The Art of Adaptation - Linda Seger

***** How to (not) adapt a book

Excellent book that explains how to adapt a novel, a play, or a true story into a film screenplay.

Although it was published in 1992, the information about adaptation itself is always current. Certainly less so are some references that do not take into account the emergence of streaming service production studios.

The only flaw, which obviously applies to me as an Italian reader, is that it refers exclusively to how films are made in the American market, although the author often highlights how certain adaptation choices are more common for European markets, but at the same time advises against them, since the target of her book is, precisely, the American screenwriter.

Nevertheless, the book is very interesting, because it offers a glimpse into the way films are produced in Hollywood, which also allows us to better understand the motivations behind the choices made when adapting American films, including those we don't like at all.

Adapting existing works is an extremely common phenomenon these days, certainly more so than it was when this book was written, so much so that it is now difficult to find a film in the theatres that is not in some way a derivative work. Yet I was surprised to read, at the end of the book, the list of films that won Oscars from 1930 to 1990 and to discover that over 90% were in fact adaptations of other works.

Purchase Art of Adaptation at Amazon.

Books To Film & TV: What Every Author Needs To Know - Maggie Marr

Interesting guide on what it takes to get your book to cinema and TV. I appreciate the author’s frankness while giving a general overview about this matter.

If you’re looking for an answer to the question “How I get my book to film and TV?”, you won’t get it because there’s no simple answer. But at the end of your read, you’ll have a better understanding on how it works in the USA.

It’s quite a short read as the second half of the book includes a few appendixes with examples of agreements, but they may be helpful to get to know what to expect if you are ever offered one.

Purchase Books To Film & TV at Amazon.

New year, new resolutions (?): 2024

The end of the year has arrived again and with it the time to take stock and define some goals for the one that is about to begin.

But is it really necessary?

I recently reorganised a good part of the contents of my Italian blog and I realised that there were as many as twelve posts dedicated to New Year’s resolutions, meaning that this is the thirteenth year that I have decided to end by writing such an article. And I wondered if it still makes sense to do it.

Of course, it’s more of an exercise to refresh my thoughts on the things I did in the last twelve months, but it was originally thought as a way to encourage myself to continue my projects related to writing and then publishing.

Although I completed pre-existing publishing projects this year (I’ll tell you about them shortly), I didn’t start any new ones since at least the end of 2020, when I finished writing and published my last book in Italian.

 

As I already mentioned to you a year ago, in fact, at the moment what I want most in the publishing field is to finish everything I started, in order to draw a line on my work, before finally understanding which direction to take my efforts in. In short, I absolutely need to complete past years’ resolutions once and for all before I can define new ones.

To this end in early 2023 I compiled a long list that included them all, plus many other things I had been considering for some time, but had never listed in one place, and from then on I started to address each point, possibly in order, and then cross it out once completed. The list contains something like fifty items, some of which have numerous sub-items. So far I have crossed out eighteen, while six are in progress (some very close to completion).

In short, the road is still long, but I don’t consider it a problem as long as I continue to move forward.

 

Looking at the list now, it might seem like I didn’t do much. In reality, some of the items include commitments that are anything but quick, starting from the resolutions I had set for myself at the end of 2022.

Do you remember them? There were three in total.

The first, and most substantial one, was to complete the preparation and publication of the Detective Eric Shaw Trilogy in English. At the end of 2022 I had already published the new translation of “The Mentor”, while, as I had planned, “Syndrome” and “Beyond the Limit” were released on 28 February and 31 May respectively.

As you can imagine, this way the first five months of the year and a good part of the sixth were taken up with all the preparation work, publishing and promotion.

I am very satisfied with the books, both in terms of content and packaging.

Compared to the Italian versions I made few changes to the covers, mainly concerning the font used for my name and, in the paper editions, the spine, where both my new logo and the stylised lotus flower, which represents the trilogy, are visible, with the number of the volume inside it.

Also for these two books, I created five different editions (one ebook and four in print, two of which in hardcover), each of which required some modifications to meet the guidelines of the different platforms. Furthermore, I have prepared some promotional images, along the lines of the one created for “The Mentor”, which you can see in this article.

 

The promotion went more or less as I expected: as long as I promoted the books, they sold well, as soon as I stopped, they stopped too. But unfortunately, this is the case in general, even more so in a boundless market like the English-speaking one.

