"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."

Where am I?

Well, I’ve been silent, I know.
I’m in a good enough place to know that, just because no one asked, it doesn’t mean no one noticed. I know you did. ’cause you did, didn’t you?

It would be easy enough to say I’ve been busy with work, but that would be just a part of the story. Truth is, I’ve been really tired and I had to focus all my functionalities on two areas: working and writing. Working I can’t talk about: I have a huge NDA pending on my head, but I’ve been neglecting my Wednesday posts basically out of discouragement towards the Italian community. I think it’s time to go back to producing content in English and engage a wider audience. That’s all I’m going to say on the subject.

As a bonus, I’m coming down with the plague. It didn’t hit me too badly but still is like having your brain steamed, then boiled, then mashed with a fork, and then dripping down through your nostrils. No significant fever so far, no significant cough. Still, I feel miserable.

Like this.

When it comes to writing, I’ve been working on a novel and it’s being super refreshing.
I’m currently in the “holy shit it’s too lengthy” phase of the process, but that’s just normal: I usually throw down a draft, then expand it, and then polish it.
It’s a Gothic Novel set in 1701, on a Dutch ship bound for Japan, and it features blood-drinking witches, shapeshifters, ghosts and human monsters.
I’m currently working on the third draft and I’m starting to involve proofreaders/consultants in the process.

The fact that I’m writing fiction is no news: since I was a child, I’ve always had characters and situations rising to life in my head and I’ve always written them down, but I was taught never to be too serious about it and, after a first shy attempt at a young age, I never tried publishing anything. This time I decided things were going to be different, so I’ll start on the querying process soon, or at least as soon as I manage to find an agent and an editor I like.

There’s a ton of research in the background of this novel, and I’ve decided I’d like to publish some parts of it alongside some extracts from the novel, hoping you’ll enjoy that.
However, I’ve decided to do something I never tried before: I’m on Patreon.

The page has been ready for months, but I’ve been working on the courage to launch it. Depression comes, for me, with a good dose of recklessness, so I think this is the right way.

For Pride Month, I’ll publish a string of notes and they will be free to read. After that, if you feel like offering me a coffee I’ll see what I can do to entertain you.
This blog has never been good at creating a community, after Splinder’s demise: should we see what we can do over there?

Spooktober

Spooktober 25 – The Phantom Farm House (2)

Continues from yesterday… ATORRENT of rain held us marooned the next day. Miss Leahy was confined to her room, with a nurse in constant attendance and the house doctor making hourly calls. She was on the verge of a nervous collapse, he told me, crying

Read More »
books and literature

Alix Harrow’s The Once and Future Witches

I wouldn’t have started this book on my own, and for many reasons. One of them is that in Italy it’s marketed as Young Adult Fiction, and I hate most of that stuff, and the other is its imposing length: 600 pages. I was distracted,

Read More »
Spooktober

Spooktober 24 – The Phantom Farm House (1)

“The Phantom Farmhouse” is a short story written by Seabury Quinn, first published in the October 1923 issue of Weird Tales. It is one of Quinn’s most famous standalone works outside of his popular Jules de Grandin detective series. I had been at the new

Read More »
Share on LinkedIn
Throw on Reddit
Roll on Tumblr
Mail it
No Comments

Post A Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

RELATED POSTS

Spooktober 25 – The Phantom Farm House (2)

Continues from yesterday… ATORRENT of rain held us marooned the next day. Miss Leahy was confined to her room, with a nurse in constant attendance and the house doctor making hourly calls. She was on the verge of a nervous collapse, he told me, crying

Read More

Alix Harrow’s The Once and Future Witches

I wouldn’t have started this book on my own, and for many reasons. One of them is that in Italy it’s marketed as Young Adult Fiction, and I hate most of that stuff, and the other is its imposing length: 600 pages. I was distracted,

Read More

Spooktober 24 – The Phantom Farm House (1)

“The Phantom Farmhouse” is a short story written by Seabury Quinn, first published in the October 1923 issue of Weird Tales. It is one of Quinn’s most famous standalone works outside of his popular Jules de Grandin detective series. I had been at the new

Read More