Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Vincent Price Blogathon: The Saint

It’s the day of the Vincent Price Blogathon, when we celebrate one of the most iconic, elegant and versatile actors ever to grace the silver screen, Vincent Price. Most of us know him for his huge catalog of horror movies, but Price was also a star in film noir and in costume dramas, he had a fine comic spirit and one of the most distinctive voices in Hollywood.

He worked in movies, TV and radio, and outside of his acting career, he was an art expert and an excellent cook.

The blogathon is hosted by Realweegiemidget Reviews and Cinematic Catharsis, so point your browser in that direction, for a huge selection of posts about Vincent Price, his life and his art.
And then come back here, because we are going to take a look at a side of Price’s work hat is often overlooked, and we’ll explore Price’s own take on one of the great iconic characters of classic thriller fiction… Simon Templar, aka The Saint.

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Jade Yeo in Bloomsbury

I was mentioning my lack of experience in the field of romance, and as luck would have it, I ended up with a romance novella on my reader.
A classic case of fuzzy serendipity.

Zen Cho, a young fantasy writer from Malaysia, has been on my radar for a while – ever since her Sorcerer to the Crown made quite a splash.
And the other day, as I was browsing Amazon, as one does, I spotted a short work by Cho called The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo.

What can I say?
It was short, it was cheap, I bought it.
And only later I discovered that it is not a fantasy, but rather a romantic comedy set in 1920 London, following the titular Jade Yeo, straight out of East Asia and working as a reviewer for a magazine, as se gets swept in the heady lifestyle of the Bloomsbury Circle.
The author self-published it a while back, and it’s a fast, entertaining read.

And a lot of fun it is, mixing historical elements, sharp satire e biting wit, and yes, a good dose of romance.
But now I am even more interested in reading Zen Cho’s fantasies – because she’s an excellent writer, from what I was able to see, and I am quite happy with this fortuitous and entertaining discovery.


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My story “Sapiens” on the Imaginary Worlds Podcast

The latest podcast from Imaginary Worlds is all about Solarpunk, as a culture, and attitude and a genre of science fiction. And I had the surprise of learning that my short story Sapiens, that was published in the second issue of the magazine DreamForge, was selected as an example of the genre.
So, if you will, listen to the podcast – it’s full of great ideas and great reading suggestions.
And I am in there, too!


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The Watcher in the West

I have just delivered to my Patrons in the Five Bucks Brigade a 4000-words story called The Watcher in the West, the sixth story in the Tales from the Frontier series – stories that are exclusive to my Patreon page, set in a fantasy borderland between not-exactly-Mughal-India and Tang-China-but-not-really.

This story is special, because it is a reworking of a story I wrote for an open call at the start of the year, and was in the end rejected – despite being praised by the editors.

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Interviewed

Today I’ve been interviewed for a podcast – a panel about history and roleplaying games, in which I spent part of the time pushing Brancalonia, the low (and I mean low) medieval fantasy RPG that will get its kickstarter in a few days, and of which I am one of the masterminds.

It was quite a pleasant experience, chatting with other game designers and history buffs about what we do when we use history as the basis of our games – what we keep, what we leave out, and why.
There is only one question that keeps nagging me: how come that when I sit facing a microphone my voice becomes a croak, my already limited intelligence sinks, and in the end I can’t even spell?
Oh, embarrassing, very embarrassing.

But there, I did it.
And it would be really fun to do more spoken words stuff online, taking advantage of the quarantine and all that.
But then my voice dies, and my brain follows suit…


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Mediums of improving conversation, brilliant wit, and moral obligations

Some things never change. I get an idea for a story, I start doing a modicum of research. Three Letters from the Country (because I am going to write it!) is going to be a ghost story set in a country house and told through letters. Ergo, I research old country houses, possibly of the British persuasion, for a map and hopefully some interior shot (to make my descriptive work easier), and I do research letter-writing during the Victorian and Edwardian era (because I want my letters to be formally convincing).
And I take notes, because I am also writing an article about research for writers.

Photo by John-Mark Smith on Pexels.com

So, letter writing in the Victorian era… now that’s a surprising subject because we often forget that back in the time letters were all that was available for interpersonal communication. No phone calls, no emails, SMS, face time, voice chat… only letters.
And even a superficial search through the web reveals a number of things.

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Three letters from the country

I am starting to suffer for the insomnia that in the last two weeks has wrecked my routine. It’s not just the fact of sleeping (badly) by day and staying up at night, but most of all it’s a matter of entangled schedules.
I have things to write, but my schedule is shattered.
And as it usually happens, when I have too much to writer and not enough time and energy to write it, I got an idea for a new story.
An idea that is good, solid, fun, and it has a potential market.
Damn.

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