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!

Viruses and self-publishing at . . . a distance

Also in this strange 2020 that has just ended I managed to teach a class titled “Self-publishing laboratory in multimedia systems” for the students of Communication Sciences and Communication Sciences and Techniques of the University of Insubria (Italy) and to participate as speaker at one of the conferences of the cycle “Scienza & Fantascienza” (Science & Science fiction) organised by the same university, only this time I did it at a distance, staying at home in front of my computer screen. It was a different way than usual of dealing with these two commitments, which had both its good and bad sides.

As for the laboratory (from which my Italian book “Self-publishing lab. Il mestiere dell’autoeditore” is based), the fact that I didn’t have to go to Varese allowed me to spread it in a longer time span. We had two lessons a week between 12 and 23 October: two on Mondays and two on Fridays. This also allowed the students to have more time to assimilate the concepts and prepare the publication simulation project.
Another non negligible advantage is the fact that having to participate from home has made participation in itself easier. In my case it meant avoiding travelling from Cagliari and the expenses related to my stay in Varese. In the case of students, it allowed more of them to participate, since they too, in their own small way, no longer going from home to university, from one site to another and from one classroom to another, ended up with more time available. And in fact this year I had 24 students who successfully completed the laboratory.

On the other hand, the disadvantage was the lack of live interaction, in person. Throughout the lesson, they and I were both in front of a screen. I was speaking and I could neither see nor hear them, except when they had a question to ask me or I would ask them something. Silence is the worst thing, but even looking at a screen with icons and names gives only the slightest idea of having someone on the other side who sees and hears you.
I missed to be able to see in their faces how they received what I was talking about and to realise if it was necessary to repeat some concepts. I missed hearing their exclamations, the real-time comments and also the laughs, both during my lectures and the exposition of the other students’ projects; all things that make lessons in person a stimulating and satisfying human experience.
Furthermore, while it is true that having to work from home is comfortable and has made me save money and time, I missed spending a week in Varese, the city, the friends I have made over the years (including a feline one), breathing the air of the university environment, even the campus canteen and the restaurant where you always ended up having dinner. These are all things that give me a great sense of satisfaction, but also of professional fulfilment, and which this year I had to do without.

Despite all this, I am very satisfied with how the laboratory went. Also this year the students showed participation and interest, as much I was able to appreciate that from a distance. And they proposed publication projects among the most varied. Once again spanning among many literary genres.
In the second and third photos of this article you can see two of them, an essay and a novel. These are screenshots (appropriately pixellated for privacy reasons) that I saved live during the lesson.
In the bottom right corner you can also see that I’m there, with my sci-fi background!

And then there was the conference, which was held in the afternoon of 14 October, as part of the series of conferences “Scienza & Fantascienza 2020 - Non solo virus. I nemici invisibili (Science & Science Fiction 2020 - Not just viruses. The invisible enemies)” and titled “Portatori di morte... ma anche no: i virus e la vita sulla Terra e oltre la Terra” (Bearers of death ... but also not: viruses and life on Earth and beyond the Earth”). The topic is that of both negative and positive role of viruses in real science and science fiction.
The speakers of the event, organised and moderated by Paolo Musso, were: Sebastiano Fusco (science fiction critic), Antonio Serra (Sergio Bonelli Editore, creator of “Nathan Never”), Silvia Corbetta (Sergio Bonelli Editore, designer of “Nathan Never”), Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli (biologist and science fiction writer), that is me, and Alberto Vianelli (biologist, University of Insubria).

The entire conference is available in the video below (the first photo of this article comes from that video, where you can also admire, for the occasion, my Martian background), which unfortunately is in Italian.
My speech (starts at 1:19:33), in particular, deals with the role of a virus in the plot of “Red Desert”. I can’t go into too much detail, as it contains heavy spoilers about the series. I can only tell you that I emphasised how the virus represents an element of conflict in the story. It does not generate a pandemic, but it is both a means of a possible alien invasion (it’s an alien virus) and an element that causes an evolution in infected people. The typically negative role it usually plays in fiction is much less clear here and is characterised by more positive shades.
I can’t say more. You will have to read the books of the series and, in the future, as soon as they are available in English, the remaining ones in the Aurora Saga.

The other interventions were also very interesting, but my favourite was that of Alberto Vianelli, who spoke about viruses from a scientific point of view and, even if we had not agreed in advance, his speech connected perfectly to mine.

But I want to say that, as far as this type of event is concerned, remote participation had some unexpected advantages. Even though we weren’t all sitting next to each other, I had the impression at times that we were really facing each other, perhaps around a table. I didn’t see the audience, except in the form of a list of hundreds of names, so it almost felt like we were having a long and interesting chat with friends, despite the distance between us.