But it was fun to do a blog tour and read the reviews of the bloggers who participated or I contacted separately: everyone seemed to enjoy the books. I have also followed with interest the various promotional activities, in particular the paid newsletters, among which I obtained an international Bookbub Featured Deal (in the UK, Canada and Australia), which went better than I expected. Looking at the numbers, I was pleased to notice that a good part of the readers who buy the first book then proceed with the second and then with the third.

 

I didn’t expect to repeat the success that “The Mentor” had had with AmazonCrossing in 2015, because this time I was alone, I couldn’t count on the promotional push of Amazon Publishing, but my main intent was to complete the project to have the entire trilogy in English, so as to allow those who started reading it to get to the end of the story. Furthermore, only by having it all in English could I then think of new ways to reach other readers.

In the first half of this year I also tried to move towards one of my dreams, which will probably never come true (although never say never!), that is seeing something I wrote appear on the (big or small) screen. I tried it with the trilogy. I’ve seen some interest in continental Europe, but there was zero in the UK, even though I’d made a lot more contacts there over the past few years. Some producers have even read the first book. One of them (from a production company based in Germany) was even enthusiastic about it and considered optioning the book (or the entire series).

Unfortunately, as you can imagine, since I didn’t tell you about it, in the end nothing happenes. I was a bit sad, but I kind of expected it. Of course, an option doesn’t mean that a series would then be made, but it would have been a personal satisfaction (as well as, within certain limits, an economic one).

And that’s fine: the important thing for me was to leave no stone unturned. I’m happy I tried and I don’t rule out trying again.

All this to tell you how half of 2023 has flown by.
And what happened in the other half?
Well, I wasn’t able to finish upgrading all my sites to make them mobile-friendly.

I’m still working on it, although at least as far as the main Italian website (Anakina.net) is concerned I’m very close to completing the work. At the moment you can’t see any of this on the site as I’m revolutionising it and therefore the changes will only go online when everything is ready. But its general structure is now complete. I just have to finish adding the contents to some pages dedicated to my books (specifically those for the various genres) and fill in the pages for the events (which for now will only contain the past ones), extra contents (some of which I still have to create) and contacts.

Creating the English version should be relatively quick, given that the site will be the same but with the graphic elements in English and the books available in this language, which are only eight out of the total of fifteen in Italian (to which the books by Richard J. Galloway which I translated into my language are added).

Finally, I will still have to do the Italian website of Red Desert and the Aurora Chronicles. The content will not change, but I will simply create an alternative version usable for small screens.

In addition to that, I will also have to do something similar for my website as a freelance translator.

 

What else did I do in 2023?

I have continued to update my old books to remove broken links and outdated information. This regarded my Italian essay on self-publishing, “Self-publishing lab. Il mestiere dell’autoeditore”, which by its nature would require updates every few months, but I’m at least trying to update it once a year.

I then moved on to the English editions, in particular to the books of the Red Desert series. Here, in addition to updating the front and the back matter (i.e. the pages before and after the text of the novel), I ventured into a rereading to try to find some errors that the editor and proofreader missed. Obviously this takes a little longer. However, the first two books have been updated and the corrected versions are now online. I’m currently reviewing the last chapter of the third one, so I plan to finish it by January. Then there remains the fourth, which is the longest, but I can say that I will also be able to complete this commitment in a short time.

 

Among the other things related to publishing that I did this year was that every now and then I tried to put myself back in front of the white sheet, even if with a certain reluctance (to use a euphemism). It was more of an exercise which, in a handful of sessions, led to the writing of the first two scenes of “Evidence”, i.e. the prequel novella of the Detective Eric Shaw Trilogy.

But don’t get excited!

As I told you, I already have the complete outline of this book. I limited myself to trying to turn the first two points into written pages and I admit that making Miriam Leroux and PC Mills (who was not yet a sergeant at that time) argue was fun. However, I don’t know when or if I’ll move forward and I don’t want to make any commitments about it as I’m not particularly dying to do so.

 

Then obviously there is everything that does not concern writing and publishing, or even my job as translator (which I usually do anyway).

