postaweek | Karavansara

23 March 2013
by Davide Mana 7 Comments

There’s no conspiracy

There’s a thing I do on my Italian blog, which I call the Pork Chop Express – yes, like the Big Trouble in Little China thing (I love that movie).
Pork Chop Express is the tag I use when I want to inflict my admittedly dubious wisdom on the innocent surfers.
When I want to play Mister Know-It-All.
And I thought – why not on Karavansara, too?
The world gotta know, right?

So, here it is – the first Pork Chop Express of my English-language blog.
And it goes more or less like this… Continue reading →

21 March 2013
by Davide Mana 4 Comments

What’s My Theme?

This post is sort of an appendix to the last things I posted about writing on my Italian-language blog.

In a nutshell – when I’m planning a story, I jot down some basic ideas, a logline, a theme, some capsule sketches of the characters.
Then I outline.

Now, the theme is the issue.
And this not because some out there might decide to write without setting down a defined theme for their narrative.
I mean, it’s all right – each one defines his or her own technique.
No, what apparently bugs some readers is that a theme, for a genre story, is seen as superfluous or – even worse – as a Bad Thing.
This strangely widespread opinion is in part an anti-intellectual trend, in part a consequence of “message” having been used too often to justify bad storytelling.
And there’s also this weird idea that any writer defining a set of themes for his writing, is trying to push an ideology, or trying to sell something. Continue reading →

19 March 2013
by Davide Mana 7 Comments

Sho’dontell

They say you can’t run a blog about your writing – or, indeed, about someone else’s writing – without a post about the ubiquitous dogma, the One to Rule Them All… Show Don’t Tell.
And who am I to snub traditions?

Show Don’t Tell is probably the most basic, simple tool in a writer’s toolbox.
I talk about tools and toolbox, and not about rules, because of this story, which many take as an undisputed truth, about rules being unbreakeable.
Now I don’t know how it is out there where you are sitting right now, but here where I am, there is a growing cult of this sho’dontell thing*.
Like most cults, this is based on an oversimplified and partial understanding of its central tenets.
And because this post is being written first and foremost for me, as a pro-memoria and as a way to set my thoughts straight, I am non interested here in finding the cult-leader, or laying the blame on this or that blogger, critic or writing guru.
What I would like to write, here, is the tool’s handbook, the pocket cheat sheet for the Show Don’t Tell utility. Continue reading →

15 March 2013
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Friday Night Fright

Just got back from the emergency ward of the Nizza Monferrato Hospital.
A superficial varicose vein in my right leg punctured, causing abundant bleeding and no less panic.
I am proud like a little boy scout* for the fact that not only I was able to stop the bleeding by applying a finger to the hole, but was also clear-headed enough to talk my father out of a panic frenzy for him to be able to drive me to the hospital.
From the whole ordeal, I came back with the following useful information:

that old pulp cliché about being clear-headed and cool even in presencce of abundant bleeding – your own bleeding – is true, at least for me
fresh blood is slippery as hell, even on a relatively rough surface (I’ll have to keep that in mind for future reference)
your own blood does not feel warm at all on your own skin, it feels dowright cold (ditto)
only Chow Yun Fat can stop abundant hemorrhage with a band-aid
flirtatious nurses that think you’re ten years younger despite the bleeding are a verified cliché, too

Oh, and now I own a blood-spattered copy of Richard Cohen’s (excellent) By the Sword, which sort of feels all right.

—————————————

* I never was a boy scout

15 March 2013
by Davide Mana 3 Comments

How I became a hack, part three

Yes, just like that… sort of.

One day I’ll write a book called Mistress of Yamatai.
It will be a Burroughs-esque actioneer.
The story – a freak accident involving some ancient Japanese relics causes out hero (an anonymous orientalist) to slip back in time (and possibly sideways, too) to the ancient land of Wo, where he’ll have to face unspeakable lovecraftian horrors and shamanic magic, fight blood-thirsty barbarians and woo fiery-spirited, ample-breasted Himiko, the Mistress of Yamatai.
A classy thing, in other words.

I’ve got the story outlined, the characters sketched – the zip file including the lot resurfaced a few days back, after a slump caused a pile of old CDs to spill fan-like on my desk.

One day or another, I’ll write the book.
I made a promise.
In the meantime, here’s the story about Himiko, the Mistress of Yamatai, and about her Curse. Continue reading →

13 March 2013
by Davide Mana 7 Comments

Learning to Fly (or to write about it)

I’m a sucker for teach-yourself manuals.

Now, in 1938, a British gentleman by the name of Nigel Tangye published with Hodder & Stoughton a small handbook called Teach Yourself to Fly.
The volume was reissued in 1941, as a quick-and-dirty crash course for RAF newbies.

Now, c’mon, this is the 21st century – we are leery, and pretty skeptical, of one-package crash courses and Idiot’s/Dummies books about using Twitter or Mexican cooking.
And here’s a 75-years-old, 170-pages booklet, claiming to be the one-stop beginner’s course for fighter pilots?
In war situations?
One has to scratch one’s head, and wonder how gullible were they back in those days. Continue reading →

11 March 2013
by Davide Mana 9 Comments

Why Bother?

(it’s A LOT less romantic than that)

Writing a blog is really a great source of ideas.
An example?
It’s 23.33, sunday night.
In theory, in about thirty minutes a post should go online on Karavansara.
And here I am, staring at the fog inundating my courtyard like a pool of soap water, and racking my brain for an idea.

And then, on my other blog, the Italian one, a surfer comments a recent post, asking…

Why do you care about the number of readers reading your blog?
Is it a matter of money – more readers, more donations?
Or is it a way to confirm how good you are? More readers means I’m a better writer?
Why bother about being read?

Now, ok, I’ll admit it – I’m facing a difficult week, and my first reaction is slamming repeatedly my forehead on the keyboard.
When someone that’s actually reading me asks me why I am interested in being read, the sense of emptyness and desolation scares me witless for ten seconds solid.
But then, c’mon, let’s think about it – here’s a theme for the new post! Continue reading →