Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Tag Archives: postaweek


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Learning Editing for the Wrong Reason

The Dawn Patrol (1938 film)

The Dawn Patrol (1938 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Its’ very late (4 am) and I’m very tired, having spent the day editing two scenarios for a roleplaying game, for a total of 15.000 words.

My brother helped me – we traded texts so that we would not suffer from “copy blindness”, but it’s been tough anyway.

And while I edited, I started thinking about some weird stuff going on in the heads of the people around here.

Last week a guy selling his services as an editor (in a rather unprofessional way – in my opinion, but that’s another matter) claimed many of his clients are not writers, but actually readers, in search of an approach to narrative which will allow them to understand if the book they are reading is worth their time.

Now, this idea is so mindboggingly stupid that I still want to believe it’s just a plain lie.

But just think about it for a second – people learning editing (which is something that requires long time and extensive practice, and there’s not two editors alike anyway) to be able to decide if they like what they are reading.

Based on the same principle, I should take a flying licence to watch The Dawn Patrol or study direction and composition to decide whether I like Dave Brubeck‘s music or not.

It’s demented.

And yet, there is this feeling, a lot of readers out there are not reading anymore, but they wish to wrestle with the story, outwit the author, and probably show they are better than him.
As if it was a video game, in which you need to outwit the programmers in order win.
And yet, you don’t need to get adegree in programming to play Monkey Island and have fun.

Weird people.

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Raiders from 1981

PBS on Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981.
The overall quality is very low, but the content is gold.
Just what I needed upon learmning that the Cult of the Rat God just acquired the rights to the Indiana Jones franchise (shudder).

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Traveling without money

cover38852-mediumA mixed post today – both book review and media-rich.
Now, How to Travel the World for Free has nothing to do with the Silk Road or with pulp fiction, or fantasy – but it has a lot to do with travel.
That, and it being a good, fun read, are enough for me to point it out.

In a nutshell: German journalist Michael Wigge wanted to visit Antarctica, but did not feel like spending 15.000 dollars in tickets.
So he planned for one full year a long trip – through Europe, North and South America.
A trip he would make without money.

The book details his adventures on the road, and despite the title this is not a how-to book.
It does provide a lot of information, but it is still a travelogue at heart.
It’s a fast read, and highly entertaining.

For more details, let’s hear from the author himself (don’t be distracted by gorgeous Katy Perry)

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On the border – Liz Williams’ Snake Agent

Singapore is a city franchise.
Nanotechnology is replacing some areas of standard technology (there is a fantastic liquid personal computer).
There is an Afterlife, which conforms to the standards of Chinese tradition – a feudal paradise , a highly bureaucratized hell.
Gods and demons interact directly with humanity.
Detective Inspector Chen of Singapore Three police department deals with crimes on the border between the two worlds.
Now, someone is killing teenagers, kidnapping their virtuous souls to initiate them into prostitution in the alleyways of Hell.
And it may just be the tip of a very dangerous iceberg, in a plot full of political collusion and interdimensional speculations.

cover35998-mediumSnake Agent is the first novel in the series featuring Inspector Chen by British award-winning author Liz Williams.
The story is an unusual, heady mix of science fiction, urban fantasy, horror and thriller, reprising the classic “buddy movie” motif, when Chen joins his infernal counterpart , the Seneschal Zhu Irzh, a humanoid enough demon (whith something of the mantis) who is also on the trail of criminals.
Mystical combats, exorcisms, investigations – there’s it all, and then more.

The first Detective Chen novel is very well written, original, funny, with characters that are multi-faceted enough to transcend the obvious limitations imposed by the adoption of certain clichés.
Highly recommended.


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Creative Task – Tex Murphy and Me

This week’s Creative Task for the Future of Storytelling course requires me to write about my favorite video game.

Now, I used to play more on video in the past – both on my PC or on my old Playstation 2; these days, I stick to tabletop roleplaying games.

Texmurphy_largeBut in terms of fascination, involvement, sheer fun, I’m still very much a fan of the old Tex Murphy games created by Chris Jones in the ’90s – the trilogy Under a Killing Moon, Pandora Directive and Tex Murphy: Overseer.

The series started as standard point and click games with two early entries called Mean Streets and Martian Memorandum.
Both the games pushed the boudaries of gaming by being multi genre (Mean Streets was part side-scrolling game, part flight simulator, part point-and-click adventure) and by adopting high quality video cut scenes and dialogues.

But it was in the later titles of the series I mentioned that thing really got interesting. Continue reading →


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Black Pulp

Black-PulpI’m currently reading Black Pulp, and a fine collection it is.
I like the idea, I like the execution.

Walter Mosley‘s introduction is a great love letter to the pulps of old – which is fitting for an anthology of stories that manage to update the old without throwing out what good was there in ancient (well, ok…) times.
The list of authors reads like a selection of the best writers in the field – Walter Mosley and Joe R. Lansdale, Gary Phillips, Charles R. Saunders, Derrick Ferguson, D. Alan Lewis, Christopher Chambers, Mel Odom, Kimberly Richardson, Ron Fortier, Michael A. Gonzales, Gar Anthony Haywood, Tommy Hancock…
All genres get covered, a gallery of great characters is deployed in the service of adventure.
Excellent.

It’s hard to single out one title in this selection of gems.
I’d be tempted to get my fanboy hat on and exclaim “there’s a new Dillon story in here!” – but it would be unfair to all the other fine stories between the covers of this great book.

And talking about the cover – the book is wonderfully designed, and it’s a pleasure to read.
Great work from the guys at Pro Se Press.
We want more.

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Inspirations

The creative task for my Future of Storytelling course this week was quite interesting – doing a video presentation about my three favorite inspirational books, films or what.

Pity I’m technologically impaired at the moment – a power surge cooked my USB mike and all that.
And so, back to basics – a PowerPoint presentation, shared through SlideShare.
Here it goes.

Enjoy!

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