Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Home Improvements and Future Plans

homeA brief report on the status of things, as I’ve been working on the blog (instead of sleeping).

My busman’s holiday is almost over, and in september, I plan to do some major work on Karavansara, tightening the schedule and improving the blog.
When I started Karavansara I did not have a clear plan – I just wanted to jump into the action and try my hand at blogging in English, after seven years as a blogger in my native language, Italian*.
Now the shakedown run is almost over.
The home improvements I started in these days will go on in september, october and november, and by its first birthday this blog will be fully funcional and cruising at full tilt.

As of now…

. Karavansara now has its own mail account – I can’t promise a prompt reply (news travel slowly through the desert), but if really there’s something you can’t tellm or ask me publicly in a comment, now you can mail here…

karavansara.wp

. Karavansara now features a dedicated Twitter account – you can follow this blog @KaravansaraBlog

. a Zemanta account and plugin should grant better contents, more options, links and stuff on future posts

. we are getting listed in Technorati

. I’m are now on Wattpad, which might be a fun way to distribute some of my stuff

. I’ve been toying with Plinky, a fun web-service that provides daily prompts for posts… but Karavansara refuses to share contents with Plinky (or viceversa) so I’ll have to do without**

In the meantime, the Karavansara Facebook Page is getting a lot of visits (but not many likes, alas!***), and the Karavansara Pinterest Board is featuring hundreds of wonderful photographs and links.

Not bad.
More’s to come.

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* I still blog in Italian, on strategie evolutive and on Il Futuro รจ Tornato
** But writing prompts are something I’d like to feature somehow in Karavansara. I’ll have to work on a few ideas.
*** Yes, you might drop by and gives us a Thumbs Up. It would be nice of you. Thanks in advance.

 


3 Comments >

10000 visitasA very quick post to thank you all.
Karavansarra just passed the 10.000 hits mark – not bad for a small scale, eccentric blog talking about writing, the East and pulp fiction.

I’m having lots of fun, writing this blog.
I hope you have at least as much fun reading it.

Thank you again.


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Brothers

A quick and unusual post this sunday.
I’ve been made aware of an initiative that I think needs all the bandwidth we can give it.

In a nutshell – a man is looking for his brither.
His twin brother.
The two kids were separated, and lost touch with each other.
They were both in Auschwitz, part of Mengele’s twin experimentation project.

So the guy seeking his brother put up a Facebook page.
This is not cute kittens, big-boobed chicks or stupid cosplayers.
This is important.

What follows is the link.
Take a look.
Spread the word.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/A7734/499971010060858


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Celebrating the Shadows – a feast of imagination

Because horror, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

IMMAGINE-1_g4x88jsmPeter Cushing was born on the 26th of May (1913).
Vincent Price was born on the 27th of May (1911).
Christopher Lee was born on the 27th of May (1922).
(*)

Three actors, three multi-talented artists, three men of sharp wit and vivid, ample culture, three great human beings.
Three persons that spared no opportunity to champion the dignity and the intellectual significance of horror and fantasy fiction.

Now, consider how the literature and art of the imagination – call it fantasy, horror, weird or any other way you please – often suffers from bad press and serious snubs.
And yet, it is in fantasies that all that is high and low in our culture – or across cultures – can mingle, cross-breed and grow.
Science can investigate only what the human mind can imagine.

But imagination is often seen as childish, silly, improper.
Stop dreaming and grow up.

Now, Italian author and critic Franco Pezzini and movie director Max Ferro are suggesting we make the 26th and 27th of may – or, why not, the night in-between – the Feast of Long Shadows.
A celebration of the creative strength and cultural import of the arts of imagination, of horror and wonder.

The web is not new at this sort of initiative – from the deadly serious (the Earth Day) to the highly frivolous (the Talk like a Pirate Day), the web has seen many similar initiatives.
The Feast of Long Shadow will debut on the 26th and 27th of May 2013.

If you feel like supporting the plan – be it by posting on your blog about the dignity of fantasy fiction, by setting up a screening of some old horror with some friends, or by giving a learned lecture in a library – welcome in the fold!
At the moment there’s just a reference page (in Italian) and a simple logo/badge.
More stuff will follow.
Watch this space for news.

LOGO-Festa-delle-Ombre-Lunghe

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* Incidentally, yes, I was born on the 29th of May (1967).
No, ok, I know, just a statistical glitch.