The Roaring Twenties

April 2015

2015 was the first year I took part in the challenge and of course my first choose what the 1920s in their entirety. I enjoyed it a lot. It was exiting to see people read my articles and commenting it, and I discovered I really loved talking about the 1920s and sharing my discoveries.

Jazz Age Jazz – Jazz as a Social Phenomenon

April 2016

Jazz is a big part of my research for my american stories and it’s a fascinating subject in and of itself. So it’s no surprise that for my second year in the AtoZ Chalelnge I chose this stopic.
It was very intersting because having a stronger focus made the challenge mor erewarding and I realy learned from my partecipating to it.

1940s Film Noir

April 2016

For 2016 AtoZ Challenge I wandered away from my usula 1920s subjects to delve into another era just as fascinating, post WWII America and one of its more charing expressions: film noir. 
While I was already quite informed abotu the 1920s when I took up the challenge in past years, I had to learn basically everything for this year. It was scaring, challenging and extremely satisfying.

Weimar Germany

April 2018

In the 1920s, Germany – especially Berlin – was one of the most exciting, eventful places in the world. The credle of shocking new liberties and of fearful attacs to democracy.

Berliner Cabaret

April 2019

In 1920s Germany, cabaret had a chance to express people’s feelings in that excessive, shockingly honest way that was so particular to Berlin, the town that was becoming a Weltstaadt. A cosmopolis.

Living the Twenties

April 2020

The 1920s were years of passage. WWI had destroyed the old world. In the 1920s, people desperately tried to understand what kind of world they were living in now.

The Great War

April 2021

It was called The Great War because no war had ever been so totally involving on a global scale. It could have been a local war. Everyone expected it to be. A war to settle local (although on a European scale) matters that would be over in a few months. 
It was not destined to be. 

Enter the New Woman

April 2022

She was called the New Woman because no woman had been like her before. Starting from the 1890s and the Gibson Girl to the end of the 1920s and Flapper Jane, the New Woman was self-asserting, modern, revolutionary and also a bit scary. After her, the social role of women changed forever.

30 Days NaNoWriMo Meme

November 2014

A few days before I started NaNo this year, I discovered a challenge: blogging about my NaNo as it happened. Couldn’t resist. I had a gret time with it.

As for the challenge itself, I’ve been revising Ghostly Smell Around, the first novel in my Ghost Trilogy. I managed to revised about half of the novel, which was a great achievement.

NaNoWriMo 2015

November 2015

I wasn’t even going to partecipate this year, because I didn’t have a project that would produce 50k words. But I did have many shorter projects that can have me reach that amount of words.
So I revised Give in to the Feeling completely, and wrote many blog posts, including the conclusion of the New Woman’s New Look Series and the launch of my book, together with the Characters’ Speak series.
It was a good challenge.

NaNoWriMo 2016

November 2016

For the first time since I’ve taken part in NaNoWriMo I’ve decided to quit the challenge halfway through. It was a hard decision, I knew from the beginning my historical preparation wasn’t good enough for taking up the challenge, I just hoped the plot would carry me. 

Unfortunately, it didn’t and a conversation with an historian made merealise what I still need to take up this historical project. Here are my reflections on how it went.

NaNoWriMo 2017

November 2017

After many years of working to revisions, I came back to a first draft for a new project. It was both scary and exciting, and surprisingly (or maybe not so much so) I had to relearn how to write a first draft. Learn to just write without looking to sound refined. It was so liberating.
The novel isn’t anywhere near readability, but here is how it went.

NaNoWriMo 2018

November 2018

In my personal tradition of revising the same story in multiple NaNos, I revised last year story during this November, The Frozen Maze. Though it wasn’t a mere matter of revising what I had written last year, it was more a rebuilding structure and characters too. In the end, I didn’t manage to finish the new draft, but I did manage to win the challenge.

NaNoWriMo 2020

November 2020

My intention for this year’s NaNo was to revise the entire story The Frozen Maze to start porting it on my blog one chapter at a time. I only managed to revise the entire first act, and I did post it on my blog throughout the first part of the year. You can read the introductory post here. While you can read my impressions on the challenge (which I didn’t finish) here. 

NaNoWriMo 2021

November 2021

I set out to finally finish revising The Frozen Maze. I only managed to act II, discovering that I needed some more tweaking, especially at the end, where I wanted to explore Dagmar’s character a bit more in-depth. Can’t say my brain was in it, but I’m happy I discovered I needed some new ideas for this act. 

NaNoWriMo 2022

November 2022

I started out wanting to finish The Frozen Maze, but I quickly realised I wasn’t in the right headspace. So I decided to revise a few non-fiction books that I wrote a while back. The main project was Enter the New Women, based on the AtoZ Challenge. But I also revised The Historical Writer’s Dilemma (and realised this needs a total rewrite) and finished revisiting Before the First Line.

777 Challenge – Tears welled in her eyes

30 May 2018

Coffee Book Tag

11 December 2016

Recently, I came across a book tag on Book Amino, the Coffee Book Tag, and since I’m a reader and a coffee drinker, I couldn’t resist!

So, here’s my take at it. Welcome to the Coffee Book Tag – Dieselpunk Style

Underworld (Try It, You’ll Like It! Blogathon)

6 December 2015

This post is part of the “Try It, You’ll Like It!” Blogathon, hosted by Sister Celluloid and Movies Silently, where we write about “gateway films” that might bring non-classic-film lovers into the fold!

777 Challenge – A small smile on her small mouth

17 November 2015

Last summer Lucy Flinch passed me on the 777 Challenge. I know I’ve already done one, but I really enjoyed it, and anyway, I’m working on a new story now and can sure post seven different sentences.

Tagathon

8 August 2015

It’s all about how you feel about book and reading.

I was tagged by Ali Isaac.

Love/Hate Challenge

14 July 2015

Celine of the Down the Rabbit Hole blog was the one who got me. You can read her hilarious post here. As you can see, the challenge is actually about what you love/hate in general, but since this is an author’s blog, I’ve decided going with what I love/hate as a author/reader.

777 Challenge – Ice crept into her voice

27 June 2015

Good for you that a couple of weeks ago, Melissa tagged me for the 777 Challenge. I declined her invitation on account that I already post snippets of eight sentences every other Sunday for the 8 Sentence Sunday on Dieselpunks, but then Sue also tagged me for the same challenge, so gals… grand, you’ve talked me into it!

10 Favourite Screen Characters

18 May 2015

Back in March, Crispian Thurlborn tagged me for this challenge to list my 10 favourite screen characters. Because I was already very busy with the AtoZ Challenge, I couldn’t do it right away, but now here I am ready to oblige. Thanks Crispian for being this patient.