In short, all in all it was a good feeling and an undoubtedly positive experience.
But I hope that in the future we can all go back to being in the same room again, to collect in real time the reactions of the audience, the looks, the smiles, the nodding heads and, let’s face it, even the applause.

The Moon and self-publishing in Varese

In 2019, during which the fiftieth anniversary of the first landing on the Moon was celebrated, I returned to Varese to teach, for the third time, my “Self-publishing laboratory in multimedia systems” for students in Communication Sciences and Communication Sciences and Techniques at the University of Insubria. And in conjunction with this course, I spoke at a conference, together with three other speakers, dedicated to the day of the landing of Armstrong and Aldrin on the Sea of Tranquillity, which took place on 20 July 1969.

Compared to previous years, first of all I managed to go to Varese in October, for the first time not just before the end of the semester, which also had a good impact on the students, who were able to attend the course in a much more relaxed way. In addition, I managed to combine everything (course and conference) within one week.

This full immersion was, as far as I’m concerned, very satisfying. I had less time to be a tourist (to be honest, I didn’t have any at all), but on the other hand I was able to create a productive routine, without interruptions, of five days in a row. Furthermore, I saw the same positive effect on the students, who at the end of the course presented, as always, some very interesting projects and who showed that they liked the topic of the lessons and the way it was taught.

In fact, I should say female students, since for the first time ever they were all women!

This surprised me a bit. In past years, men had been at least one third, although the female presence had always been predominant (as it is within the two graduation courses), but this time there wasn’t even one.

As I said, in five days I taught the four lessons and gave my lecture at the conference. The latter, entitled “The day of the Moon”, took place on Wednesday 16 October 2019, just in the middle of that week. Together with me were the journalist Fabio Pagan, Piero Benvenuti (former Italian Space Agency commissioner and former general secretary of the AIU) and, in connection from Paris, the astronaut Franco Malerba (the first Italian astronaut in space!).

The event, organised by Paolo Musso as part of a series of meetings titled Science and Science Fiction 2019, was welcomed by a very large student audience (over 300), partly gathered in one of the largest classrooms in the Monte Generoso pavilion at the Campus Bizzozero in Varese and partly connected in teleconference from Como. As usual, it was recorded and is now available at this link (in Italian).

In about three and a half hours, we had the opportunity to retrace the endeavour of Apollo 11, thanks to the words and images offered by the great Fabio Pagan, who managed to take us 50 years in the past and let us experience the emotions of that time.

Well, in my case, not really, since I wasn’t born yet! But it vividly reminded me of what I felt in the summer of 1989, for the twentieth anniversary, when as a teenager (I was 14 years old) I watched a television special on Rai Uno with the original videos of the landing. I remember that at the time I had felt transported to the Moon together with Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins. My imagination, which had already been made into fertile ground by watching various science fiction films, was stimulated, so much so that I think that from that moment on I changed the way I look at our natural satellite. Perhaps it was from there that my passion for space began to emerge, from a scientific point of view too, which then would have brought me closer to Mars and ultimately to imagine stories set in the future.

The Moon, in my mind, is the symbol of space that we can all see and which at the same time is unreachable for the common person. Not surprisingly, when we desire something impossible, it is said that we want the Moon. Yet we went to the Moon; 12 men walked on it. It is therefore the unreachable that becomes reachable, the impossible that becomes possible.

The other significant part of the conference was the very interesting speech by Franco Malerba who spoke to the audience about what awaits us in the future of space exploration, while Piero Benvenuti and I were asked to have our say on both topics.

In the photos, from above, you can see: Piero Benvenuti and me, Fabio Pagan, me again during my speech and Franco Malerba in connection from Paris. All the photos of the event are available at this link (thanks to Luigi Labate for the photographic support!).

As far as I’m concerned, I wanted to combine the scientific topic with the science fiction one, talking about three relatively recent science fiction novels that have precisely the Moon as one of the main settings.

I started with “Limit” by Frank Schätzing, originally published more than ten years ago, which shows a slightly too optimistic technological advance, being set in this new decade, which however manages to make the reader dream, literally by bringing him to the lunar soil, in hostile, lethal and for this reason mysterious and fascinating places (you can read my review of “Limit” here).

If you think about it for a moment, unlike what happens with Mars, which visually reminds us of Earth (it seems you are looking at photos of an Earth desert), in front of the images from the Moon there is no doubt in our mind that there we are looking at an alien context, in the meaning of non-terrestrial. Think about it: its white/grey ground, the always black sky, whose contrast with the blinding white prevents you from seeing the stars, Earth that seems close but very distant (almost 400 thousand kilometres!), the clear shadows, the days that last 14 Earth days and so the nights, the huge temperature fluctuations, the craters at its poles with the edges so high that they are almost always illuminated by the Sun, while their bottom has not been reached by any light for 4 billion years.

