2023-03-28 18:49
ProSe Press’ latest anthology is out, and it can be acquired in both paperback and ebook via Amazon.It is called Princesses in Pulp, it features a killer cover by Antonino Lo Iacono, a… Read More
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Karavansara | East Of Constantinople, West Of Shan Blog
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East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai
2023-02-28 17:08
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 i… Read More
2023-02-20 10:44
Japanese animation hit Italy hard, starting on evening in April 1978, when Go Nagai’s Grandizer – in our country known as Goldrake – was first broadcast by our national tel… Read More
2023-01-13 15:53
Do you get emails from Amazon?I do.About once a week, I find in m y mailbox a mail that says, more or less…
Greetings, Consumer!based on your previous purchases, we think you might… Read More
2023-01-09 16:33
This morning I was told I am not “a real writer” because my last works published had been tie-ins, works that are part of other properties. The Raiders of Bloodwood is part of th… Read More
2023-01-04 15:25
Two days back I finished a big translation job I was eager to get out of the way to clear my desk for the upcoming novel writing job I will be doing these next two months (more details soon)… Read More
2022-12-30 23:47
Last post of the year, and somewhat unexpected – I am suffering from a bout of insomnia, and about one hour ago, while exchanging new years greetings, I suggested to my friend Marina D… Read More
2022-12-26 14:04
It’s the Christmas weekend, the countryside is silent and dreary under a blanket of cold mist, and there is very little to do but eat (in moderation), read (an old Warhammer Fantasy no… Read More
2022-12-22 15:11
It’s that time of the year again.I wish you guys a warm, happy Christmas time with your family.Or with your friends.Or alone.Whatever suits you best Read More
2022-12-18 20:10
I am definitely late at the party, but recently the Bundle of Holding did a quick deal offering the digital “Starter Collection” for The Tales from the Magician’s Skull, fo… Read More
2022-12-16 10:37
I am finally free to share the news that my new novel for the Descent, Legends of the Dark line will be available next summer through Aconythe Books.It’s called Dreams of Fire, and it… Read More
2022-12-10 18:06
It felt right to end our overview of Robert E. Howard’s Conan with the final Conan story, and the one that gave our podcast its name: Red Nails, published between July and October 1936… Read More
2022-12-09 19:43
My second story choice was a no-brainer from the beginning: The People of the Black Circle, from September-October 1934 Weird Tales, is the first Robert E. Howard story I ever read, forty ye… Read More
2022-12-08 14:00
This is a placeholder post to allow the verification of this blog on Mastodon.
Mastodon Read More
2022-12-08 13:31
I was somewhat surprised when my friend Germano chose Shadows in The Moonlight, published originally in Weird Tales in the April 1934 issue, as the first of his two Robert E. Howard re-read… Read More
2022-12-07 13:01
Robert E. Howard’s The Tower of the Elephant was published in the March 1933 issue of Weird Tale Magazine, and is the first of the two stories I selected for the forthcoming “Fou… Read More
2022-12-05 13:42
In 2022 I launched an Italian-language podcast called Chiodi Rossi (Red Nails), together with my friend Germano – who is a fine writer and an excellent editor, and a fellow Howard fan… Read More
2022-12-02 00:34
I guess we’ll have to go to a movie theater and decide for ourselves Read More
2022-11-25 11:29
It is not often that I have the opportunity to give a shout out for a colleague’s new book.
Multi-award winner Aliette de Bodard has a new book out, called The Red Scholar’s W… Read More
2022-09-23 10:20
I’ve been pushing uphill for weeks now, entangled in a number of projects.But last night I got a big surprise – the anthology Water: Selkies, Sirens & Sea Monsters, edited by… Read More
2022-09-01 17:17
All the way from Goodreads. And it seems I got it right: Read More
2022-08-27 12:15
This could be dismissed as a cut-rate King Kong rip-off – but it’s the last weekend of August, I am done writing for this week, and so, why not have some cheap fun with an old mo… Read More
2022-08-20 08:26
… and what a beautiful job did the people of Tantor Media!
You can listen to the audiobook HERE.
