#Spooktober 5 – Penny Dreadful

October 5, 2023

One of my favourite tv shows when it comes to the Gothic, with a stunning Eva Green as the mysterious and haunted Vanessa Ives, and a hauntingly intense Rory Kinnear as the Frankenstein Monster (though he would resent the definition). Vanessa’s stance and demeanour has been greatly influential in shaping how the Lady of my novel walks and acts, especially when she calmly keeps walking around while her companions shoot vampires like there’s no tomorrow, and my favourite scene has to be when an otherworldly creature possesses her during a supposedly fake seance. You can see the cast and crew talking about the scene in the featured video.

music and theatre

Suzanne Vega in Milan

Yesterday, we went to see Suzanne Vega, one of the greatest artists and musicians of all times whom occupies a special place in my heart next to Tori Amos. It was a packed house at Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi here in Milan, with people belonging to

March 22, 2026 10:24 am

books and literature

Isaac Asimov’s Gold (and other stories)

It’s unfortunate that I’m coming to this after the very unsatisfactory collection of “fantasy” stories (Asimov never wrote fantasy: he wrote satire), because this was another disappointment. The book is half short stories and half non-fiction, for random reasons, and the non-fiction half is random writings

March 21, 2026 9:00 am

books and literature

The Murderbot Diaries: Rogue Protocol + Exit Strategy

I’m not crying: a piece of some murdering bot must have gotten in my eye. Rogue Protocol is the third novella in the Murderbot Diaries, and deals with the titular character going deep undercover to figure out what happened in the “mining incident” that was

March 20, 2026 9:00 am