Carpaccio between East and West
Yesterday I mentioned Vittore Carpaccio, a Renaissance painter from Venice that will appear in my next Corsair story – independently of where it gets published.
Now, Carpaccio – a little-known artist, in fact – is interesting because he was a strange mix of influences. In particular, his paintings are a strange mix of Flemish and Oriental elements.
Indeed, good old Vittore was an artist whose style could only have developed and flourished in 15th/16th century Venice. Continue reading
Of Corsairs and Masks
I mentioned too many projects.
Some new, some old, some halfway in between.
To wit…
The third Corsair story has been long overdue.
I miss Leo Martin, and who knows, maybe my readers miss him too.
The third and fourth stories in the series had been outlined and researched, but then I never got around and never wrote them.
This is an old project.
And then there is Black Mask.
The legendary crime pulp magazine, the one that first published stories by Dash Hammet and Ray Chandler and Erle Stanley Gardner and Paul Cain and Fredric Brown and all the greats. I’d love to get a story of mine in Black Mask – because yes, it still exists.
They publish hard-boiled and crime, of course, and I want to have a story of mine on their pages.
This is a brand new project.
And I guess you can see where this is going. Continue reading
Ramen Days
In the last thirty-six hours, more projects have piled up on my To-Do list.
Lots of stuff to write.
Some absolutely great ideas.
Things I want to do.
And that will pay a nice figure, in the long run.
And that’s the rub, the long run.
All these new beautiful projects laying here in front of me would require hard work and lots of time.
A nice bit of research, too.
And long hours spent writing.
And that’s OK – that’s the deal, that comes with the territory: you want your story, you sit down and work for it.
So that’s not really the problem. Continue reading
More Sketches of China
After yesterday’s cover reveal, it’s time to write a little about Sketches of China, my fifth novelette in the Hope & Glory series that acts as an introduction/prequel for the game, that will be out very soon.
The plan for the novelettes was to try and show a different corner of the Hope & Glory world with each story.
So we’ve been through the Anglo-Indian Ray (Glass Houses), North Africa (Number the Brave), the Imperial court of Russia (Part of the Machine), on a flying ship belonging to the Republic of Iezo (Above the Clouds) and now, China.
Also, each novelette tackles a different genre, showcasing the different themes and gaming approaches the players will be able to adopt in the game.
So we’ve seen a spy story (Glass Houses), a war story (Number the Brave), a noir (Part of the Machine), a “big dumb object” SF story (Above the Clouds) and now… Continue reading
Sketches of China
A visit to Goblin Tower
The Goblin Tower is a 1968 novel by Lyon Sprague de Camp, first in the series known as the Reluctant King.
The novel follows the adventures of the reluctant King Jorian, in fact an engineer and watchmaker, that by chance finds himself in the shoes of the king of Xylar. But tradition has it that the career of the king of Xylar has an expiration date – expiration being the proper word, as it ends on the hangman’s stock.
The frantic activity of our hero to abandon the title, the throne, and the country, before his position becomes too compromising sets the pace of the story. It is not that abroad things are any better, since all the nations of the continent are prey to a political and social eccentricity that slips into the grotesque.
And in the utterly lethal. Continue reading
Karavansara 