Interview with Loretta Giacoletto, author of The Family Angel
Tell us about The Family Angel Ah-h, one of my favourite topics … thanks for asking. The Family Angel revolves around the Americanization of an Italian family, from immigrant bootleggers and coalminers to proud winemakers and ambitious priests. To add further intrigue there’s a sarcastic Black Angel who shows up when least expected to offer advice or merely observe. The Family Angel has a cast of characters both flawed and daring, as well as scandalous behaviour for that era including a notorious Chicago brothel known as Night School, an affair between a bi-racial couple that lasts for years, and later a Vatican conspiracy involving the Church in transition. What genre is it? What kind of readers will it appeal to? Complete this sentence for us: If you like___________, you’ll love The Family Angel by Loretta Giacoletto. Who is the Black Angel? Prohibition era Chicago is such an interesting place to read about. Is it that much fun to write about it too? And how much research did you have to do to ensure that the story remains historically accurate for the period it covers? I did a ton of research for every phase of The Family Angel—sixty years worth of fashion, attitudes, morality, prostitution, cost of living, gangsters, immigrants, architecture, entertainment, winemaking, Catholicism, seminarians, WWII’s Normandy Invasion, and politics inside the Vatican. On-site research included the History Museum in Chicago while staying there in a turn-of-the-century Bed and Breakfast plus a tour of a coal-mine-turned-museum in Southern Illinois. Mustn’t forget Italy—I’ve walked through the Northern villages I wrote about, plus the streets of Rome and its eerie Church of the Bones, and of course Vatican City. Closer to home and to my heart, I’ve listened to the stories of winemakers and coal miners and soldiers who survived WWII. Researching and writing The Family Angel was more fun than any writer deserves to have! So, I followed up with another Italian/American novel, Family Deceptions , and later a prequel/partial parallel to The Family Angel entitled Chicago’s Headmistress that stands on its own, or can be read before or after Angel. With this novel and Chicago’s Headmistress, are you done with these characters and this era now, or is there more to come? Tell us a bit about yourself. I’ve been writing for fifteen years and have had five novels published, including those three already mentioned sagas and two contemporary works, Lethal Play and Free Danner, plus a collection of short stories, Givers and Takers. My short fiction has been published in a number of print and on-line magazines such as Literary Mama, which nominated my story “Tom” for Dzanc’s 2010 Best of The Web. As an associate editor for Allegory E-zine, I read hundreds of submissions every year and make recommendations for publication. I’m also a long-time member of Backspace Writers. Have you got a website? And how can we follow you on Facebook and/or Twitter? This is the link to my website: http://www.lorettagiacoletto.com/home.html. I hang out daily on Facebook. And sometimes on Twitter: @LGiacoletto. Where can we buy The Family Angel? The ebook and print versions are available on Amazon ( US, UK). EBook versions are also available at Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, Smashwords and its retail outlets. What’s next? |
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