One woman’s journey from Sicily to America
Historical Fiction
Publisher: HenschelHAUS Publishing
Join Angela Lanza as she the experiences the tumultuous world of early 20th century Sicily and New York. Orphaned by the earthquake and powerful eruption of Mt. Etna in 1908, Angela is raised in the strict confines of an Italian convent. Through various twists of fate, she is married to a young Italian man whom she barely knows , then together with her spouse, immigrates to the U.S.
Interview
with Carmela Cattuti
What
do you find most challenging about the writing process, and how do you deal
with it?
-What I find most challenging about the writing process
is trusting my intuition in the first draft. I try not to stop and reread what I
have written because the tendency is to rewrite and get stuck. The best
approach is for the writer to complete the first draft and then go back and
edit. I find this extremely challenging so there is no way but to soldier
through.
When
and where do you do your writing?
-I do much of my writing in hotel lobbies in Boston. They
are a beautiful setting for the creative process. Many writers feel alone when
writing at home. Writing in hotel lobbies is more relaxing and can spark new
ideas. Think about it, hotel lobbies are under used spaces and if you don’t
have an office, they are free spaces. I write during the day and market in the
evening.
What
have you learned about promoting your books?
-I have learned that marketing is changing and most of it
is done online. With my first novel I did bookstore author signings, now that
is not happening. As writers we need to become computer savvy and think
creatively about marketing.
What
are you most proud of as a writer?
-I am most proud of my ability to express personality
through dialogue. I grew up hearing a lot of accents and everyone talked a lot.
I have developed a technique for expressing the vitality of speech.
If you could have dinner with any writer, living or dead,
who would it be and what would you talk about?
-I would most like to have dinner with Mary Shelley the
author of Frankenstein. We would talk about how, as a woman author in the early
19th century, she was able to write about molding a man out of dead
bodies. This was a completely taboo subject at the time and went against the
church, but somehow she was able to do it.
About the Author
Carmela Cattuti started her writing career as a writer for the Somerville News in Boston, MA. She is a writer, painter, and yoga instructor in Boston. After she finished her graduate work in English at Boston College, she began to write creatively. As fate would have it, she felt compelled to write her great aunt’s story. Between the Cracks and The Ascent have gone through several incarnations and will become a trilogy.
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