Self-publishing in Varese and “Scienza & Fantascienza 2022”

After three years of absence due to the pandemic, at the beginning of October I finally returned to Varese to teach my “Self-publishing laboratory in multimedia systems” at the University of Insubria.

It was great to visit the campus again and be in the classroom with the students. In fact, even if teaching at a distance has obvious advantages for those like me who live so far from the place where they teach, first of all of an economic nature, being able to interact in person makes the experience much more rewarding, both for the teacher and for the students. Seeing understanding or doubt in their eyes makes you immediately understand if what you are communicating is being received correctly. Furthermore, the students themselves are more inclined to ask questions and interact, since each of their interventions is made easier by the use of a gesture or a facial expression that unfortunately is not visible remotely.

What made everything more pleasant was the good weather that welcomed me in Varese, which reduced the classic trauma of the transition from swimsuit to coat that each time characterises my autumn visits to this Lombard city.

This year, moreover, the laboratory has reached a real participation record, with 37 students eligible to receive credits/points, plus an auditor. The previous record of 24 in 2020 has been disintegrated to say the least. And this time the laboratory was not taught remotely, with the students who appeared as present while they were comfortably at home. I admit that on one occasion I feared that there was no room for everyone in the classroom! I was particularly pleased with this also because this record was accompanied by the commitment of the participants, demonstrated by the beautiful projects presented in the last lesson.

As always, it has ranged between different literary genres, from thriller to fantasy, from children’s book to cookbook, up to a culinary-tourist guide of Italy. In short, there was no lack of imagination, and the two imaginary book covers shown in this article are just a small example.
But in general, the students showed some interest in the subject. And it was a pity to have had to condense the arguments in just sixteen hours, a time that allows you to do just a rundown on the world of self-publishing without being able to dwell on some aspects that could have stimulated the discussion with the participants, in particular with those whose interest went beyond the mere achievement of eligibility to receive training credits or seminar points.

Also on this occasion, during my stay in Varese, I was given the opportunity by Professor Paolo Musso to talk about self-publishing for two hours during one of his lessons in the course of “Science and science fiction in media and literature”, which is also the only university teaching in Italy on science fiction. Instead, unfortunately I wasn’t able to participate in person in one of the conferences of “Scienza & Fantascienza” (Science & Science Fiction, which is linked to the course), since they started two weeks later. However, I played the role of remote speaker (the image below is a screenshot from Teams, through which I was connected directly from Mars… er… from Cagliari!).

 

In fact, on 25 October there was the inaugural meeting of 2022, in which space was given to the celebration of the tenth anniversary of this series of conferences and of the course, and I was able to give my contribution via Teams. Together with me, in person or remotely, eight other speakers participated: the aforementioned Paolo Musso, Giulio Facchetti (president of the degree course in Communication Sciences), Paolo Luca Bernardini (former director of DiSUIT), Nicoletta Sabadini (current director of DiSUIT), Rosanna Pozzi (professor of Italian literature at the Liceo Scientifico “Tosi” in Busto Arsizio), Gianfranco Lucchi (administrator of the science fiction website UraniaMania), Tea C. Blanc (journalist and science fiction blogger) and Antonio Serra (creator of “Nathan Never” for Sergio Bonelli Editore).

Each of us speakers contributed to celebrating this important anniversary in their own way.
Specifically, I explained the particular importance that the relationship between science and science fiction has for me precisely as the author of hard science fiction novels, that is, of that subgenre of science fiction in which importance is given to scientific plausibility of what is narrated. And in the four times that I have attended this series of conferences, I have treated this subject (scientific plausibility in science fiction) from different angles.
In 2014, I told how I had tried to imagine credible aliens. In 2018, I focused on how Mars and its colonisation are treated in science fiction and especially in my books. I did something similar in 2019 in reference to the Moon. While in 2020, the year in which all the conferences were held remotely, the topic was that of viruses and their positive and negative influence as an element of conflict within science fiction, and obviously in “Red Desert”, too.

In my books, adding real science in the story serves essentially two purposes.

The first is precisely that of the plausibility of the events narrated. This need stems from my scientific background. The scientist who is still in me claims to provide an explanation for everything around her. So, when I started writing science fiction (Red Desert and the following books), I spontaneously imagined a reality set in the near future that would find a possible confirmation in current scientific knowledge, while taking into account the possible technological evolution in 50 years.

To this is added my professional deformation as a teacher (I used to teach at university a long time ago, and now I do it precisely at Insubria) which pushes me towards an informative intent. I don’t use real science just to tell a plausible story, but also to leave something for the reader.
I love to read books that, in addition to providing fun, teach me something, and these are the books I want to write (it often applies to those in other genres). My intent is to be able to offer knowledge while entertaining, so that this knowledge remains even after reading. On the other hand, my stories are in turn inspired by my readings of novels, essays, and articles, typically scientific ones, as well as by the fruition of audiovisual contents that have in some way expanded my knowledge, as well as entertained me.

Then maybe, when I write, I go and double-check the sources (many of which are reported in a short bibliography) to try to be accurate or at least to avoid writing something that is clearly wrong. I’m not interested in going into overly technical details, but I prefer to give an informative cut, making sure to maintain some plausibility. When I insert scientific details, the purpose is to give a sense of authenticity to the story, but at the same time, I make sure that they are vague enough to avoid running the risk of misusing them within the fiction.
In fact, what I do is mix them with completely fictional ones. The mixture of the two means that often the reader is not able to recognise accurately the boundary between reality and fiction, that is, precisely, between science and science fiction.

These are some of the aspects I talked about in my short speech. However, the entire conference was recorded and will be made available soon. In due course I will inform you through my usual channels (Facebook page and other social media) and I will add the link or, if possible, the video to this article.

Finally, I want to thank Paolo Musso once again for the invitation and all the students, both those who attended the conference and, above all, those in my laboratory. I hope that what they have learned will somehow be useful to them in the future, and maybe that someone one day decides to venture into self-publishing for real!