Francesca Tacchi

Novellas are cool as heck

Lately I find myself struggling to keep reading entire, full-length novels. Life has became too tiring, I have difficulties concentrating on something for too long and I’m always searching for new stimuli. So, novellas are the perfect read for me. Usually, novellas are stories in the range of 20-40k words – at least those published by tor.com, which are the ones I read. I personally find it a beautiful range to work with (even tried writing one myself!) because it… Leggi tutto »Novellas are cool as heck

Between Paganism and Catholicism: Italian religious traditions

Italy is an extremely religious country, for better or worse. And it stands to reason – the Vatican, center of the Catholic faith, is in the hearth of our capital city, Rome. However, Italian history is way older than Catholicism, and so are our traditions. And these traditions are hard to die. So when Christianity became the main religion in the peninsula, instead of erasing the ancient gods and the pagan magic, it twisted them in order to accomodate them… Leggi tutto »Between Paganism and Catholicism: Italian religious traditions

I’ve been interviewed!!

My friend Natalie, who has an amazing youtube channel (check it out!) just interviewed me via Skype! We talk about my book, ASHES TO ASHES, Italian culture in media and Avatar: The Last Airbender. If you want to listen to my awful accent and my even more awful laughs, just click here! It’s gonna be fun!

‘Disgusting’ Italian foods.

Italian food is renowed around the world for being delicious. Everybody knows the joys of sinking teeth in a slice of pizza, or savouring a yummy pasta dish. But traditional Italian food can often be… quite strange. Here I want to introduce you to some ‘disgusting’ Italian dishes, the ones you can only eat while roaming the streets of Italy, the traditional foods that doesn’t make it to the restaurants. Ready? Go! 1.  Pani câ meusa A typical dish from… Leggi tutto »‘Disgusting’ Italian foods.

On writing non binary characters

So, you are a cis author who wants to show their support for our community by writing a non binary character. I commend you! However, when writing a non binary character, there are in my opinion as a non binary person some missteps that ough to be avoided. Let me list them here, in this handy short guide on how to write a non binary character. Disclaimer: of course, this doesn’t want to be a perfect, sacred text. Other nonbinary… Leggi tutto »On writing non binary characters

Thailand and Cambodia for backpackers

Travelling is one of the things I love the most. So it’s quite surprising that it took me so much to start writing about it! But better late than never – and who knows, this blog post may come in handy for other people planning their own trips. So here I am, giving you some insight on my own experience travelling as a backpacker in Thailand and Cambodia. First, some general information about my trip: When – from August 9th,… Leggi tutto »Thailand and Cambodia for backpackers

Italian dialects

Italian language developed in Tuscany during the Renaissance, and was slowly adopted as the ‘official’ language (replacing Latin) in the rest of the peninsula. However, other languages were spoken by the common folk: what we call dialects, distinctive for each region and often each city of Italy. According to Wikipedia: Italy is in fact home to a vast array of languages, most of which are Latin-based, lack mutual intelligibility with one another, and have their own local varieties; In many… Leggi tutto »Italian dialects

My (brief) time in a psych ward

CW: self harm, suicide   So, it happened. I spent the first months of my PhD fighting crippling anxiety, but ultimately, it won and I decided to quit. But me being me, it couldn’t be a quiet decision, I had to hit the bottom and hit it hard. I was scared shitless of my supervisor’s reaction, I feared I had to face anger and disappointment (spoiler: my supervisor was instead incredibly sweet and sympathetic) and that fear caused me to… Leggi tutto »My (brief) time in a psych ward

Witches of Italy

Italian folklore is full of creatures and sprites with magical powers, but the most powerful of all are without any doubt the witches. Historically, women labelled as witches were tried by the Inquisition on charges of devil worshipping, but there are different, older traditions concerning these women and their powers. In Piedmont, we have the masche, my favourite type of witch. Tradition has it they are immortal women capable of changing into animals and plants, or astral projecting. In order… Leggi tutto »Witches of Italy

My OCD

CW: suicide, self harm If you ask random people what OCD is, they’ll talk about being super clean, washing one’s hands often, or being extra fixated on order or numbers. I, too, once thought that having OCD simply meant obsessing over certain rituals, ie switching the lights off and on three times over, something on these lines. But this is not entirely right, and I learned that the hard way – when I’ve been diagnosed with OCD myself. OCD is… Leggi tutto »My OCD