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Saturday, December 6, 2014

Ghost lore at the Castello di Pavone in Piemonte, Italy

I'm staying in Switzerland at my second home for a while. My nephew had an important birthday and his niece, my great-niece, organized a wonderful trip for the family to an old castle in the Piedmont region, Italy, just south of Switzerland.

The castle was renovated and turned into a hotel and restaurant. However, whatever could be kept of the medieval structure was left intact. You could get lost on the inside of the buildings with its many hallways and secret pathways. Pictures of the predecessors of the castle looked down from the walls of every room and I swear I heard a ghost at night, rattling in the hallways. Hmmm?


Il pavone, the peacock is the symbol of the castle.




The towns below are Pavone and Ivrea.





Gorgeous suites and bedrooms, all in the old style with paintings from the original castle.



View from the castle.

The gardens are well kept but natural.



















Dinner and breakfast were served in a vaulted cellar.
















Very romantic and special. Who knows, my next novel may take place in the Piedmont in Italy!
More about the castle and its history: http://www.castellodipavone.com/en


Monday, October 13, 2014

WIP is at the editor - what now?

I just sent off my WIP, The Italian Sister, to the editor. 



It's a great feeling to have the manuscript I have been laboring over out of my hair for a while. After a sigh of relief, panic sets in. WHAT NOW? I feel oddly abandoned without my work. Besides, I'm totally stuck on the sequel I was planning to write. And I mean STUCK!

Okay, I know, lots of writers go through this. I do have a few options, I guess:

 

 

1) I forget about writing for a while and enjoy a piece of chocolate instead. But that only takes a few minutes and then what?

2) A cup of coffee? A few more minutes. And then what?











3) I go on vacation--wait, you need money for this... Hmm.




4) It's cheaper to just go for a walk in my beautiful neighborhood:












Okay, done that. Now what?


5) Read, but I do this all the time anyway. And reading can also be an escape to keep from writing. 


Gee, this is getting difficult. I'm running out of options.

I guess there is only one option left:

6) BUCKLE DOWN AND WRITE ANYWAY. Sigh!





Unless, dear writer/reader, you can come up with a better idea. What do you do when you're stuck?




Cheers!

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Mystery, Thriller, or Suspense?

I am working on my WIP with the title The Italian Sister. It started out as a family drama, but on the way, it developed into a .... and that's my dilemma, what do I call it? Here is the temporary blurb:

"Standing at her father's grave in California, Sofia Laverne mourns his untimely demise. Barely recovered from her recent divorce, she has to come to term with the loss of another family member. Imagine Sofia's shock and surprise when she finds out that her father had had an affair in Italy many years before, that Sofia has a ten year younger sister and inherited part of a vineyard in Tuscany. Eager to meet fourteen-year old Julietta, Sofia packs her bags and takes off for Italy. When she arrives in the small hill town of Vignaverde, she is greeted by olive groves, neat rows of grape vines, green and rust-colored hills, and picturesque houses. Some of the inhabitants of this beautiful estate are, however, less welcoming and resent her intrusion into their family business. Soon, strange occurrences begin to frighten Sofia. When a suspicious accidents lands her in the hospital, Sofia fears for her life.

A suspenseful family drama, The Italian Sister takes us on a wild journey from California to Tuscany and provides glimpses into the exiting world of winemaking."

First, I was going to call it "part family drama/part mystery," but one of my beta readers pointed out that it wasn't a mystery in the strict sense, and she is right. It was more of a thriller. Hmm. "thriller"? The word thriller always evokes some murderous, blood-curdling events and that isn't the case in my WIP. There is suspense, to be sure, but "thriller?" 

I needed to do some more research in this area. So I found a few definitions on the Internet and I was relieved to find out that I'm not the only one who is confused about the terms. 

Mystery:  The protagonist (a detective, private investigator or an amateur sleuth) is trying to solve the truth about an event, usually a murder. He/she is searching for clues and eventually solves the puzzle. The reader doesn't know any more than the protagonist and the truth is slowly or suddenly revealed to both the protagonist and the reader. The protagonist is only in moderate danger. Great examples are the mysteries of Agatha Christie.

