Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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The Summer of Twenty-Sixteen

The next six weeks are know to bloggers all over the northern hemisphere as that yearly desert you have to gear up to cross without damage.
Summer is here, and a lot of people have better to do than sit around and read blogs.
Usually, the pace of Karavansara slows down to a crawl in these weeks, but this year I’m not sure I’ll shift to a part-time schedule.
There’s books I hope I’ll be able to read, hopefully there will be books of mine coming out – I’ll try and keep posting regularly.
Maybe do a little cleaning-up and redesign.
Maybe I’ll try and talk about other subjects – while trying to remain on topic – and explore some new ideas. Also, there’s a few experiments I’d like to try – to expand Karavansara in new directions.

Lawrence 4 Crossing

And what better time to experiment than summer, when there’s little traffic and few people around, and nobody would get hurt should something explode or crash or what else?

So, watch this space.
We are open for the summer – and we’ll try and have a good time.
Cheers!


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Adventurers, for real

A while back I did a post called How to be an Adventurer.
It’s one of my usual rambling posts, but it also features a collection of articles about being an adventurer – what it takes, what you need, what’s great and what’s not of adventuring as a profession.

Now, this list of resources was pretty popular as soon as the piece was published, but then, as usual updating the blog caused it to slide down on the totem pole.

You can still find it through a Google search, and someone did.

I was contacted by the fine guys that manage the Abroadio website, because they too did a piece on adventuring – and found my list through Google.

adventuring

Well, their article is just great, and you will find it here.
And I had half a mind of adding it to the list of resources in that old post but then…
why not do a proper page on the subject?

So here we go – now there’s a page on Being an Adventurer.
You find it in the top right corner, in the pull-down menu.

And I plan on keeping it up to date – so please if you find an online resource about living the life of an adventurer in the modern day, please drop me a line.
Thank you!


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Hope & Glory

And so the long wait is finally over.
Or something.
I am proud to announce that Hope & Glory my original steampulp setting for the Savage Worlds roleplaying game is out of development, and a few titles will soon be in production and available for purchase.

semper eadem

Illustration by Alberto Bontempi

In the meantime, you can check here for news, behind the scenes and product announcements. Social media, Facebook pages and all the usual bells and whistles will come in due time.


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Top shelf job offer

As you know, I’m looking for a job – and I’d like to get a job out of this country I live in – I’ve spent over six years here in Astigianistan now, and this place has drained me of everything but the will to go as far as possible as fast as possible.

Among the services I’ve subscribed to in my search for a post there is Escape the City, a British outfit that specializes in top shelf jobs with a twist : 21ts century jobs that require skills, courage, a bit of an adventurous streak. Jobs in which you improve the world in which you live.
I really love these guys and I’ve already checked out a pair of their offers, and sent CVs. We’ll see what happens.
But last night I got an offer through Escape the City that… oh, boy! Continue reading →


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Writing a serial? Or a series?

So, it’s been proposed I may write a series – a supernatural horror series.
Which is no big deal, one might think: I always write thinking in series.
Aculeo & Amunet is a sword & sorcery series.
The Corsair is an adventure series.
The Ministry of Thunder was conceived as the first book in an adventure/fantasy series (and yes, I have the second book growing here on my hard disk).
And my Italian language bestseller, Gli Orrori della Valle Belbo is a supernatural horror anthology series.
And so on and so forth.

manhunt5

It comes, I think, with the sort of books I grew up with. Cycles of novels, series of short stories. Characters with continuing adventures.
And then of course there were all those BBC and ITC TV series I grew up with as a kid – from The Avengers to UFO and all that.

So, basically when I write I think in terms of series.
Even the story in Alternative Air Adventures was developed as a possible pilot for a series (not that I told that to my publisher). Continue reading →