Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


by 4 Comments

Alone with the Pharaohs

IMG20150227093001810_900_700Even the best laid plans…
Summer is here, and I had been planning a one day vacation for a while.
The idea is simple – ride the 7 am train to Turin, get th the Museo Egizio di Torino, and spend a whole day exploring the new layout of the museum.
It would have been a good thing for the Mana Brothers, and having my brother along – who studied Egyptology when he was in university – would have been a boon.

But my father’s health further deteriorated, and right now me and my brother can’t take a day off simultaneously – someone has to be at hand 24/7.

Which means that, if I will do it, I’ll go alone.
Just like when I was a kid. Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

Bouncing Back

The only true downside of this writing thing is the black moods.
As I told in the past, when I’m writing – and these days, I’m writing most of the time – I am subject to bouts of what I suppose the Elizabethans would have called melancholia.
Basically, I get mentally tired but at the same time restless, easily irritated and in a state of what I can only describe as aimless sadness.
It’s bad.

rain__rain__go_away_by_PrettyMoment

I regress to a state of sub-human standards – I don’t shave, my daily schedule gets chaotic, and I am in general pretty unpleasant to deal with. Continue reading →


by 3 Comments

Five Things I learned Writing “The Ministry of Thunder”

acheron_the__ministry_of_thunderMy first novel, The Ministry of Thunder, is six months old this week, and I thought it was high time I did some new post to bore you to death about it.
This will be a week of celebrations.

In case you missed it, The Ministry of Thunder is a pulp/fantasy novel set in 1936 China, in which a stranded Italian mechanic tries to recycle himself as an Indiana Jones-style adventurer.
Cue to mysterious artifacts, beautiful women, evil masterminds, Taoist magic, Chinese ghosts, lost cities, and the Ministry of Thunder and Storms.
And ninja.

So, I normally say that everything is part of the learning process – what did I learn (if I did), writing The Ministry of Thunder? Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

The Art of Writing

Selezione_001Yesterday afternoon fatigue crashed on me like a ton of bricks – as I was caught between too many open projects and a mountain of dirty dishes and assorted laundry.
The weather, with rainstorms chasing each other in the sky and the distant sound of thunder in the wind did not help.
My legs hurt, and I had a horrid headache.

So I crashed on my bed for most of the day, and got acquainted with the last entry in my collection of books about Chinese culture and Taoism.
Or about writing.
Or both.

The Art of Writing, published by Shambhala Publications, edited and translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping, is a thin (112 pages), small booklet that collects a series of essays on writing – most specifically poetry writing – by ancient Chinese masters. Continue reading →