Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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NoNaNoWriMo

crest_square-b23dbe8d9b80265765b27ccd9b5d4811I mentioned NaNoWriMo, in a previous post.
I will not be doing the NaNoWriMo – but this does not mean I do not respect and support the brave souls that give it a spin.
Way to go.

My suggestions:

  • get yourself a good writing software: I am partial to Scrivener that usually is available at a discount in this time of the year (you find a link in the sidebar)
  • get yourself the free and excellent WorkRave or a similar software that forces you to take pauses and do relaxation exercises
  • stock tea and biscuits or your comfort food of choice
  • tell naysayers to get lost

The reason I will not be doing the NaNoWriMo, now, is… Continue reading →


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Cynical and Gone

angelsFor the second time in a month, something happened to Cynical Little Angels.
First, in the last week of September, the ebook was blocked by Amazon/KDP because somebody had reported it as stolen – that was not my story, they said, I had copied it from somewhere.
A blog, they said.

Turned out the incriminated blog was Karavansara – where I had posted an excerpt of my book to, you know, try and sell more copies.

I had to write to Amazon and clear the issue.

But now Cynical Little Angels is gone, completely.
It does not show on searches, it does no longer appear on my author page, and even the link KDP gives me for the product page of the ebook leads nowhere.
I get a “page missing” notice and the photo of a fluffy dog.
Amazon wants me to buy a puppy.

I am waiting for a reply to my inquiries.
The whole situation is quite frankly, irritating.


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Last week before Halloween

It’s the last week before Halloween, so let’s see…

I have to finish and deliver a 12/15.000-words supernatural thriller (think Kolchak, but set in the present day), by the end of the month.
The story is already outlined and I have a fair chunk of story, but now I’l have to start working on a map of Memphis1 (don’t ask).

memphis-map

The deadline is the 1st of November, but I will have to close my story earlier because… Continue reading →


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The Way Back (2010)

I have just spent the best part of my afternoon watching the 2010 Peter Weir movie The Way Back, and a might fine way to spend my time it was.
The movie is two hours and a quarter, but does not drag, and has a wonderful cast.

The Way Back chronicles the journey of a group of escaped gulag prisoners, from Siberia to India, in 1941.
The story is inspired by actual events, and is highly on topic here on Karavansara. Continue reading →


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Henry Rider Haggard’s Cleopatra

and_image_1366916320And talking about historical novels, Egypt and all this sort of stuff…
Henry Rider Haggard, author of King Solomon’s Mines and She, two books that are highly regarded here on Karavansara, also wrote a book called Cleopatra, published in 1889.

Now, it is sometimes an overlooked fact that Rider Haggard wrote a huge number of books (56 novels, 3 collections of stories and 10 non-fiction books), and while he is still best remembered for his Quatermain-Ayesha novels, but his catalog includes al sort of historical and exotic adventure.
And most if not all of it is available for free online.

But about Cleopatra, now… Continue reading →


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Karavansara Free Library: Georg Ebers

4f33d756b86612f6bf4e199cca2a532b--literatureYou have to admit the idea had potential: popularize the subjects of Egyptology and Ancient History by writing historical romances.
And so Egyptologist Georg Moritz Ebers, a German that had pursued a legal career before he moved on to Egyptology, becoming teacher of Egyptian language in 1868 in Jena, decided to pursue a parallel career as a novelist.

The guy was a legit Egyptologist, and today is mostly known for the Ebers Papyrus, a medical text from 1550 BC, in the form of a scroll containing 700 magical spells and practical remedies.
Ebers had not actually “discovered” the papyrus – he had just purchased it from Edwin Smith, an American from Orlando, Florida, that lived in Egypt and acquired various documents from sources unknown.
This is not actually strange – a lot of Egyptian antiques were not discovered, but bought by Europeans and Americans from various purveyors of ancient goods. Continue reading →