When I was researching my novel, not only did I trace my ancestral roots, but I fell in love with everything Italy. That was the start of watching TV shows in Italian. Those shows, in turn, introduced me to new dishes I never heard of. Throw X/Twitter in for good measure and – well let’s […]
Piecing Together the Past: Bringing My Grandparents to Life
Crafting authentic characters for Emerging From Etna’s Shadow meant piecing together the past to uncover my maternal grandparents’ personalities, despite knowing little about them initially. How could I incorporate their personalities into the story when I knew barely anything about them? As I did my research, looked at old photos, and remembered stories we were […]
Pasta alla Carrettiera
Pasta alla Carrettiera, or Cart Drivers’ Pasta, was a dish mentioned in my book. When a friend asked me about it, I figured I would share what I found here. To be honest, I’d never heard of this dish before. But it caught my attention during my research when I discovered that my great-grandfather’s occupation […]
Making Tigelle: A Taste of My Italian Heritage
Of my four grandparents, all who immigrated from Italy to the USA, three of them came as young children. They attended school in New York and fully assimilated to their new country. They only spoke English around their children, so my parents didn’t speak Italian. My paternal grandmother had a Brooklyn accent so thick, you […]
Honoring Mothers Through Fiction and Faith
When I started my novel, Emerging From Etna’s Shadow, it was supposed to be about my grandmother. I didn’t know much about her, so the project was always destined to be historical fiction. As I started writing, something unexpected happened: the characters took over. They guided me away from my initial plan, pulling me deeper […]