Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Pulp Cthulhu

Pulp Cthulhu – where has this thing been all my life?

51w9H3aTqiL._AC_UL320_SR244,320_Now, the answer is simple – it was in a folder filled with notes on my gaming table, sitting underneath my copy of Call of Cthulhu, 3th edition.
Meaning, we always played Call of Cthulhu as a pulp game.
I played with other keepers, that were more “lovecraftian”, or maybe just more depressed, or more sadistic – in the end, adventures lost their meaning as character after character died horribly and in the end nothing hung together anymore.

Boring.

Continue reading →


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Art crimes and story ideas

One of the questions you should not ask a writer is

where do you get your ideas

And yes, I am about to start an Idea Club (you pay one buck a month, I send you an idea per week)… no, OK, joking.

Back to the post – ideas are everywhere.
Just to give you an example…

I am a subscriber to a wonderful mailing list that is called Culture Crime News – I found out about it when I followed a MOOC about art crimes.
The mailing list is maintained by professor Donna Yates, that teaches Antiquities Trafficking and Art Crime at the University of Glasgow, and writes a wonderful blog called Anonymous Swiss Collector.

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Culture Crime News drops in your mailbox weekly, with stories about art and antiques crimes: looting, trafficking, theft, swindles and what else, with links at the pertinent news clips, from all over the world.
And it’s a treasure trove of ideas.

For instance, from today’s issue: Continue reading →


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The writing life of hacks

I was chatting with a friend, a few minutes back – he’s a good writer, earning a fair share of his income with his books.
Lucky guy.
He told me he had cooked dinner, done some chores, put the dog back to sleep, and now was about to watch some telly.

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I was perfectly able to relate with that – I had just cooked a quick-and-easy pasta for me and my brother, done some chores like taking out the rubbish, and now was about to settle down with a few podcasts and a virtual billiard game.

Hi-octane life of the modern pulp writers. Continue reading →


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Studying archaeology for fun and profit

I often write about the joys of doing research for what we are writing.
In general, I tend to do a lot of research “on the fly” when writing short fiction – like using Google to find out what’s the most popular brand of beer in Arkansas or the timetables of trains to and from Paris.

514215So, when I am writing short fiction – or when I get major doubts while cleaning up a first draft – my first stops are, unsurprisingly, Google and Wikipedia, with Pinterest (now that I can access it again) as the go-to place for visual references, and YouTube for action-related info.

For longer works, I still rely on books, and as far as online resources are concerned, I go for a MOOC whenever possible.
I think it was Mary Gentle (wonderful writer – her Rats and Gargoyles is highly recommended) that said that university courses are the best way to do all the research you need on a subject with the minimum of fuss. Continue reading →


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Dark-haired beauties in red

Giovanni Boldini http://www.tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.comI will not make it to the art exhibit in the Royal Palace of Venaria, dedicated to the work of Giovanni Boldini.
Time is short, money is tight, and one needs to make choices.
The up side is, thanks to the web, it is easy to create our own art exhibit – granted, it’s not the same as the real thing, but it’s still better than sitting in front of the local bar, waiting for death (which seems to be the usual pastime hereabouts).

Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) was a weird chap – and is portrayed here by the side with Marquess Casati and another guy during a masked ball. Boldini is the one that does not fit in. Continue reading →


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A day off, trips and plans

What a long day.
First, with my brother, we boarded a local train to the city of Casale Monferrato, once the second most important city in the region (after Turin), today a small, rich town with lots of great shops and sights.
The reason of our trip – visiting the new Criminological Art exhibition in the town’s fortress. A very suggestive display of real-life horrors (torture machines, mementos from past crimes and much more), set up by a criminologist with whom my brother (an amateur Ripperologist – you can read his work on his blog, Redjack) is starting a collaboration.

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After a morning spent among the horrors and a nice tour of the Casale antiques market, we came back home, took two hours off, and then we went to Nizza Monferrato, to attend the inauguration of a new bookshop.
Nice place, nice people, nice refreshments. Continue reading →