Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Books and Invincibility

With projects popping up and fizzing out almost daily (a big translation job just vanished, leaving me in the red for the winter) and stress levels rising, I decided to take a stress-free two-days, putting some order on my bookshelves.

My books have a tendency to accumulate like driftwood on a beach.
There’s the big tome on the occult I had to check for a RE:CON job, that’s now sitting on top of The Colonial Wars Sourcebook and India: A Cultural Atlas I used for some bits in Hope & Glory. That’s why all three books are bundled with the Savage World Deluxe handbook, and occupy a chair together with a stack of hardback novels, Chambers’ London Gazetteer and The Starflight Handbook.
And what of the cobweb-wrapped pile of volumes on the window-sill in the corridor upstairs, which includes a book on grave-robbing, a high-school textbook on earth sciences and The Time-traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England?
A mess.

So I sat with a carafe of cold tea, and I started separating the books into more rational stacks, and then to place them on their shelves. Continue reading →


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Writing advice – quality control

There is something I think I never mentioned so far, and might come as a help for any writer or hack out there.
And you know I can’t resist the idea of sharing my spurious wisdom on my blog.
So, here goes.

We all know that if you want to write, you must read.
You must read as far and wide as possible, so that it is OK… no indeed, it is absolutely essential to read science fiction if you want to write historical romance, and hard boiled mysteries if your genre is actually sea stories, etcetera.
And essays, of course. Read non fiction, too.

OCC_Waste_Paper

But never, never forget to read cheap, poorly written, amateurish crap. Continue reading →


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Martin Landau, 1928-2017

To Italian kids of my generation, he will forever be Commander John Koenig of Moonbase Alpha, in the underrated Space 1999 tv series, but Martin Landau had also been one of the stalwarts of Mission: Impossible.
A fine character actor straight out of the actor’s studio, he had been offered the role of Spock in Star Trek, but turned down the role because he considered himself an emotional performer.
His striking looks and his beautifully controlled voice have graced many fine movies, such as Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, Tucker: The Man and His Dream and the role of Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood, which brought him an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
He will be sorely missed.

spty1001


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Ideas everywhere, and a new story

OK, new project going – because really ideas can be found everywhere.
Where will I find the time to write it, I wonder?
But anyway, good ideas should be pursued, and what I have here now is a great idea!
I am still putting together all the pieces and things, and I’m doing a nice bit of research, but I’ll work double-time to make this new thing ready for Halloween.
Because it’s horror.
Supernatural horror.
Maybe with a little touch of occult.

6fct8-two-sentence-horror-stories

As usual I’m thinking in terms of mid-length, say a novella, and possibly the first in a series. But that’s long in the coming.

It is also something really different from what I usually write, and this is the exciting bit, because it’s always good to try new concepts, styles, structures and plots.
I’m also considering the option of publishing the story in both English and Italian at the same time, which makes it even more work, but it would be nice.

I’m not giving away anything else for the time being, but I promise that, if it will eventually work out, it will be quite fun. And different.
So, wish me luck

buscafusco ghosts & shadows smallIn other news: the BUSCAFUSCO ebooks are about to be re-priced at 1.99. I know this will cut my royalties drastically (70 cents instead of two bucks), but I write to be read and to sell (not necessarily in that order) and a higher royalty on a book that does not sell is meaningless.
So, keep an eye out, in a few hours the prices will drop.


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Swashathon! The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974)

swashathon-2-musketeersIt’s the day of the Swashathon!
The day in which we celebrate adventure movies in which wits are sharp as rapiers and dialogues are snappy and furious, and action is, too.

You can find a full list of the Swashathon participants at The Movies Silently, that set up this party.
Or should we say this raid?
Adventurers, Arabian princes, pirates, outlaws…
And of course musketeers.

 

And Karavansara here is ready for a double feature, featuring the only two musketeer movies you need to watch in your life: Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974).
Two movies that changed the industry. Here we go…

Continue reading →


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What are you learning?

reader-512This is something I am planning for my Italian blog, but then I thought, what the heck, why not do it on Karavansara, too?
So here goes.

The basic premise:

The brain, if you don’t keep it working, it shrivels and dies

From which, the basic question:

What are you learning?

The comments are open.

And here I go first, to give the good example:

I am currently refreshing my Latin and my French, and I am learning a bit of Bayesian logic. I am also about to start reading a book called The Singing Neanderthals, about the origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body.

And you, out there?
Are you learning something new or refreshing some old knowledge?

Also, what are you using as a learning tool?

I am currently using old-fashioned books and ebooks, with a side serving of Youtube videos.


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Buscafusco: Ghosts & Shadows

Winter in the wine hills of Monferrato is as beautiful as it is cold.

In the early days of the year, Buscafusco is making end meets by shoveling snow out of other people’s driveways.
But on New Year’s Eve, a boy vanished on his way to the new year party.
And old ghosts are stirring in the old, dark, cursed Villa Brichetto.
Who you gonna call?

BUSCAFUSCO: Ghosts & Shadows is out now, on Amazon.