There were summer holidays. This year too I wanted to go to the mountains in July. This time I spent a week in Vinschgau (Val Venosta), one of the few valleys in Trentino South Tyrol that I had never visited. With my partner, we spent a week in Schandlers (or rather in Kortsch, which is a hamlet of it) and from there we moved in various directions to visit places such as Lake Reschen (the one with the famous bell tower emerging from the water that is featured in the Netflix series “Curon”; see the photo above), the sources of the Adige, Glurns, Marienberg Abbey, the Stelvio pass (see the photo below), the Schnalstal (Val Senales), Meran and many others.

If you follow my Facebook page, you will have seen the photos and videos. You can retrieve them more easily on my profile on Instagram, also by seeing the highlighted stories indicated as “Vacanze 2023”. If you are among my friends on my personal Facebook profile, you can find a huge photo album (I always exaggerate!).

It was a truly relaxing week surrounded by the peace of the mountains, dedicated to very long (and often tiring) walks in beautiful places, many of which were not at all crowded with tourists. Indeed, when walking around the lakes or taking one of the many routes you most often met local people, perhaps with a dog in tow, and then it was all “Hallo”, “Bitteschön” and “Dankeschön” to greet each other, give way to the other and say thank you. I must say that we were very good at camouflaging ourselves, thanks to our appearance!

And, since I’m talking about German language, I can say that I’m happy that I managed to freshen it up a bit, especially in the second half of the year. I’m still far from the level I was about ten years ago, but I’m starting to see improvements. I also picked up a book (so to speak, since it’s on Kindle) by a Swiss colleague. I downloaded it several years ago and now I’m trying my hand at reading it. I’m going slowly because I don’t remember several words that I used to know, but with the help of the online dictionary and a little perseverance they are slowly returning.

I should do the same with French too, but maybe we’ll talk about it later. One language at a time!

The trick to doing this was to incorporate studying into my routine before starting work. It wasn’t difficult, because studying languages is fun for me (as is translating). The fact that it is also useful doubles the satisfaction.

 

And I was always able to incorporate a bit of physical activity into my routine, which was one of my three resolutions for the year.

I admit that I haven’t been exactly consistent. I stopped several times for a couple of months, but lately I’ve been managing to do it as soon as I get up, to wake up the body, while the head is still a little asleep.

But don’t imagine who knows how much effort! I take it easy, after checking emails and notifications on my phone (still in bed), after eating a banana (otherwise I’d pass out) and drinking some fruit juice. Then I put myself in front of the TV and do a Zumba class, which can last from a quarter of an hour to an hour. Now that the tennis season has started again I will also get back to working out on my exercise bike in front of the TV.

 

And, speaking of tennis, just like last year, this one I saw a lot of it, probably even more. I must say that from this point of view it was a very satisfying season for us Italian fans (thanks to Jannik Sinner and, of course, the winning of Davis Cup) and this contributed to my general good mood, particularly in the last few months.

But I didn’t just watch it from home.

In May, I attended the ATP Challenger 175 tournament that was organised here in Cagliari (Sardegna Open) and, in September, I went to see the group stage of the Davis Cup in Bologna (you can also find photos of it on Facebook and Instagram; see Lorenzo Sonego in the photo below) and I also took the opportunity to be a bit of a tourist in the city.

I would have also liked to go to Malaga for the finals (and, given how it went in the end, I regret I didn’t), but, apart from the fact that choices have to be made (also for obvious economic reasons), there was little time to organise the travel when they finally made dedicated tickets available to fans of a specific national team. The fact of living in Sardinia and having to take two flights, which are not available every day, certainly doesn’t help, and is also one of the reasons that tend to stop me from going to see tournaments around Europe. Often, in fact, the flights don’t exist at all until a few months before the event when tickets for the tournaments can no longer be found.

However, the three days cheering for Italy at the Unipol Arena were fantastic, apart from a certain discomfort caused by the seats, which for a stay of even ten hours in a row can become quite annoying. But for tennis you do this and more!

Well, I’d say that’s pretty much all I’ve done this year.

If you take a look at last year’s article, you’ll notice that I kept true to two out of three resolutions, that of completing the publication of the trilogy in English and promoting it and that of doing physical activity.

Furthermore, I am well underway with the third one, which is the upgrading of my websites. There is still a lot to do here, but compared to a year ago the path is now clear. I just have to keep working on it, one page at a time.

