Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Tag Archives: things to come


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The Return of Asteria

sun-kingDuring the coming weekend I will write a 12.000 words story, give or take 2000.
It will not be hard, at least the first draft – the story’s been outlined for two years, but I never got around to actually write it.
It’s called Asteria in the Court of the Sun King, and it’s the third in the series I started in 2014 about Asteria, a formerly dead amazon that is a pawn of forces beyond her comprehension.

It all started in 2014, with a discussion with a friend of mine, Italian indie author Alex Girola, about the old peplums, the sword & sandal movies that were the staple of Italian fantasy cinema in the 1950s and 1960s, and that gave us a lot of fun and even a few good movies.
What both Alex and I found fascinating – and promising from a writing point of view – was the mix of spurious Mythology, mismatched genre tropes and time periods the movies displayed. Continue reading →


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A fantasy story, something completely different

So, the votes are in (had we not just left this party?), and unless some last-minute, momentous turn of events happens, it looks like I will be writing a whole new fantasy story for my Patreon supporters.

Screenshot from 2018-03-06 13-03-25

Which is fine with me – obviously, or I would not have listed it as an option.
I’m a bit sad about Asteria, but she was always the outsider in my catalog.

But I got more than votes – I got suggestions, too.
And I had plans and ideas of my own, so let’s see what’s on the plate. Continue reading →


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I’m going to write some fantasy

The first round of voting on my Patreon page has closed, and my patrons have decided my 12.000-words story will be a Fantasy/Sword & Sorcery thing.
Which suits me fine.

Screenshot from 2018-03-03 18-37-02

Now we’ll have to see what sort of story I’ll be writing.
A new Aculeo & Amunet novelette?
Asteria‘s first outing in the English language?
Or something completely different?

I’ll set up a second, final poll…


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Serendipity and communities

My friend Claire often talks about serendipity.
Me, I’m an old statistical analysis guru, I don’t believe in serendipity. And yet…

unnamedOne of the things I have been worrying these days – and I was not the only one worrying about it, from what I heard – is what will become of Karavansara and strategie evolutive, my two blogs, now that I also have a Patreon page.

Patreon is a fantastic platform for doing what it does, but it also has a requirement – it wants me to live there, to do my things there. My patrons are hungry for contents, and I am supposed to provide them a steady flow of contents.
But what about my blogs? Continue reading →


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AMARNA is ready to start

So here we go – I am about to open the preorders for the first episode of AMARNA.
The first episode will be delivered on the 1st of January 2018, but readers will be able to preorder a copy at a discounted price starting on the 10th of December.

And starting on the 10 of December, I’ll be posting teasers, previews and special contents both here and on my Patreon page. This will include a cover reveal, because the official cover of the project is beautiful.

For those of you that do not know what I am talking about, you can check a full-length preview of the project, or check out the condensed version below.

AMARNA CHEAT SHEET2

To keep up to date subscribe to the AMARNA mailing list (no spam, promised).
Opinions, as usual, are welcome.


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KaravanCast, or how I became a podcaster

The KaravanCast is doing fine with its Episode 0, and as promised, here’s a little more about this new strange adventure of mine.

karavancast-episode-0

I started planning a podcast to go with Karavansara one year ago – thinking it would be a fun thing to do in the long hot summer nights.
I started reading on the subject and I started putting together what I needed – the software, the hardware, the courage. I also started pestering my brother, that has some experience in managing online radios, for suggestions and help.
Then, as we know, things took a different turn – but the idea remained.
I only had one major problem – what the heck should my podcast cover? Continue reading →


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Listening to the radio in the night

radio-graphicI think I already mentioned how much I like radio.
Radio dramas (old and new, with a soft spot for the Thrilling Adventure Hour), music (and vintage wonders like the Buddies’ Lounge), and talk radio.

Now, something happened two nights back.
I was not feeling well (what with old age, the cold and the mileage thing), and so I stood up the whole night, and scanned the airwaves with my small, cheap multi-band radio receiver to try and get my mind off my aches.
My brother was up with me, and a little worried, but in the end we chanced upon a strange radio program from a very local station. Vinyl Dust it’s called and no, it’s not a fetish sort of thing – it’s an all-night talk and music show in which a guy that does not know how to properly pronounce English talks about vintage records, and plays old 45s.
The show focuses on covers and alternate versions of classic songs from the 60s, weird stuff produced for the European and Italian 45 and juke-box markets. Always quirky, often bad. And my oh my, was the show we caught focusing on bad. Continue reading →