Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Writing


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Updates

So you’ve got a cold.
The world – or at least a fair chunk of it – is going bonkers, and you’re going through one of your usual bouts of insomnia.
It’s three am and you’re unable to stream the new Lupin TV series.
Your house is cold as a Viking hell, and you don’t feel like writing.
What better opportunity to back-up your data and then update your operating system?

Fast forward to seven hours later.
You are trying to roll-back a failed update, while your PC refuses to connect to the web.
You start thinking that this year 2021 is going to give 2020 a run for its money.
You are cursing ancient Lovecraftian gods.

Then, thankfully, your computer programmer brother finds a way to get your LAN working again, you go online and the roll-back fails, but now you can try the update again, and it sort of works.
You have the whole afternoon to re-install the bits that are missing.

Your PC works – and it’s the perfect time to find out that all of your backed up data was lost, because the portable HD you used acted up. You have a fine collection of empty folders.

The weekend will never come too soon.


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Season’s Greetings

In the classic Christmas Movie Gremlin (hey, it is a classic!), the character of Kate observes how the Christmas season is the hardest day for lonely and depressed people.

While everybody else are opening up their presents, they’re opening up their wrists.

And indeed, a lot of people out there are being hit hard.
I usually realize things are taking a bad turn because my insomnia is replaced by absolute lethargy – I’d sleep all day, and it’s probably a coping mechanism, a way to shut out the problems.

Because they get thicker and weirder on Christmas, don’t they?
Yesterday I got an overdue payment bill that I thought I had discussed and settled with the guys.
I’ve got the money to cover it, but what the hell, a menacing letter two days before Christmas?
How come bills and hassles always hit us two days before Christmas?
And this morning both water and power were cut – because a pipe exploded somewhere because of the cold, and to work on it, they (accidentally?) cut the power for the whole village.
Merry Christmas.
Or something.

So, it’s going to be hard – this year probably harder than in the past.
We know it, we can take it.
Hold on tight out there, and if you feel the tide is rising too fast and you’re going to go under, reach out to someone and seek help. There is nothing wrong with seeking help.

And to cheer you up, here’s a song from another movie that deserves to be a Christmas classic.
Check it out.
And Happy Holidays.


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The Taste of Ashes

I am happy to announce that my post-apocalypse/pandemic horror short story The Taste of Ashes has been published on The Dread Machine, an online horror magazine that features high quality stories (and has a great retro logo).
Despite its theme, the story was written before the COVID hit us, and it is therefore just a case of life imitating art.

The story is currently available only to the subscribers, and indeed I urge you to subscribe to the magazine to access a wide variety of excellent stories.
Once the limited run is done, the story will be available to the casual readers, and I’ll post a reminder here.


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Trying a different approach

I’m trying something different for my next story, and I thought I’d tell you about it because… ah, because as usual, doing these things in public forces me to go through with them, can’t make any excuse and waste my time watching Youtube videos and stuff.

So, I am about to write a fantasy story set in a world without gods, in which magic is devastatingly dangerous, and in which life conditions are harsh.
Really harsh.
Blunder-and-you’re-dead kind of harsh.

Continue reading →


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Lady gumshoe

Writers have all sorts of strange superstitions, rituals and quirks. I like to keep a coin balanced on edge on the desktop while I type: when the coin drops, it’s time to take a break. Silly stuff like that.

But now I might start a new personal superstition – I only have to announce here on the blog that I’ll be working of a fun project just because, that some serious work lands in my mailbox.
For instance…

Continue reading →


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Ghosts for Christmas

Today I’ve finished the first round of translation on the mystery novella Murder on the Giava, and took the afternoon off to read the new issue of Phantasmagoria, Special Edition, that is all about M.R. James – and as it usually happens when I go back to classic ghost stories, I felt like writing some new ghost stories myself – because that’s where I started with horror, as a reader, with classic ghost stories.

In fact, right now I’ve three ghost stories being considered for publication, but while I am waiting for the publishers to make up their minds, there’s always room for more.

The magazine features an article by James himself about “proper” ghost stories, and that’s certainly an inspiration.

And so, while I wait to start the second round of translation – to catch all the stupid stuff I wrote on the first – I thought I’ll devote December to ghost stories, and then either sell them, or share them with my Patrons or, who knows, put together a collection and self-publish it.

Watch this space for updates.