Can you imagine a more terrifying place to be alone?

The second book I mentioned is, of course, “Artemis” by Andy Weir (here you can read my review), published in 2017, which found itself more or less casually (we will never know) to share its name with NASA’s new lunar program.

This novel is also essentially a thriller, but in a very accurate sci-fi context, that of a city on the Moon: a huge pressurised housing structure in which a lot of people live, not all with the best of intentions. Although the vicissitudes of the protagonist are all in all very terrestrial (in terms of motivations), they are however narrated in a much more rigid and dangerous environment than Earth, where a person’s mistake can really kill everybody.

Finally I talked about “Red Moon” by Kim Stanley Robinson (here is my review), published in 2018, which narrates about a Moon divided between Chinese and Americans, focusing however on a Chinese point of view. The socio-political aspect here is more important, but there is also some breathtaking landscape, such as the view of Earth rising in the libration areas (those areas of the Moon that are turned towards our planet only for short periods during the lunar month). Well, imagine being there and seeing Earth popping up from the horizon, very slowly.

It seems incredible, but one day someone will be able to admire that view!

An interesting thing about Robinson’s book is that it narrates about a future in which humans have created bases on the ever-lit edges of the craters at the poles of the Moon (Peaks of Eternal Light), just as NASA plans to do. Except that for the author it will be China the country to grab the South Pole, more suitable for this purpose, which instead is the actual goal of the Americans.

Who knows how it will end in reality?

If you remember, I myself in “Red Desert” imagined a NASA outpost in Shackleton Crater (South Pole), calling it Armstrong Lunar Base. Furthermore, although I have never written (at least so far) a book entirely set on the Moon, I let myself be taken by the old fascination for our satellite and I put some lunar adventures in two other books. One is “Ophir. Codice vivente” (Ophir. Living code; only available in Italian so far). The other is “Nave stellare Aurora” (Starship Aurora), which I am currently writing, and the second part of it, which I had finished writing a few days before leaving for Varese, takes place exactly on the Moon.

I must say that in a sense I still felt there.

And this is the effect that I think ordinary people feel when talking about space travel. We feel a bit part of it. We are fascinated by the mystery, by the ability to reach something so far thanks to science. Even if what we want to achieve is far in space, but also in time (due to travel times), observing what space research has done so far makes us believe that any obstacle that exists between us, as humanity, and that space objective may sooner or later be overtaken.

In this regard, I urged the attending students of Communication Sciences (most from the first year) to understand the importance of being able to communicate space sciences effectively. Those of them who will work in this field of communication will have a fundamental role in inspiring people and in ensuring that a common desire, involving people at all levels, develops and spreads, to carry out this kind of research, even if a part of its outcomes will be enjoyed only by future generations.

I think that everything related to space sciences can only inspire us to do more and more for the development and well-being of humanity. On the other hand, if we were able to send two probes to the border of the Solar System and beyond (the two Voyager probes), who can stop us?

Going back to the course, I must say that I am very happy with the participation shown by the students. They attended it with interest, asked pertinent questions and then proposed extremely interesting projects, from a graphic novel to a historical fantasy (the cover of which can be seen in the last image), from stories taken from reality to a thriller about Lady D (really!), going through a romance novel: a collection of publishing proposals for all tastes and with a considerable dose of originality.

As I have already mentioned to them, I am working on a book that follows and expands the topics of the course. It will be titled “Self-publishing lab. Il mestiere dell’autoeditore” (only available in Italian, as it’s referred to the Italian market). It is a huge volume of over 129 thousand words, in which I try to explain self-publishing to those interested in this publishing model, whether they want to try it in person or not. I think it will be useful both for those who do not know where to start and for those who need to reorganise and expand their knowledge so that they can try to put it into practice. It is also my first experience with a non-fiction work and I admit that I really enjoyed writing it.

The book is currently under revision and will be published by the first half of 2020.

Mars and self-publishing in Varese

I returned to Varese after two years and this time I stayed there for eight days, in which I immersed myself in university life and in this beautiful Lombard city a few steps away from Switzerland. I must say that the weather has favoured me. Living in Cagliari (Sardinia), I was worried about having to fight bad weather and cold. Instead, I enjoyed mostly beautiful sunny days, which served as the setting for the conference titled “Mars: when will we go there and what will we find? ” on 5 December 2018  in the main hall of the University of Insubria and the “Self-publishing workshop in multimedia systems” between 6-11 December and addressed to the students of the same university enrolled in the courses in Communication Sciences and Communication Sciences and Techniques.

The conference on Mars was a very special event for me. I found myself sharing the table with two scientists like Roberto Orosei and Enrico Flamini of whom I had only heard so far in the news spread by ASI, INAF and the media on the web. Although it was the first time that we met in person and we had only had the opportunity to exchange information on our individual parts of the speech by e-mail, we managed to put together a smooth speech in which the individual topics treated by each of us were perfectly interlocked with each other, with different precise references that almost made think of a particular preparation, which in reality there was not!

