Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Amazon Kindle pre-orders and peace of mind

asteria 1So, now Amazon lets me offer my ebooks for pre-order*.
Basically the idea is, I upload my files like I always did, and then I can set the publishing date as far as 90 days later.
You can buy straight away, but it will be delivered to your reader on the set date.
Nice and smooth.

I did a small experiment, in August, using a novelette I wrote, in a new series of sword & sandal stories for the Italian market – it’s called Asteria alla Corte di Minosse.
I talked about this story when I was writing it, as part of a bet with a friend and colleague.
The response was good, so much so that my ebook made the Amazon top 100 in the Fantasy category on the strength of the pre-orders alone.
Now that was heartening.

On the other hand, a lot of readers expressed some perplexity – what’s the purpose of pre-ordering an ebook?
After all, the good thing about ebooks is, I see something I like, I click and I’ve got it on my reader straight away.
No delivery times, no waiting, no hassle.
Why wait up to 90 days to get the file? Continue reading


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Edgar Rice Burroughs

Today’s the birthday of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the writer responsible for the creation of characters like Tarzan, John Carter, David Innes and many other friends that kept me company when I was a solitary kid in suburban Turin.

Edgar Rice Burroughs


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Learning Chinese

chineseThey say the first day of September is the true “New Year’s Day”, when it comes to work and projects.
It might well be.
It’s certainly true for me – autumn is always a highly-charged time of the year, as far as I’m concerned.
Pity it’s not the same for my country – so, while I’m still sending out CVs and running around looking for a new job, I look around and I keep busy.

And that’s the reason why, in two weeks, I’m starting a course of Chinese. Continue reading


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A baroque, pulp Ulysses

Now here’s something… unusual.
An operatic version of Homer’s Odyssey, set to music in 1765 by Gluck*, and represented in 1940s costumes and setting.

The opera is Telemaco, ossia L’isola di Circe (Telemachus, or Circe’s Island).
I like the setting quite a lot.
The idea of Ulysses as a lost flyer is quite interesting.
And when Circe the sorceress as an Oriental Dragon Lady gets into play, the whole thing assumes a curious pulp tone.

Here’s a first excerpt – you can find the rest on the Tube.
Enjoy!

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*The libretto for the opera was written by a guy called Marco Coltellini – which of course means Mark Small Knives, in Italian.


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Being alive

You wanna hear a horror story?
Fine, here goes: yesterday my mother came back from the dead.
It went like this…

dracula-ad-1972-peter-cushing1

The bank asked my father for a certificate – they asked him to provide legal proof that he’s alive.
It happens.
This being August, and administration offices still being in a state of summer torpor, my father downloaded a standard self-certification form from the web, filled in the blanks, and delivered it by had at the bank.
“Here’s my statement of being alive!” Continue reading