And yes, I know, enough of this talking about my novel.But it’s OK &ndash&hell…Read More
2022-08-18 15:27
Here’s a shout out to the Let’s Talk Assassins’ Creed Book Vlog, that just launched with a review of The Raiders of Bloodwood.I am very happy the reviewer liked my story an… Read More
2022-07-29 16:16
Just in time for the Halloween season Read More
2022-07-27 10:15
The central group of The Raiders of Bloodwood are a lovely bunch though, and the fact that they’re mostly just normal people makes their interactions and their journey the real highlig… Read More
2022-07-23 11:49
Here is the list of the winners of the award assigned by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.And yes, I am not on the list – my story All my friends were monsters mad… Read More
2022-07-20 06:50
The paperback edition of my latest novel, The Raiders of Bloodwood, is out in paperback format in the US from Aconyte Books – and you can order it from Amazon, or from your local frien… Read More
2022-07-17 07:57
Early reviewer copies of Secrets in Scarlet, the new Arkham Horror anthology that includes my story City of Waking Dreams (set, just imagine, in Shanghai) are available via the NetGalley pla… Read More
2022-07-09 16:00
I admit I was worried.Bastard!! was one of the anime/manga series that I remembered from the ’90s – over the top, seriously silly, filled with bouncing breasts and juvenile humor… Read More
2022-07-02 13:15
The cover for the forthcoming Arkham Horror anthology, Secrets in Scarlet, was posted online yesterday.
I like the cover a lot, but OK, I am biased.
The volume will be out next autumn… Read More
2022-07-01 14:39
Humble Bundle teamed up with Aconyte Books (my publisher!) to offer a big bundle of gaming-related fiction – horror from the Arkham Horror universe, fantasy from both The Descent and L… Read More
2022-07-01 08:43
The Raiders of Bloodwood hits the digital shelves next week (the paperback will be out in September), and already the book received a rave review on Goodreads – five stars and all.This… Read More
2022-06-19 07:39
… and it looks like I’m one of them.
The Scribe Awards are assigned every year by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, in a number of categories includi… Read More
2022-06-17 09:27
Just a quick post to share the news that two stories of mine are out in two volumes edited by John Linwood Grant for Belanger Books.
The haunting of Fox Lanes is one of the 18 stories in… Read More
2022-06-09 07:02
(You will thank me later) Read More
2022-06-04 07:14
We have lost another great artist. Kelly’s covers for the Berkley editions of Robert E. Howard’s works were among the first depictions of Conan and the other heroes and villains… Read More
2022-05-18 16:51
Short public service announcement: because it’s the month of May, and because this is my birthday month, you can get The Devourer Below, the lovecraftian horror collection which includ… Read More
2022-05-08 19:04
When I flew out of New York City in 1951 for Karachi, Kabul, and Delhi, I planned to write abook about the famous mountains that stretch across northern India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The… Read More
2022-04-30 19:54
I’m currently editing a new short story that should come out by the end of the year in a new anthology. And I am waiting for an answer by a publisher about a pitch for a novel that I h… Read More
2022-04-29 16:07
My new novel, The Raiders of Bloodwood, will hit the shelves in July, but in the meantime, if you are subscribed to Netgalley (it’s free), you can read an advance copy of my book, free… Read More
2022-04-21 02:02
This is a sort of rabbit hole in which I am about to dive. And why not carry you along?
Science fiction was always considered cheap drivel in Italy – commercial fiction fit to enter… Read More
2022-04-16 17:55
Maybe not the ideal Easter movie, but The Spine of Night popped up on my radar (it is currently running on Shudder), and being in a dark fantasy/sword & sorcery mood (big news), I decide… Read More
2022-04-01 14:21
The fine people at Aconyte Books have just announced their next Arkham Horror anthology, Secrets in Scarlet…
A secret organization ruthlessly seeks power over supernatural terrors… Read More
2022-03-24 09:01
I had mentioned this already in the past, but today I got an update, and so you get an update too.The two volumes of the Unbreakable Ink anthology, edited by Shebat Legion, and featuring two… Read More
2022-03-16 19:56
I was browsing an online store today, just to see how I could spend a coupon I received, and I stumbled on my next novel, currently available for pre-order.It was both surprising and a bit d… Read More
2022-03-10 18:47
There’s a new anthology out today, and it’s called Unbreakable Ink 2, being the second volume in the series of anthologies edited by the always excellent Shebat Legion.And it fea… Read More
2022-03-02 19:23
What a weird start of this new year.I was working on two major projects (and a few minor ones) and then my PC died, had to get a new one, set it up, recover my stuff…I went through a… Read More
2022-02-06 17:33
I am back online, having scrapped one PC and set up a new one – with the usual corollary of backups, lost passwords and money I would have rather not spent.
And while I was offl… Read More
2022-01-24 14:36
I’ve just got my contributor copy of The Nefarious Villains of Sherlock Holmes, edited by David Marcum for Belanger Books. The volume includes my story “The Tiger and the Bear&rd&hell…Read More
2022-01-16 12:32
Queens walk in the duskThomas Burnett Swann, 1977
What an unusual book!