It is really exciting to be talking to a large and interested audience about a subject that you care about with people who have the same interest and with whom you share the same scientific and science fiction references.

In my part of the conference, in addition to introducing some general notions about Mars, I have highlighted how who works in space exploration and who writes hard science fiction on the same themes are all part of the same virtuous circle. The work of scientists like Orosei and Flamini inspires authors like me to write stories that describe a plausible science and technology. In turn, stories like mine intrigue readers towards the work of those same scientists. And the interest of the public is the first engine that allows those who make science to have the necessary funding to carry out their research.

As a former scientist (I worked in university research in the past) I cannot but be happy to provide, in my small way, a contribution with my stories towards a greater public awareness of the importance of space exploration, especially in a country like Italy, which is a true world power in this area, yet this excellence is not known to most of the local population.

By putting together my fascination for the Red Planet, and in general for space, my skills in the biological field, as well as my teaching soul, I found myself writing a kind of science fiction in which I describe a realistic science, even though with some licences, by making sure that my books offer both entertainment and dissemination of science knowledge.

In particular, my intent is to show stories through the characters, through their thoughts and their senses, so that the reader can identify with them and experience on their skin what it means to live on Mars and explore it. Through Anna Persson and the other protagonists of “Red Desert” and the Aurora Saga, the reader meets the signs of the ancient passage of water, dust storms and devils, marsquakes, impact glass in a crater, blue aurora, huge barchan dunes and even the underground water of Mars, the same water whose existence was proved for the first time by the team of scientists headed by Roberto Orosei and including Enrico Flamini.

Finally, after sharing with the public my sources of inspiration (Robert Zubrin’s books “First Landing” and “The Case for Mars”) and some information on other contemporary hard science fiction authors who dealt with Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson with his Mars Trilogy and Andy Weir with “The Martian”), I left the floor to the above-mentioned speakers.

Enrico Flamini offered an overview on the past and current exploration of Mars, while Roberto Orosei reported the details of the discovery made in July 2018 with the MARSIS instrument which is on board ESA’s Mars Express orbiter: a subglacial lake of liquid water near the South Martian pole.

It seems that what I and many other science fiction writers believed to be a plausible assumption, namely that there was water trapped under the surface of Mars, is now confirmed.

In the last part of the conference a possible timeline of the future exploration was traced, up to imagine the arrival of the first humans on the Red Planet. In this regard, I found it amusing that Roberto Orosei showed precisely the imaginative timeline described in the film “The Martian”, the one based on the book that I spoke about in my own speech.

I swear we did not even discuss this detail!

Finally the round of questions arrived and perhaps the most interesting of all was the last one proposed by Paolo Musso, organiser and moderator of the event, who asked each of us if we were optimistic about the human landing on Mars in a very close future. And even here, without any particular agreement, we went from a certain pessimism of Orosei to a moderate optimism of Flamini to my full optimism, supported by the fact that the awareness and enthusiasm of the public towards space exploration is increasing more and more, thanks to the ease with which nowadays each of us has complete access to all information. I believe that the more we commit ourselves to make the common man understand the importance of this field of science and the more they will be involved in its development, even more the will in aiming on it will develop, also from an economic point of view. If this happens, and we are on our way, we will get to Mars very soon.

Starting on December 6, instead, I taught my self-publishing class for the second time. The characteristics of the course have not changed (I mentioned about it in 2016), but I think this time, compared to the previous one, there was even greater interest from the students, who proved to be very active during the lectures and asked me many questions, sometimes even anticipating topics that I would have dealt with a bit later.

It was nice to be able to teach these students what being a self-publisher really means, i.e. becoming part in a professional way of the publishing market as a real publisher who differs from the traditional ones only because the former is also the author of the books they publish.

Then there was the day of the presentation of the projects by the students, and it was really fun. It ranged from a strategy book for “Risk” to a fantasy novel, from an essay on the machines of Agostino Ramelli to a paranormal romance trilogy and so on, without interruption. The students got to the bottom of their fantasy, accompanying the presentations with images, editorial and promotional plans and in one case even a sort of soundtrack.

In the end we all wondered: but when will the book be published?

What a shame that it was only a simulation, but luckily some of those projects are real and maybe in the near future we will hear about their authors.

I’d like to conclude this brief report, which just manages to scratch the surface of everything that was done and said during those eight days, by thanking once again all the people who made possible both the conference and the course, but also in general my pleasant stay in Varese, in particular Paolo Musso and Alberto Vianelli, Roberto Orosei and Enrico Flamini, and obviously all the students of the self-publishing course and those of Professor Musso’s course with whom I had the pleasure to talk.