 

What will be the resolutions for 2024?

I confess that this time I don’t really feel like defining a precise list, since I would end up putting absolutely unnecessary pressure on myself.

My goal remains the same: complete that famous list I told you about. I definitely can’t do it in a year, as it includes some long-term goals, but I would like to at least finish the loose ends.

All right: let’s make a list!

1) Complete the upgrading of my websites to make them suitable for browsing on mobile devices, which is the only resolution from last year that remains pending. If I don’t get distracted by unexpected events, I think I can do it (hopefully!).

2) Continue to do physical activity and remove the rust from my German. This resolution is easy, because it’s the fun part.

3) Finally being able to put myself in front of the question “What do I do now?” and try to give me an answer.

Okay, this is a bit generic, but that’s on purpose, also because this article is becoming too long to delve into the topic in depth.

In reality, the question has been buzzing in my head for a while, and some possible answers are starting to present themselves, but what I’m missing is the chance to get rid of unfinished business first so as not to have to tackle new projects with only a few hours a day available or maybe not even every day.

Among the various things that float in my thoughts there is the desire to dedicate more time to writing articles, which I have probably been carrying on since I started blogging in the noughties, but I don’t want it to be a pastime, also because I have no spare time at all. It must be something more complex, with a purpose, a bit like the blog dedicated to self-publishing with which I promoted my essay in 2020-2021. I’m not talking about an open-ended project, as just the thought of it makes me anxious! But a short and limited writing experience, which allows me to write without embarking on a new book.
The latter would require a mental commitment of a very different level, which at the moment, and certainly as long as I have something else to complete, I don’t feel like making.
We’ll see in the future!

As always, I close by heartily thanking all of you for the support you give me and I wish you a 2024 full of satisfactions.

If you like, tell me about your 2023 and your resolutions for 2024 in the comments, here or on social media.
Have a good end and a good beginning!

New year, new resolutions: 2022

We’ve come to the end of a year again almost without realising it, right?

I must say that this 2021 has been very peculiar for me in various respects. My publishing activity is certainly one of them. At the end of 2020, in fact, I had decided to not write anything new for at least a year, since I had no more pending projects and, above all, I didn’t want to. And it certainly was very easy to follow this up!

 

I must say that from time to time over the months, even recently, the thought of telling some new story entered my mind, but the idea of going through the writing process and the prolonged commitment that it requires made me run away from such a thought. There were other things I wanted to do, although no less demanding in terms of time spent, but certainly lighter and more pleasant on a mental level (at least for me).
Creating an invented reality is exhilarating, but the unknown factor that must be faced every day in pulling something out of nowhere that is interesting and that works, and that maybe entertains those who read it, can be exhausting and anxiety-inducing. Instead, when it comes to return to what has already been created and defined (so there is no longer that unknown factor) and propose it again in another form that allows it to reach a wider audience, at least in theory, everything becomes more measurable and controllable, and therefore relaxing, despite the hours of work dedicated to it every day.

I’m talking about translations.

If you look at my resolutions for 2021, you will see that they included the translation in English of the two remaining books in the Detective Eric Shaw Trilogy.
Well, I did it! And I managed to do it within the schedule I set over the course of the year.
I completed the translation of “Sindrome” (Syndrome) by May and that of “Oltre il limite” (Beyond the Limit) by November. At the moment, the second book of the trilogy, after being edited, is in the hands of my proofreader, while I have just sent the third to my editor.

 

It was a long job, and I was struggling to see the end of it. And it was made even more difficult by the knowledge that the text I was working on would become a published book in a fairly distant future (more on that later) and, as always, with uncertain results. All long-term commitments require perseverance and discipline, and carrying this out for 12 months (starting December 2020), without having a minimum of short-term gratification, wasn’t easy.
On the other hand, however, the process of transforming my novels from their original form in Italian to that translated into the language spoken in the place where they are set (London), and “hearing” the characters speaking in that same language, was exciting at times.

 

To do it in the best way, during these 12 months, I only read novels in British English (I have started reading in Italian again a couple of weeks ago), I watched almost exclusively TV series and films in this language; in a nutshell, I tried to create a sort of full immersion for what concerned fiction in general. And I liked it, of course I liked it. If it were up to me, I would spend all my time studying and practicing foreign languages (not just English), because I enjoy it so much. Maybe I prefer to do it without deadlines, but I fear that the latter are essential if you want to translate books!

