I’m experimenting with the Hemingway App.
I found out about it early this morning, and I decided to give it a spin.
The Hemingway App is free, and promises to improve my English, so, why not?
I am using it to check this post, and I’ll add the software’s observations between square brackets, so that you an get an idea.
[for instance, this phrase was flagged as hard to read – and the verbs in this sentence were tagged as passive voice] Continue reading
Orca, the Killer Whale (1977)
It began they say, because Dino De Laurentiis wanted “a fish bigger than a shark”. It was 1976, Jaws had been a smash hit, and the Italian producer was eager to get a piece of the action. So they thought about an orca.
And they shot **Orca, the Killer Whale.”
It doesn’t matter that orcas are not whales.
Nor fish, either.
… and it’s Orchinus orca, not Orca orchinus – and it does not mean bringer of death in Latin.
Goodness…!
Anyway, I re-watched this movie two nights back.
Only the following morning did I find out that director Michael Anderson had died. Strange coincidence. Continue reading
Two new experiments
It must be the spring, or maybe the insomnia – sleep deprivation does have a lot of weird side-effects, after all…
Anyway, I get lots of ideas, these nights. So I’ve decided to try two experiments. One of them will involve only my Patrons, while the other will be open to the public.
Both are unashamedly self-promotional.
Both will probably be quite fun. Continue reading
Rogue Male, the radio drama
Rogue Male (1976)
My insomnia persists (hooray!) which means I’m up all night, and then during the day I feel like a wreck. As I usually do, I am using the non-required waking hours to do a little work, and then to catch up on watching movies.
So last night I tried to take a look at Tomb Invader, then after ten minutes I decided there are better ways to waste my life, and so I dug out two oldies: Orca, the Killer Whale and Rogue Male.
I also thought I’d do posts on both.
Let’s start with the latter. Continue reading
Meet my monster
Work is under way on the first draft of my new sea monster story, and here’s a snippet of the research material I put together.
76 pages in 12 hours
But in the end I did not make it.
I went through a ferocious bout of insomnia, and when I finally could not stay in bed any longer listening to the wind outside, I got up, fired the PC up, and wrote a book.
Not a big book. A short handbook for writers.
Ten thousand words – 76 pages in paperback.
I uploaded it on Kindle about two hours ago, and then as I was at it, I also prepared a paperback copy. It will be on sale in two or three days – in Italian.
Well, OK, I cheated – I had the notes for my courses and workshops here on my hard disk already, so I only had to pick the bits and pieces that I needed, and fit them together, and then add a few examples, and create a cover.
And now I have my own writing handbook – very short on theory, but with lot of exercises, and a quirky approach to prompts, character creation and worldbuilding.
Nothing too original, admittedly – but original enough to be unique on the Italian market, as far as I know.
And hopefully it will serve as a good advertisement for my forthcoming workshops.
And really, back in the days when I created my folk-horror series, I was used to write a story, create a cover and publish the ebook over a weekend.
In the last three weeks I’ve published three ebooks.
Looks like I’m on my way back to the old standards.
Karavansara 