Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Tag Archives: Fritz Leiber


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Slapdash & Sorcery

I’m back online for good, and to celebrate I’m doing three related posts on my three blogs.
The first post is already up on GreyWorld, the next is going up later, in Italian, on strategie evolutive.
Let’s say I’m doing a blog tour of my own blogs.

wwrAnd I mentioned the late Sir Terry Pratchett, on GreyWorld.
I love Pratchett’s Discworld novels – I loved them ever since I read about Pratchett in Michael Moorcock‘s Wizardry and Wild Romance, and decided to check this new writer out.
And if it’s true that the Italian versions of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic were seriously unfunny due to some translation problems, as soon as I started reading Terry Pratchett in English, it was a cartload of laughs.
But not only that.
Which leads to the true topic of this post. Continue reading →


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Toads and Ice Magic

chaitea-300x300And so, as the deadine looms closer, I completely scrapped one of the two stories I have to deliver within the week.
Why?
Well, because basically it stank to high heaven.
So I dropped the lot in the waste basket – and wrote 3000 words (out of the planned 6000) of the new take in two hours, plus a small break to eat a croissant and drink a cup of Indian Chai Tea.

Because here’s the interesting fact – when you like what you are writing, you can write it fast.
Or at least, that’s how it works for me.

Which is the reason why I was able to write and clean up the new Aculeo & Amunet story in two days – and the story, tentatively titled The Altar of the Toad (aka “A&A story #8”), is now in the trusted hands of my long suffering editrix. Continue reading →


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Ten books meme – multiple reading edition

OK, there’s this meme going, about the Ten Books of Your Life.
Silly.
Like there was only ten books that important in my life.
And I was talking about this with my friend Claire – and she’s doing two lists of ten books, because she knows.
And as we chatted about it I thought I can’t actually set down a list of ten books that are all-important – because I can’t decide what they are important for.

But I can do set down a list of ten books I re-read regularly.
Because sometimes I do re-read some of those books. Continue reading →


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Skeptic heroes

I’ve been spending the last two hours trying to find my way around the various reprints and repackagings of Michael Moorcock’s Elric series. I read the books out of order, part in English and part in Italian translation, back when I was in high school.

dawelric
Now, much as I enjoyed the stories back in the ’80s, and for all of their role in shaping the sword & sorcery genre, Elric is not my favorite Moorcock character or series (I prefer Gloriana, or The Dancers at the End of Times).

But I wanted to read through some of the stories because… ok, you know why.
Because I’m writing a series about a time-displaced heroine that’s deployed through history, by unseen masters, as a mystical troubleshooter.
And that’s the Eternal Champion, of course*.
So I wanted to take a look at the original. Continue reading →


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Finding a Title

aculeo&amunetNobody appreciates the problems of a sword & sorcery writer.

Right now, I’m putting the finishing touches on the next Aculeo & Amunet book.
Granted, two stories still need to be edited, but I see the finish line, and I’m pretty happy: after two novelettes published as stand-alone ebooks, I’m going for a collection – the next A&A outing will include four stories

  • Mirror of Amunet
  • The Witch with Green Eyes
  • Island of the Goat
  • The Crypts of Eskishaar

Three short stories and a novelette. Continue reading →


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Finding a different name

A&A new logo 230Names names names…

There’s much going on right now with my Aculeo & Amunet stories.
Both Bride of the Swamp God and Lair of the White Ape have gathered some good reviews, and there’s more stories coming, and much else.
What started as a good idea – to me, at least – and two characters I like very much, is about to get bigger, and hopefully better.

So now I’m dreaming up a name for my series.
Granted, I’ll always refer to my stories as the “Aculeo & Amunet Stories” – they are after all character-driven stories, and those are the characters driving them.
They are good characters, and I like them a lot, and I like the alliteration.
A&A – nice and smooth.
And yet…

Continue reading →