Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


by Leave a comment

Sunday Night in Hamunaptra

Last night I went and re-watched Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy, from 1999. I first saw it in the theatre, in ’99, with my brother. At the time we were used to go at the matinee show, taking advantage of the discount, and enjoying shows in which we were often the only viewers. For The Mummy, there was about a dozen people in the theatre, mostly pensioners. We smuggled in two packs of crisps and two bottles of Sprite, and had a great time.

Possibly even more than the first Indiana Jones movie, The Mummy is my perfect go-to movie if I need to explain to some mundane friend what pulp is all about.
It often goes like this…

Me: I read and often write, you know, pulp fiction…
The other guy: Ah, Tarantino… lots of swearwords, chicks doing coke…
Me: No, rather like The Mummy.
The other guy: (Weird stare) Uh?!

Continue reading →


by 2 Comments

A great novel, and dignity

First things first: I am reading a great novel, and you should read it too. Because it’s a great fantasy novel from a good writer, and because it’s the sort of Eastern-themed sword & sorcery that if you are reading these pages you’d probably like.
Also, for a few days it’s priced at 99 cents on Amazon.

The book is called Never Die, and was written by Rob J. Hayes. Five champions are called back from death to help the God of Death settle a score with an impossible-to-kill enemy.
Just dig the cover.

Yes, I know.
Go buy it, and read it.

Continue reading →


by 2 Comments

Being silly is not enough

I was being silly, and I was discussing with some friends the wird crackpot theories of one of those guys they call “Pyramidiots” – you know, the sort that “I don’t know how or why to build a pyramid, so the aliens built the pyramids.”
Which, incidentally, it’s a perfect premise for fiction, but utter crap when presented as factual. And the author we were discussing in particular claims that the pyramids were built by Neanderthals.
Yeah.
They were built by Neanderthals before they developed speech.

And so we were talking and being silly, a friend said

they’d need to be great mimes to coordinate the works

and I replied

Yeah, they were led by Marcel Lescaux

And now I know I have to write a story about Marcel Lescaux, the Greatest Mime of the Neolithic.

Because that’s how ideas are born, and it goes to prove that anything, but really anything can be fodder for fiction.
Being silly might not be enough, but it certainly Helps.


by Leave a comment

The coldest days of the year

We are keeping warm and fighting with a number of technical issues hereabouts, as the coldest days of the year keep us indoors.
And not just us.

The perks of living in the country: the cold causes mice to seek refuge indoor, and as every year we had to deal with these small home invaders. This year though it’s been different – the beasties are more cunning (and avoid our baited traps) and are showing a penchant for eating through plastic bottles (thus flooding our sink with dish detergent) and more importantly, on cables.
We’ve been experiencing LAN problems, and half of the kitchen appliances are damaged.

And the crazy thing is, of course, that I am thinking this is a good premise for a short horror story – forget Lovecraft’s The Rats in the Walls and Kuttner’s The Graveyard Rats, here come the Short-Circuit Rats.
Or something.

Anyway, the struggle goes on.
I’ll let you know how it goes.


by Leave a comment

One night at the (Vampire) Circus

Having milked Dracula for all it was worth, in the early ’70s Hammer Films turned their gaze to other vampires and, taking advantage of the more relaxed censorship rules, created what is called the Karnstein Trilogy, very loosely based on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Carmilla (that you can find here as a free download in case you missed it).
The three movies in the cycle are The Vampire Lovers (1970), Lust for a Vampire (1971) and Twins of Evil (1971), and are considered classics – and I will have to write about them sooner or later.
The Karnstein vampires are different from their Transylvanian counterparts, being generally female, much more inclined to nudity and most importantly being able to go about in open daylight.
The Karnstein vampires would make two more appearances in the Hammer Films catalog: once in Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter, in 1974 and before that, a band of Karnstein vampires in all but name brought madness and death to a small Serbian Village in Vampire Circus (1972).

Continue reading →


by 1 Comment

A new deck for the collection

Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand was a very popular fortune teller during the Napoleonic era, that became (in)famous when she became the card reader and confidante of Josephine, Napoleon Bonaparte’s wife. She was also arrested for espionage – and for witchcraft, but it was hard to make the accusation stick in post-Illuminist France. When she died she left a fortune to her only heir – that being a devout Catholic burned all of her stuff, and wanted nothing to do with her, but kept the money.
Better known as Mlle Lenormand, Marie also created her own tarot deck – and I received a packet this morning containing a new Lenormand Tarot deck for my collection.

And the Lenormand Tarot is particularly interesting if you want to use the cards for writing experiments.

Continue reading →


by 4 Comments

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

No, this is not about the Jimmy Buffett song, or album.
It’s about something I realized last night, after spending 1.98 euro on two historical novels – I’ve been reading more historical novel than usual this last year, and while my science fiction reading remained steady, it’s fantasy that is taking a dip. Given the choice, I’d rather go for an historical novel, or a history essay than for a fantasy book.

So I started to wonder why, and came to the conclusion that I have three factors to blame…

Continue reading →