It rains in Astigianistan
Considering the pouring rain that hit us uninterruptedly for the last 24 hours, I guess the crocodile either found himself a warm spot in some village pub, or the poor thing had a bad day indeed.
Searches for the crocodile continue.
Ditto the rain. Continue reading
The case of the Belbo crocodile and other news
So, yesterday I announced I’d take five days off.
In the following 12 hours…
1 . I was hit with an urgent translation job for an important client (”I want it for yesterday”)
2 . I found out Project:GWANGI (don’t ask, it’s Top Secret) is live and I need to get some stuff ready by Monday.
3 . Learned that the local police and wildlife service are hunting along the river Belbo, looking for a runaway crocodile – which, hot on the heels of the illegal car wrecking operation that was busted two weeks back along the same river, and the bit about the guy that interrupted a service in church shouting he was from the Vatican Secret Services and was dragged away and locked up in the loon bin, means those BUSCAFUSCO stories keep writing themselves.
And really, these are not bad news at all – paid jobs, story ideas, Big Things coming…
Sort of makes me think I should take a vacation more often.
But anyway, things are back to HECTIC as usual.
And it’s a good thing.
This writing business is crazy.
And tonight we turn the clock back one hour – which will mess my already messed up circadian rhythms.
Vacation, I said. Five days off, I said…
Five days vacation
I’ve been a little more under the weather than usual these last two weeks. Bad health, insomnia, a lot of stuff to do, stories to write, trying to pay the bills.
The usual stuff.
But right now is Friday night, October the 26th.
There’s a payment on its way to my bank.
I have submitted four short stories in this month, to four different projects.
I’m 1500 words away from closing a novelette.
So here’s what I will do now… Continue reading
The Sex Lives of Cannibals
In the 1930s a young Thor Heyerdhal spent one year and a half in the Marquesas, as part of a project of what we could call today experimental archaeology. He and his wife lived as low-tech a life as possible,and later Heyerdahl wrote a book on the experience, called Fatu Hiva, from the name of the island they were living on. The book was published in 1974.
Sixty-odd years after the Heyerdhals’ stay in the Marquesas, J. Maarten Troost and his girlfriend did something similar, and spent two years on a small island in Kiribati. Their experiences went into a book called The Sex Lives of Cannibals, that was published exactly thirty years after Fatu Hiva (a coincidence, most certainly).
The postman just delivered a mystery package containing pristine copy of Troost’s book this morning. A gift from a friend (thank you!), I’ve been curious about it ever since I learned of its existence.
This is going to be a fun weekend.
The book also goes to expand the list of books here on my shelf that are prominently displayed just to shock my (rare) visitors.
NaNoWriMoing away
It’s that time of the year again, well almost.
No, I am not talking about Halloween – that has been thematically influencing this blog for a while, now – but November, and with November, NaNoWriMo.
Will you take part in it?
Will you win it?
Just couldn’t care less?
In the past I have posted about my lack of interest for NaNoWriMo – I am too busy writing to pay the bills to go and do this sort of thing. And I admit I find the amateurs bragging about their success a little irritating.
The most interesting bit about NaNOWriMo to me is the chance – that I always miss – to buy a copy of Scrivener for Windows at a reduced price.
But this year I might.
No, not buy me Scrivener – I am penniless, for a change, and I’m doing fine with the free Linux version – but write a novel in one month. Continue reading
Karavansara 