It must be an April sort of thing.
In April 2012 I wrote a novel in six days – I started on the 25th of April and finished on the night of the first day on May.
I did it because I wanted to test what Michael Moorcock said in the lengthy interview he did with Colin Greenland, published as Death is no Obstacle.
Moorcock talked about writing a fantasy story in three days – and I planned taking twice as much to be on the safe side.
I was also pretty fed-up with the talk about art, inspiration and the writer being some sort of mutant that taps some unknown source of writing power and blah blah blah.
To me writing is skill, dedication and hard work. It’s a craft, it can be learned. There’s nothing mystical to it.
In 2012 I got a lot of support from the readers of my Italian blog. I was also told I would fail, because I lacked the training.
But I did it, and the 40.000 words novel I wrote in 2012, Beyul Express, became the first part of what was later published as The Ministry of Thunder – writing it was fast, revising and editing it took a lot of time.
Well, now I have the training. And I have the Dean Wesley Smith structure, from Writing a Novel in Seven Days.
So that’s what I’m doing – starting on the night of the 24th (Monday) and finishing on the night of the 30th. Continue reading
Wine, sex and folk horror (and other things)
Despite the general sleepiness that comes with Spring, I’m trying to clear my desk of my backlog of stories, articles and translations I need to deliver to my clients, and in the meantime I’m trying to work on a pair of submissions and a couple of self-published things.
The new Buscafusco story is 75% done, and I’d like to nail its box shut by the end of the month.
Also, the Dean Wesley Smith book Writing a Novel in Seven Days is making me itchy to try. As I mentioned, I did it once already, and the novel I wrote in eight days later became The Ministry of Thunder, of which I am well pleased, as are my readers (eight 5-star reviews! hooray!)
Now I’m wondering if it would be feasible to try and do a 42.000 words story about Aculeo & Amunet.
And then there is the bit about local traditions and folk horror. About six months ago I promised a friend a novel a-la Dan Brown to stimulate interest in the territory and lure tourists in these hills. Part of that project became the Buscafusco series, but the idea of a horror story set in the Piedmontese vineyards sounds more attractive every day. And as per original plan, might make enough people curious to give a minimal boost to local tourism.
Now, as I think I mentioned, the local spook-du-jour are the masche sort of witches/hags of peasant tradition – and my friend Fabrizio Borgio is an expert on the subject.
BUT, in a twist of research madness, I decided to look at another tradition that might provide ample food for stories… even Aculeo & Amunet stories.
Because this is a wine country, and wine means Dionysus. Continue reading
Writing a little/Writing a lot
Yesterday I overheard an interesting discussion, and that’s what I’d like to tell you about, but first, a heads-up.
I mentioned in the past the StoryBundle as one of the tools that I am using to keep reading in these times of money shortage and other disasters.
They have an offer up called The Write Stuff Bundle 2017 which is highly recommended – you get books about writing by the likes of Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lawrence Block and Dean Wesley Smith, among others. You also get an 80% discount on Writer’s CafĂ©, an excellent writing software. You don’t pay much, and a share of your money goes to a charity.
Nice and smooth1.
Now I mention this because the bundle includes Dean Wesley Smith’s Writing a Novel in Seven Days, that is quite fun to read, and proposes a very interesting challenge.
Which brings me to the discussion I overheard yesterday, the gist of which was
It is better to write just a few stories rather than write a lot, what really matters is that the little you write you sell to a big publisher and then you land a big prize
And this is a theory I do not subscribe to. Continue reading
Service announcement
A little bit of administratrivia, if you don’t mind.
Some of you might have noticed this button
Did you like this post?
appearing at the bottom right of a few recent posts.
As the button itself seems to suggest, it’s a way for anyone willing to show their appreciation for my blog by buying me a coffee once in a while – it’s basically the little brother of the button appearing in my sidebar, just beneath the search bar.
The small button will not appear on all posts. I’m making it my policy to put it up only occasionally, and only on posts that exceed the 600 words in length – because over the 600 words mark I do need a coffee (or some tea, actually) to keep going these days … and you need some coffee too, probably, to keep reading.
As we are talking about the coffee button, I’d like to thank all those that bought me a coffee in the last days, and in particular the gentleman that doing so compared my writing to the works of David Drake: it is not often I get compared to a writer I really appreciate and respect, and this very kind compliment came to me in a very bad moment, and helped me a lot. Thank you!
