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Down yet another rabbit-hole
Two nights ago I read in a single sitting a book that’s been on my to-read list for over 20 years, and that for various reasons I always left behind when going to the bookstore. It is called Il Cammello Battriano (The Bactrian Camel), and was written by Italian journalist Stefano Malatesta.
It is the chronicle of a fascination for the Silk Road, and of a trip along the road in the company of old books by and about explorers and adventurers and what not. I guess you can see why I liked it.
It is a very thin book (160 pages) which explains why it became a bestseller – and by this I do not mean to shortcharge mister Malatesta, who is a fine writer that spins an excellent yarn, but for a fact the Italian Top Ten book list used to host books under the 200-pages (names like Baricco or Tamaro come to mind).
Continue readingThe WorldCon Paradox
Back in 2007 I was supposed to attend the WorldCon – the annual World Science Fiction Convention – in Japan. I was all set, I had saved my money and I was planning on meeting old and new friends and have a wonderful time. Then my mother died, and everything changed.
In recent years, the Convention was hosted in Europe – last year in Ireland – but my finances were not up to the challenge.
And this year?
The 2020 WorldCon will take place in New Zealand – exactly on the other side of the world to where I live – and to the roughly 250 euro of membership fee, I should add about 2000 euro of air fare and food & lodging. Unthinkable.
But then the Coronavirus happened, and now the organizers of the New Zealand convention have announced they’ll move everything online – the 2020 WorldCon will take place in cyberspace.
Which means no travel ticket, no food & lodging, and a reduced membership fee. And so here’s the paradox: I might attend my first WorldCon in the year when it happens on the other side of the world.
I am waiting for the announcement of the new rates and details – but I’ve said jokingly with some friends that we should pitch a few panels and give a few presentations. And I am joking only up to a point. It would be fun to be able and do it.
Meanwhile, I’ve set up yet another piggy bank, to pay for this strange cyberspace adventure.
Let’s see what happens.
Back to the Hollow Earth
I mentioned how this whole lockdown thing has not impacted dramatically my lifestyle – I can be worried about my income as projects are fizzing out and it looks like we’ll have a long dry summer and a cold winter, but my day-to-day routine and my general activities are the same as they have been since 2013.
Case in point: roleplaying games.
I have been playing with a regular team since the early ’90s, and when I moved to the countryside, 80 miles from our gaming table, I moved my games online. At the time I was still accessing the web via my coal-powered, copper-cable system, and the games where a chore. Paradoxically, when I finally landed a good, stable, high-volume connection, my old team fizzed out, and I remained player-less.
The first 25.000
Today I delivered the first half of a book I was supposed to have finished and published in time for the Turin Book Fair in May. Niche-but-intriguing historical essay by an up-and-coming publisher, with my name smack on the cover, possibly with a live presentation, Q&A, signing session, the works.
But the Fair was cancelled – or postponed to a date yet to be established, and today I delivered the first 25.000 words.
I was supposed to deliver the whole shebang, but I decided to take the weekend off to try and recharge my batteries.
Along the Silk Road on a Rolls-Royce
There’s a story of mine, called Queen of the Dead Lizards (you can find it in Pro Se Press’ Explorer Pulp, together with three other fine stories by three excellent authors). I will not spoil the story for those of you who might like to check it out, but let’s say that part of the action in Queen of the Dead Lizards hinges on a trip along the Silk Road on a Rolls-Royce … an accident in the real life of the last Khan of Bukhara.
And what can I say – it felt like a good idea at the time.
But through one of those curious series of connections that come up during rambling conversations, I just stumbled on another Rolls Royce ride across the steppes of Central Asia, in a book by an author that’s not often remembered today, and that’s a pity.
So, let me take a rather circuitous route here…
Quarantine reads: Cherryh and Hodgell, and Block
I decided I will devote some time in this quarantine period to read three series that have been on my radar for ages, now, and I have always kept for later – one of them, indeed, comes from one of my emergency boxes, the stashes of paperbacks I sometimes buy (especially when I find a good special offer) and save for the hard times.
Well, the hard times are here, so here we go.
I normally don’t like series anymore – as I grow old, I found out I prefer standalone novels, novellas, or series of short stories. But these cases are different. These are three series of which I have already read the first volume, and they are the work of three authors I greatly admire – so, no risk there, right?
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Karavansara 