Karavansara

7 August 2014
by Davide Mana 3 Comments

Writing female characters

Now the title of this post is misleading but bear with me – will get there.

The lady in the photo here on the right is Anais Nin – and she wrote erotica.
Sorry… Erotica, capital E – she wrote Literature.
Now I do not know if this is true or if it is an urban legend, but I was told (or I read somewhere) that the first erotic novel of Anais Nin she wrote as a teenager, with a medical handbook close by for reference.

And I like that, because it confirms one of my ideas about writing:

write about what you know, no matter how you acquired that knowledge.

So, what has that to do with female characters?
Let me explain. Continue reading →

6 August 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

All the right rules

Do you guys read reviews on Amazon, or Goodreads?
I do – not only those for my books, but also those for other people’s books.
I try and write a few reviews, too – feedback is important, and it’s good to try and help spread the word about good books.

So, yesterday, I was waiting for dinner time browsing a few amazon reviews, and I chanced upon a thing that sort of scared me.

No, really, I was scared.

Continue reading →

5 August 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Research… and fun

I said it, I’ll repeat it – for me, one of the best bits of writing fiction is doing research.
After all, it means digging up strange facts and reading great books and have a good excuse for it.

I’m doing research for my next book

Sounds cool, too.
AND it’s a great way to decompress after a whole day spent writing.

Now, ok, working in scientific research should be the same – and it used to be just like that: you get paid to learn, experiment and discover new things.
Pity nobody’s paying researchers anymore, not in Italy, anyway.
On with my writing projects, then.

Continue reading →

4 August 2014
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Predictable

… and no, I’m not gonna talk about the old single by The Kinks.

Fact is, I’ve just witnessed one of the most amazing tricks I ever saw.
A friend of mine – who’s very wise in the ways of the web – basically summarized the main points in a blog post, without reading the post itself.
He already knew in detail what the post was all about, how it was written – he even predicted a few phrases exactly.
Pure intellectual sleight of hand.
It’s all about structure, he explained.

Which is something that strikes me at various levels – because I’m very fond of structure when writing, because I am a blogger, and because I’m very fond of sleight of hand and stage magic.
And to me, someone that reads a blog post without actually reading it, knowing the full contents just by the title, is performing a mentalist trick worth of a fine stage magician. Continue reading →

3 August 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Sunday with Madam Satan

Today’s media clip comes from a movie by Cecil B. DeMille in which a masked ball takes place during a party on an airship.
And then the airship crashes.
It’s a DeMille musical extravaganza, so it’s spectacular and features great set-pieces.

The movie is called Madam Satan, was produced in 1930 and apparently caused no end of trouble with the censors – lots of exposed female flesh, and after all, the plot revolves around a woman re-inventing herself as a masked femme-fatale to seduce back her unfaithful husband.
Racy stuff.
Especially in the 1930s.

Here’s a few samples from that strange movie…

Continue reading →

2 August 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Cookbooks

Cooking is one of those skills that look good on a writer, a scientist, or an action hero.
Being able to put together some quality food out of raw ingredients is a show of mastery, and an essential skill.
Anyway, that’s my rationale.

One year ago – give or take a few weeks – I bought a book as a gift for a friend’s wife.
The poor girl can’t cook to save her life (it’s not a mortal sin, mind you, just a fact of life) and she’s always been rather curious about my (supposed) cooking prowness.
So I went and got her a copy of South Wind through the Kitchen, that’s a sort of best-of compilation of recipes and food writing by the great late lamented Elizabeth David.
If I can do anything at all in the kitchen, I owe it to my mom, Len Deighton and Elizabeth David.
And as I could not give my mom to that lady as a gift, in doubt I went for the David book, because it’s sort of more dignified than Deighton’s by any means masterful Action Cook Book.
Also, I caught a copy in a local book store, which is always better, I thought, than having the book mailed through Amazon.
I picked it up and thought about wrapping it up in brown paper, like something out of a grocery store.
Something silly like that. Continue reading →

1 August 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Writing prompt – Summer

Sunbathing in style

This photo is part of a set published in 1950 by Life Magazine about an enterprising gentleman planning to turn old Catalina seaplanes into “flying yacht”.
You find more about the project (and more photos) here.