Karavansara

13 July 2020
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

A free taste of the Monstress

I do not read many comics anymore. I used to, but in the early 2000s it turned into a very expensive habit – the funnies I used to buy for a pittance at the news-agent’s when I was a kid had become the classy big books I found in a bookstore by my university when I was older, and now they were luxury items sold in specialist bookshops in which guys bickered about whether Evangelion was stronger than Gundam or whatever.

In the end, I decided to keep buying books and drop most of my comics.
But once in a while I still find something interesting – like today’s offer via Amazon, of the digital version of the first issue of Monstress for free.
I can go for that.

Continue reading →

12 July 2020
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Hunting the Kamongo in the Black Lagoon

I was home alone for lunch, so I cooked myself a bowl of rice, and then I watched The Creature from the Black Lagoon, from 1954. Because it’s a movie I like, because it’s been a long time since last I watched it, and because in a couple of weeks I’ll have to record a podcast about it and I want to sound smart and say intelligent stuff.

And as I was quietly enjoying the show, something suddenly … ah!

Continue reading →

11 July 2020
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Mummies, asteroids and fatigue

Having set straight (hopefully) the first 150 pages of the second draft of my Ghostwriting Job from Hell in two days, I have spent yesterday afternoon and this morning writing a learned article about the Tomb of Nefertari, the beautiful (and resourceful) wife of King Ramses II. One of the perks of working as a freelance is the fact that often variety allows us to forget about the chores and enjoy the truly entertaining.
That’s the nice part – doing something interesting and fun, and get paid for it.

The Nefertari piece is one of three that I pitched to an Italian magazine – the first (already written and accepted) was about the canals of Mars, and the next one will be about surrealist fashion in the ’30s and movie costumes.
Spot the common thread connecting the three pieces, and you’ll get a prize.
No, not really.
But anyway… if you’ve got an idea, just write it in the comments.

Continue reading →

10 July 2020
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

A bundle of World SF & Fantasy

I’ve often mentioned how book bundles have been for me a good way to keep reading while money was tight. These days maybe money is not as tight as before, but I still check out regularly HumbleBundle, StoryBundle and, for my gaming needs, the Bundle of Holding. And today I happily splurged five bucks on the basic tier of the latest SciFi StoryBundle – a fine selection of world SF curated by Lavie Tidhar.

The basic level featured three books that are on my Amazon wishlist, plus one I did not know about – so, why not?
I saved money, I made sure some of my coins went into a charity, and now I have a few books to read, and a new author to discover.
All the books in the bundle come in multiple formats and DMR-free.

So, yes, please, check it out.
The selection features an Italian colleague of mine, too – and a fine novel published by my publisher, Acheron Books.
Just sayin’.

9 July 2020
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Up from the Facebook depths

Yesterday some twitch in the Facebook engine brought up a post I had made more than one year ago, about a weird idea I had about a story, possibly the first in a series. It was a solid Idea, and I had started working on it and even had an interested publisher, and then – for a change – my day-to-day life had taken a turn for the worse and I had to scrap the project.

Oh, damn.

But yesterday that old post came up from the depth of Facebook, like a stretch of oceanic floor uplifted by some tectonic event – an algorithm shift of some kind, some big data rift – and there it was.
And people saw it, and they started going – damn, man, you need to write this, like, NOW!

And I was looking at those notes, during the lockdown, and thinking that, should I ever be able to nail shut the lid of the coffin of the Ghostwriting Project from Hell, I might as well resurrect that old idea.

Well, turns out there is people out there interested in reading it.
Now just let me get my nails and my hammer…

8 July 2020
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Developing ideas and characters

A nugget of wisdom I found in a book I am greatly enjoying.
Talking about a short story published in 189, the author says she used it to “get a feeling” for a setting she’d later develop in a series of novels, and to try and develop the kind of character that would later appear in one of those novels.

It’s a scheme I heartily recommend. Get paid developing the ideas for your novels!

Indeed, it seems to be an excellent idea, and I have used it in the past, without really knowing.
I’ll have to write more stories, and use them to explore a few of the ideas I’ve here simmering.

8 July 2020
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Brancalonia at the University of Edimburgh

Brancalonia, the “spaghetti fantasy” roleplaying game has been a runaway success on Kickstarter – which means the writers and illustrators are hard at work on these hot summer days to get everything ready.
But meanwhile, back when the Kickstarter was still running full tilt, the History & Game Lab at Edinburgh University took an interest in us.

As a result, you can listen to an interview on the subject of games, history, the interplay of the real world and fantasy, and a lot of other things, on this podcast.