Work on the basic handbook for Hope & Glory has accelerated as the end of the year approaches, and I receive daily sketches that will become interior illustrations.
So, why not share?
This one, for instance, is called Analytical Engineer, and is the work of the excellent Alberto Bontempi.
In the world of Hope & Glory, analytical engines based on Charles Babbage’s designs are commonplace, and drive the march of progress.
No one can linger in the land of Egypt … The time of deeds on earth is only the occurrence of a dream.
(Egyptian Harpist’s Song, XVIII Dynasty)
Do we need ghost stories?
Possibly.
It turns out the house in which I’m living is supposedly haunted – this explains why some of the locals look strangely at me and my brother. Or maybe they are just weird country bumpkins, who knows.
Fact is, by the weekend I’ll have to deliver a learned article – in Italian – about ghostly literature. It’s the spirit (aha!) of the season, I guess.
I’ve been translating two ghost stories for a new publication – a story by Edith Nesbit and one by the wildly eccentric Robert Stephen Hawker, and I’ve been reading on the subject. Continue reading
And talking about courses…
Today I decided that Dutch is not the language for me. I tried it on both Duolingo and in a MOOC from Futurelearn, and in the end I surrendered. I can’t make it.
Not at this time.
A pity, really, but I’ll save it for the summer to give it another go.
On the other hand, I am about to start a 30-hours introductory course on ancient Egyptian art – because enrolling in an online course is still the best way to research a novel.
And a course on Egyptian art will help me with both the current AMARNA project and the Corsair story I am preparing for early next year.
The course is offered for free by the Open University in collaboration with the British Museum, and I’ll also get me a certificate of participation in the end.
What’s not to like about this?
I just finished an online course about the strategies for a successful aging.
I’m over fifty, after all, and without a hope in hell for a pension and a healthy retirement, I will have to keep myself in working order until the day I die.
Better start early.
The course was an absolute wonder – lots of ideas, lots of suggestion,m some great interactions with my fellow students, and at least one concept I’ll take away and keep close at hand: the longevity dividend. Continue reading
I’m not a fan of Agatha Christie.
I think what turned me off was starting with the Miss Marple mysteries, after viewing the old Margaret Rutherford movies. My late aunt, that was a great fan of Christie gave me an omnibus edition with a number of Miss Marple books, and I hated them.
There.
But as I think I already mentioned, I love the Poirot movies featuring Peter Ustinov, and when it comes to Death on the Nile, in my house we are divided – to me, nothing surpasses the Ustinov movie, while my brother, that is a David Suchet fan, prefers the TV movie. Continue reading
The idea of writing shorter fiction is not a bad one – there is a market out there that pays good money for stories under 2500 words. As I mentioned a few days back, I am a long-winded sort of writer, but I am working at my shorter fiction.
And then there is AMARNA, and the idea I posted a while back, about doing something with Fantomah, the Daughter of the Pharaohs.
And so I thought… Continue reading
Karavansara 