 

In short, I achieved two resolutions from those listed a year ago.
Unfortunately, I can’t say I did for the others.

 

I partially managed not to get stressed out, at least in certain periods, but then I realised that, if I hadn’t at least set deadlines, I wouldn’t have been able to translate the two aforementioned books. And with deadlines, inevitably a bit of stress arrived. However, in the last few months I managed to slow down and this December, despite some unexpected events (including my main PC that made a short stay in assistance), I managed my work in a way closer to the goals that I’d set regarding my personal well-being.

As I said a year ago, it makes no sense for me to concentrate completely, even on an emotional level, on my publishing activity, if in the end it doesn’t make me feel good. And I have every intention of staying true to this principle in 2022 as well. However, I realise that it is a gradual process that requires a certain organisation and the ability to distinguish, among the possible goals I intend to achieve, those that really matter and that have a minimal chance of being achieved, even if a remote one (where there’s a will there’s a way!).
Unfortunately, you cannot do everything. If I had to listen to all the ideas that come up in my head and all the projects that tickle my creativity, I would end up paralysed in the face of the impossibility of pursuing them all. It would take maybe ten lifetimes, if not more, to do it.
On the other hand, putting off indefinitely those few that I really care about, waiting to find the time and the means to dedicate myself to them in the best possible way, means never getting to do that. So, I might as well decide once and for all to program them and start working on them. If at the end of each of them I don’t achieve the desired results, it doesn’t matter. It means that I have tried and then I’ll be ready to devote myself to the next project, with no regrets.

 

Another purpose that I have only half completed is to continue to write on my blog dedicated to self-publishing on Medium, i.e. Self-Publishing Lab (it’s in Italian). I did it until June, then I started a holiday period that isn’t over yet.
The reason is simple: I didn’t know what to invent anymore.
Obviously I could have written about one of the thousand existing topics on self-publishing that everyone is talking about, but this was not the purpose of the blog. My intention was to create a virtual place in which I could offer a different, original point of view, and useful and applicable suggestions for one’s publishing activity that no one talks about, at least on the Italian market, precisely because they are roads less travelled. But, in order to do this, it’s necessary to experience firsthand what you want to talk about.

The translation of the books in the trilogy, especially of the third (about 120k words), didn’t leave me enough time to further deepen my preparation on publishing marketing, much less to put this in-depth study into practice. I decided to give priority to the completion of the translation, completely putting aside any other promotional activity both on the Italian and foreign markets, except, at least until November, Facebook Ads (which are now paused, too).
Managing multiple things together and taking care of myself at the sale time just wasn’t sustainable.
And for what concerns avoiding stress, I realised that an effective way to do it is stop trying to carry out multiple projects at the same time, risking to do it in an approximate way and dragging them for long periods, and instead try to dedicate myself to one of them at a time, but finishing each one more quickly.

However, the blog won’t be abandoned forever. As soon as I have something else to say, I will add new articles. But I must, first of all, update for the umpteenth time the book “Self-publishing lab. Il mestiere dell’autoeditore” (again, in Italian), of which the blog can be considered a companion, with the news relating to the self-publishing market that have accumulated since last July.
Also, I would like to leverage the blog content in a creative way (i.e. recycle it), so that it can reach more people. I have some ideas on how to do this (including something for the English-speaking market), but I will only talk about them if and when I decide to put them into practice.

 

In general, however, I believe that I must somehow carry on the didactic aspect related to self-publishing, because it’s evident that there’s a need to learn by those who approach this publishing model. Proof of this is the fact that, despite having paused all the advertisements and, in fact, the same blog on the subject, “Self-publishing lab. Il mestiere dell’autoeditore” continues to be purchased spontaneously and, apparently (from the messages I receive), appreciated by those who buy it.
Moreover, I continue to do so with the university workshop that I teach every autumn at the University of Insubria (Laboratory of self-publishing in multimedia systems). Unfortunately, this year too it was taught remotely, but reached a new frequency record, although I have put a tighter limit on registrations than in 2020.
As usual, the students proposed some truly original publishing projects (see picture above). Some of them are really thinking of turning what was just a simulation into a real publishing product, while just recently I learned that a student of mine from last year self-produced his first book and is carrying out very interesting offline promotional activities with excellent local feedback.
I obviously hope that in 2022 I’ll be able to physically return to Varese and teach the workshop to the students in person again. We’ll see.

