![\"\"](\"http:\/\/kucazapisce.hr\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/oto03-615x410.jpg\" "\\"oto03\\"")
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Dispatches from The House of Writers<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 12, 2011<\/p>\n A notebook and a pencil (in case the \u201ccarbon notebook\u201d crashes), on hand. Plot-notes, on hand. Webcam (for the kinky stuff), on hand. Video library, on hand. Two towers of books (subject to customs control?), on hand. Hip flask \u2013 ON HAND! Hazardous iPod girded \u2013 I feel sorry for the people on the bus. I\u2019m off to Istria, to write in isolation, like a mad man…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 13, 2011<\/p>\n Stationed in the house from a fairy tale on the edge of a chasm. Plugged to electricity and to the Net, ready to type like thousand monkeys. But…. first a sip of biska, grappa with mistletoe, the best kept Istrian secret. Or two sips.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 14, 2011<\/p>\n I like local food. Mane\u0161tra (thick soup), beans, fu\u017ei (home-made pasta), truffles, turkey, asparagus. If allowed, I\u2019d take a direct zip-line from motel \u201cLovac\u201d restaurant above the chasm to The House \u2013 capacity eight tons, arriving in eight seconds. Going uphill you have to be hungry.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 15, 2011<\/p>\n An ancient type writer in a shop window in Pazin. I would have died if I had to do all today’s corrections on one of those, but I still sometimes miss the old rattletrap.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 16, 2011<\/p>\n Today’s score: 1,313 words. For the old guard, it\u2019s four cards. It\u2019s not the attempted score, but it\u2019s getting there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 17, 2011<\/p>\n Wasted the whole day searching for the sentence lost since morning. I now declare it officially missing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 19, 2011<\/p>\n The air is thick with smoke from burning wood. I can hear the sound of the river Pazin\u010dica from the chasm. All the fog of this earth is rising from The Cave. It isn\u2019t really the fog but the breath of the cave creature. The Diary that is to be found after three weeks in the empty House will be filled with dialogues with this creature. The nights of the one who finds and reads the writings will be filled with sounds of something \u2013 nothing? \u2013 described in the diary as the perfect balance of the scream, whisper and silence, and than…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 20, 2011<\/p>\n Sunday excursion. In a Motovun cellar: grappa, cherry brandy, wine. Provided the supply of my favourite biska to enjoy it here and at home.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 21, 2011<\/p>\n There must be some twisted logic in the fact that the part of this Ba\u010dka Goth was born in the heart of Istria. It wouldn\u2019t be bad, though, if the years of birth of the figures through six generations were balanced in this writing that tends to be a family saga. Sometimes writing is simple math.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 23, 2011<\/p>\n All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy<\/em>. It\u2019s not only work, there\u2019s some play, too: last night in Pazin, moderated by Davor \u0160i\u0161ovi\u0107 who barraged a load of tricky questions, I jabbered to those who were not afraid of cold (it\u2019s no lion<\/em>). Today I\u2019ll talk about horror in Umag (the sane should be afraid<\/em>).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 24, 2011<\/p>\n The hall is full of students. Grammar school head master was asking questions from the audience. The answers were satisfying. I performed a standard circus act \u2013 recounting the summary of the 500 pages long novel in less than a minute with a help of a tooth pick. We got a warm cornbread from a high school student baked by her mother. I heart Umago<\/em>. Party in Umag library was cooked by a colleague from Subotica grammar school Neven U\u0161umovi\u0107, library manager and writer, a friend since the excursion to Fa\u017eana and Pula exactly 23 years ago. Circle of life, Simba<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 25, 2011<\/p>\n On the way back to Pazin, a short stop in Pore\u010d. Despite ghostly empty streets, winter on the shore is still more appealing than a winter inland.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 27, 2011<\/p>\n It was cheery last night in an appropriately ghoulish atmosphere inside the bar \u201cVampire\u201d in Kringa. I tried to explain the meaning of the title \u201cSpine of the Night\u201d to a famous astronomer. Stored a copy of the novel in a padlocked horror – closet shaped as a coffin. Korado Korlevi\u0107 noticed that the coffin resembled the contemporary computer shape since it was somewhat wider at waist, as opposed to former human shape wider at shoulders. The night continued after the official part was concluded, and red cocktail \u201cJure Grando\u201d flowed freely. Life is still wonderfully odd.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 28, 2011<\/p>\n Lost two days of writing. Compensation is joyful to the crazy. Decided on important details for a new novel risk: genre, premise, characters, place. Would anyone wish anything different?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n December 1, 2012<\/p>\n There\u2019s a light at the end of the tunnel. Sincerely? I\u2019m homesick. And then, for each guest three weeks is enough. But why is it then hard to leave?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n December 2, 2012<\/p>\n Davor, handyman Goran and Iva Ciceran took care of me here. Iva was a host everybody would wish for. The substance of the isolation adventure was changed by friends \u2013 Mirko, \u0160ile, Raul \u2013 who accepted me as one of their own. I soon became the part of the inventory in \u201cSax\u201d, caf\u00e9 with a jukebox with music by Danzig. I realized it on the second or third day when the owner \u2013 a biker greeted me before I greeted him. Chronically, I\u2019ve got more luck than brains. Cheers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n December 3, 2012<\/p>\n Twenty days, fifty pages (15,000 words). And due to some other obligations, days of rest. It\u2019s not for the Guinness World Records but, with what I brought with me, I entered the second of four planned acts. I want to continue like this. I\u2019ll remember Pazin and return, I\u2019m sure. Next thing: writing in a metropolis window, like Harlan Ellison. nbsp<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dispatches from The House of Writers November 12, 2011 A notebook and a pencil (in case the \u201ccarbon notebook\u201d crashes), on hand. Plot-notes, on hand. Webcam (for the kinky stuff), on hand. Video library, on hand. Two towers of books (subject to customs control?), on hand. Hip flask \u2013 ON HAND! 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