Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Counting the spicys

51frd3a577l-_ac_ul320_sr214320_Two days ago I posted on my Italian-language blog a few stats, derived and reworked from Jess Nevin’s The Pulps about the incidence of spicy pulps and romance pulps on the overall pulp magazines market.
Because by reading certain books about the pulps, sometimes it feels like the pulp magazine rack was somehow dominated by Adventure, and The Argosy, and Weird tales. Black Mask vied for space against the Astounding, the Amazing and the Unknown.
And then, oh, yes, there was Spicy Mysteries too.

The numbers of different magazines per category tell a different story. Continue reading →


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KaravanCast, or how I became a podcaster

The KaravanCast is doing fine with its Episode 0, and as promised, here’s a little more about this new strange adventure of mine.

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I started planning a podcast to go with Karavansara one year ago – thinking it would be a fun thing to do in the long hot summer nights.
I started reading on the subject and I started putting together what I needed – the software, the hardware, the courage. I also started pestering my brother, that has some experience in managing online radios, for suggestions and help.
Then, as we know, things took a different turn – but the idea remained.
I only had one major problem – what the heck should my podcast cover? Continue reading →


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KaravanCast, episode 0

So here it is, Episode zero for the KaravanCast, the very first experimental broadcast from the podcast that will start its transmissions in February 2017, to celebrate the fifth year of the Karavansara Blog.

While I am still very dubious about the technical side of the thing, I have no doubt whatsoever that my voice is horrible, and my pronunciation barbaric.
The whole result is ghastly.

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But what the heck that’s all I’ve got right now.

You can listen to a general overview of how I’ll organize the future episodes of the KaravanCast from the link above.
And tomorrow I’ll do a proper presentation post and all that.

In the meantime, rest assured that I hate my own voice just as much as you do.


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Karavansara, where the future begins tomorrow…

Things are happening behind the scenes, right here on Karavansara, in this last weekend before our lives go back to the usual routine of earning a living the hard way.170px-empty_tin_can2009-01-19

Right now, I’ve spent fifteen minutes huddled under a thick blanket, speaking in an empty tin can of instant cappuccino, as part of the preparation for the next Karavansara project.
The things we do for our readers!

So, hold on tight and expect the unexpected.
Things will happen.

And as we are at it, let’s see what happens using a Pringles tube instead…


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Wizard of Science needed

I am a scientist. Maybe a defrocked, non-practicing scientist, but that’s my culture.
We have a method, we have an ethic, we serve Truth.
It’s hard work, but it’s also way cool – explore the mysteries of the universe and all that.
Science is something that informs my worldview – granted, I can suspend disbelief and read and enjoy (or write, and sell) a fantasy story, but at heart I have a certain set of rational routines and I will never be able to completely dis-install them.

And I’m getting increasingly nervous about the growing backlash against science I see around me.
You can’t correct someone’s wrong notion that you will be billed as an “arrogant know-it-all”.
And I wonder if fiction doesn’t have a part of responsibility.

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Continue reading →