 

Then there are two more resolutions not completely fulfilled.

 

One is about exploring new possibilities to exploit the rights of my books. And to tell the truth I did some research on it, especially with regard to audiobooks. It’s an aspect that I would like to investigate, but I realise that it requires investments, and having to invest money in it implies making a commitment to have an adequate economic return. All this is possible only if there is a very specific publishing and above all promotional project behind it, which I don’t have the time or energy to deal with at the moment.
On the other hand, as regards other types of exploitation of my rights, I postponed any investigation entirely to 2022.

 

The last resolution was to improve my image on the web.
Last January I changed a bit my Italian blog. Although it isn’t mobile friendly, I have improved its usability on smaller screens by increasing the size of the texts and icons.
Then I found suitable templates for my main (static) site. I really like one in particular. But then I didn’t go on and, as I turned around, the year was already ending!
I’m aware that updating my sites is the first fundamental step to take. If I intend to improve my activity on the web in such a way as to increase the organic traffic on my sites, I have to create a welcoming and functional virtual place, but at the same time I don’t want it to appear the same as a thousand others, at least for those who have the ability to view it on larger screens.

 

So, summing up, this 2021 didn’t go too badly. And this is even more true if I add that there is another activity to which I have dedicated myself during the year: I have translated into Italian the new book by Richard J. Galloway, “Saranythia Part 3. The secrets of the Margspakr” (which is already available in English).
I completed the first draft in early December and am now editing the text. Some beta readers from my publishing team will work on it in January. And I believe the book will be published in February!

 

What else have I done this year?

I attended two MOOCs (massive open online courses) on FutureLearn. Few, to tell the truth. But it wasn’t for lack of time or desire. Rather, I think I’ve already attended almost every course that interested me in this platform, so I’m having a hard time finding more. However, there are some still in my wishlist and I’m waiting for them to be re-started. Indeed, one will start in late January.

 

I had a nice holiday in the La Maddalena Archipelago last July (see picture above), but above all, after 24 months, in November I finally left Sardinia again to go to Turin to see the ATP Finals! (And I was even lucky enough to see a match with Djokovic. The photo below was taken by me.)

I must say that, even if I have always liked tennis, this year, thanks to the presence at high levels of several Italian players (in particular Berrettini and Sinner), I’m really passionate about it. Someone (?) calls me a tennis addict! I think it’s not bad at all as an addiction and I’m glad I have it. What do you think about it?

Moreover, since I was in Turin, I was a bit of a tourist and went to visit some places I hadn’t yet been to in my previous stays, such as the Basilica of Superga, the Royal Museums and the Palace of Venaria, and in particular the Mufant (it’s a science fiction and fantasy museum). Yes, I know, for an Italian science fiction enthusiast it was a serious lack, which I finally remedied (see picture below).

Well, after chatting for a long time about the things I’ve done and the things I haven’t done, it’s time to talk about resolutions for the year that is about to begin.

To tell the truth there is only one, which can undoubtedly be called my primary goal of 2022: complete the preparation of the English version of the Detective Eric Shaw Trilogy. And by this I mean:

1) prepare all editions, i.e. ebook, paperback and perhaps also hardback (to be evaluated). I’d also like to produce an audiobook edition, but it’s an investment that requires further thought;

2) study a marketing plan for the launch and promotion over time of the trilogy on the English-speaking market;

3) schedule publication. In 2022 (perhaps in November) I’ll publish at most one, i.e. the new translation of “Il mentore” (The Mentor). The other two will follow approximately three months apart in 2023. The actual timing of publication depends on the previous point (without a marketing plan it makes no sense to publish). Also, I would like to write, and translate, a short prequel (a novella, of which I have already a title and an outline for years) to be used for promotional purposes, but I still don’t know if I have any desire (!) and time to write it, and then translate it. We’ll see.

 

Everything else, including the things I told you about in this article (and more that I keep to myself for now), will come later.
Hopefully, at the end of 2022 I will draw conclusions again here on the blog.

