It’s 276 AD, in the Roman province of Aegypt.
And in a late summer night, the stars are coming right.
In the swamps of the Nile’s delta, after strange aeons the sleeping Isfet is about to wake.
Young and ambitious, Aegyptian princess Amunet is here to become theBride of the God.
But she is not alone, as she descends in the depth of the lost temple: many are seeking the power of Betentacled Isfet to make it their own. Sestus Cornelius Aculeo, centurion of the Second Traian Legion, is not one of them.
His problems are simple, their solution is equally simple.
But before the sun rises, Isfet will meet its Bride – and the problems of Aculeo & Amunet will become very complicated.
Sword & sorcery done the old way, Bride of the Swamp God is the first story in the adventures of Aculeo & Amunet.
Available now everywhere, through Amazon, in DRM-Free Kindle format.
Time to give credit to my editors.
While beta readers, artists and marketers are a relatively new thing, to me, I’ve been working with different editors for a few years.
And I learned to respect and appreciate their work.
And I ‘m finally learning to work with them – because it’s not something that comes to you straight away.
Now, there’s this strange theory, going around, that the editor rewrites your story.
Which is, to me, eminently dubious.
Oh, granted, I did work with editors that just went and changed my text straight away – in one case requesting a 10.000 words article and then arbitrarily cutting it to 6.000 because the available space on the magazine had “contracted”.
My reasoning then was, they could have asked me for the cuts – or for a shorter piece from the start.
And no, I’m not selling my stuff to that mag anymore*.
And yet, the practice of rewriting has become such, that one can actually recognize the editor’s style when reading the text.
The author is reduced to the role of content provider, not of text stylist.
In my experience, good editors point out the problems, and get me on the right track for rewriting my own stuff in a more efficient way.
The sort of professionals that can accept the fact that yes, it does sound weird, but it’s supposed to sound weird.
Anyway, I’m very lucky – not only I worked with great editors in the past, but right now I’m exploiting shamelessly some of the best editors – both copy- and content- – I ever met.
Which is why I’m taking some blog space to thank both Marina and Chiara.
Thank you ladies!
[yes, both my copy editor and my content editor are gorgeous, brilliant young women, and excellent writers in their own right – it’s one of the perks that come with writing pulp fiction]
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* In another case I worked with one editor that was so enthusiastic about my work, he did not see a number of problems – causing me to withdraw my ebook after publishing it, in order to insert the corrections suggested by my (paying) readers.
It was awkward.
Here’s the cover of my forthcoming ebook, Bride of the Swamp God.
Which, as I think you can guess, has something to do with Ancient Egypt, and with tentacles.
And swamps and brides, I guess.
The cover uses some free resources provided by zememz – check out her pages on DeviantArt.
One starts thinking about pulp tv shows, and soon finds himself at the end of a very short list.
But maybe it’s just a matter of looking sharply at old series.
Now, when I think about pulp, I think chiefly about adventure pulp – Indiana Jones sort of stuff.
But there was much more, to the pulps, than Indy-style adventures.
What about the great avengers of pulp fiction? The Shadow, The Spider, the aptly named Avenger, with his Justice Inc.
Well, at the end of the twentieth century, two writers and producers, John McNamara and David Simkins, created a show for ABC, updating those avengers of old.
The show was called Vengeance Unlimited, and it featured Michael Madsen in the role of the deceptively suave, and downright menacing Mr Chapell.
The premise is simple – if you have a problem, and the forces of Law and Order cannot help you, you can hire Mr Chapell.
For one million dollars, your problem will become his problem.
And he will solve it.
If you do not have one million handy, there’s an alternative deal – you agree to owe Mr Chapell a single favor.
He will call you.
He will tell you what to do.
You’ll do it, and you’ll be free of any other obligation.
Easy.
The show is a tight, unusual crime drama – the stories are ingenious, the set-up is classy, and Mr Chapell, who “once had a very bad Monday” is a wonderful mix of ice-cold logic and of scary madness; and admittedly, few actors out there can do scary-mad-but-nice better than Michael Madsen.
The character has obvious debts with the Shadow (the “I saved you, now you’re mine” premise), with the Spider (the over-the-top gusto with which Mr Chapell hits – phisically and psichologically – his foes) and with the Avenger (the hinted trauma in the main character’s past, the idea of a corporation devoted to justice, or vengeance).
The cast includes a lot of well respected TV stalwarts, and Kathleen York, as the only other recurring character, is an unusual foil for Madsen.
The nocturnal sets, the quiet of suburbia being shattered by crime and violence, the humor and the spirit of the series marked this as an excellent show, one that should have been allowed to find its legs and start running.
But once again, the show did not last long, and after just sixteen one-hour episodes, the series was canceled.
Why?
Was it the violence?
Was it the idea of a hero acting outside of the law, to hit those bad guys who could work the system against itself and evade normal justice?
I do not know.
But as someone that once had a very bad Monday myself, I always loved this show, and its intelligent update of a classic pulp standard.
One starts thinking about pulp tv shows, and soon finds himself at the end of a very short list.
Karavansara 