Thriller: The protagonist is in danger from the beginning. The reader usually knows who the killer is and the fascination of the story is watching the cat-and-mouse game between the killer and the protagonist. The plot is characterized by car chases, violence, anything that gives the reader a "thrill."

Suspense novel: The protagonist becomes aware of the danger only gradually. The reader, however, knows more than the protagonist. The reader knows who the killer is.

Here are the links to the different definitions:
http://www.nadinelapierre.com/blog/?p=26
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/is-your-novel-mystery-thriller-or-suspense/

Of course, many novels incorporate elements of mystery, thrillers, and suspense. So what is The Italian Sister?

The mystery aspect: The reader does not know more than Sofia, the protagonist. However, it is not a mystery because there is no murder/crime in the beginning and Sofia does not go hunting for clues.

Thriller? Well, the story may thrill (I hope it does). 

Suspense? Sofia does become aware of the danger only gradually. That's true. However, the reader does not know more than the protagonist. 

So what is the poor writer to do? Fortunately *** wiping the sweat from my forehead *** I came across another definition of a genre: ROMANTIC SUSPENSE.

"The romantic suspense novel is a modern emergence of early Gothic writing. This genre evolved in the 1950s with writers such as Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt. … The genre is recognizable when contrasted with other writing. It is not a detective mystery story because the law (police) rarely gets involved in the action. It also differs from traditional … suspense novels because it moves more slowly and has more character interplay and psychological conflict than the fast-paced violence of [most] suspense thrillers." 
http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/resources/definitions-of-fiction-categories-and-genres/

That's sounds more like my WIP, which also has a love story. Now, I just have to finish this darn thing.

What is your experience with genre labels? I hate them and one of the reasons is the fact that my novels cross genres. That makes classification difficult. But labels are here to stay, so I might as well get used to them. 

Happy writing and reading, my fellow bookies and "novellers."




Friday, July 25, 2014

“Keep it simple!” A no-nonsense approach to the production of quality wines – Caparone Winery in Paso Robles, California



I’m working on two novels that take place on vineyards, the first one on a vineyard in Tuscany and the second one on a vineyard in the Paso Robles region in California, along Hwy 101 about half-way between Los Angeles and the Bay area.
Since I love red wine, particularly Italian red wine, but know little to nothing about the actual process of making wine, I have to do a lot of research. I read books, navigate the internet, and visit tasting rooms and wineries. My friends of course nudge and wink whenever they mention my “research.” They probably think I sit around in tasting rooms or lie half-drunk between wine barrels on some estate.
Well, this is not the case, of course. I actually do serious research, but who says that serious research can’t be enjoyable and entertaining? Anyway, last year I had the opportunity to spend a week in Tuscany together with my relatives and friends in Switzerland. It was a wonderful experience and I wrote about it in a series of earlier blog posts:


This year, I tried to find wineries and vineyards in California. Now, that shouldn’t be too difficult, should it? After all, California is THE wine region of the United States and every since Californian wine won a blind tasting contest in France of all countries, also called "The Judgement of Paris," the reputation of fine Californian wine has spread all over the world.
Therefore, it shouldn’t have been too difficult to find vineyards where I could watch the process of winemaking and ask questions. Actually, it turned out a little more difficult than I had expected. For one thing, as many vineyards and winemaking outfits as there are—and there are many!—most of the tasting rooms are not necessarily next to the vineyards or wineries. Many of them are full of tourists during the vacation season and you can’t just monopolize the time of the people who pour the wine and ask a lot of questions. Besides, you can’t just walk on someone’s property to look at his or her vines.
After a few unsuccessful sessions in tasting rooms, where I spent some money buying a few bottles of wine but getting little out of it with regard to solid information about winemaking, I approached my research somewhat more intelligently. I honed in on smaller outfits and on vineyards and wineries that produce Italian wines, since this is the kind of background my novels focus on.
And lo and behold, I found a gem of a winery, which was just perfect for what I was looking for: the Caparone Winery on the westside of Paso Robles: www.caparone.com.

