Is there anything better than receiving a few Amazon Gift Credits for Christmas? Well, yes, there’s the fact that a few publishers are doing a massive holiday sale on their ebooks. And so one can indulge in that most decadent of pleasures–browse the Amazon shelves and just throw stuff in the shopping basket, without a care in the world.
Add the books that friends and family give you for Christmas, and you end up with a HUGE book haul.
So, why not put up a gallery?
Continue readingYesterday my friend Lucy did a great post about Quatermass and the Pit (the article is in Italian, but you can use Google Translate) so I decided I’d like to watch it again. To me Quatermass and the Pit in color is always a strange experience because I first saw it on the telly, when I was a kid, and it was in black and white and I still remember it in black and white.
But anyway, I was not able to find my copy, that lies buried somewhere. So, as I was going through a bout of insomnia and I was in a Quatermass kind of mood, I picked up another thing by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale, and I re-watched The Stone Tape. And then I thought I’d do a post about it.
Here we go. Continue reading
Travel back in time to kidnap historical figures for a few days, which then produce neural copies for the entertainment industry. It’s a job like any other, for “Bill” Billings.
A short orientation course, and then a jump in the past, to extract another subject. In Baghdad, in the ninth century, this time, to kidnap Scheherazade, the daughter of the Vizier, the greatest storyteller of her time.
Only, this time it does not work out as expected.
Not only does Bill kidnap the wrong girl, but a failure of his time machine deposits him and his unexpected companion… elsewhere.
Very much elsewhere.
Is it simply a post-human future, as Bill suggests, or is it the land of the Jinns, as claimed by the second-born of the Vizier? Continue reading
The old song Nothing Ever Goes as Planned by Styx should become my theme tune.
As I think I mentioned elsewhere, I have been writing like mad and I still am – lots of deadlines, lots of bills to pay.
Ugly.
And last night I finally decided that it’s thumbs down for Counterspinner, my hard-SF novella aimed at Tor.com.
The story is solid, and I like the way it’s shaping up, but quite simply I will not make it in time for the narrow submission window available.
Whichis a damn pity, but it is important to recognize one’s own limits.
I will still write it, but not now.
And on the other hand, renouncing an opportunity like an unagented submission for Tor.com is simply crazy.
But… Continue reading
A wonderful novel (by Lavie Tidhar), wonderfully translated in Italian (by me)
And then there is this idea of pitching a few novels to a few publishers.
Because who needs to sleep anyway?
Right now I have a serial project that’s doing the tours of a pair of local publishers. Short, novella length regional-focused mysteries, sort of a cozy version of BUSCAFUSCO, written in team with a good friend that’s providing local color and a much-needed second brain.
This is really a project tailored on the public: let’s write a series that will appeal to both male and female readers, with a local interest but marketable all over the country and maybe even exported in Europe. Something fast, fun, unusual, intelligent and popular at the same time.
Our pitch-package is the fist three chapters (about 5000 words) of a proposed 30/40.000-words first episode, plus a complete detailed outline of the story and a full bible for the series.
We are waiting for an answer from a prospect publisher, and at the same time evaluating other possible targets.
While this is doing the rounds, I am getting ready to pitch two science fiction novels to two separate publishers. Smart, modern hard SF with current topics and events as a focus.
Maybe it’s translating Central Station, but I’d really love to go back to my genre with something I think is missing from what my Italian colleagues are doing. There is an unexplored niche, and it would be good to start exploring it.
The idea is to do an Earth-based story and a space-based one.
Both of these are long shots, but having the time, I’d like to put together a pitch-pack like the one described above, three chapters and a complete outline, and start to test prospect publishers.
These, of course, are projects for the summer.
If I’ll still have a home, by then.
Wish me luck.
And the question is, can I write a science fiction story, in Italian, in 48 hours, considering my publisher asked for it?
It’s always a good idea to keep our publishers happy.
And from a strictly mechanical point of view, yes I can – 6000 words in two days, first draft, in Italian, is not a special feat.
The problem is, with science fiction one has to be careful.
SF needs idea, and needs precision, and research.
The obvious way out: work on some stuff I have already researched.
Yes, I do research some weird stuff, in my spare time.
Mimas crossing Saturn
This is a good opportunity to finally write that story I mentioned I wanted to write.
Now I need a main character, a voice, and a story.
And then fire Scrivener up and pour my brains on the page.
It’s gonna be a wild two-days.
Karavansara 