A space weekend in Turin

In October 2018 I had the opportunity to participate in the second edition of the event titled “Signs and Voices of Other Worlds” organised in the headquarters of ALTEC in Turin. It was a fantastic experience during which I was busy for two days in what is defined The Italian Gateway to the International Space Station, as stated in the huge inscription at the entrance, and allowed me to meet many interesting people, as well as talk about my work.

The event itself, the one open to the public, lasted only one day, 14 October, but we (my partner and I), as exhibitors, also went to the headquarters of ALTEC the day before to prepare our booth. It was the first time I attended an event like this. It was nice to arrange all my science-fiction books (eight titles in several copies) on a table, along with other promotional stuff, but also to view in advance the scale model exhibition, which included really extraordinary works of art.

In addition to this, we had the pleasure of making a short private visit to the factory together with Paolo Navone, who led us to see, among other things, the control room, the replica of a module that is part of the ISS and the pool used for astronaut training, and who guided us, explaining the role of ALTEC in the construction of the space station and other international space missions. Among these is that of the ESA IVX mini shuttle, to which Paolo himself participated.

The day ended in a beautiful dinner together with some people who had organised the event (belonging to CRAL ALTEC and Centro Modellistico Torinese ) and others who would participate. In addition to enjoying the company of Marco Ambrosio (who, together with Paolo, invited me to participate in the event) and his wife, we met some of the modellers, among whom I cannot avoid to mention Sandro Degiani, who led the conversation among the people seated next to him (myself included), and Professor Giancarlo Genta, here in the role of author of science fiction novels. The legendary Giovanni Mongini, called Vanni, Italian author and great expert in science fiction, joined the group, who I had met a few hours earlier at the factory and whom I would find myself in the booth across mine the next day.

And then came the day of the event. The first two hours were the easiest part. I had the opportunity to present my “Red Desert” series in the auditorium as part of the speech called “Female Mars”, moderated by Maurizio Maschio. Along with me there was Giulia Bassani, who presented her novel “Ad Martem 12” (and was also my neighbour at the exhibition).

Both were asked how we came into contact with science fiction and what prompted us to start writing it. I said how I grew up among ET, Back to the Future, Star Wars (hence my nickname Anakina), the Visitors and many other films and TV series that have brought me closer to the genre and how it stimulated my imagination. I had many stories in my mind and at a certain point I realised that the only way to make them real was to write them down.

Immediately after the presentation, I returned to my booth, where I welcomed some of the people who had listened to me in the auditorium and wanted to buy one of my books.

As I said earlier, however, the difficult part would come later. Starting from 11.30 a.m. new visitors entered (they were divided into groups of up to 200 people for two hours each, to avoid overcrowding) who did not know who I was. It was up to me to draw their attention.

I think the phrase I used most often was: “Would you like to take a postcard?”

I had with me a lot of promotional postcards of “Red Desert” to offer visitors and I used them to induce people to stop at my booth, so that I could explain them something about my books. Keep in mind that I gave away 54 postcards and for most of them I stopped a person so that I could tell them the beginning of the story of Anna Persson and the structure of the Aurora Saga. I repeated it so many times that my other neighbour, Roberto Azzara, learned it by heart!

I must say that my effort was repaid and I managed to sell more than half the books I had with me. And so I also avoided having to send them back to Sardinia by post.

Throughout the day (the event lasted from 9.30 a.m. to 8 p.m.) I had the opportunity to talk with a lot of people and among these I found myself in front of an unsuspecting reader, who, only after seeing the covers, recognised my books and realised he had in front of him the author of the e-books on his mobile phone. It’s the first time that I happen to come across one of my readers by chance and it was really nice to meet him.

That’s not all. A colleague of mine from Turin also came to meet me: Luca Rossi, independent author of science fiction and fantasy, who is my friend on Facebook since 2012 and who I finally managed to meet in person. I was also delighted to meet Dario Tonani (also a science fiction writer and long time friend on Facebook) and his wife Giusy again, whom I had already met at Sassari Comics & Games 2015.

In all that chitchat and after taking some photos with my booth’s neighbours (Giulia, Roberto and Vanni, which I mentioned before, and Luigi Petruzzelli of Edizioni della Vigna) the hours flew, interspersed with some short breaks to admire and photograph the scale models exposed, and go to observe the Sun and then the Moon at the telescope, thanks to the observation posts set up by Celestia Taurinorum.

In the end, tired but happy, we left. The next day, waiting to take the flight that would take us back to Cagliari, at the Caselle Airport we came across the actual ESA mini shuttle XVI, exposed in the check-in area. A souvenir photo with the spacecraft was the worthy closure of this beautiful weekend.