And as I am at it, I’d also like to thank all those that have so far subscribed to the Karavansara mailing list. Thank you!
And I guess I’ll throw in a Thank you! for all my readers as well, because I like everybody to have a good time, and readers are really the reason a writer writes.
Thank you all,
ladies and gentlemen!
… and now, back to our regular posting schedule …
Karavansara Free Library: Nine books by Rosita Forbes
I was putting together my latest post, the one about the reading list, and I got back to thinking about Rosita Forbes.
Old-time readers of Karavansara will remember that I did a post about Rosita Forbes in the earliest days of this blog, basically because I am in love with the lady.
To recap: independent and adventurous, Rosita married young, divorced, sold her wedding ring and left for good. She did a gig driving an ambulance during the Great War. Then she embarked in a tour of the world with a friend, gatecrashed the Paris Peace Conference, did a bit of spying for the British, and was a pioneer of documentary cinema. And found a lost city in the Sahara desert.
She met both Hitler and Mussolini, and Gandhi, and wrote about it.
And she also wrote a number of travel books and memoirs.
And these are the books we are interested in, of course, because they provide us with the opportunity of seeing the world in the first half of the 20th century through the eyes of an adventuress. And an adventuress that could write.
Perfect.
And even better now that (mostly) the Digital Library of India has uploaded a fat stack of Rosita Forbes books on the Internet Archive – so that you can go there and download and read them, and what’s not to love about it?
So here it is, for the love of adventure, good books and Rosita Forbes, a selection of links1.
1919 – Unconducted Wanderers
1921 – The Secret of the Sahara: Kufara
1925 – From Red Sea To Blue Nile, Abyssinian Adventure
1927 – Forbidden Road: Kabul to Samarkand
1939 – India of the Princes
1940 – These men I knew
1944 – Gypsy in the Sun
1946 – Appointment with destiny
Not a bad selection, what?
I hope you enjoy these books – and any comment is welcome, as usual.
- and why not start a new series of posts, called Karavansara Free Library – legally free ebooks, a selection curated by yours truly. Might be fun, don’t you think? ↩
The Karavansara summer reading list for students (and everybody else)
I don’t know how it is there where you are sitting, but hereabouts schools are about to close for summers, and teachers are busy assigning homework and projects and stuff.
One of the things that hit the kids every year is the dread read at least five books from this list list.
I always hated that when I was in high-school – I usually approached summer with a stack of a dozen big books I wanted to read, and here I was forced to slip more dull novels in the mix. And now I’m told that with the lowering standards of our school they are reducing the required reads to three, but you get the idea.
And I thought, why not put together my own suggested reading list?
For kids out there, high-school level, to broaden their horizons, and provide some much-needed food for thought.
I’ll also do a list in Italian for my blog, as a form of service – but putting together a list of English-language titles is easier, and I’m told list posts are quite popular.
But with a twist: I’ll focus on a list of books in theme with the usual topics of this blog. Books that talk about science, nature, philosophy, literature, history and imagination.
With an eye for adventure, exploration, and a modicum of swashbuckling – because this is, after all, Karavansara!
Continue reading
Planning a Silk Road adventure with (and without) Google Maps
I chanced on one of those things that happen on Facebook, a guy asking his followers
If you cold go on a big adventure, what would it be?
Or something to that effect.
Now I don’t have to think a lot about it – granted, it’s a big world and there’s adventures everywhere, but my first, instinctive response is the usual
From Paris to Shanghai by car, following the Silk Road
If you’re here, you know I love the Silk Road, its history, its stories – going along the old road, driving leisurely in my car, would be a dream come true. Stop to look at the landscape, take a few photos, eat a bite…
And when I say car, I’d mean my old reliable Panda – a tin can on wheels if ever there was one, so basic and stripped down it did not even come with a radio tuner, but in my experience the best, most reliable, more easily maintained ride I ever had.
But alas, Google Maps at this point lets me down
Sorry, we could not calculate driving directions from “Paris, France” to “Shanghai, China”
But please!
Google can provide me with a flight from Charles Degaulle Airport to Shanghai, for as cheap as 80 euro, but its Maps/Earth tools won’t calculate my route by land.
OK, let’s do it the old way. Continue reading
Karavansara 