Worth a read!
Over 50.000
This is a brief post because something interesting happened while I was on vacation: not only this blog just surpassed the 50.000 yearly visits (compare that to the 45.000 visits over 12 months of 2017), but we are experiencing an increase in visitors that for the first time ever has caused Karavansara to get more visits than my Italian blog, strategie evolutive.
It’s true in the last few months, I have increasingly reduced my posts on strategie evolutive – not out of ill will, but simply because it seems to me I have little more to say over there – while Karavansara, on the other hand, is growing, and so now we have more than tripled the number of visitors.
So, while I welcome the new readers (make yourself heard in the comments!), I also want to thank my old readers, for hanging on all this time.
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
(John Keats, 1819)
When summer is nearly over and kids start heading back to school, you know that three seasons are quickly coming up: pumpkin spice season, the holiday season, and novel writing season. For those who are a part of the writing world, writers can look forward to the 3-Day Novel Contest in September and National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November. Here’s how to be successful in novel writing season.
via Tips on How to Get Through 3- Day Novel: A Writing Marathon — Act the Giddy Goat
So what happened, exactly?
My friends Hell (yes, they really cal him like that) and Silvia came visiting the Belbo Valley and the Astigianistan hills.
The week started with a crocodile spotted in the area, and with a strong rain, reaching a staggering 80 mm (3 inches) over 6 hours.
Then the wind began.
In the night between Monday and Tuesday gale force winds hit northern Italy, causing panic and devastation.
Genoa was hit hard (hard as in – boats beached in the streets a quarter of a mile from the sea), and the Astigianistan hills were equally blasted.
Here where I live, we almost lost a window blind, and the following morning we found the courtyard strewn with mysterious wreckage.
And then the web went dead – no internet, no phone, no nothing.
For thirsty-six hours.
But, like, who cares?
We found a warm spot in which we holed up and we basically talked writing and books, ate the local specialty “farinata” (a dish that deserves a post by itself), drank assorted beers, and had a hell of a good time.
No news from the croc – I guess he’s found a lift from some trucker and is now cruising south.
Now vacation’s over – tomorrow we’ll be back in the rat race.
Tourists in Nizza Monferrato
We are under the black cloud at the right of the AT sign.
So today we met our friends Silvia and Germano as they came to visit for the Halloween festivities. They are staying in Nizza, and we spent the afternoon talking and rambling around town. This being Monday, most of the shops and places of interest were shut down, and the town was deserted and dreary.
Well, OK, drearier than usual.
And it was a nice day to start our vacations.
We got pouring rain for most of the day – it’s been raining for over 48 hours now.
We found shelter in a cafeteria around 2 pm, as the sky grew dark and it looked like it was 7 pm at least. And when 7 pm came, and we were on our way to the pizza place for a bite, an icy cold wind started, and soon there were fire brigade trucks speeding around town because of crashed trees and other disasters.
But we survived untouched and relatively dry, and we spent most of the day talking books and writing and other silliness – including a nice discussion on the subject of immortality and how it should be represented in a story, that started as a general chat about urban fantasy, and turned into a quite interesting exchange of ideas.
Tomorrow, more of the same – hopefully with a better weather forecast.
Karavansara 