I take this opportunity to thank once again Marco Ambrosio and Paolo Navone, who invited me to participate in this event. Thank you so much!

Photos (from above): during my speech together with Maurizio Maschio, my booth, entrance of ALTEC, view from inside the replica of a module of the ISS, with Luca Rossi, on Mars (more or less) with Giulia Bassani.

You can see more photos, including those of many scale models on display, on my Facebook page at this link.

DNA and fingerprints don’t lie

One of the phrases that you hear most often in TV series that deal with forensic science is that evidence, unlike people, doesn’t lie. A variation of this statement is that the dead (their bodies), unlike the living, don’t lie. The gist of it is always the same: physical evidence includes the answer to find the author of a crime (Mac Taylor from “CSI: NY” seems to have so many of them available in the photo), you just have to find them and interpret them correctly.

In reality, however, most of the physical evidence that is found at the scene of a crime doesn’t allow to uniquely identify a person, is subject to the problem of contamination, and therefore can at most serve as supporting evidence to prosecution, but isn’t sufficient to send someone to jail.

The identification of a person (who is guilty or otherwise involved in a crime) can be successfully accomplished, in the absence of witnesses (which, however, can lie!), only if it involves some items found on the scene that belong exclusively to that person, actually, that are part of that person.

These are the biometric identifiers. There are two categories of them. The first includes physiological characteristics, such as fingerprints, DNA, facial, iris, or retina recognition. The second relates to behavioural characteristics, such as gait, voice, or handwriting.

These identifiers are typical of a specific person, but some of them are even unique and stable throughout life, and may be left at the scene of a crime.

I’m obviously talking about fingerprints and DNA.

In reality, finding this type of physical evidence that can be used to identify the culprit is quite difficult. Fingerprints, in particular, are everywhere at a crime scene and are often so incomplete and numerous that they cannot be used, unless they are found on the murder weapon. DNA is even rarer to spot. For both of them you must still do a comparison to determine their origin (for example, taking a sample of cells from the mouth of a suspect, like Greg Sanders from “CSI” is doing in the photo, next to a character played by Justin Bieber), but there are also databases (however, a still limited number of countries has a DNA database), therefore from a fingerprint or a blood trace found on the scene of a crime you can, at least in theory, trace back to a person, although this person has not yet been connected to the case.

This is a rare case where fiction resembles reality.

Even in fiction it’s unlikely that the culprit leaves behind fingerprints and DNA that can be used, but the reason is that, if they did, the case would be solved too quickly and there would be no story to tell!

This doesn’t mean that this kind of evidence doesn’t appear in TV series, films, and books. Far from it.

In fiction, fingerprints and DNA are almost always found during the investigation, but they belong to someone who is not directly guilty, which, possibly, tends to send off-road criminologists and investigators and to distract the reader/viewer.

But once again fiction highlights the absolute value of this type of evidence (well, it does so even with fibres and paint!), without considering some issues that affect them.

For example, while watching a typical episode of “CSI” you will have the impression that if you enter a fingerprint found on the scene in the computer you just need a short time to get a single finding: the one of the fingerprint’s owner.

It isn’t so at all. Apart from the fact that the time isn’t short at all but depends on the size of the database, you should also consider that the computer could deliver much more than one probable finding and none of them will be a 100% match. This is the moment when the expert intervenes and makes a visual comparison between the footprint available and the one in the database, to determine if they actually match and perhaps exclude some results, if not all. It’s a human being the one who makes this decision and, as such, may make mistakes.

Yet both in fiction and in reality (in this regard I will present some outrageous mistakes in the next article of this series) the fingerprint is considered an overwhelming proof, since there aren’t two people in the world with the same, identical fingerprints.

DNA is even more overwhelming. Here too it depends on its uniqueness (except for monozygotic twins), but not everyone knows that the DNA analysis doesn’t give an absolute result. In this case, the human factor isn’t involved, because the analysis speaks for itself, but its results are statistical in nature, since obviously you don’t analyse the whole available gene pool, but only a certain number of loci. It is likewise true that the probability that samples of two different people (not twins) returns the same profile is as low as to be considered zero.

So yes, DNA is a proof that doesn’t leave room for doubt, whether it is reality or fiction, except that in the latter its detection and its analysis is simplified, and they often take place in a ridiculously short time.

At the end, the criminologist is all smiles with a sheet (or a tablet) in his hands and goes to his boss to show them the result, after making the analysis and the comparison to the database within a half-hour. But then you have to hurry, because the case should be closed within the day and this proof will be only one of the many which will make the characters come closer to the solution, though without being the solution itself.

Even in the Detective Eric Shaw Trilogy, I used fingerprints and DNA. In “The Mentor” I talk about a case of tampering of fingerprints, which the protagonist uses to push a suspect to confess. In “Syndrome”, however, the fingerprints on a murder weapon will be an important element in the identification of the culprit. I cannot go into details, you must read the book to learn more (it isn’t available yet in English, sorry!), but I can say that I explained how the fingerprints were collected and that there are different ways to do that according to when they were created.

