Valerie Trelawney | Karavansara

28 February 2023
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

The return of Valerie Trelawney

I created Valerie Trelawney in 1985, give or take a few months, typing two of her stories on my mother’s old Olivetti Lettera. They were not particularly good stories – derived in the worst possible way from Arthur Conan Doyle (with a nod at The Jewel of Seven Stars), from H.P. Lovecraft, and from an unresolved (ad still very much alive) fascination for Charles Dana Gibson’s illustrations.
My Edwardian medium/detective went nowhere back in the ’80s, but in much more recent years Valerie was resurrected to support none else but Sherlock Holmes in two stories, published in the anthologies of the series Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives.

Now, Valerie Trelawney comes back for a third adventure, this time going solo and gracing the pages of issue #9 of Occult Detective Magazine, that is currently available through Amazon.
The new story is called The case of the ink-maker’s daughter.

I like writing about Valerie, and we go back a long time – she is in fact my oldest character. Right now I am working on two more stories featuring her occult adventures.
How, where and when these will be published – if at all – remains to be seen.
I will let you know as soon as I know myself.

1 June 2020
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Sherlock Holmes & the Occult Detectives

I am happy to report that the massive two-volume collection published by Belanger Books and presenting a wide selection of mysteries and adventures featuring Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives is available both in paperback and ebook through Amazon.

In these stories, Holmes must work with some colleagues of his that are better versed in the ins and outs of the occult and the supernatural, while not relinquishing his powers of observation and deduction.

The first volume includes my story The Case of the Manchester Mummies, the first outing of the delectable miss Valerie Trelawney. More adventures of miss Trelawney will hopefully see the light in the future. But it all starts here.

I hope you’ll check out these books – they are absolutely fabulous.

13 April 2020
by Davide Mana 4 Comments

Three letters from the country

I am starting to suffer for the insomnia that in the last two weeks has wrecked my routine. It’s not just the fact of sleeping (badly) by day and staying up at night, but most of all it’s a matter of entangled schedules.
I have things to write, but my schedule is shattered.
And as it usually happens, when I have too much to writer and not enough time and energy to write it, I got an idea for a new story.
An idea that is good, solid, fun, and it has a potential market.
Damn.

Continue reading →

28 December 2019
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Yet another Valerie

What’s with me and the name Valerie?
I do not know – but I know a lot of Valeires have turned out in my stories through the years. Indeed, the female lead in my very first “good” work, back in 1989, was called Valerie. And maybe it was the Quarterflash song of the same name, but I doubt it.

Anyway, Valerie Trelawney debuted in society this morning, as my Patrons in the Five Bucks Brigade received the third story in the Seven Lives project – a short called The Case of the Inkmaker’s Daughter. The character will have a more public debut later in 2020, when a second story, celled The Case of the Manchester Mummies, will be published in a big fat anthology together with the work of many writers that are better than me.

Continue reading →

9 October 2019
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

The hit list

I’ve just completed a new BUSCAFUSCO story, that in a few days I’ll post to my Patrons in the Five Bucks Brigade – just the time needed to translate it in Italian – because my patrons get my stories both in Italian and English. It’s a bit of extra work, but I’m happy to do it for my patrons.
And as I’m at it, I thought I’ll post here a short list of what’s to come, in terms of short stories, for my Patrons in the next months.

First, as I said, in a few days, a 7000-words BUSCAFUSCO story set in Nizza Monferrato in the days before Halloween.
After that, and in no particular order (or, in other words, as the fancy strikes me)

a new Aculeo & Amunet sword & sorcery story
a new caper of The Corsair
a new Tale of the Frontier
a new Valerie Trelawney Edwardian ghost story (the character will make her debut in print some time in the next months)
the first Helena Saratova (if that’s really her name) solo historical adventure

And this keeps us covered (and me busy) until March 2020.
There will be more, of course, stuff that at the moment is so secret, I can’t tell you or then I’d have to kill you.
AND the Open Outline stuff my Patrons are helping (?) me put together.

And I have to admit, I am quite happy with how things are shaping up.
Going back to my old characters, for readers that I know appreciate them, is like taking a vacation.

And as I said, there’s more to come.
So watch this space for news and, if you feel like, join us on Patreon.
Because it’s good to be my patrons.

8 February 2019
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Like an old girlfriend

This is a complicated story. It starts at the turn of the last century, as a 20-years younger myself is trying to create a character for a series of stories. I had just read Bram Stoker’s The Jewel of Seven Stars, hot on the heels of Kim Newman’s Seven Stars, and I wanted to do something similar.
In case you missed it, Stoker’s story (that you can find here both in the 1903 and in the 1912 versions) has been filmed a number of times, and many fans fondly remember the very loose Hammer Films version, known as Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (because Hammer knew how to sell movies), and featuring the delectable Valerie Leon.