
And if I don’t write, the light gets cut, the water and the phone get cut.

But then three things happened that let the pressure up a bit – not solutions to the problems, but small good things, unexpected. Psychological relief – which means that the problems remain, but now one can try and solve them, and if nothing comes out of it, one’ll be at peace, because one did what one could.
Small things to let one feel less into a dead end.

First, I got a copy of a book in the mail that I’ve been waiting to read for a long time, and tonight I’ll dig into it, and tomorrow I’ll post about it.
Second, I was reminded of a movie which I saw when I was a little kid, when my mom and dad were still alive and took me to the movies, and will do a post about that too.
And finally I saw this, and I’ll start by sharing it with you.

Hold on out there.
Things will get better.