Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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How to be an Adventurer

OK, I was writing yesterday’s post and I was surprised when I noticed that Tracey Curtis Taylor describes herself, on her her website, as an Adventurer.
Now, sure, that’s as cool as ever but…

OK, quite simply, I was told you can’t be an adventurer.
And fool that I was, I believed it.
Despite being primed – as a generation – to become adventurers, raised on a steady diet of Moon landings and Skylab, undersea exploration and travels in foreign lands, ancient mysteries and lost civilizations, we were told it was quite fun and all that, but now we should forget about it and find ourselves a job.
Possibly something very boring, capable of killing any remaining spark of life still residing in our soul.
Even those of us that – contrary to all common sense – went and became geologists, paleontologists or oceanographers, were later told we had had our fun, now go and get a proper job. Continue reading


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Eight Video-Blogs

vlogsIn the last year I started following regularly a certain number of video-blogs on Youtube – and I’ll keep following them in 2016.

So I thought I’ll share my faves – considering that they might interest you out there, as some of the topics are the same covered – or marginally touched-upon – in Karavansara.

I’ll spare you the technical and professional vlogs and the obvious (TED Talks, Harlan Ellison etc., and more in general, instructional vlogs.)
So here they are, in no particular order… Continue reading


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Teach Yourself Sabotage with OSS

Among the wonders one finds online, the Simple Sabotage Field Guide is an absolute must have in the pulp hero library (and in a writer’s box of resources).

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The book is a 1944 field guide distributed by OSS – the precursor of CIA.
The pdf version of this small booklet can be found here.

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As the clearance stamp notes “Use this information as you see fit”.


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Bag yourself a Dino

9781472812827_1_3_8The postman delivered today my Halloween gift1, Steve White’s Dinosaur Hunter, freshly pressed by Osprey Publishing.
Yes, that Osprey Publishing – the one that had me spending extravagant amounts of money on marvelously-illustrated, authoritative books about pirates, samurai, assorted World Wars and what else.

Described as The Ultimate Guide to the Biggest Game, White’s book is basically a handbook for, well, big game hunters interested in bagging themselves a dinosaur.

The book – which comes in a backpack-friendly 200+ pages thick paperback – is essentially the orientation manual for those lucky individuals that have passed the preliminary selection for a Mesozoic hunting license.
Mesozoic Hunting Corporation (C) provides the gear and the means of transportation. Continue reading


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The Art of Travel

titleThe idea of the work occurred to me when exploring South-western Africa in 1850-51. I felt acutely at that time the impossibility of obtaining sufficient information on the subjects of which it treats ; for though the natives of that country taught me a great deal, it was obvious that their acquaintance with bush lore was exceedingly partial and limited. Then remembering how the traditional maxims and methods of travelling in each country differ from those of others, and how every traveller discovers some useful contrivances for himself, it appeared to me, that I should do welcome service to all who have to rough it,-whether explorers, emigrants, missionaries or soldiers, by collecting the scattered experiences of many such persons in various circumstances, collating them, examining into their principles, and deducing from them what might fairly be called an “Art of Travel.” To this end, on my return home, I searched through a vast number of geographical works, I sought information from numerous travellers of distinction, and I made a point of re-testing, in every needful case, what I had read or learned by hearsay.

Francis Galton‘s The Art of Travel is available as a handy pdf through the website galton.org, that collects all the works of the Victorian scientist, explorer and polimath. The book was very popular in the 19th and was often reprinted.

The Art of Travel is an entertaining read, and a great resource for writers of historical and exotic adventure fiction.


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How to cook a wolf

31670Not all pulp readings come from pulp magazines.

I discovered How to cook a wolf a few years back, as I was digging on Amazon in search of cheap Christmas gifts for my friends.

Written by legendary gourmand and writer Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, despite its grim title the volume does not explain how to get a wolf on the table – but it is indeed an interesting read1.
And it has a certain relevance for aficionados of adventure writing and pulp fiction.
Because How to cook a wolf was published in 1942, and it is a book about home economy and kitchen management for a nation facing rationing and the many dramatic shortages of wartime. Continue reading