It’s election day here in Italy.
We are snowed in, I am nursing a damaged wrist and typing with two fingers, but we did go and do our duty.
It’s a weird time here in Italy, and I see dark clouds gathering.
And it does get to you – sit here, write fantasy stories while the nation sinks back into its bad habits. What’s the sense of it?
But then I say to myself, what the heck, we can still write about ideas, and imagine solutions, and not just problems.
So here we go.
I’ll let Marc Bolan express my feelings at the moment…
Election day
I’m going to write some fantasy
The first round of voting on my Patreon page has closed, and my patrons have decided my 12.000-words story will be a Fantasy/Sword & Sorcery thing.
Which suits me fine.
Now we’ll have to see what sort of story I’ll be writing.
A new Aculeo & Amunet novelette?
Asteria‘s first outing in the English language?
Or something completely different?
I’ll set up a second, final poll…
Stargate Origins and waning enthusiasm
I hate to admit I was wrong, but as my watching Stargate Origins progresses, I am forced to take a step back. Upon catching the first episodes, I wrote the show looked good. The show does indeed look good, but alas it is starting to play like a not-so-good fan-project, or like a collection of transition scenes for a videogame.
We are now two-thirds into the story, and while preciously little is happening, the little that is happening is somewhat… lightweight.
Very lightweight.
There are a few good ideas in there, but the general impression is one of disappointment. I am particularly appalled at the dialogues and characterization – that seemed to promise so much in the early episodes and that are now down to some very irritating, petulant chattering.
True, any new Stargate is better than no new Stargate, but that’s a small consolation.
I’m not particularly eager to see the remaining three episodes, and that’s a pity.
Celebrations
Yesterday I had a few things to celebrate…
The Tyrannosaurus Tex podcast, of course (despite the fact that they got my name pronounced wrong). New patrons on my Patreon page. And the great start of my worldbuilding course online.
Plus six (SIX!!) new commissions, five for articles and one for a script (my first script).
And it was Saint David, patron saint of Wales.
So I decided to spend some hard-earned cash on a book, and finally got me a copy of Lawrence Block’s Writing the Novel, in its expanded, updated edition.
What a refreshing read! (Yes, I started it straight away) Continue reading
Tyrannosaurus Tex strikes again
I’m very proud to announce that Tyrannosaurus Tex, my first ebook ever, has been turned into an audio-drama by the fine folks of the Gallery of Curiosities podcast.
Narrated by Steve Sutherland, it is just fantastic.
You can check it out FOLLOWING THIS LINK.
And in case you are interested, Tyrannosaurus Tex is still available for dirt cheap on Amazon.
Game of Aces, a review
Game of Aces is a 2016 historical action/adventure movie that got a limited release in theaters and was later available on demand in streaming – today you can catch it on Amazon video or Hulu.
Shot in the Death Valley desert doubling for the Egyptian desert by Damien Lay, an Australian director with a past as a documentary-maker, and a small international cast, the movie allegedly cost 500.000 dollars.
And while budgetary limits are evident, the end result is quite interesting, and decidedly worth a look if you like the things we like here on Karavansara.
This is a fun movie, that plays nicely its limited resources and is not as weak as some reviewers made it look.
Karavansara 