 

For now, however, I’ll stop, also because this post has become very long. In fact, I just don’t know how you got to read this far!

As always, I want to thank all of you, my family and all relatives, friends, readers, colleagues, collaborators… am I forgetting someone?
Thank you very much for your appreciation and support.

 

If you want, let me know what your 2022 resolutions are.
Meanwhile, I wish you all a good ending and, above all, an even better start of the year!

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.

New year, new resolutions: 2020

Isn’t it a bit strange for you too to see this year that is about to start made by two identical numbers? In the 2010s we reached the imagined future of science fiction films such as “Back to the Future” and “Blade Runner”, but in the next few days the 2020s will begin and I can’t help but think that there are no more excuses: the future is now. This means that I have to roll up my sleeves and make the things I care about happen. This is especially true of my publishing activity.

2019 was the first year since 2012 that I didn’t publish any books, but at the same time it was one of my most productive years. In fact, I wrote over 220 thousand words divided into two projects, which will see the light in 2020, and I continued a third that will develop immediately after and throughout 2021. To all this new ideas and prospects are added, which are still in the planning stage.

But, as always, let’s see first of all what resolutions for 2019 I managed to keep. Again this time they are three out of four, but I haven’t totally put aside the missing one, unlike what had happened in the previous year.

Here they are:

- I completed the first draft of “Self-publishing lab. Il mestiere dell’autoeditore”. In fact, I’m already well on track with the editing process. Although I have just found out that I need to add a new short section (since just ten days ago Amazon Advertising was made available in Italy and I can’t help but include information about it in the book), the book will be published in the first half of the new year (probably in April);

- I started the first draft of “Nave stellare Aurora” (Starship Aurora) and am well over half of it, since I have reached the third part out of the four planned. I started it just this month with the writing of chapter 10 of the book and I will continue immediately after the holidays, and I am quite in line with my schedule;

- I have read many beautiful books, some unexpectedly. This year I have taken up an old practice, namely that of reading several books at the same time. There were times when they were even six! This allowed me to carry out readings that otherwise I would have abandoned, since I hadn’t feel immediately involved at the beginning of the story. And in doing so I discovered beautiful stories. In addition, I have also continued to read non-fiction books constantly, the content of which is already coming in handy. Finally, the parallel reading of several books allowed me to keep Italian and English trained at the same time, without one language having an excessive effect on the mastery of the other. It’s always difficult to make sure that my writing in Italian is not adversely affected by my constant use of English and, conversely, that the English translation of my books is able to proceed without suffering the interference of my native language. However, I believe that this year there was a further improvement in my ability to profitably use these inevitable forays of one language into another, both to enrich my writing and to reach a more natural use of English during the translation process, and at the same time it’s becoming more immediate for me to switch from one to the other, while keeping them as separate as possible in my mind.

And then there is the purpose that I have not been able to bring to the end, namely to complete the English translation of “Syndrome”. I have to say that for long periods, especially in spring, I have been constant, although translating into English is a much slower operation than writing and obviously translating into Italian. Then, however, the other two projects I was following, the first draft of “Nave stellare Aurora” and that of “Self-publishing lab”, to which the revision of the latter was added, took away all my time, forcing me to stop working on “Syndrome” at just approximately 18 thousand words, against the expected 84 thousand ones.

I’m definitely behind with this project and, at least until April, I will continue to have little time for it, but then things will change.

What else did I do in 2019?

To begin with, I once again taught my “Self-publishing laboratory in multimedia systems” at the University of Insubria, in Varese, to which a conference on the Moon landing (together with Fabio Pagan, Piero Benvenuti and astronaut Franco Malerba) was added. I’ll speak about this extensively in one of the next articles in this blog. In the meantime you can watch the two videos of the conference “Il giorno della Luna” (in Italian), by clicking here.

