Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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I’m a million miles away from it all

raydaviesOk, something a little different – thanks to the ubiquitous Facebook, I found out that yesterday was Ray Davies‘ 70th birthday.

Now this feels weird because I discovered Ray Davies and started listening to the Kinks very late, when I was nineteen.
My friends listened to Pink Floyd – I listened to the Kinks.
And now I’m forty-seven.
And therefore Ray Davies’ words have traveled with me for, what, twenty-eight years?
My goodness, they want by so fast.

I think great writers are those that can actually write down what we feel, and think, and they do it in a better, more economic and focused way we ever could.
In this sense, Ray Davies has been to me one of the greatest writers I ever knew.

And now I should provide some sample of this writing excellence, and I can’t really choose.
Too many songs, each one closely connected with a single moment of the last 28 years.

One of the many little things that make me an anglophile, I guess.
But it’s more complicated than that.
So, why not just place here the song that I currently find closer to me?

Enjoy!

 

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Historically accurate…

… except where I screwed up.

I write historical fantasy (among other things).
My Aculeo & Amunet stories are set in the Third Century AD, and the historical details are as accurate as possible.
I try and keep the world historically real.
Then maybe a be-tentacled creepy horror pops out of some dark corner.
Historical.
Fantasy.

figure 8

Now, thankfully, history has so many dark corners and fuzzy borders, that finding the right place to fit in our invention is usually quite easy, or at least lots of fun (thus compensating the trouble).
The trick is blending history and fantasy as seamlessly as possible. Continue reading →


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Radio with Pictures – Clutch Cargo

CC - PMB (0)Do you remember Clutch Cargo?
A few days back, on a blog I do not normally read, an off-topic comment to a rather meaningless post (I’m not making this up, ladies and gentlemen) dissed Clutch Cargo, calling it a bad show, making fun at its style and animation.

And that throwaway comment, on a blog I don’t normally read, sent me back memory lane.

So, for the uninitiated – what the heck’s a Clutch Cargo? Continue reading →


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A Letter from the Old Man

Some very very apocryphal Aculeo & Amunet – with a wink at my friend Claire.
File under “metafiction“.
Or something equally fancyful.

gg5052764Amunet dropped the rolled-up parchment on the table in front of Aculeo.
“You read it,” she said.
He picked up the roll but kept his eyes on her, as she moved to the window, her expression sour.
“Why me?” he asked.
She shrugged, and pretended to look out in the street below.
“Because I know what he’s going to say,” she said finally. “And I hate men that grovel.” Continue reading →


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Asia Overland

Back in 2003, I think, I wrote the following, in an article which appeared in the magazine LibriNuovi, published in Turin…

The day I’ll start writing Clive Cussler-style adventure yarns (ehi, why not?) the Silk Road and the Taklamakan desert will be a central element in my stories.

Well, having written a few sword & sorcery stories set between the Roman Empire and the Chinese Empire, I sort of kept half of that promise.

2001081420Turfan20Taklamakan20Desert20Dunes
And now that I’m working on a honest-to-goodness pulp adventure tale set in the Taklamakan area, well, I think I can say the promise is fulfilled completely.
Or it will be as soon as my story gets published. Continue reading →