Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Talented and Successful

I’m posting two Stephen King quotes here.
King is not my favorite author, but I respect his professional skills and I enjoyed a few of his books.
Basically, when someone sells the number of books King sold, any critical analysis, any evaluation of skill, talent, technique or whatever becomes an exercise in futility.

The reason I’m putting these two quotes here is because I’ve was involved (marginally) in two discussions in the past few days, about two words that are often used when talking about writing, and that cause me a certain amount of unease, so to speak.
These words being talented and successful. Continue reading →


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Done it!

The story is called Slam Dance (ant that will be its title if the publisher does not decide to change it) and yes, it’s the kill the stripper story I mentioned in the past.
15.000 words of it, and change.
And it’s now going through one last check and then it will be on its way to the editor – and with 12 hours until the deadline.
Whew!

And I am pretty pleased myself – not only for the fact that I made it well within the deadline, but most of all because this was for me a first: my first proper police procedural, without any noir or hard-boiled elements, no fantasy or supernatural or science-fictional elements.
Just straight cops and robbers.
And pulling it was a lot of hard work.

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As usual, the internet was a huge resource – I learned a lot about the most popular car and the best beer and the cheapest whiskey in a certain state of the Bible Belt. I explored local cooking and fishing practices.
I studied hunting lodges and brothels.stripper-shoes-double-as-tip-jar
And yes, strip joints, too.
All of this, of course, I did for my Art.
And through Google – which makes all the naughty bits not-so-naughty after all, and the food and beverages 100% calories and alcohol free.

But now it’s done, and I’ll take the night off.
The stripper’s dead, long live the stripper.


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Ill-begotten prizes

I just received a great gift from my friend Silvia, that I am assisting as researcher and gopher on a series of blog posts about “Ugly but Cool Guys” – sort of a complete reversal of the “Hunk of the Week” sort of thing many bloggers of the female persuasion seem to like.

Anyway, this is not a job, it’s having fun with a friend, so I was none too happy of being paid for it.
But Silvia insisted, and so, why not ask her to keep me into reading matter for the duration?

And today, the postman delivered the first of my ill-begotten, undeserved prize – a copy of the 2014/2015 issue of Blood’n’Thunder, Ed Hulce’s wonderful magazine about the pulps, old time serials and related matters.
And boy is it a beauty!

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As you can see from the cover, the 260 large-format book includes a ton of quite interesting stuff – not only on the history of the pulps, but from the history of the pulps.
I am particularly interested in the 1929 H. Bedford-Jones piece about the life as a pulp writer, and “Cap” Shaw’s article on writing dialogue from the pages of Black Mask.

So yes, I’m as happy as a kid on Christmas morning.
And I wanted you guys to know.


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Hope & Glory: Above the Clouds

Selection_810And after the cover, the book itself…

The Princess Himiko is a small flying ship belonging to the fledgling Iezo Republic, cruising the skies in its maiden voyage.
But what the men and the women of the Himiko are about to discover hidden in the stormy sky above the Caucasus, will change the world forever.

A story of exploration and science gone mad in the world of Hope & Glory.

Continue reading →