I just fell in love with this Rolf Armstrong painting from 1939.
If only I could place a cover like this on my Aculeo & Amunet stories…
But there’s more – I found out this excellent roundup of Cleopatra portraits through the centuries – check them out.
Not a prompt, today, but certainly much food for thought.
I learned too late about this project to join the Kickstarter, but I think the world must see this gorgeous fake movie poster.
And just think about the possibilities!
(there’s links at the bottom of this post, should you need to learn more about the project).
Nobody appreciates the problems of a sword & sorcery writer.
Right now, I’m putting the finishing touches on the next Aculeo & Amunet book.
Granted, two stories still need to be edited, but I see the finish line, and I’m pretty happy: after two novelettes published as stand-alone ebooks, I’m going for a collection – the next A&A outing will include four stories
Three short stories and a novelette. Continue reading
Lost and alone in the African jungle, archaeologist Jonathan Baker has a very bad encounter with a giant spider – he loses his right hand, and barely survives the ordeal.
Saved by the lost Sumai people, he learns the legend of the Spider Goddess, planning the extinction of humanity, and receives the strange blessing of the ancient god Siruuk.
Through a mysterious ritual, his right hand is restored and imbued with mystical powers, and he becomes known as The Claw, the traditional enemy of the Spider Women that serve their evil Goddess.
Then things get really interesting. Continue reading
As some of my readers may know, I’m looking for a new job – my collaboration with the University of Urbino having expired in February, money is running out.
Today I chanced upon a list of open positions at NASA – somebody posted the link on Facebook as a joke, and I checked it out anyway.
I mean, I’m in working hell, I look at every possible position.
And being a scientist, NASA sounds like a reasonable prospect employer.
And there, on top of the list, there’s my job.
An Earth Sciences specialist, with a sideline in Mathematics and Statistics, experience in Remote Sensing.
Wow.
That’s me.
There’s even a $82,642.00 to $126,949.00 / Per Year pay bracket.
And the position is still open!
Where’s my CV, now…
Ooops… There’s one drawback – “This announcement is open to all qualified U.S. citizens.”
Oh, heck – back to square one.
Back in my happy country in which a PhD in Earth Sciences can always hope for a part-time job as a test crammer for high-schoolers – but not during summer.
And you know what’s the worst part in all this?
The jokes.
The people with a job laughing at the idea of submitting a CV to NASA, or to any other big time operation, anything that’ s not “mundane”.
The ones that do not have to worry about this months bills, thinking your efforts, and hopes, and slowly increasing desperation are quite a lot of fun.
So there’s this story about a guy going on vacation in a Middle-European country and soon turns out he’s a dead ringer for the local ruler.
Complications ensue – our hero falls in love with a local princess, is caught up in the local political intrigues, that sort of stuff.
We’ve been there, right?
Ruritanian romance, or Ruritanian fantasy, they call this sort of thing.
Anthony Hope – The Prisoner of Zenda.
Only, this is not the Prisoner of Zenda.
This is The Mad King.
After the photo posted on Thursday, I was looking for something interesting and Ruritania-related in the media, for my Sunday post .
Well, here goes – an excerpt from the Takarazuka staging of Anthony Hope‘s Prisoner of Zenda as an all-female-cast musical*, in the year 2000.
This is Rupert of Hentzau (actress and singer Kouju Tatsuki) doing his thing, and being suitably rakish.
Enjoy!
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* And yes, it is implausible like all musicals, only a little more so.
Karavansara 