So today is the day I’m recording my first podcast for my Patrons. To celebrate, my neighbors are having a bbq party with loud Balkanian music. But it’s all right: I’ve been wasting time looking for a title and a theme and an idea for the first recording, and suddenly I hit on all three within ten minutes – and I could bore you to death with my ideas and beliefs about inspiration, ideas and how they sort of come to us, but, really, I think I’ll spare you.
The blog will be called 10 Minutes Till the Savages Come, that is the title of a song recorded by Manhattan Transfer in 1991, in the record The Offbeat of Avenues. My podcasts will be ten minutes long – because, reasons – and the title, now that I’ve decided, feels like a no-brainer.
As I mentioned, starting with October and my third year on Patreon, I will be offering new perks and benefits to my patrons, both as a way for thanking them for being there, and to try and lure more innocent souls inside my lair. So here’s another peek at how it will be… in the future!
I’ve added the podcasts and the Open Outline to the 5 Bucks Brigade level, now it’s time to offer something new and special to the guys in the 10 Bucks Lounge, the brave souls that bet 10 dollars a month on my work. Time to give something back to them.
As I think I mentioned – or I should have mentioned – I’ll devote this autumn to the development and growth of my Patreon. I want more patrons, and I want happier patrons. So I am announcing a number of new perks for those brave souls that decide to gamble a few bucks on me and my writing, and show small glimpses of things to come. The World of Tomorrow, if you will…
The next thirty days (give or take a handful of days) are going to be the hardest for me in the last three years. I say this without any particular emotion – if there’s one thing I’ve learned in these three years as I managed to make a living writing, it’s how not to succumb to fear and anxiety. The panic attacks are a thing of the past. It’s gonna be hard, and I’ll get out of it at the other end, one way or another.
And I’ll be working a lot – I’ve stories to finish and deliver, a new book to get going, I’ve started writing the sequel to The Ministry of Thunder (more about that later), I need to take care of my health and I’ve decided to make my Patreon page grow. I’m also starting an experiment about which I’ll be writing here and elsewhere in the next days. I’m keeping busy – because that’s a good way to weather the hard times. So I’ve spent a while today brushing up on the skills I’ll need to add a podcast to my Patreon page.
Well, two podcasts, actually – one in Italian and one in English, because my Patreon page is bilingual, and it’s good to be my patron, independently of what language you speak. Double the work, but also double the fun.
The first in this new series of Podcasts (because the Karavancast is currently sleeping) will be online on the 30th of September because it happens to be the International Podcast Day, and it will be accessible to all my supporters. I’m planning a guerrilla podcast, recorded on the go and in the open, with no scripts, minimal post-production and a length under 15 minutes. I still need to find a suitable title, and a list of topics. Suggestions are welcome.
It’s been fifty years, give or take a few days, since we first set foot on the Moon. One of man’s greatest achievements, one we should be all proud of. I was there, sitting on the floor in front of the telly. I was two years old and I only have very confused memories of the screen and the excitement around me – and probably they are second-hand, false memories.
The doorstep of the universe, and we had finally placed a foot on it. Then things went differently than what we dreamed. We had to think about “real important stuff”, I guess, like building bigger cars.
But moon dreams are what pays my bills, so I wrote a story. A short hard SF number, about the Moon, and the future, and us. It’s called Ocean of Storms, and I’ve just delivered it in various formats to my Patrons.
Because it’s good to be my patron, or so they say.
My brother, who plays the role of my conscience better than Jiminy Cricket, told me yesterday that I have to grow my Patreon. I was telling him that I started following a Japanese girl who has a Youtube channel where she teaches Japanese, and has over 900 supporters on Patreon, for an average of $ 5 per follower per month. I have 42, of supporters on Patreon, people who trust me every month and bet on the fact that I will continue to write.
“You have to make sure you get more,” my brother tells me. “Eh, it’s not easy,” I reply. “This girl holds courses, she teaches, it is clear that those interested in learning Japanese follow her …” He shrugs his shoulders. “You also hold courses on your Patreon. That writing thing … “
Karavansara 