I think I mentioned in the past how much I like Leigh Brackett’s stories.
I loved the Skaith books, and I actually read Bracket’s The Sword of Rhiannon well before I discovered Edgar Rice Burrough’s Marian novels.
You can find a few of Brackett’s stories for free download out there, and I’ll provide links at the end of this post, but the reason I’m writing this is because I’m putting together a 5000-words story I plan to submit to a magazine next month. It’s going to be a planetary romance sort of thing, and it will be set on Mars, and so last night I went to the shelf and took down Sea Kings of Mars1 for a quick recap.
To soak-up Bracket’s language, if you will, to see if I can learn her secrets (wishful thinking). Continue reading
Karavansara Free Library: 2+1 by Richard Halliburton
Something for the weekend.
Adventurer, world-traveler, daredevil, there was a time when Richard Halliburton was a household name, and families would sit around their radio to hear his tales of far-off lands and wild adventures.
His books were popular too, and are now almost completely forgotten.
Which is a pity, because Richard Halliburton was good at telling a story.
In 1939, Halliburton – the man that had crossed the Alps riding an elephant – disappeared at sea while trying to cross the Pacific ocean in a Chinese junk.
Now, the Karavansara Free Library, as usual with the help of the Internet Archive, is here to offer a small selection of Halliburton’s intelligent, highly entertaining books.
A look into that strange world that was, not even one hundred years ago, in which the world was larger, and there was a lot to be seen (and told) for the first time.
1925 – The Royal Road To Romance
1927 – The Glorious Advanture
1940 – Richard Halliburton His Story Of His Life’s Adventure As Told In Letters To His Mother And FatherĀ
Bikini wax from Barsoom (or something)
I consider it a token of the growing popularity and success of Karavansara the fact that we are being hit by spam in the comments. Spam so vicious that our spam-killer can’t actually kill it, and must be eliminated by hand.
I found the following, particularly hilarious,
What we did, the behavior we engaged in, might be frowned upon by some extra conservative members of society, but not by us. Most salons enforce their estheticians to check for STDs when they perform a bikini wax.
considering it was posted under this image
Is Ulysses Paxton performing bikini wax, or checking for STD?
Have your say in the comments.
And yes, this is embarrassing.
Historical mystery set in the Boxers’ China
Here’s something you might be interested in.
I’m working on the translation of a very short mystery story by my friend Shanmei – that writes Oriental fantasies and mystery stories set in China.
The story, that in Italian is called Un Gioco di Pazienza1 is set in the aftermath of the Boxers’ Rebellion, and centres around an Italian army officer serving in China.
The story is the first one in an ongoing series.
The fun bit is, Shanmei2 based the main character in her story about her grand-grandfather, who actually served in China after the Boxers’ Rebellion – and she was able to tap into the old man’s correspondence and papers for the documentation.
So this is a proper historical mystery, with all the whistles and bells.
This is going to be a sweet and fast job, and quite fun – after all, I set my Cynical Little Angels around the Italian compound in China, some thirty-five years after the event of Shanmei’s story, so it will be a little like coming back home.
I’ll let you know when the ebook is available with a post here on my blog.
Stay tuned!
Other people’s Pulp: ArsĆØne Lupin (2004)
I mentioned in a post a while back how my tastes in literature and movies were influenced – among a myriad of other things – by the 1970s French/European series about the exploits of ArsĆØne Lupin.
Maurice Leblanc wrote 17 novels, 39 shorter works and 5 comedies about Arsene Lupin, between 1907 and 1941 (and one was published posthumously), and he created for the French audience a character with the cultural impact and weight of a Sherlock Holmes or a Tarzan, with a touch of Gallic anarchy and darkness.
Like Raffles and more than Raffles, Lupin was the archetypical gentleman thief.
The character was brought to the screen a number of times, and as portrayed by the late, great Georges Descrieres in the old TV series was a perfect modern-day swashbuckler, winning through smarts and not just brown.
In the last week, my brother dug out our collection of DVDs of the series, and started watching them – turns out he never saw it before. I can hear him laugh from where I sit.
So, to relax last night I re-watched the 2004 movie version, and latest incarnation of the Maurice Leblanc’s character, ArsĆØne Lupin, as directed by Jean-Paul SalomĆ©.
Better Never Told: day 7
43409 words.
Two characters dead.
More thrills than chills, probably.
Maybe not exactly a folk horror, in the end.
And a week with two Tuesdays (but I’ll fix that before publication, promised!)
Planning new stories
Now that my 42.000 words are almost in the can1, I’m thinking about what next?.
And today I chanced upon an online article that gave me an idea.
The piece, found on ListVerse through a shared link on Facebook, is called 10 Mysterious Discoveries That Still Puzzle Archaeologists, and it is worth a read. There is also a companion piece that I found equally suggestive, called 10 Stolen Pieces Of Art That Have Never Been Found.
No self-respecting fan of Indiana Jones could read such a list without getting ideas, right?
And I was reminded of a book I have here on my shelf, called The Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World, by Brian Fagan.
That’s a database of great story ideas, right?
Granted, some of these mysteries are very technical and exciting only for someone in academia, but a lot of the stuff is good pulp-worthy food for adventure.
So, what about starting a series of stories about archaeological mysteries? Continue reading
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