The first, which is also the most common one in fiction, is when you brush a dark powder on a surface to reveal any latent fingerprints (like in the photo above with Eric Delko from “CSI: Miami”).

In reality (and also in my books) this powder is called silver-grey and is actually used for this purpose to highlight the papillary lines, those that have been imprinted on smooth surfaces mostly due to the presence of sebaceous material on the fingertips (in “Syndrome” I took yet another small licence, indicating a surface on which it is generally not easy to detect fingerprints, but I was deliberately vague, suggesting that it was really smooth or assuming that criminologists, as usual, were lucky). This method is used only if the prints are relatively recent, but, if they date back to more than two or three days, they may have dried up, so it is necessary to use a chemical called ninhydrin, which reacts with the amino acids present in the sweat, generating a visible colouring.

Also, DNA makes its appearance in my series (on blood stains in “Syndrome”) and again, in the best tradition of fiction, it is used mostly for reshuffling the cards and complicating the job of the protagonists.

But, if nothing else, I can say I gave a touch of realism by showing that they had to wait at least a few days before getting the result of its analysis.

Eaters of the Dead - Michael Crichton

***** Another trick of the master

Sometimes Crichton had fun by writing his books in a way that they seemed true stories of which he was doing a pure narrative. The attention he puts in fake introductions or prefaces is such that, at a first reading, you don’t realise that they are the beginning of the novel.
This is what happens in “Eaters of the Dead”, in which the author pretends he is translating the manuscript of the protagonist, Ibn Fadlan. His attempt is a complete success. The text seems really written by this historical figure, which probably never existed, both thanks to its style and the missing parts, which are explained as if indeed the book was the result of putting together real pieces of a manuscript. It is actually a work of fiction partly inspired by the story of Beowulf and partly by actual documents.
Despite the deliberately dated style, the plot is compelling and opens a gap of knowledge on the civilisation of the Normans, seen from a more civilised Arabian from Baghdad. After the time necessary to adapt to this kind of narrative, I could see the scenes forming before my eyes, such was the interest aroused in me.
The author also manages to insert something scientific within the story, which makes it even more fascinating: the encounter with a hominid (maybe) still existing at that time.
The truncated final is genial and adds further credibility to Crichton’s deception; with this novel he shows once again, if proof were needed, that he is a great storyteller.
The only downside to this book is that, having read it, it has further reduced the number of works that I still have to read by this author, who left us too soon.

Eaters of the Dead on Amazon.

The fibre that nailed the murderer

There is nothing like that. I am referring to the title of this article. Despite what happens in fiction, where often the resolution of a case depends on the discovery of a fibre, typically a single and isolated one, found at the scene and on the victim (it often happens to Sara Sidle from “CSI”; see photo), in reality such a fibre would serve to demonstrate just nothing at all.

It’s clear that certain materials release tiny fibres, which, if desired, can be compared, for example, with the clothes of a suspect or with some other textile object that belongs to the latter.

Let’s completely leave out the usual imaginary databases, like the one, in one of the latest episodes of “Bones” I recently watched, that linked a synthetic fibre to the mat of a luxurious car, which, as usual, was a limited series, allowing for confirmation of the suspect. However, even assuming that the database exists (I don’t believe so), I have strong doubts that a particular fibre is only used for the mat of a car model (we know they do them all in China, often in the same factory from which those for the cheapest small cars come).

Instead, let’s get back to the case where there’s already a suspect, and you can make a comparison. But even if this comparison is positive, what would it demonstrate? Nothing.

Identical fibres are found in very different materials, moreover our fibre could be there because of an innocent contamination preceding the murder or because it was transferred to the victim after a previous contact with someone totally unconnected with the facts.

For this reason, fibres are only supporting evidence that therefore doesn’t add certainty.

This applies also for hair. In this case, a comparison may be more useful, as it helps to narrow the field. If a long blond hair is wrapped on the murder weapon, for instance, and the suspect has long blond hair of the same colour and similar characteristics (such as size or the fact that the colour is or isn’t natural), there is a certain probability that it belongs to that person, but probability is not certainty and this makes it just supporting evidence.

The real breakthrough would be achieved if the hair in question still had the hair bulb, from where you can collect and then analyse DNA. If there weren’t a good reason, independent of the murder, able to explain the presence of the hair on the weapon, the suspect would be in big trouble.

Another kind of evidence that can be found at the scene is a shoe print, maybe a bloody one. If it’s different from that of the victim, almost certainly that shoe print belongs to the killer or other person who was with him at the time of the murder.

