Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Back to the Silk Road – three blogs (and more!)

coverfinalsmallThe Silk Road was one of the inspirations for this blog1 – it even says so in the About page.
Ever since I was a kid I spent lots of time reading books about the history of the Silk Road, and even planned an ill-fated adventure travel along the Road, that never happened.

I wrote a non fiction book about travelers along the Silk Road in the early 20th century (Avventurieri sul Crocevia del Mondo, available only in Italian) and of course the history and legends of the Silk Road are part of the series of novels and stories I started with The Ministry of Thunder.

The world wide web has been called the New Silk Road and indeed a lot of features of the old caravan tracks can be found on the internet – from the mingling of cultures to the trading of goods, from the exchange of ideas in meeting places to crime and banditry.
And a wealth of resources is available for those that would like to know more about the Silk Road.
Some you can find in the links section here in the sidebar, but I’d like to single out a few. Continue reading →


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14 Common Misconceptions About Self-Publishing

I was in a lot of discussion, these last few days about self-publishing.
Now, I am actually what’s called a hybrid author – meaning that like the Gill man in Creature from the Black Lagoon, I live in two worlds: some of my stuff (such as The Ministry of Thunder, or all of my gaming-related writing) is traditionally published, while other stories (like the Aculeo & Amunet adventures) I publish myself.

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Being a hybrid offers a number of perks…

I actually like this situation, and find it conductive to the right mix of creative freedom and professionalism.

So, we were talking about this topics, here in the Old C Block of the blogsphere, shaking our heads and sighing for the amount of prejudice and silliness that still gets attached to self-publishing. And I thought… why not make a list?
Lists are good, right? Continue reading →


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5 Tools Everyone Writing Adventure Stories Should Be Using

toolboxIt was suggested to me I do a list of five about adventure writing and about the sort of tools that can be a real life (or time1) saver when you are writing adventure tales.

Yes, of course, Wikipedia and Google Translate, these are quite useful. And Google maps.
And a good reference library does help, too.
But is there something more, or something more suited to writing, and adventure writing in particular?
These are of course my fave tools, and I am sure many out there are using other software/websites/services.
If you’d like to add to the list of suggestions, please do so in the comments sections.
It’s always nice discovering something we don’t know, and that might get handy.

As for me, here goes my list of five. Continue reading →


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A new story’s coming!

And so I started a new story, a novelette that’s supposed to be the first in a series.

I already discussed this project in the past – a series about the adventures of a lone character moving around the Mediterranean in a small sailing ship called The Corsair (or Le Corsaire, French-like).

Edith Gray home

I have started and stopped dozens of times – despite detailed outlines and tons of research material.
But today I needed to write, to get the gears in motion.
It felt like a good idea, starting something new on my birthday.
And while I was waiting in line at the supermarket, the right idea came to me, and I saw where my story should start. Continue reading →