Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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The comfort of strangers

It’s been rough going these last two months, and it’s not over yet.
I’m pushing myself to keep writing and putting together ideas, because it’s either keep moving or die, and yet I’m once again going through one of my bouts of black moods.

In particular, I’m somewhat tired of failing repeatedly in learning from past errors, especially where evaluating other people comes into play.
If I were as good at picking the right horses as I am in trusting the wrong people, I could make a living at the racetrack.

And yet there is an up side, and it’s the fact that in these two months, as people took a bad turn for a number of reasons and old friends and connections vanished or turned out to be more than willing to move to Cold Shoulder County, I was also treated, again and again at the kindness of strangers, receiving a helpful hand from distant acquaintances.

So I can’t really say I’m losing my faith in humanity – I am not, because humanity is great as always. Maybe it’s the slice of humanity I kept close that’s not that great.

Anyway – I’m wasting a lot of time, and I should be working on a thousand different projects.
But we’ll get out of this pit yet.

Meanwhile, some good music to close this dreary Sunday.


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Planning ahead

Supplies, check; books to read, check.
Videogames, check.
A new RPG campaign we’re playing over the web? Check.
Writing and translation jobs that will hopefully pay the bills for 2021… check(-ish).

Starting today, and for an unspecified time, I won’t be able to leave the boundaries of my town – orders from the government, because we are in the Red Zone. It’s Lockdown, Season 2 – and it promises more thrills and chills, and in general the plot will slowly but steadily go down the sink. As it happens with sequels.
But you can expect more posts as the situation develops.

And so, as a final essential for this new exile and isolation term, I also enrolled in a number of online courses and events – most of then offered for free by the British Writer’s HQ.
Because I’m always looking for ways to improve my craft – and to pass time here in the sticks, as winter makes the countryside drearier that usual.

One of the things in particular I signed up for is an Advent Calendar-like cycle of exercises, prompts and things.
You can check it out HERE, with all the rest of the nifty stuff the guys and gals at Writers’ HQ are offering.

Let the plague sweep the land. We’re all set.


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Tired, but working on a new idea

I’ve been away from the blog for two days – I’m working on the latest translation, and as it usually happens when Daylight Saving Time gets on or off, the one-hour shift completely floored me.
I do not know why – move the clock one hour forward or back, and I’ll end up sleeping all morning and then be up all night, or stuff like that.

So I’ve been torpid and useless these last few days – but this has not stopped me from jotting down a new idea, for something I’ll try and write in the3 next weeks, in my spare time.
It’s pretty weird, from a structural point of view, but what the heck, this means that it will be a nice exercise, no matter where it goes.
And yes, it will be sword & sorcery of sorts.

Also, I’ll be working on a few new submissions – we’re seven weeks from the end of the year, and I’m at 75 submissions.
I’ll never make it to 100 – but well, maybe 90 is within my reach.

And this is it – I’ll try and post something of interest tomorrow.


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Health and safety

And so, in a situation that’s quickly putting to shame those cheap 1980s Mad Max ripoffs my country produced in earnest, yesterday a local politician observed that over 80% of the latest casualties due to COVID were “very old people” – that, being “outside of the productive activities” were not such a loss, and basically, who cares? The economy must go on, so let the old codgers die.

I am often worried about the fact that time is passing fast and I am now over 50 – not only I won’t get any younger (nobody does), but my health is likely to go downhill.
If the idea of spending my last days in a hospital is scary, the idea of a political leadership that might opt to suppress me like a lame horse because it would save money is the stuff of nightmares.

As luck would have it, over the weekend I’ve been reading a slim little booklet called The Lazarus Strategy, written by an octogenarian doctor and focusing on strategies through which men and women over-50 can try if not to live longer, at least to get healthy to their old age.

The book is interesting, the strategies proposed are quite simple – and I’ve been doing some of this stuff already, thank goodness – and the prospect of staying clear of hospitals and doctors as long as possible is getting more attractive by the day.

The question remains – of all the fine futures that science fiction has imagined and proposed in the last century, why have we decided to let the scripting of our reality to a bunch of no-imagination fascist hacks?


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Leiber where you least expected him

I was pleasantly surprised in discovering that the latest issue of Hellebore, the magazine of folklore and ancient terrors, features a lengthy and quite interesting piece on Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Wife, its real-world influences and its long-lasting legacy. The article was penned by Rebecca Baumann.

And I already like this magazine A LOT, but now I have even more reasons to recommend it.
I mean, Fritz Leiber, right?
What else do you need?

Hellebore magazine #3, the Malefice Issue, can be ordered directly from the mag’s website. It’s money well spent.
(and no, I don’t get a commission, and they don’t publish my stuff – but it’s a really great read, a beautiful addition to your shelf, and a magazine that deserves all the support it gets)


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A trip to the supermarket

I know everybody’s expecting a free horror/adventure short story or something, because, you know, Halloween and all that but, truth to be told, I’ve been feeling damn lazy these last few days, and also, today I took a trip to the supermarket to buy provisions for the next few weeks, because there’s a new lockdown looming.

And it was not a proper horror or adventure, but for certain it did exacerbate my already tired feelings for humanity.
So I thought I’d jot down a few anthropological notes, for your general enjoyment…

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