Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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AMARNA, episode 1

Amarna preview smallAnd so we made it, despite the revolt of the Amazon oompa-loompas.
Because you see, I spent almost one hour uploading the text and the cover of the first episode of AMARNA on Amazon, and when I hit publish the thing just vanished.
[snaps fingers] Like that!

And so I said to myself, what the heck, I’ll use Gumroad1.

And so, here it goes – a simple zip file including both the epub and the mobi versions of the first episode of my serial, DRM-free, that you can buy on Gumroad for the same price you’d pay for the mobi alone on Amazon2.

And what’s more, on Gumroad you can SUBSCRIBE to the whole series, and get the files in your mailbox as soon as they are released, saving up to 22% on the retail price of the six installments.
Is this cool or what?

And now, what about a little preview?
Want to see how it starts?  Continue reading →


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The Shepheard’s Hotel, Cairo

Quoth Wikipedia:

Shepheard’s Hotel was the leading hotel in Cairo and one of the most celebrated hotels in the world from the middle of the 19th century until it was burned down in 1952 in the Cairo Fire.
[…]
Shepheard’s Hotel was famed for its grandeur, for its guests, and as a base for the military. It was renowned for its opulence, with stained glass, Persian carpets, gardens, terraces, and great granite pillars resembling those of the Ancient Egyptian temples. Its American Bar was frequented not only by Americans but also by French and British officers. There were nightly dances at which men appeared in military uniform and women in evening gowns. Tourist shops faced the hotel from across the street, and there was a storeroom where officers could check their excess luggage.

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Graustark

And talking about small imaginary European states…
I guess everybody out there is familiar with Brewster’s Millions, if not the original novel from 1902, at least with the Richard Pryor movie of 1985, directed by Walter Hill. One of the dozen or so movies based on that novel, that was written by George Barr McCutcheon.

Now, McCutcheon’s other claim to literary fame is the creation of Graustark, a Ruritania-like, romantic European micronation that he explored in six novels.

mapa-ruritania-en-austria-hungria-1911

Indeed, such was the popularity of McCutcheon’s novels that if a whole genre is known as Ruritanian Romance thanks to Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda, that same genre is also known as Graustarkian Romance. Continue reading →


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Drachenstal: halfway report

I am terribly late – and the bout of flu did not help – but I’ve been working on the Hope & Glory: Drachensthal mini-supplement this last month.

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The thing will be small but hopefully pack a nice punch:

  • a small gazetteer of the Grand-Duchy of Drachenstahl
  • a game Master’s section
  • a scenario
  • five quick adventure hooks

As all the Hope & Glory material, this corner of the world will also come with its own flavor – in this case, political intrigue and revolution. Continue reading →