Jon Kalman Stefansson, an Icelandic writer, once said: “Writers are machines that turn grief into words”. I personally don’t get inspired by grief, but getting words down (to a diary, to a page that you will burn, etc) is definitely therapeutic!

VERY late post, but here we go.

What I’ve done this month (not much):

• Ehh… halfway through editing Words of Tomorrow
• Racked up a couple rejections from Italian spefi magazines
• Planned another short story (fifth part of Meteorina) for a solarpunk contest in April
• Read the newly published anthology by Lino Aldani, an Italian scifi writer from the 60s

Plans for April:

• Finish that goddamn editing
• Write the short story
• Maybe send Simulacra Navigans to some Finnish publishers? Unlikely they will print it in English, but who knows…

Being unemployed 😂

But when I still had a job I used to dedicate weekends to writing and weekdays to ponder ideas, so then when I sit in front of the file I can get a lot of words down with as few conceptual speedbumps as possible. I think that method works very well for me.

Heyo everyone! Grrgyle invited me over so I’m diving in right away!

What I’ve done this month:

• Completed the translation (to Italian) of Simulacra Navigans
• Written the fourth short story of Meteorina (7k words, in Italian) for a scifi contest

Goals for next month:

• Pick up Words of Tomorrow to add some scenes here and there before sending it to the editor (hopefully last time I tinker with that story)
• Finish sketching out the five stories and the worldbuilding for Kanteletar (solarpunk novel set in a library across 400y)
• Read the fourth solarpunk anthology by Italian authors (should come out next week)

#2 has a very human-like android and it explores the meaning of passing away from a different point of view.

#5 has a fantastic use of drones, and despite not being American myself I enjoyed the many descriptions that tied back to First Nations’ cultures.

I wrote more extensively about each here (beware of spoilers!)

Update: I added EPUB formats for both Meteorina and all other short stories; I have been postponing that QoL fix for a LONG time but you finally gave me a reason to go and do it 😁

Great tip, I’ll definitely check it out!

That’s so flattering, thank you! 🥹

Your prejudice was half-right actually: tech and systems are what I really want to explore, but I use shorter stories as “experiment” to practice other aspect of storytelling too. After all, characters are the most powerful illusion spell on the reader!

What’s going to be next:

• More Meteorina adventures (surely one on Elba, maybe one on Albanian shores considering the shitshow going on with the Italian govt nowadays? Some good old satire, why not)
• Kanteletar, the stories of a public digital library founded in 2067 across four centuries of climate, geopolitical and cultural upheavals

Thank you! Let me know what you think 😋

I have other formats for the novels, but now that the Meteorina project is becoming bigger I should provide epub files too. I’ll work on adding more buttons and get back to you in a couple days!

Di fianco a ogni storia ci sono le bandierine che indicano in che lingua sono! La maggior parte sono bilingui; alcune sono solo in italiano. Simulacra Navigans, l’unica storia che avevo in inglese, è quasi a fine traduzione.

EDIT: Ho finito di tradurre Simulacra; mi ero dimenticato che anche Snowstorm e Lady Firefly erano English-only, prossimamente tradurrò anche quelle!