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AUTHOR PROMOTION PACKAGE LEARN MORE

What inspired you to write The Ghosts of the Garfagnana? Ever since I encountered “The Devil’s Bridge,” a beautiful structure at Borgo a Mozzano, I’ve been intrigued by the Garfagnana area of Tuscany. It’s fantastically beautiful but also rugged and, yes, mysterious. I mean, a bridge built by the devil in the Middle Ages? And caverns where witches brew their potions? And voices and church bells heard in a village submerged under a lake? So after writing the last of the six books in “A Tuscan Series,” I decided to have fun and write some ghost, or at least supernatural stories set in the Garfagnana.

What is the most important attribute of the book? I think the span of the book, from the Middle Ages to the present, and all of them linked to one another, is compelling and informative. Readers will learn about such wide-ranging things as medieval monastery life, the “flagellants,” the Black Death, Garibaldi’s army, World War II in Italy, ghosts in theaters and contemporary musical shows. Why should someone read it? For pure enjoyment. I hope it is as much fun for people to read as it was for me to write. How did you decide on the time periods and characters for the stories in The Ghosts of the Garfagnana? I’ve always wanted to write something set in the Middle Ages so this gave me the opportunity. I have loved researching that period. In addition to writing about the pageantry and the art and the history, I could also delve into the Black Death and the flagellants, and so on. I knew I wanted to have the last story set in contemporary times so it was fun to write stories for the times in between – Garibaldi’s army, World War II, etc. The stories may span centuries, but they are linked. You have written six books in your Tuscan Series. Can you provide some background as to why you started writing the series and how the stories evolved? I’d never written fiction before but when my cousin Fosca in Italy (she’s now 94) told me about how she and other people from her village had to flee to a farmhouse in the hills during the German occupation, I knew I had to write it. So I did a ton of research and came up with the story in The Cielo: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany. Oddly, the characters I created stayed in my head so I knew I had to write a sequel, Sparrow’s Revenge: A Novel of Postwar Tuscany; and then, Dino, a boy born in the first book and ten years old in the second, inspired me to write Dino’s Story: A Novel of 1960s Tuscany. After that, the characters took an even stronger hold in my head, so it was followed by The Temptation of Father Lorenzo: Ten Stories of 1970s Tuscany, and then A Piazza for Sant’Antonio: Five Novellas of 1980s Tuscany, and finally, The Fearless Flag Thrower of Lucca: Nine Stories of 1990s Tuscany. I knew another book would be very sad because some of the characters had gotten to be old, so I ended the series then. (I still wonder sometimes, about what’s going on between handsome Father Giancarlo and Anna, the former nun.) You note that writing The Ghosts of the Garfagnana was fun. How would you compare your writing and story development in that book to the books in the Tuscan Series? With the series, I had written about some of the characters in previous books so it was a matter of watching, and writing about, their development. There were some new characters in each and it was fun creating them. With Ghosts of the Garfagnana, all of the characters were new so it was challenging to see who they were and what they were doing. You have also written a children’s book, Stefano and the Christmas Miracles, and you are working on a sequel. What was the inspiration for the first book and for the sequel? Stefano and the Christmas Miracles was inspired by a nativity set I have that was made by Fontanini, the Italian company. I have some 40 pieces and I always wondered what this woman with the geese, the boy with the bugle, this man sharpening knives, and others, were doing at Bethlehem. So I made up a story of a grandfather telling his grandson, Stefano, stories about each of these. Each story ends with a miracle. I’ve started working now on sort of a sequel. I have a miniature medieval village, some 25 pieces – a church, houses, shops, towers, and others. They are each a couple of inches high and I have them on display in a bookshelf. In this book, the grandfather is telling Stefano the stories of at least some of the buildings. I’m having great fun. Hope to have it out next year.

Click on each cover in the Tuscan Series to read an excerpt.

During   World   War   II,   the   beautiful   hills of     Tuscany     are     transformed     into horrific    battlefields.    Inspired    by    the experiences   of   the   author’s   relatives …     a     riveting     story     of     courage, endurance,    and    the    power    of    the human spirit in the cruelest of times.

…   the   Resistance   fighter   whose   code name      was      Sparrow      relentlessly pursues   the   collaborator   of   one   of   the worst    Nazi    atrocities    in    Italy    during WWII.    …    an    unforgettable    tale    of revenge,   retribution,   guilt,   and   finally, forgiveness.

…    a    coming-of-age    narrative. Dino   is   in   Florence   studying   art when    the    devastating    flood    of 1966   ruined   the   city.   In   helping those    unfortunate    Florentines, Dino becomes a man.

The    continuing    stories    of    the characters     in     the     first     three novels   all   set   in   Florence   and the beautiful hills of Tuscany.

More    stories    following    the characters in earlier books.

The    last    book    of    the    series    that chronicles   the   lives   of   the   people introduced in earlier books.