Here is the first “proper” episode of the KaravanCast.
Following the suggestions provided by many listeners (thanks!), I ditched the proposed structure and went for a leaner, tighter episode design.
This … programme? post? cast? … anyway, today I take a quick look at Henry Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines and its legacy, including some odds and ends.
My voice is ugly, my pronunciation abysmal, but what the heck, it’s a start.
Hope you like it – comments welcome!
Talk about never throwing away anything.
It was August 2014, my life was pretty different, I was about to publish a new collection of Aculeo & Amunet stories and I mused about doing a spin-off of the series, focusing on the character of Centurion Nennius Britannicus and his contubernium.
For the uninitiated, the contubernium is the smallest unit of the Roman army – a band of eight men, led by a decanus, with two auxiliaries, and maybe a mule. The guys, called contubernales, lived together and fought side by side. It was a very tightly knit sort of military unit, and probably one of the (many) reasons why the Roman Legions were so awesome in the field.
So back in the summer of 2014 I decided I’d do a spin-off series, and call it Contubernium. I said I would be…
Something like Hill Street Blues, but set in Alexandria, in the Third Century.
A city filled with zealots, fanatics, weirdos and loose women.
With Lovecraftian creatures.
It would be fun.
But then the project went nowhere.
I had my Scrivener file with all its odds and ends and stuff, but quite clearly there was not a good story in there. So I filed the lot away.
Fast forward 30 months. Continue reading
Just a very quick note to let the world know that the submissions for Ladies in Red, the horror anthology I am editing for Horrified Press, are now officially closed.
It took me a while to nail the project shut due to personal hang ups and stuff, and I’m terribly sorry, but now this is it.
I’m happy to say that the number of exclleent stories and great poetry that hit me was simply staggering. I’ll start sending mails to all those that submitted fiction or poetry over the weekend, and on Monday I will start discussing the details with the publisher.
Hold tight!
I’m hard at work on a short scenario for Savage World, that will be published in Italian in the forthcoming Almanacco dei Mondi Selvaggi 2017, a special book filled with Savage Worlds gaming goodness, prepares especially for the Modena Play gaming fair.
My Savage Tale will be a pulp number, and will be called The Ten Thousand Daggers of Madame Yen Sin.
It was outlining the thing that I realized I have a real hard time writing in Italian – I think the text in English.
I’m getting too old for this thing.
Setting up the scenario was also a great occasion to go and re-watch Josef von Sternberg’s The Shanghai Gesture, as the main-villainess and dragon lady in the story is based on the character of Madame Gin Sling, as portrayed by Ona Munson.
In case you are curious, I covered the movie in an old post.
Now I only have to figure out what Madame Yen Sin is going to do with her ten thousand items of cutlery, and then hit the editor with the finished product.
I mentioned it in a comment and I promised a post about it, so why not now?
The Dictionary of Imaginary Places is one of those reference books that are an actual pleasure to read. You can look up an entry when in need, sure, but simply going through it from cover to cover is a delight.
Written by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi with tongue firmly in cheek, and first published in 1980, the volume covers imaginary lands from myth and literature, providing a description, an overview and in over 200 cases, a map. The basic model was a tour guide, a massive Baedecker for places that do not exist – and apparently, there is an updated edition that covers Jurassic Park and Hogwarths, but I’ll stick with my 2000 edition.
Opening it at random I find… Continue reading
They say that no good action will go unpunished, but sometimes a selfish action gets an award.
I had proof of this yesterday.
As I announced I went with my brother to the Winter PineroleGames, a small, by-invitation-only, roleplaying gamefest in Pinerolo, a city by Turin from which comes a fair chunk of my family, and that has a long and respected tradition as the seat of the old Savoy Kingdom Cavalry.
Not that the cavalry has anything to do with roleplaying games, of course.
As I also mentioned, I was there to playtest the first installment of the forthcoming Hopoe & Glory plot point campaign, and thus my motives were pretty selfish.
Add to that the pleasure of seeing some old friends and meeting some new ones, and spending a day having lots of fun – because we had lots of fun.
The expected blizzard did not hit us and it was not necessary to send sherpas to look for us, but my brother had the not-so-great experience of driving for about 240 kms in thick, John-Carpenter-grade fog.
And we really had a wonderful time, and in the end there was a little extra – because the event was sponsored, and the sponsor – GGStudio, publisher of the Italian edition of Savage Worlds and other wonders – offered a complete roleplaying game to the game masters for the event. Continue reading
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