Thomas Burnett Swann was a critic, a poet and a writer of fantasy. He used classic mythology and history in his… Read More
2022-01-05 22:02
First title in my 2022 challenge, and a much needed re-read.Enjoy!
Still Life with WoodpeckerBy Tom Robbins, 1980
When I got out of high school I was not very happy. The fact is, f… Read More
2021-12-29 10:03
So, it’s the end of the year.Today we celebrate St David, so I’ll have a bit of a celebration, here alone in the fog-shrouded countryside, and then I’ll take a while off… Read More
2021-12-28 19:35
THIS is going to be my last book of 2021.Isn’t it great to receive presents for Christmas? Read More
2021-12-26 17:25
I should be writing, but I am reading instead. It’s very cold, the countryside is still and dreary, and I need to recharge my batteries. I have stories to write, stories to translate… Read More
2021-12-12 16:20
I am happy to announce that the new Pro see Press collection, The Further Adventures of Ned Land is now available for purchase in the bookshop of Mr Jeffrey Bezos, Esq.The volume collects a… Read More
2021-12-09 23:47
Today I took a day off from the web. I shovelled some snow off the courtyard and then went with my brother for a supply run. In the next weeks, we will hole up in our house and crawl under a… Read More
2021-12-05 21:07
So, here is an idea.I have put together a list of 52 books.Of these 49 I have here, either on my shelf or on my e-reader. The other three I’ll get as soon as possible (one comes out in… Read More
2021-11-30 23:37
The second volume of the anthology Unbreakable Ink, edited by Shebat Legion, will hit the shelves on the 15th of January 2022, but you can preorder it now. The volume includes a wide selecti… Read More
2021-11-30 12:28
Two nights ago I was feeling like some light entertainment, and so I scanned the list of the available movie on my streaming platforms. Because when you live in the sticks, streaming platfor… Read More
2021-11-28 14:27
You know that story about the guy that manages to kick a nasty (and expensive!) habit, only to relapse and fall even deeper into his old ways?There have been books written on this story, and… Read More
2021-11-23 11:53
The Nefarious Villains of Sherlock Holmes is a two-volume anthology of new original stories featuring… well, the nefarious villains of Sherlock Holmes. The anthology is currently bein… Read More
2021-11-12 16:39
So I went and bought a small multiband radio to replace the one that Panthayra destroyed. After a little research (about which, more to come), I settled on the RETEKESS V115 – and the… Read More
2021-11-11 15:35
I have never played League of Legends, and I have no idea what it’s all about. I have seen a lot of game artwork around, and I have been duly impressed by the look of the thing, but I… Read More
2021-11-10 16:05
It’s now ten days that I’m working on my 30 Days of Worldbuilding Challenge on Patreon, and it looks like the world is conspiring to make me spend more money and more time on boo… Read More
2021-11-06 13:42
As you may know – or maybe not – I am devoting the month of November to a personal challenge: over on my Patreon page I am posting daily, both in English and Italian, my worldbui… Read More
2021-11-03 17:58
I have always loved the radio. My earliest memories are not of television (that as something that existed only after 5 pm back in the day) but of listening to the radio, that my mother kept… Read More
2021-10-31 01:50
We all know that on Halloween Night, the Great Pumpkin rises from the pumpkin patch and brings gifts to all good boys and girls. And evidently, I have been a good boy this year (mostly, let… Read More
2021-10-29 14:44
I love ghost stories.They were the first form of genre fiction I ever read, before crime stories, or science fiction, or sword & sorcery, and to this day, I still love a good ghost story… Read More
2021-10-23 18:56
I am saddened by the news of the death of American writer Carole Nelson Douglas. A prolific author of both mysteries and fantasy (both straight and urban), I discovered her work in 1992 when… Read More
2021-10-22 15:03
So it’s now a week since the doctors removed the Zimmer Bar that was holding my left pinky in position, and I am slowly trying to go back to normal.Yesterday I went to the baker, to bu… Read More
2021-10-21 15:01
This movie could be fun.Or it could be rubbish.Seen the precedents, I am not holding my breath. But who knows Read More
2021-10-11 20:03
It’s been a while since I last reviewed a Tits & Sand movie – to use the label coined by Maureen O’Hara. These 1001 Nights-style movies were a staple of my childhood, a… Read More
2021-10-11 16:34
Everybody’s having a party for Halloween, that is still twenty days away. And it’s fine, because we all love a spooky story, and it’s mighty fine.