Furthermore, I attended four MOOCs , the last of which I finished just a few days ago, passing the final test with full marks (how nerd I am!). Probably the most interesting of these four was “In the Night Sky: Orion”, which starting from the constellation of Orion, takes students on a space journey between stars, black holes and galaxies. But I also want to suggest “Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential”(the one I just finished), which taught me a lot of interesting things, including the scientific reason (I didn’t even know it existed) why men are statistically more attracted by scientific subjects compared to women, although there is no difference in the predisposition to them due to gender. The reason is related to the lesser tendency to verbal activity of men, caused by hormonal differences. And, after all, it did not surprise me at all, since it’s known to anyone that we women speak much more! But now I know that there is a scientific explanation that has implications for other areas as well.
It’s clear that on this topic (but also on other treated in the course) I feel a bit of a statistical anomaly, even if, on second thought, I love science, I have always found it extremely stimulating to work in the scientific field and to study and understand the science behind everything around me, but I realise that talking or writing about science (even that of fiction) is completely natural to me (coincidentally, what did I find myself doing?). And, when something is easy for you to do, it tends inexorably to attract you.
If I have intrigued you, take a look at the videos of the course. It’s free.

Going back to my 2019, what else did I do?

I travelled a little. In addition to having granted myself two short forays in Milan complete with a rock concert (Tears For Fears and Def Leppard), I had two real holidays, including a cruise. Moreover, I attended an interesting conference organised by the Italian Space Agency here in Cagliari (Sardinia: A Gateway to Space) and I had the opportunity to take a guided tour of the Sardinia Radio Telescope. And above all I forced myself so have total breaks of 2-3 days immediately after every 4-5 of continuous work (each of which always includes over 12 hours of work).

Furthermore, I continued to carry out the advertising campaigns on Facebook for my books, also extending it to thrillers (I had started with the Aurora Saga). I have had good results for most of the year and now, after a break during the Christmastime, starting from 1 January I’m going activate a new campaign and we will see how it goes.

Finally, as I said above, I have always dedicated (and intend to continue to do so) a part of my time to reading and learning new things related to various marketing activities to be applied to the promotion of my books. And I will use what I learned shortly as I wait for the release of “Self-publishing lab. Il mestiere dell’autoeditore”. I’m in fact preparing a publication dedicated to it at Medium (in Italian), which I’m going to launch shortly, separated from this one, in which I speak more generally about myself and my work. It will probably be a short-term project, but it will allow me to test some promotional strategies, in view of the publication in English of the Detective Eric Shaw Trilogy.

And now we come to the resolutions for 2020:

1) finishing with the editing of and publishing “Self-publishing lab. Il mestiere dell’autoeditore” and see how it goes, also thanks to the use of the aforementioned publication. This is my first non-fiction experience and I don’t know exactly what to expect in terms of response from my target audience, who are my self-published colleagues, but also anyone interested in this publishing format. It is difficult to make predictions, because there are not many products of this kind in the Italian market (not as many as those in the English-speaking market). Whether or not it is an isolated experience will depend on the results I have.

2) completing the writing, editing, and publishing “Nave stellare Aurora” on 30 November. This will be the most demanding project, since I have just passed the half of it (which consists of over 105 thousand words). I had speculated that a 160,000 word novel would come out, but I’m afraid it will be longer;

3) completing the translation of “Syndrome” into English, this time for real. The delay in this project necessarily moves forward my intention to start publishing the trilogy in English by the end of 2020, but only by a few months;

4) as always reading many beautiful books and above all continuing to ensure that a part of them allows me to improve my knowledge and skills related to my work.

For 2020 there are then some hopes.

I hope to repeat my autumn experience at the University of Insubria. I would also like to participate in other events that allow me to promote my books and there may already be possibilities in this regard.

I would also like to schedule the publication of the English edition of the Detective Eric Shaw Trilogy. Linked to this is the idea of writing a short prequel in Italian, which should then be translated, to be used as a promotional tool in both markets. A ready-made outline and title already exists for this prequel: “Evidence”.

Finally, I want to take advantage of what remains of this eighth year of my self-publishing activity and the beginning of the ninth one, in which I will finally close the Aurora Saga, to decide which direction to take in relation to what will be my future projects, finding the right balance between the two genres in which I am writing, science fiction and thriller, to which non-fiction is now being added, and my desire to make more of my books available in English, in order to increase my earning potential.

Although there is so much more in my head, that’s all for now.

As always I take the opportunity of the arrival of a new year to express all my thanks to the people who support me, whether they are friends, family, collaborators or readers.

Many thanks to all of you.

And now it’s your turn to tell me about your resolutions for the next year.

Meanwhile I wish you a good end of 2019 and above all an even better 2020!