This has been around for a while, but it’s always a pleasure to watch.
Ladies and gentlemen, John Carter.
Enjoy.
Riding the Leviathan
World-building.
So far I’ve had it easy – most of my fantasy is historical fantasy, after all, and the action takes place in historical settings or pretty close to them.
World-building means a good history reference book (or five) and a few pages of notes on what’s hiding in the cracks of what we consider historical.
I’ve worked like that on the Aculeo & Amunet stories (set in the Third Century AD), on my novel The Ministry of Thunder (set in 1936 China), and on my current Le Corsaire project (set in the Mediterranean area, in the 1950s).
And the Corsair stories are not even fantasy – they are action thrillers.
Yes, even on my science fiction novel, The Hunt for Tethys1, I did most of my worldbuilding on a handful of post-its. Continue reading
Other People’s Pulps: Italian Speculative Classics
Genre fiction is often considered as a second-class form of literature, if literature at all.
This stigma was particularly strong in Italy, where a cultural tradition dating from the late 19th century – and probably influenced by catholic culture – considered science and technology, as well as imaginative fiction, as unworthy of serious consideration.
In this realist desert, few authors and publishers flourished.
Here’s a collection of classic covers and illustrations from that heroic age, courtesy of the Acheron Books Pinterest boards.
Enjoy!
Writing Prompt – A man of distinction
Let’s continue with our character studies – this one is inspired by a chat i had with my friend Claire.
This fine gentleman is actor Conrad Veidt, photographed by legendary Edward Steichen.
What does his picture suggest us in terms of character?
A good introduction to Scrivener, by way of MakeUseOf
Your Guide to Scrivener
Companions on the road: Thor Heyerdahl and Kon-Tiki (1)
This is the first part of a two-part special.
catching up on my movies, I finally got around to watch the 2012 Kon-Tiki, about the 1947 Heyerdahl expedition across the Pacific Ocean, from Peru tu Polinesia.
The movie had been high on my to-view list, but had somehow slipped my memory.
What had not slipped my memory, though, was the 1950 documentary, written and produced by Heyerdahl himself, and that had caught my imagination when I was a kid .
And so I thought – why not watch the two back-to back?
And then blog about it.
It would be personal, but fun.
So, here’s the first post – tonight movie is Kon-Tiki, the 1950 documentary written, produced and filmend by Thor Heyerdahl.
The film won an Oscar for best documentary presentation in 1951. Continue reading
Other People’s Pulps: The Spanish Master
Arnaldo Visconti was probably the greatest pulp writer in the Spanish Language.
He was really Pedro VÃctor Debrigode Dugi (1914-1982), but he was also known as P.V.Debrigaw, Arnold Briggs, Geo Marvik, Peter Briggs, V. Debrigaw, and Vic Peterson.
His production, published between the 1940s and the early 1970s, is simply enormous – consisting mostly of historical adventures: westerns, pirate yarns, exotic adventures and swashbucklers.
And while I am trying to get a fix on some of his works to offer an informed opinion, here’s a very small gallery of some of his covers. Continue reading
Karavansara 