Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Pulp heroes & villains

This is no time for Kickstarters, for me: in the first three months of 2019 together with my brother we have done over 1000 euro of so-far unpaid work, and that’s a big figure for us,a big hole in our finances. So, we are cutting on expenses and hoping for tomorrow, and wild purchases are out.
But maybe your finances are better than ours, so I decided to point out a very interesting Kickstarter.
Take a look at this:

Yes, there’s a Mola Ram lookalike character, there’s a lady that looks a lot like Ursula Andress in She, and that big guy on the right, next to a female version of Indiana Jones, is quite obviously Rando Hatton.

I do not usually use minis in my games, and I do not game that much anymore, but this one is breaking my heart.

In case you are interested, the crowdfunding closes in 8 hours.


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Odds and Ends #12

The last issue of Odds and Ends for March just reached the Patrons in the Five Bucks Brigade (that get four issues per month instead of just two). This month: the history of the universe in thirty minutes, an inflammatory book about climate, free, a new social network worth exploring, a trip to Africa looking for Atlantis in the company of a shrunken head, Toto & Talbot Mundy, and a neat little roleplaying game.
Because it’s good to be my patrons.


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Travelling Men

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Mark Twain

Good old Mark Twain, how right you were!
When it comes to travel writers, Italy can boast three great names that are now gone: Fosco Maraini, Folco Quilici and Tiziano Terzani. I read a lot of things by these guys. Quilici of course catered for my love of oceanography, while Maraini and Terzani were guides through and across Asia and the Far East.

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Writing habits

Yesterday I missed my daily post here on Karavansara. There’s nothing wrong or strange or worrying. I was simply so busy writing, I looked up at the clock and it was past midnight and I had missed my daily appointment.

I try and post at least once per day as a form of discipline. A writing habit, as they call ’em. Being able to write 500/1000 not-too-boring words per day is a way for me to organize myself, and to keep the words coming. Shift gears, change topic, tone, style, and relax.

And I find it interesting that my writing distracted me from my writing habit.

While I was otherwise engaged, Amazon released Sons of the Crow, that you can now buy here for (relatively) cheap.

I was also able to submit another story for an anthology – we’ll see how it goes. We keep exploring.
March has been a lean month for story submissions – too much work to do on other projects, that I am eager to close. I only posted three stories, one of which bounced back, and one that was accepted pending editing and things. Not bad, all things considered.

And also, I reached the enviable record of 25 positive reviews on Goodreads for my first novel, The Ministry of Thunder, with a solid 4.32/5 average. Not bad. Adding these to the 15 5-star reviews on various Amazons (10 only on Amazon.com), it makes quite a nice number of satisfied customers. And I am quite happy with it.

So, I missed a post, but I did a lot of other stuff.
Now, back to writing. Have a nice weekend.


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Eagles & Navarone

There’s one sure sign you’re talking with a smart guy (or girl): given the question “What’s the best, The Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare?”, they will reply “Are we talking the books or the movies?”
And we were actually discussing the movies, last night, and the answer to the question is quite tricky, for me at least.

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Mifune

To me, Toshiro Mifune will always be half of the cast of John Boorman’s Hell in the Pacific – the first film I ever saw featuring the Japanese actor. Later came Rashomon, Yojimbo and Seven Samurai, the latter long after Magnificent Seven had become one of my favorite westerns.

Toshiro Mifune’s power as an actor was perfectly showcased in Hell in the Pacific, a movie in which he had very little dialog, but projected such overwhelming physicality that words were unnecessary.

And so I went and watched Mifune, the Last Samurai, a few nights back.

The bad thing about Steven Okazaki’s Mifune is, it is too short.
The documentary covers the birth of the chanbara – with a great selection of silent movie excerpts – and then charts Toshiro Mifune’s rise as the quintessential samurai actor through his early years and his collaboration with Akira Kurosawa. And then stops.
And leaves us wanting more.

But apart from that, there’s a lot of good in the documentary – the already mentioned relics from the silent era, the interviews with actors and technicians that worked with Mifune and Kurosawa, Shiro Mifune’s (Toshiro’s son) recollections. Lots of photos, lots of movie clips.
It’s a small tribute to a man that was larger than life, and that cannot fit the frame of a simple documentary.
But a great show, and well worth watching.