Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Dr Jazz vs the Nazis

New year, I’ll start boring your socks off again about the joys of research.
I just pitched a story for an anthology, and I’ve been doing some preventive research on the subjects.
Which, in this case, means listening to a lot of jazz, and Django Reinhardt in particular.

Looking into the history of Reinhardt, I discovered Dietrich Schulz-Koehn, a Luftwaffe officer who, when Reinhardt was arrested (he was of Gipsy origin and a jazzman – both categories being on the Nazi black book), signed a letter and allowed him and his family to go free back to Paris. Continue reading →


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Five Little Known Facts about Me

I was crawling through the web at lunchtime, and I chanced upon one of those articles about getting more views for the blog, and engaging the readers, and what not.
One of the suggestions was

Share with your readers some little-known facts about you.

And these being still the idle days after the winter festivities, I thought… why not? Continue reading →


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The Necronomicon stays in the picture or, new project for 2017

And so I missed the deadline.
Happy?
Well, I am actually. Sort of.

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Now, the bad thing is, I spent two days writing and that work won’t be paid. And given the current situation, with my bank account echoing hollowly, that is bad.
But the good thing is, the work done did not dissolve at the strike of midnight – it’s still there, it’s still pretty good (if I do say so myself), and now I am free.
Free in terms of wordcount, free in terms of themes and tones, free to use my characters as I see fit.
And yes, I told you so, I’m thinking about a series. I always think in terms of series.

So here’s how I spent the morning of the first day of 2017… Continue reading →


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Almost there

And so here we are, the last hours of 2016.
The year my life changed radically. A whole new era – a new Yuga, like they say in India.
And yet…

A sage once said that one never sees the Day of the Yuga, but only knows it when it is past. For it dawns like any other day and passes in the same wise, recapitulating the history of the world.

I am sitting in my house, well-wrapped in warm clothes. My brother is outside loading a cart with wood for tonight. We will sit by the fireplace, listen to the radio, and then set ourselves to a slow, abundant, hearty dinner.
Tomorrow is the first day of 2017 – I don’t think I need to remind you of that – and 2017 is a clear slate, with some leftover scribblings from 2016.
Bills to pay, ends to make meet.

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There will be books to read, songs to listen to, stories to write.
Which is what passes for life hereabouts, as far as I’m concerned and for the time being.
I’d like to sell a few stories, and I’d also like to start self-publishing again.
I miss Aculeo & Amunet.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Stuff will happen, no matter if we like it or not.

And I think I’ll close this post with something that always makes me laugh, because we all need a good laugh tonight, don’t we?
And some good music.

Take care out there, have fun, and keep warm.
See you on the other side.


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Unspeakably Indifferent

teadtpt1000028844_-00_englishteastore-brand-2-cup-teapot-blue-gloss-finishThirty-six hours, more or less, to the end of 2016, and as the accumulated fatigue of a very hard year is on the brink of crashing on my back and squash me, I’m busy doing something Man was not meant to do, to wit, writing a humorous story with a Lovecraftian theme, and a 36 hours deadline, with the sole support of abundant hot tea and a tin box of butter cookies.
What can I say – I like humor, I like Lovecraftian stories, and the money is good.
The money would be good, actually, because I have to finish my story first, and then the editor has to accept it.
It’s a gamble, but a fun one1.

And really, crashing through the second half of 2016 to land on this New Year’s Eve, the spirit is pretty crumpled, and I’m having a hard time being humorous, or funny.
But work ethic and professionalism and all that. Continue reading →