The shoe print can allow criminologists to trace back to the shoe size and, if it shows a particular design, even the brand (especially if that famous database of shoe soles existed!). Once again, it can be very useful for a comparison. The problem remains that, if it isn’t from unique handmade shoes (quite rare nowadays), this type of evidence does not give certainty, unless you find a specific correspondence concerning the wear of the sole, due to the unique way that each of us has to walk and wear out some of its areas. In this case, the time factor becomes crucial, because the wear and tear continue, if the murderer keeps on wearing those shoes. You have to make the comparison within days, at most a few weeks, otherwise you won’t find any matches.

Like shoe prints, there are other types of characteristic signs. Let’s consider a screwdriver used to force a window. It certainly leaves a mark on the frame, which corresponds to its shape. If the screwdriver isn’t new, it’s become worn, then the mark it leaves behind is unique. As for the shoes, and for the same reason, the comparison, however, must be done in the shortest time possible.

What if the screwdriver was the murder weapon?

Certainly it left a mark on the body of the victim, maybe not as distinguishable as on the frame, unless it has affected a bone. Finding a similar weapon at the suspect’s house and detecting traces of blood on it (which, as we all know, is very difficult to remove, so much to stay there even if you don’t see it with your naked eye) could be an overwhelming proof. Even more if there are his fingerprints on it and he doesn’t have an alibi for the time of the crime. Unless someone has decided to frame him, using his screwdriver, which happens more often in fiction than in reality.

To discover the murder weapon, we have often seen criminologists in the TV series get to pierce gelatine men or carcasses of animals with objects found in the house of the suspect. Usually, this wasteful practice leads nowhere, except the rare case that the suspect was framed.

The real culprit, of course, gets rid of the crime weapon!

Even more expensive is the practice of raging on surrogates with random objects that the protagonists of CSI simply place on a table and try one by one. The aim is at least to understand which weapon they must look for. The possibility of catching the right one among an almost infinite number of objects that tear the meat in a similar manner is close to zero. Well, in this case, instead, immediately a strange tool comes up (what luck!) that perfectly corresponds to the shape of the wound. Usually, when it happens, it provides valuable information, since a suspect uses something like this for work or hobbies.

And then there are the famous traumas from a blunt object.

The victim was hit in the head by an object that might be a hammer, a mace, a lamp, a trophy or something. The impact caused a peri-mortem trauma (sometimes not immediately visible, but it appears in the form of haematoma after the body is kept in the freezer for a few hours) and maybe left an evident mark on the skull bones.

And so the criminologists, with great fun, put on their overalls and goggles (that outfit that they do not use at the crime scene; see photo from “CSI: NY”) and begin to hit the poor dummies, until they find the right object.

The mechanism is identical to the case of the screwdriver: if the weapon is found at the suspect’s home, someone has framed him; if it isn’t found, however, they will be able to locate it by taking chances among thousands of possibilities, shamelessly wasting puppets, gelatine and pig carcasses, and from there they’ll unveil the unthinkable culprit that uses the same type of tool to make some innocent do-it-yourself. Then, by analysing his toolbox, they will find a bar with the same profile, which will be bloody or recently cleaned with bleach (unlike other tools that are filthy).

I could go on like this forever telling you about all these proofs that are the daily bread of criminologists in fiction and whose discovery is, consequently, the basis of the plots of crime stories focused on forensic science.

As an author, I use several of them as well, especially since I know that’s what the reader would expect. And then, let’s face it, it’s fun to use them! But I prefer to highlight how their usefulness is limited, often exploiting them as elements that support the investigation process made of intuition and imagination, or that exclude certain scenarios. This is because this evidence is often most useful to exclude than to confirm.

For instance, in “Syndrome”, an interesting element when analysing the scene of two murders is the total absence of shoe prints in a nearly immaculate flat, where a dirty corpse lies whose soles have some soil. This finding brings Detective Shaw and his team to conclude that the murderer has deleted these prints or, even better, that the victim has never walked on that floor, where he was just dumped, therefore that isn’t the primary scene of the crime.

In “The Mentor”, instead, I exploit the case of a haematoma that appears later (because it isn’t visible on the corpse immediately after death) and reveals that the victim was pushed with a shoe whose pointed profile reminds the footwear of a woman. This leads investigators to speculate that a woman is the killer (or the killer’s accomplice) and pushes Detective Leroux to question an eyewitness, who maybe saw someone leaving the crime scene.

The beauty of it is that I didn’t learn much of this by reading treatises on forensic science, but reading the novels by Patricia Cornwell, watching “CSI”, “Bones”, “NCIS”, “Body of Proof” and many others. All of which, taking a cue from science to create stories, in addition to entertain people (as they are entertainment tools), somehow enrich the latter, leaving them with a little more knowledge and, at the same time, with a certain curiosity to learn more.