Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Tag Archives: postaweek


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Shark Attack

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 movie Jaws was one of the movies that changed the game, and the highest grossing movie of its time.
I was too young to go and see it in a cinema – although some of my pals did sneak in and emerge later from the darkness of the movie hall with tales of horror and wonder.
Today, I like to watch Jaws every time a TV channel runs it again.

And yet, if as a movie-goer and a fan of action thrillers I love Jaws, as a scientist I always felt the shark facts in the film leave more than something to be desired.

Ellis_SharkAttack-lowresShark Attack, a quick-read, fact-filled pamphlet by noted biologist Richard Ellis, published by Open Road Media, aims at setting the record straight, providing an ample overview of actual shark attacks – including those that inspired the original novel from which the Spielberg movie was made – and a passionate discussion of what sharks are really like, and what a shark attack is in reality.

But the booklet is not only a debunking of the 1975 movie.
This is a condensed introduction to the life and biology of the shark, its interaction with marine ecosystems and with humans.

It’s clear, concise, fun, filled with great images.
It does not detract from the enjoyment of the movie – and provides a further layer to the viewing.


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Rejection slips

Last week a publisher informed me that a story I had submitted for their next anthology is not good enough to be included.
Oh, they were much more tactful, but the bottom line is just that – the story is not good enough.

And re-reading it, I must agree.
I could make a lot of excuses – I rushed the job because of the deadline, it was my first English-language story in almost a decade, the word-limit was very tight, I had no time for availing me of my indispensible proof-reader and sounding board, or call on beta-readers.
But that would just be making excuses.

not deadI’m much more interested, at the moment, in revising and rewriting the story as much as possible, without time or word constraints, and then try my luck again.
What’s more, I like the two main characters, and I’d love to do at least two more stories featuring them.
And anyway, submitting that story, for all its weaknesses, was absolutely indispensible – it was necessary to overcome the stagefright one feels facing a new market, a new public, a new world.

Which leads me to the interesting part – the fact that my first English submission bounced back caused some parties to get into told-you-so mode. Continue reading →


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Do It Yourself

Two or three years back I was in the audience at a panel, held during the Turin Book Fair, whan one member of the public asked a well known editor “What would you suggest to a kid that wants to become a writer?”
The editor replied “Don’t!”
And then expanded, explaining there’s already too many writers out there, while readers are getting scarcer by the day.
He came across as an all-around jerk, but they tell me that’s the persona he loves to show to the world, so I guess it’s ok.

Two days ago I was asked the same question.
Which was pretty awkward – I mean, I’m not exactly Stephen King, I can barely hold my own writing, who am I to give suggestions?
Anyway, I tried my best.

Continue reading →


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Hunting sunken treasures

The first comment I got when I shouted “Wow! This is just great!” was along the lines of “Sounds like the sort of junk Clive Cussler writes.”
Talk about feeling alienated.
But let’s proceed with order.

1111bigOne of the few perks of living smack in the middle of Southern Piedmont is, in two hours I can be on the Cote d’Azure.
The sun, the sea, acres and acres of nubile, scantly clad young women stretching on the beaches…
And I normally end up in some antiquarian bookstore.
They even publish (or used to) a map of antiquarian bookshops in the Nice area.

So a few years back I was browsing the stalls of one such small Alladin caves of librarian wonder, and I caught me the three volumes of the Born Free series, first edition, and to round up the bill, I threw in a weird little book called Treasure Diving Holidays, by Jane and Barney Crile.
The book – a 1954 first edition – once bought and brought home, was placed on a high shelf together with other sea-oriented books, and soon forgotten.
Which is all right – I’m quite convinced books should be read at the right moment, so sometimes forgetting them on a high shelf is just what’s needed.
Then, when the time comes… I need some color and information for some seafaring stories I’m planning, and I go and rediscover this hidden gem.

What’s it all about? Continue reading →


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Let’s face the music, and dance

This is not exactly the post I had in mind – I’ve been posting an awful lot about writing, recently, and I guess my readers might like some variety.
But, bear with me, this one is really a spontaneous, straight away thing.
And it somewhat connects with the post I did about themes.

ModernTimesEndingIt all started because the post my friend Chiara did on her blog, about happy endings.
And because of a long talk I had with The Guys*, about women, broken hearts and expectations in a relationship.
So, yes, expect something weird…

Let’s start by stating that my friend Chiara does not believe in “perfect” happy endings.
The dread “What Next?” is there to unsettle the balance.
And I somewhat agree with her – happy endings tying together neatly all the loose ends and de facto stopping thestory, are not my kind of thing, either.
But, on the other hand, I am highly suspicious of “downer endings” – those which basically tell us that it was all for nothing, life sucks, and nothing ever goes as planned**…
I am suspicious because it feels (often) as a way for the author to wink at the reader, suggesting they both are so world-weary and blasé they can laugh at such romantic notions like happy endings.
Sometimes the tragic ending is as dishonest and manipulative, and fake, as the best (…) happy endings out there.

And yet Continue reading →


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The Far East for Gamers

I’m experimenting, here – two reviews, one here in English, one in Italian on my other blog, strategie evolutive.

And I’ll review a game accessory.
I’ve been playing roleplaying games since the dim and distant past, and I find gaming an interesting alternative to writing.

Recently, I’ve been highly impressed by Paul Wiggy Wade-Williams’ Leagues of Adventure, a tabletop, pen-and-paper game of exploration and adventure set in Victorian times which is refreshingly steampunk-free, and based on the highly flexible, and entertaining Ubiquity System.
The game is a gorgeous hardback that aims at recreating the setting and mood of stories from Rider-Haggard, Conan Doyle, Kipling and other greats.
Maybe with a wink at Burroughs and Verne. Continue reading →


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Translating myself – slowly

220px-Robert_E._Howard_in_1923Back in 2009 I planned, almost completed and partially published a cycle of three alternate history stories centered on the character of Robert E. Howard, with H.P. Lovecraft as a co-star.

In The Ballad of Bobbie Howard, I imagined a universe in which both the author of Conan and the Providence Recluse are women.

Then, in The Shape of Things to Come (yes, I know, not very original, as a title), I imagined a universe in which both Howard and Lovecraft surviving their early demises, and living a long and productive life – REH as a Hollywood screenwriter and HPL as the director of Weird Tales.

Finally, in Lone Star, I wrote about a balkanizad post-depression America, in which Texas rebels led by Howard face their final showdown against the troops of President Lovecraft, leader of the pretty fascistic Eastern Coalition. Continue reading →