And talking about using this place where I live as an inspiration for stories: two nights ago somebody stole the brain of a saint.
I’m not kidding.
Clod & Dagger
One of the things I’m working on is a sword & sorcery story for a forthcoming anthology of Italian low fantasy, known as “Zappa & Spada”1.
The idea is to do a humorous – if possible – collection of grim stories about the lower classes in a fantasy setting.
My idea is moderately humorous but not overly grim2, and evolves around the lady of a small feudal holding that, while her husband and all the “able men” are away to fight for the emperor, has to patch together an army of peasants, poachers and women to hold back a marauding band of raiders.
Not an overly original idea I will admit – George MacDonald Fraser used something similar in his The Candlemass Road, and a great little book it was3.
But I’ll try and make something different of it. Continue reading
Day of the Republic
Today we celebrate the Republic here in Italy, which means that we are in for a long weekend of nothingness.
Today I got a haircut and then took the day off to read and clear my systems after weeks spent writing and re-writing for Hope & Glory.
I’m quite enjoying Cthulhu Cymraeg that, as the title suggest, collects a series of Lovecraftian stories set in Wales.
I’ll do a proper review as soon as possible.
On the weekend proper, I’ll be writing, because I have two stories long overdue.
Three, actually.
I’ll post about those works, I think, as soon as I nail them shut.
I am also making some notes and plans for my next project or two.
A book for the rest of my life
And in the end I gave myself a gift for my fiftieth birthday.
I wanted a good book, one that I’ll be able to take along for the remaining years of my life.
A book I’ll be able to read and re-read, and that I’ll have placed in my casket when the day comes.
So, I have this mild fetishism for the Everyman Library books. They are beautiful and sturdy and come with this Victorian conceit: a library of classics in classy edition for the common readers.
Now that’s something.
It was conceived in 1905 by London publisher Joseph Malaby Dent, whose goal was to create a 1,000 volume library of world literature that was affordable for, and that appealed to, every kind of person, from students to the working classes to the cultural elite. Dent followed the design principles and to a certain extent the style established by William Morris in his Kelmscott Press.
Despite my fetishism, I only have three volumes in the series: a selection of Flashman Papers by George MacDonald Fraser, and the two volumes containing the complete short stories of Ray Bradbury and the complete stories of Roald Dahl.
So I went on Amazon and browsed the stacks and emerged with a short list of five volumes, and who am I trying to kid here, it is obvious I’ll get each one of them sooner or later1.
But right now, as I said, I was looking for something symbolic – and a good thick book at the same time.
So I bought myself a copy of the Everyman Arabian Nights. Continue reading
A good day
It’s been a good day.
I finalized the revised draft (90.000 words) of Hope & Glory, tha basic handbook for my roleplaying game.
And I’ve sent a pitch to Abaddon Books for a novel, who knows, maybe the first in a series.
Now I think I’ll take the evening off.
Tomorrowland (2015)
As part of my birthday celebrations1 I finally watched Tomorrowland, a Disney movie from 2015 that was such a disaster it made about 9% of what they had spent making it2.
Anyway, I watched it, and I liked it.
Maybe not liked-liked-liked it, but liked it, yes.
The story in a nutshell: a girl is given a pin that transports her for a few minutes in a utopian world. When she decides to learn more, androids that look like nerds try to kill her. She hooks up with a disillusioned scientist and together they … OK, together they try and get the world back on track, re-capturing the spirit of wonder and the craving for progress of the first half of the 20th century. Continue reading
My birthday with Sherlock & Sexton
In case you are wondering, I spent half my birthday writing (I finally delivered the revision of the first 45.000 words of the first Hope & Glory handbook) and the other half watching old episodes of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series.
I also dug out two of my three Sexton Blake anthologies.
The third, which is actually the first, the 1986 Sexton Blake Wins that started my interest in the character, is buried somewhere in some crate or box.
I read the Wordsworth edition of The Casebook of Sexton Blake when it came out, but for some reason the massive Sexton Blake Detective remained on my shelf waiting for better days.
Which, I decided today, have come. Continue reading
Karavansara 