Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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One hundred and fifty for Kipling

English: Kipling the British writer

English: Kipling the British writer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve been made aware – thanks to my friend’s Claire blog – of the fact that 2015 will be the Rudyard Kipling anniversary, one hundred and fifty years since his birth1.

Now Kipling is not so hot in Italy right now – I heard him recently labeled “an expression of British colonialism” and apparently the general belief hereabout is that by reading Kipling one will instantly feel the need to hunt for tigers, practice pig-sticking and kill the occasional Zulu warrior or Pathan at large. The lot, while riding on the back of an elephant2.

I’m probably weird myself, but the first stories that come to my mind thinking of Rudyard Kipling are Continue reading →


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Character Profile – Captain Asamatsu

And after the leading lady, one of the bad guys.
My favorite bad guy, actually, of all those that crowd the pages of The Ministry of Thunder.

14493A few years back I was talking with my friend Ken Asamatsu, the famous Japanese horror author and Lovecraftian scholar, and we were discussing the game HPL and his friends played, mentioning each other in their stories, and usually killing each other off.
And I promised Asamatsu-sensei that I would give his name to a bad guy in my first novel, and then kill him off in a horrible way. Which would be fun, considering that Ken Asamatsu is one of the kindest, most friendly people I ever knew.

Thus was born Captain Asamatsu Kenzaburo, Imperial Japanese Navy. Continue reading →


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Things to come

Things are getting bigger, fast.
A quick recap.

7c65cbd4602cab352cdd9ed537e0af14I’m working on my new novel – working title, Matter/Energy, a hard science fiction adventure set in the Mediterranean area but aimed at an international audience.
I’m going at a nice clip, doing about 2000 words a day on the first draft (thanks, Scrivener), speed is increasing, and the thing looks promising: some good dialogue is developing, characters are fine, some great science and a very fun venue.
I’m also enjoying the fact of writing a novel with a strong woman as the main character.
Expect periodic updates as the project grows. Continue reading →


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Silk Road Food

Something fast, silly but possibly of interest.
After all, the Silk Road is one of the themes of this blog, and food is one of the most accessible, and often surprising, facets of culture.
So, here goes – a small collection of Silk Road inspired foods, on Pinterest.
Some authentic, some shamelessly counterfeit.
Enjoy!

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