I was thinking the oth… Read More
2021-10-03 20:20
Breaking a finger was not a good idea.Right now the finger’s doing well (thanks for asking), the doctor likes what he sees in the X-ray shots, and I’ve made froends with the X-ra… Read More
2021-09-30 14:34
There’s a number of lost armies in the ancient world – lost legions, lost expeditions. According to Herodotus, Cambyses II’s expedition to subjugate the priests of Ammon in… Read More
2021-09-24 07:34
I am happy to announce that Unbreakable Ink, the anthology that includes my story Monkey & the Cat and 28 more stories by as many excellent writers, is now available in ebook via Amazon… Read More
2021-09-20 15:14
And so last night, limping and short of breath, I joined my brother and our friends for a night out at the movies. We opened with an excellent (as usual) pizza at Casablanca’s, and the… Read More
2021-09-18 13:50
I have a lot of things to do – I am writing a campaign for a roleplaying game (sketch maps, draw diagrams, do the actual writing), I am revising a novel, I am about to sign a contract… Read More
2021-09-11 19:38
As it usually (and frequently) happens, I was looking for a gift for my brother’s birthday, and I ended up buying a few books for myself. I also found a suitable gift for the brother… Read More
2021-09-06 20:23
I gave myself a gift last week, because I had done a lot of work, made sure we will be able to pay the bills for a month or two, and I felt like I deserved a prize.Also, I was looking for a… Read More
2021-09-02 15:27
I am happy to announce that my short story A Rainy Night in the French Quarter is the featured story in this month’s Dread Imaginings – and you can read it for free.
It is… Read More
2021-08-29 19:03
What is with top-tier criminals and antique bookshops?It’s a sort of cliché, the international man (or woman) of mystery that in their everyday life manage an antique book shop… Read More
2021-08-19 11:00
I
n the end it took me more than 18 months.It was early may 2019 when I decided to splurge 30 bucks on the first volume of the Vertical edition of Mobile Suite Gundam: The Origin, the reb… Read More
2021-08-17 10:06
I have just signed a contract for a big-ish writing job, something large and fun and different that, with a modicum of luck, will come out next year and will carry my name on the cover (or s… Read More
2021-08-16 13:45
So, here’s what’s happening: I am writing a short story.Big deal, you say – that’s what you do for a living, of course you’re writing a story.Which is somewhat… Read More
2021-08-13 08:30
I never met Blair Reynolds, and I believe we never exchanged more than a few words on a mailing list that’s long been lost in the dark alleys of the web, far from the glitter and bustl… Read More
2021-08-10 09:03
The anthology Water: Selkies, Sirens & Sea Monsters, edited by Rhonda Parrish, is out tomorrow, just in time for a nice relaxing read on the beach. Advance reviews were extremely positiv… Read More
2021-08-08 18:50
I was 23 when Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita hit the screens, and it was wild.There had been action thrillers before, of course, but none like this – Anne Perillaud was absolutely… Read More
2021-08-07 19:36
I am not a big fan of superhero movies.Granted, I liked Donner’s Superman, and I can enjoy a good superhero flick once in a while, but I am not a fan, I don’t have high expectati… Read More
2021-08-05 11:22
That’s what I will do during the two weeks of vacations that start today – I will write a writing course.
The idea started after a long chat with a friend, about how there is… Read More
2021-08-02 16:05
I found out about Adventures in Paradise via a song called We are the people our parents warned us about. And yes, that’s how I spent my vacations.
Hey hey, Gardner McKay, take us o… Read More
2021-07-31 21:17
Of all the movies that were somehow delayed by the pandemic, Disney’s Jungle Cruise was one of those I had been expecting with the highest anticipation. Possibly only Villeneuve’… Read More
2021-07-31 12:42
They say you shouldn’t talk personal stuff on the web, because it’s only going to bring grief, but I don’t care.So this is going to be a strange post – if I’ll… Read More
2021-07-28 07:07
Indomitable Ink Publishing is a young new publisher and Unbreakable Ink is an anthology edited by Shebat Legion, and I was lucky enough to have a story of mine in it: my dark fantasy Monkey… Read More
2021-07-17 08:02
I first became aware of Stephen Hickman’s work when I saw the Cthulhu idol the artist sculpted, and that has become to many the definitive look of Big C. In fact, Hickman’s work… Read More
2021-07-13 13:05
I come back for a moment from my long vacation to share the link of the Sheffield Adventure Film festival 2021, that is screening online a wide and wonderful selection of adventure documenta… Read More
2021-06-26 06:51
My friend Shanmei, that usually writes Chinese-flavored, wuxia-style fantasies, is doing a series of historical mysteries set in the very first days of the last century, and based on the fir… Read More
2021-06-20 15:55
2021-06-16 08:07
I went into Trese, the new animated series from Nettflix, practically blind. OK, a paranormal detective story set in contemporary Manila and based on the folklore of the Philippines. But tha… Read More
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