Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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The night of Mars

OK, so the flesh is weak. I’ll be the first one to admit it.
I have this friend, we seldom see each other. We were supposed to go out for an ice cream and some talk, but when I got to her place things took a different course, and I ended up spending the night at her place.
In my defense I can say she’s a great person, she’s got air conditioning and she’s got Hulu.
So we spent the night binge-watching the fourth season of Veronica Mars.

I do not like binge watching. I belong to a generation that used to get its TV entertainment in weekly installment, and that’s fine with me.
But I’m ready to make an exception for Veronica Mars.

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Flash from the Past: Hawk & Fisher

I discovered Hawk & Fisher in the early ’90s, when I bought in bulk the six slim Headline paperbacks that make up the series. It was a very strange hybrid: sword & sorcery, detective story and humor.
But I liked the general concept, the six paperbacks were cheap, and it was a fun way to spend a summer.

Hawk & Fisher is one of the first series developed by Simon R. Green, a British writer that has fully metabolized the pulp ethos of yore: he writes serial characters, usually in pretty classic genres (fantasy, horror, space opera), adding a twist that makes even the most trite concepts look fresher.

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Stuff in the mail and an ice-cold chinotto

Hey, you might say, were you not supposed to take the day off and wonder the sun-baked streets of Nizza Monferrato?
Well, I am – just got home for a few minutes to drop the shopping bags and put some things in the refrigerator.

But it was a good thing that I took a moment to come back home, because I found my contributor copy of DreamForge Magazine #2 (the one that features my short story “Sapiens”) waiting for me in the mailbox…

… plus the galleys for an anthology that should come out in August and carries a story of mine…

… and the final editor’s rev of another story that should get out in a few weeks in another anthology.

Also, a letter by the editor that received my Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and that will give me his opinion in September.

So what can I say, it’s good to be home.
I’ll drink an ice-cold chinotto (a somewhat retro drink, if you will) to that, and then get back to Nizza, where my brother roams alone at the moment.


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A one day vacation & microadventure, sorta

Contrary to my plans – I intended to stay at home and write – tomorrow I have to do some stuff in a couple of offices here in Nizza Monferrato, roughly 12 kilometers from where I live. It will mean spending the whole day out. The bit of bureaucracy I’m taking care of will require probably, say, half an hour, but there’s the small matter of my lack of an automobile.

The local bus might be a little tricky – the service’s been canceled or re-scheduled now that school’s out so that bus runs are not guaranteed.
As a solution, I’ll ask for a lift to a friend on her way to work, and I have already arranged with some other friends for a bite in the evening and then a lift back.
This means having the whole day to play at being a tourist in Nizza – fascinating market town as all readers of BUSCAFUSCO know, but de facto a one horse town, that you can cross on foot in half an hour.

So what?
Well, with my brother we’ve designed the day as a small vacation and microadventure – including street food, window-shopping, maybe some photos. We’ll also bring along thick paperbacks.
We’ll pretend we’re not Italians.
And I’ll have a notebook, to jot down ideas.
After all, what the heck, it’s summer, right?