One thing I’ve mentioned already, I think, is how, writing in both Italian and English, my writing changes.
Clearly, the two languages syntaxes are different, but it’s also my way of building phrases, and the rhythm of the phrases.
The dialogues change, the interplay between characters.
It’s not like I’m two different writers but, well, almost.
It’s clearly two different voices I’m dealing with – voices that go deeper than the tone and language of the individual stories. Continue reading
More Matània
My earlier post about Fortunino Matània’s art got a very good response. so I thought… why not a gallery?
Enjoy!
(click on any image to enlarge)
An eye for details: Fortunino Matània
I wonder if they ever called him ‘Nino’.
The fine gentleman in the photograph is Fortunino Matània (sometimes spelled Matania, without an accent).
He was born in Naples in 1881, but spent most of his life in London, and he worked as an illustrator – the family trade. He published in such magazines as L’Illustrazione Italiana, Illustration Francaise, The Sphere and later The Illustrated London News.
He did some editorial illustration, but today he is mostly remembered for his paintings of scenes from the Great War – he was in the field, working as a war artist (basically an artist following the troops and sketching from life scenes from the battlefield -not exactly a relaxing job).
But if today he’s remembered for his war paintings, in hist time he really became famous after the war Continue reading
It keeps you running
Strange week, this one.
Bad health, and that weird, sort of sudden vacuum that plops around you as you fall into that strange territory between projects.
Spend half a day on the trains, and go down with cold and sore throat – that’s me.
So I’m trying to get back on my feet, and in the meantime I catch up with my reading, and plan for things to come.
A few days back I heard a colleague wax lyrically about what you do when you finish your novel.
I was surprised at the sting of irritation I felt.
What you do when you finish your novel? What a silly question…
You start the next one, because bills won’t pay themselves.
Well, actually it’s a little more articulated.
You can take an afternoon off, and maybe prepare yourself a cup of hot chocolate to celebrate.
Watch a few old episodes of Department S.
Listen to the Doobie Brothers.
Then you start on the next one.
That might non be a novel, but maybe a short story, or a novella or a game project, or something else.
Or all of those, in any sequence you feel like.
Like the Doobies said, it keeps you running.
What do they take home at the end?
I’ve been thinking about what a reader takes home, so to speak, from a story.
Now, while I do not put much stock into message-laden stories, stories that push agendas and so on, I know that when I write I have a few things I’d like my readers to get: the attitude of my characters to certain issues.
I was pretty surprised, for instance, when a review was posted, way back, of one of the Aculeo & Amunet stories, the reviewer commenting passingly, and enthusiastically, on the lead’s breasts1.
The review was very positive, and it was pretty obvious the reader had enjoyed my story very much.
And I’m very happy and proud of this.
And yet I was surprised because I did not think I had placed that much attention, writing the story, on certain details of the lead’s anatomy, nor I ever described Amunet’s … ehm, physical assets as particularly impressive2: Amunet’s striking in many ways, and she’s certainly fascinating and attractive, but, well, her chest is not… ok, you catch my drift. Continue reading
The politics of the rat and the snake
As you read this, I am way in Modena, to attend a gaming convention, and my editor is reading the somewhat messy first draft plus of my second novel.
It’s been hard going.
The novel still does not have a title, but I know it’s built in four parts, each of them with its own title and two quotes to set the mood.
The fourth part is called The politics of the rat and the snake, and it’s been the hardest one to read because i had a somewhat clear idea of what was going to happen, but I did not know how it would actually happen, and most important I did not know how my characters would face the challenge. Continue reading
#PlaySavage
Curious about #ModenaPlay?
The Italian Savages in Modena will tweet on #PlaySavage!
Karavansara 