… and as we are at it, here’s an excellent resource:

Your Guide To Scrivener

20 August 2014
by Davide Mana 1 Comment

Scrivener – first steps

So, how’s my life after ten days of Scrivener?
Not very different from before – I’ve still got bills to pay, I’m still looking for a day job and I’ve still a lot of stuff to write.
But at least on the writing side, things are taking an interesting turn.

Let’s see.
Scrivener for Linux installed without problem – I got the 64 bit, .deb file, and it runs on my old Ubuntu machine quite smoothly.
The tutorial was a breeze – fun, clear, and fast: I spent one afternoon going through it, and it set me up nicely to start working straight away. Continue reading →

19 August 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

“Posh, posh!”

I just discovered that in the Uyghur language, “make way!” translates as “posh, posh!” – a typical call from someone trying to open his way through a crowd.
In a marketplace, for instance.
Which is just what I needed to put a nice touch of color in the second chapter of my current work.

Just this – I wanted to let the world know. Continue reading →

Excellent post on Theodora Goss’ blog about health and writing, and being good at both.

Staying Healthy

18 August 2014
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

An Aculeo & Amunet Spin-off?

One never knows.

I was putting the finishing touches on one of the Aculeo & Amunet stories that will be collected in the next A&A ebook (coming in september, barring accidents), and I noticed that a number of throwaway characters had proved to be tougher and much more fun to write about than expected.

Centurion Nennius Britannicus is a short, balding man that looks somewhat like Bob Hoskins in my mind’s eye – a second-tier officer with a tendency to get on his commander’s nerves.
When we meet him in The Hand of Isfet (the immediate sequel to Bride of the Swamp God), he’s on patrol duty in the streets of Alexandria.
He’s not exactly enjoying the ride. Continue reading →

17 August 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Postmodern Jukebox

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox has been the best find of the month, and I need to share it.
So here’s a sample.
But be sure to check out this gentleman’s whole catalog.

16 August 2014
by Davide Mana 1 Comment

Choreographing violence in stories

I said I was going to take the day off, but in the end I spent a fair part of yesterday afternoon planning and choreographing a big complicated action scene in the next Aculeo & Amunet story.

The hardest part, for me, when writing A&A, is the part about the fights.
Maybe I already mentioned this.

Fact is, I don’t like violence that much, and I’m not very good at describing it in an entertaining way because… well, because I don’t find it entertaining, I guess.
With some exceptions.

And yet, considering my Aculeo & Amunet stories are sword & sorcery, there are to be swords in there somewhere, and someone got to use’em.
And Aculeo, being a soldier, is supposed to be the one trained in the use of swords (Amunet takes care of sorcery – nice and smooth). Continue reading →