Last year pandemia was a terrible experience. I suffered like all of you the isolation, the loss and the fear of Covid. Nevertheless I had some new and great satisfacions about my literary activity.
On september 3rd my book “Delitti fuori orario” (In Engl: “Crimes out of order”) was published by Ianieri Edizioni. It was a success and the book was defined the Summer 2020 Thriller. We could also organize some event, presenting the book in the open air, wearing masks, but it was wonderful to go back to an almost “normal life”.
Then on October 15th my book “Viaggio a Vienna” (In Engl.: “Trip to Vienna”) was finally published by Morellini Editore. The release of this book, scheduled for March 2020, was postponed when the world stopped due to the pandemic. So the emotion was even greater when I finally held the book in my hands.
On november 7th, my unpublished thriller “Delitti Postdatati” (In Engl.: “Postdated Crimes”) won the Gold 2020 Police Prize, at the important national literary competition Gold Crime 2020.
And in this month of April 2021 “Delitti fuori orario” has been awarded with a Segnaling Diploma as a Special Yellow and Noir Prizeat the national literary award “Città di Grottammare“. This book was also finalist at the Mondadori contest Romanzi in cerca d’autore.
And the great new is that in the month of June 2021 “Delitti Postdatati” will be published by Ianieri Edizioni
No wonder if I consider these three books as children born from a birth considered impossible. And I love them in a special way, for the moments of happiness that they gave me, even if during one of the darkest periods that the history of humanity has experienced. I know that in the same way they were loved and appreciated by those who, reading them, could spend moments of freedom and distraction, forgetting for a few hours the ugliness of our hard months.
The year 2020 was terrible, and I too suffered like everyone else loss, distance and isolation. A collective desperation that has spread throughout the world. And even the literary universe, so significant and imaginative, had to stop. I had started the year like all of us, with good intentions and pleasant projects. For an author, the most beautiful project is the publication of a book.
The release of the novel “Viaggio a Vienna” (Morellini Editore) (Engl. Trip to Vienna) was already planned for the month of March. Everything was ready, I would have gone to Milan, another unforgettable adventure … but in those days the world stopped. Book releases have been postponed until a later date, bookstores closed, and terror has taken the place of the many dreams we all cherished. Dark months, going through an experience that we never thought we would have to face. In the evening the count of the dead, our habits upset. More than once I found myself looking out the window, crying and thinking that it was all over now, desperate too for those who were losing their lives, their jobs, their friends, their relatives.
In May, good news arrived and celebrated online, as we had learned to share precious moments by now. “I misteri del vaso etrusco”(Edizioni Universo)(Engl. Misteries of the Etruscan Jar) was awarded with the Mention of Merit at the national literary competition La felicità ritrovata. No ceremony in attendance, but the parchment and the plate arrived at home.
A new release was planned for the summer, by Ianieri Edizioni, the publication of the thriller “Delitti fuori orario” (Engl. Crimes out of Order), that was finalist in a Mondadori competition. But in the light of the pandemic events, perhaps even that publication could slip into a painful delay.
But things started to turn right. “Delitti fuori orario” was published on September 3rd and “Viaggio a Vienna” on October 15th!
Another great news in November. My unpublished “Delitti Postdatati” (Engl. Postdated Crimes) won the Gold Police Prize 2020 at the Carlo De Filippis Gold Crime National Literary Competition. The award ceremony could not take place in the presence but, even if with a very long live online, the emotion was no less.
Other satisfactions come from the inclusion of my name in the blog Tuttatoscanalibri among the Italian crime writers and from the participation of “Delitti fuori orario” and “I misteri del vaso etrusco” at the First Italian Writer, Book and Reader Fair, an international stage where my books are exhibited. I also had the honor of being the protagonist of a videoconference.
A SHADOW ON MERRIMACK RIVER the best way to read a thriller!
….While she was lightly sliding, she heard a thud below the ice, curbed up and realized that, at that point, the ice plate was thinner and was giving way. She shivered, stood still; every movement could have been fatal. Suddenly she realized it was almost dark, the ice beneath her feet couldn’t stand and she would be floated below. She had the only strength to bend her head forward and to look beneath the surface. As she feared, she could guess the water moving and clearly felt that something bumped the ice thin layer. Her eyes dilated in the incoming dark and carefully observed what was happening. It seemed an object, no, it was a dark form carried slowly by the current, and looking closer, what had hit the surface was one hand outstretched as asking for help! The dark shadow passed slowly beneath her and slipped, revealing the shape of a head and a swollen body. If the ice plate broke, that corpse would swallow her up, carrying her away. It would have dragged her along into the deep darkness of the river.
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