Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Join the Party!

1c2da034e4b54598aeed1af67cf2ec2fThe launch party for The Hand of Isfet is about to begin.

You can join the party by directing your browser to the Facebook page for the event.

Loathe Facebook?
Follow our weird shenanigans on Twitter by using the hashtags #handofisfet and #aculeoandamunet.

Twitter revolts you and Facebook gives you the creeps?
Well, leave us a line here in the comments to this post.

The Hand of Isfet is the new collection of sword & sorcery stories featuring Aculeo and Amunet, the (unlikely) heroes of Bride of the Swamp God and Lair of the White Ape.

Come join the party – it will be fun: we have no idea of what we are doing!


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Singapore … or Istanbul

NCPortland2014Very short video today – I was discussing noir with my friend Lucy a few hours back.
One thing led to another and we checked the program of the Noir City Portland event that’s taking place in this weekend.
Yes, we sighed a lot, and lamented the fact that we live at the borders of the empire and all that.

BUT!
On the festival website I saw the poster for this 1947 exotic film noir.
Singapore.
Featuring gorgeous Ava Gardner.

Now I’ll have to track down a copy – and maybe start talking about old noirs here on Karavansara.
But for the time being… enjoy!

But wait! Continue reading →


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The story of the guy that opened a pub

desert_road_near_wakra__qatar_by_giardqatar-d4m6fkbIt’s been a bad few days, with more bad days to come.
And as you’re reading this, my Italian-language blog is officially on indefinite hiatus.

It’s been a painful decision – strategie evolutive has been around for seven years, and it has sometimes been my home much more than the physical places in which I have lived.
It’s been fun, but it was not fun anymore. Continue reading →


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Talk like a pirate!

PiratePrimerHoy, cammarados!
Now stab me if it ain’t the bawcocky Talk Like a Pirate Day, on this nineteenth of September in the year of Our Lord 2014!

This being so, methinks I’ll make ya savvy ’bout a nice fine book that will leran you the pirate lingo proper.

Mark this, The Pirate Primer, by the esteemed George Choundas, printed by the Writer’s Digest Books press and sold by pamphlet peddlers and book-stalls everywhere along the Main.
Good solid hardback, this, well worth your silver.
470 pages of Oaths, Commands, Epithets and assorted piratical lingo, with grammar and notes, serious enough to be good reference for pen-pushers, fun enough for common ruffians looking for a good time.

I reccommend it, heartily.
And with this, I wish you a very fine day, and good luck to ‘ee.

Oh, yessir, and Arrgh!


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Look at the sky!

Cloudspotter_060523112839278_wideweb__300x457One never knows what can turn into reference for a story.
I’m re-reading Gavin Pretor-Pinney‘s delightful The Cloudspotter’s Guide, hunting for bits to add color to the story I’m writing – which features hot air balloons and people drifting through the sky, so it’s fitting.

The guide is not a meteorology handbook, but rather a book about cloud culture – teaches you to recognize and name different cloud formations, gives you a rundown of their behavior, plus lots and lots of other fun facts, folklore and assorted whatnots.
It is an excellent book to have handy when hiking, or when idling in the courtyard, in the summer, watching the clouds as they run through the blue sky.
Or something. Continue reading →