It is an artisan winery, tucked away in the hills of Paso Robles, run by a father-son team. I found their address and got a little background from their website, but when I drove up to Paso Robles and searched for it, it took me a while to find it. Used to large banners announcing wine tasting and all kinds of entertainment at other wineries, I nearly missed the Caparone sign. 


I finally spotted a vineyard and a house on top of the hill. I followed the country road up to a large red-brown barn-like building. As I parked and got out of the car, it was very quiet and peaceful. Only the singing of a few birds interrupted the silence. 
There was a small sign on the barn that said “Tasting,” so I opened the door, went inside, and stood smack in the winery itself: fermentation tanks on one side, stacks of barrels four levels high in the middle and the back, and boxes of bottled wine on the other side. 




Somehow, I knew I had found what I was looking for. Here was finally an outfit that looked like a real winery and not just a glitzy tasting room. In fact, there wasn’t a tasting room at all but just a tasting area, a longish table with bottles of Caparone wines and wine glasses lined up neatly in a row. Behind it stood a young man who smiled and asked if I wanted to taste some wine.


Now, I certainly wasn’t going to turn down a taste of wine, particularly since there was no tasting charge. Other wineries usually charge ten dollars for tasting, unless you belong to their wine club. Marc Caparone poured me a glass of Sangiovese, one of my favorite wines, and it was truly delicious. So were the other two varietals of their estate wines I tried, Nebbiolo and Aglianico, both wines I had never had before. They were excellent—interesting, complex, with a lot of character and just the right amount of tannin. I’m not an expert on wines, not by a long shot. But I know what I like and I truly liked those wines. I have ordered several bottles since then.
However, it wasn’t just the wine, it was also the friendly, unassuming, and helpful attitude of the owners that I liked. The first time I met Marc I didn’t have much time to ask too many questions since I was just driving through on my way to the Bay area. But he immediately volunteered all kinds of information and gave me a good overview of the history of the vineyards and winery, of his family’s background, and of how his father, Dave Caparone, had started the winery back in 1979, although he had already been involved in research and winemaking for quite some time before that.
Here is an interesting article about the history of the winery and Dave Caparone's early days making wine: http://www.caparone.com/history-complete.html.

A few months later, I spent a whole week in Paso Robles and went back to the Caparones and it was then that I also met the father, Dave Caparone, who had started the vineyard and the winery. Now in his seventies, the trim, wiry man shows no sign of slowing down. According to his son, he still checks the vines every day, sometimes even at night.
As Marc and Dave told me, they do things a little differently from some of the other wineries in the area. They try to keep the whole process simple. They have thirteen acres of planted vines, which is moderate compared to the other estates. They are not taking part in wine contests, they are not investing millions in advertising. “We don’t like the show-biz approach to winemaking,” Dave Caparone said in his straightforward, no-nonsense demeanor and his son, Marc, agreed.
Instead, they focus all their energy on working the land in a sustainable fashion, planting their vines in the correct microclimate, cultivating the grapes carefully and with love, producing quality and complex wines, and selling them at affordable prices! They do all the work themselves with the exception of picking the grapes at harvest time, when they have a crew of people helping them, and again when it’s time to bottle the wine.
Since the family has been at it for over thirty years, they have a lot of experience, they know what works and what doesn’t, and they have many loyal customers from all over the country without having to spend a lot of money on spreading the word. Their wines speak for themselves and allow them to make a good living.
Both father and son took hours answering my questions, suggesting books, and showing me around. My initial hesitation of taking up too much of their time and asking too many questions began to fade as I began to feel they both truly enjoyed telling me as much as possible about their work.



But Marc and Dave Caparone don’t just produce great wine, they are also excellent musicians. They play jazz and perform publicly. Dave Caparone, the father, has a Masters in Music and plays the trombone, and his son, Marc, plays the cornet and bass. Marc’s wife, Dawn Lambeth, is a very talented singer. See the videos at the end of the post!

In addition to his passion for wine and music, Dave Caparone has a third interest: He loves classic cars and has fixed up a few beauties that even impressed a non-aficionada of cars like me.



The following videos provide a glimpse of the Caparones' musical talents. Pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back, and enjoy!

