reference | Karavansara

Now the title of this post is misleading but bear with me – will get there.

The lady in the photo here on the right is Anais Nin – and she wrote erotica.
Sorry… Erotica, capital E – she wrote Literature.
Now I do not know if this is true or if it is an urban legend, but I was told (or I read somewhere) that the first erotic novel of Anais Nin she wrote as a teenager, with a medical handbook close by for reference.

And I like that, because it confirms one of my ideas about writing:

write about what you know, no matter how you acquired that knowledge.

So, what has that to do with female characters?
Let me explain. Continue reading →

I think a lot of armchair archaeologists began their career with books about ancient mysteries.
Von Daniken.
Kolosimo.
Berlitz.
More recently, Colin Wilson and Graham Hancock.

While today I probably prefer a solid book about actual archaeology, I had a lot of fun, as a kid, reading quite a few of those books.
I remain an enthusiastic supporter of the late Peter Kolosimo, and I do not condemn or despise the “mysterious archaeology” genre as a whole.
As long as we are in the clear, and the author does not try too hard to convince me, I usually enjoy the ride.
And who knows, one can always find strange ideas to use in a story… when you write adventure tales ans imaginative fiction, ancient mysteries are a good source of material. Continue reading →