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~ Clara Giuliani, storyteller

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Category Archives: History

German regrets

09 Thursday Jun 2022

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History, Lostintranslation

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Adelbert von Chamisso, German language, Karl Stählin, research, Sir Francis Walsingham, studying languages

Do you speak German, o Readers?

Now, Italian is my native language – and I find it beautiful. Also, as you can probably guess, I love English very much. I also like French and Spanish.

German… not so much. Continue reading →

The Road to Murder is up for preorder!

03 Thursday Mar 2022

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History, Stories

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Amazon, C. P. Giuliani, Elizabethan spies, historical mystery, historical thriller, Preorder, Sapere Books, The Road to Murder, The Tom Walsingham Mysteries

And I’m very, very happy to announce that you can now preorder via Amazon The Road to Murder – Book 1 of the Tom Walsingham Mysteries! Continue reading →

The times, such as they are

25 Friday Feb 2022

Posted by la Clarina in History, Things

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Ukraine, war

We write to a deadline, we drive to Town and back, we run around rehearsing the next play, we listen to the news, we bake sweets, we take the cat at the vet’s and discuss geopolitics in the waiting room, we watch from the window the first wood-pigeon drinking in the pond – back from wherever it is they go to winter – we hunt for that one missing prop, we listen to more news, we worry about friends over there – who live with their bags packed up in the hall, ready to run at a moment’s notice – and we wonder how all this will read in history books, a century or two from now. We write on, we muse on crumbling empires, we marvel at the flowers of an early spring, we go through rehearsing schedules on the phone, we shake our heads in disbelief at the TV set, we hire on for big translation jobs, we frankly have no idea what will happen next, we go on writing, and we just can’t help the thought: by the time the deadline comes, what will the world look like?

The Road to Murder – Cover reveal!

10 Thursday Feb 2022

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History, Stories

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cover reveal, historical mystery, Sapere Books, The Road to Murder, The Tom Walsingham Mysteries

And for the first time in nine years, I leave aside my beloved colour scheme of black, grey, red and white, because really, this one you must see in all its splendour… The lovely people at Sapere Books sent me my cover – the first cover for the Tom Walsingham Mysteries…

Continue reading →

“Go the way, vilain!”

03 Thursday Feb 2022

Posted by la Clarina in History, Stories

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British History Online, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, historical novel, primary sources, swashbuckling

After finishing Draft 0 last Monday, I’ve spent this past couple of days up to my chin in primary sources, thanks to the wonder that is British History Online. Continue reading →

Names, names, names…

27 Thursday Jan 2022

Posted by la Clarina in History, Scribbling

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Historical fiction, languages, names, naming characters, research, spelling, Tom Walsingham Mysteries, writing

Yesterday I spent a good deal of time perusing lists of names of Guild members in 16th century Bruges. It’s one of the many wonders of the Internet that you can find this sort of thing for the asking… and, as I said, I ended up spending a good chunk of the afternoon going through list after list, copying the promising ones in my notebook – one column for given names, one for family names – trying them out for size, and even involving a Dutch-speaking friend for a sense of how a few of them would be pronounced… Continue reading →

Londons

13 Thursday Jan 2022

Posted by la Clarina in History, Things

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Agas map, Braun and Hogenberg, Horwood's Plan, Know Your London, London, Romantic London

Oh, I don’t know…

This is in part because, after two years, I’m very much missing London. And besides, I’m working on Book 2 of the Tom Walsingham Mysteries, so I’m up to my ears in research…

Do you mind if I share a few lovely things I’ve found? Continue reading →

The thing with science fiction

21 Thursday Oct 2021

Posted by la Clarina in History, Stories

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

china, formosa, murray leinster, Science fiction, taiwan, time tunnel

Over the years, and very much by trial and error, my rather difficult relationship with science fiction has come to work essentially like this: I give a very, very wide berth to everything dystopian and pre/post/apocalyptic; I’ll let myself be tempted by some carefully chosen, strictly past-bound time travel* now and then – and that’s it.

Now, please, let’s not go into whether time travel is proper sci-fi or something else or its own genre, shall we? Let us just observe that my last foray, Murray Leinster’s Time Tunnel,** was published and marketed as such in 1964 – and leave it at that. Continue reading →

Where were you?

11 Saturday Sep 2021

Posted by la Clarina in History

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9/11

Where were you twenty years ago today?

I was at work – another work, another life, really. I ran my family’s smallish timber-trading company, back then, and I was working in the office when my cousin called. She was sobbing. “Look at the news. Look at the news!” was all she said. Continue reading →

Quote

The Eve of San Marco – a treasure hunt

27 Friday Aug 2021

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History, Stories

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George Soane, Gothic fiction, Sir John Soane, The Eve of San Marco

I am looking for a book.

“Well, you are always looking for a book – or three,” my mother said when I told her – and she isn’t entirely wrong. But the fact is that, this time, I’m a bit stumped. Even the all-encompassing Internet, so far, isn’t helping much. Continue reading →

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