Here is Marc Caparone playing the cornet:





And here are Dave and Marc together. Dave on the very left, playing the trombone and Marc next to him with the cornet:
 
 



Here is Dawn Lambert, Marc's wife, singing one of my favorite songs:






And finally, the whole family together:

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Malala Yousafzai - the inspiring story of courage, generosity, and sacrifice - for freedom and education of all children

Moved by the story of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who stood up for the education of women, got shot in the head by the Taliban, survived, and continues to fight for the right of every child to have an education, my friends and I decided to pool our creative resources in support of this courageous girl, her amazing father, and her wonderful family.

During the fundraiser, I was reading some passages from my Family Portrait trilogy. There was music, acting, and all kinds of artistic presentations. All the money we collected will go to the Malala Fund.

Furthermore, for the month of June, I will contribute all the royalties from the sale of the printed versions of the Family Portrait series (An Uncommon Family, Love of a Stonemason, Emilia) to the Malala Fund. To buy the books, please click here:

An Uncommon Family on Amazon
Love of a Stonemason on Amazon
Emilia on Amazon

OR you can also just make a contribution directly to the Malala Fund: http://malalafund.org/

This isn't only about Malala but this is about justice, the right of everyone, boy or girl, to have a decent education, to be able to fulfill their dreams, to live in peace and without fear.

Malala Yousafzai

Malala was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Pakistan. As a child, she became an advocate for girls’ education, which resulted in the Taliban issuing a death threat against her. On October 9, 2012, a gunman shot Malala when she was traveling home from school. She survived and has continued to speak out on the importance of education.

Malala attended a school that her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, had founded. After the Taliban began attacking girls’ school in Swat, Malala gave a speech in Peshawar, Pakistan, in September 2008. The title of her talk was, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?”

In early 2009, Yousafzai began blogging for the BBC about living under the Taliban’s threats to deny her an education. She hid her identity behind the name Gul Makai. However, the Taliban found out about her in December of that year. With a growing public platform, Malala continued to speak out about her right, and the right of all women, to an education. Her activism resulted in a nomination for the International Children’s Peace Price in 2011 and that same year she was awarded Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize.

When she was 14, Malala and her family learned that the Taliban had issued a death threat against her. Though Malala was feared for the safety of her father—an anti-Taliban activist—she and her family initially felt that the fundamentalist group would not harm a child.

On October 9, 2012, on her way home from school, a man boarded the bus Malala was riding in and demanded to know which girl was Malala. When her friends looked toward Malala, her location was given away. The gunman fired at her, hitting Malala on the left side of her head. The shooting left her in critical condition. She was flown to a military hospital in Peshawar for an operation and for further care, she was transferred to Birmingham, England. Malala underwent several difficult surgeries, but luckily had suffered no major brain damage. In March 2013, she was able to begin attending school in England.

The shooting resulted in a massive outpouring of support for Malala, which continued during her recovery. She gave a speech at the United Nations on her 16th birthday in 2013. She has also written an autobiography, I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, which was released in October 2013. Unfortunately, the Taliban still considers her a target.

Despite the Taliban's threats, Malala Yousafzai remains a staunch advocate for the power of education. On October 10, 2013, in acknowledgement of her work, the European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for Freemdom of Thought. The same year, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She didn't win the prize, but was nominated again in March 2014.

And here are a few pictures of our fundraiser, which was a great success!







Saturday, May 10, 2014

Happy Mother's Day in the Great Beyond



 

Mother

nearing ninety winds the old clock
pulling the chains dangling
from the wooden case.
Time stored in her flesh and bones
seeps through her hands.

I listen to each shallow breath,
feel the faint trembling of her arm
tucked into the curve of mine,
as we climb the last steep hill to the store
on those muted winter days
which follow each other like dull pearls
strung on the thread of life.
The late afternoon sun casts
our thin shapes among the
shadows of birches and pines
coated with hoarfrost.

In the coffee shop she softens bites of
crusty bread and dips them into hot chocolate.
A drop falls on the face of Madonna
staring blue-eyed and beige from the
cover of Mademoiselle.

At dusk the waitress switches on the light.
My mother’s face,
white as a moon,
refracts from the window-pane.
I peer past her into the growing
darkness outside.
It’s not death I fear,
I am afraid of being the last one alive.