Writing | Karavansara

17 March 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Writing as Sleight of Hand

Cover of Royal Road to Card Magic

I often say that writing – no matter if it’s stories, academical articles, blog posts – is a practice akin to sleight of hand.

Writers are illusionists, doing verbal prestidigitation.
We have an audience, and we must impress and entertain this audience not only with our contents, but with our presentation skills.

And here I am tonight (it’s a little past midnight, Saturday night, as I write this), and in Hugard & Braué’s indispensable 1947 book, The Royal Road to Card Magic, I find the following: Continue reading →

14 March 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Writing Prompt – Elephants, Right?

Companions

7 March 2014
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Writing Prompt – Belleville, 1958

An American in Paris?

As I said, I’m collecting photographical references for my next short story.
And this one is exactly what I was looking for.
Not that I knew I was looking for it before I found it.

28 February 2014
by Davide Mana 1 Comment

Writing Prompt – Japan

A Face in the Crowd

24 February 2014
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Authority Issues

One of the best bits of being a writer (if on a part-time basis) and having access to the web is, I get very close to my readers.
I get feedback.
I get reviews.
I get shoutouts like “Bought it! Liked it!”

It’s the sort of stuff that really helps going on – even when sales are low and one can’t actually pay one’s bills with the money from the ebooks. Continue reading →

21 February 2014
by Davide Mana 1 Comment

Writing Prompt – You don’t bring me flowers

Today’s prompt is from the cover of famous Italian magazine, La Domenica del Corriere…

La Domenica del Corriere was a popular Italian magazine, published between 1899 and 1989.
It is famous for the color illustrations of its cover stories, which are today a much sought-after collector’s item.
This one, from the summer of 1958 is particularly interesting to me: 28 years old Guida Concetta Rinino was walking along a deserted path, on her way to see some relatives, when she was approached by an unknown man.
She refused his advances, and when he insisted, she scared him away by hitting him repeatedly with a bunch of roses.
Weird what could make headline news in those days, what?

And it all happened by Turin‘s Lingotto station – very close to the place where – nine years later – I was born.