Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


Leave a comment

Ladies in Red Anthology: Second Call

As I have announced previously, I am working as the editor for a project called Ladies in Red, an anthology of strong, uncompromising horror featuring strong female characters, to be published by Horrified Press.

lir

The call did go somewhat like this…

They have been the focus of horror movies for decades: the scream queens, the final girls, running upstairs to escape the masked killer…

The time has come for them to be brought center stage in a collection of blood and guts stories with a difference.

Uncompromising, in-your-face horror with a strong female focus.
Let’s get physical.
We are not looking for paranormal romance. No sexy vampires, no lustful werewolves.
We want hard-hitting, gut-wrenching tales of fear. Blood. Gore. Body horror. Twisted psychology.
And women, standing among the carnage and mayhem.

Because where angels fear to tread, a woman will hold her own.

We are looking for stories and poetry.
Reprints welcome.

Now, there are still five or six available slots before we close the project, and we are working on a relaxed but careful schedule: I’d love for this baby to be out for Halloween.

So, please, think about submitting your story or your poetry.
You find all the sordid details here, at the very bottom of the page.

In Brief: 2000/6000-words stories, hard-hitting horror with a strong female lead.
Reprints ok, poetry ok.
The stories will be paid with a share of the royalties.
Info: here in the comments, or using the contact module in the right upper corner of this blog, or should everything else fail davide(dot)mana(at)gmail(dot)com

Think about it.


Leave a comment

Chasing Lost Voices

lost voicesSunday morning I woke up early and I watched a movie, a Japanese anime from 2011.
As it often happens with Japanese animation products, the film goes under a number of different titles.
The original Hoshi o Ou Kodomo literally means Children who chase stars, but the film is best known as Children who chase lost voices or as Travel to Agartha.
And now you can probably see the reason for my interest – Agartha being one of the great legends that haunt the Silk Road and Central Asia.

The film was written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, a young director with a number of short animations in his name. The feature is very Miyazaki-like in tone and setting, and this is quite fine with me. Continue reading


Leave a comment

A yacht cruise in 1964

I like to read a good travel book once in a while, and in the summer is a good way to travel without moving.
My interest in travel literature started more or less when I was doing my the first year of university, and it goes well with my passion for fantasy and adventure stories: all these different narratives hinge on travel and exploration, one way or another, they all talk about other places, other times, other people.
Travel books – just like memoirs and biographies – are also a great way to do research, of course.
And what’s better than a travel memoir, then? Continue reading