There is a new release on the horizon!

It’s not me the one who is a quite a prolific writer, the fact is that my editor took quite a long time to edit my previous novel otherwise it would have been released on February, instead of May, and now I have a new release coming up the end of next month.

I have mentioned in another blog post that this would be a historical novel and that it is going to be set in the Imperial Rome during the last period of the emperor Hadrian, just after the third Jewish revolt.
The choice of the title has been quite challenging because I wanted to have an original name, something that can really distinguish my work. Now here are some of my biggest struggles. For the previous series, Deadly Deception, I had to come to the compromise and accept the fact that there were at least twenty books from twenty different author with the same title. This is not generally an issue, as there isn’t a copyright on titles, so I went on with that.
This time I did accurate researches and came out with a title that certainly is unique, do you want to know it?
Of course: “Aquila et Noctua.”

Or “The Eagle and the Owl.” The reason why I put the title in Latin has two reasons, one because the English version was already overused, and so were all the possible variants I could figure out for it. Therefore, as I was in Italy with my sister, it came to me the idea of translating in Latin. besides, that was the language used in Rome, so for these two reasons, I decided to go on with that idea.

I am sure you are wondering what the idea behind the title is. The eagle represents the Roman Empire and its army. Particularly because all starts with the final defeat of the Jews by the massive military campaign planned by emperor Hadrian.

The main character of the novel is a Jew boy, Saul, who is brought to Rome to be sold as a slave. Despite the young age he is gifted not just with grace and beauty, which would make a slave particularly appreciated by any potential buyer, but also with wisdom.

He will be the catalyst of the internal fracture inside the family he will go to serve, and his gifts will bring him into troubles any slave would like to avoid.

Once again the themes of jealousy, revenge, fractured families, will be punt in contrast with the themes of love, hope and forgiveness.
Because of the traits of the main character and his tight bond with the Roman Empire, I came out with the eagle and the owl.

In nature, the eagle and the owl are both mighty predators, but they hold different characteristics, at least in their symbology. Those two qualities were perfect to be highlighted in the title as they incorporate perfectly the main players in this tale.

I am still going to figure out the blurb, and…

What? You want to see the cover?

I guess you’ll need to wait for the cover reveal… a little suspense LOL.

But fear not, it won’t take long, and I will soon make an official cover reveal. I am now planning the marketing strategy, so I am delivering informations day by day.

Stay tuned!

The Wandering Writer's corner... news

It's a grey day here in Finland, and I am approaching to finalize my luggage for the next wandering back to Italy. At the same time, I just got the confirmation that very soon my next novel "Deadly Deception - The Devil's Deal" will be released from the editor, and soon enough I will be able to publish the final book of the trilogy.

Writing a series can be fun, but there are some points, which are common to the process of writing that reach the extreme in the case of a series.
-The characters: The biggest challenge for me was to be consistent with the characters, some appeared in the first book and returned on the third, or met, sadly, their demise but they gave still their contribution to the story. I had so many times to go back to the first book and check the names of the people involved in the story and connect them with those who appeared only in the third book. Personally, it was messy enough to make me forget about the idea of making a series longer than just trilogies.
-The storyline: If it is somewhat challenging following a plot during one whole novel, when it comes to a series, it might get frustrating. Being a pantser myself, rather than a plotter, I had, for this trilogy, to write down the storylines of all the previous books and plan carefully the storyline of the final one, to make sure that each event could connect with the previous in a flawless manner (I will continue to have nightmares about the fear of not having connected facts).
-The characters talking in your ears: That is one of the best and worst, they all want to have their spotlight, and they have their own idea on how to get to it. Sharing is not a word in their vocabulary and many times I moderate their arguments. Whether this is just a joke, there is still a foundation of truth. Characters are the multiple and unabridged reflections of our inner selves; fears, hopes, dreams, desires, likes and dislikes. The duty of a writer is to give them space ordering them into characters with different personalities. It is a little like the story of Pinocchio. Geppetto was unaware of the troubles of creating Pinocchio, but in the end, he managed to turn that little piece of irreverent wood into a well-behaved boy. Something like this happens with writing a novel, and it gets stronger when dealing with a series.
Regardless of this, I have enjoyed so far writing this first series, and I believe I will take the chance to write more of them in the future. Although, I might take a break from them with at least a couple of other novels.
So, you might wonder whether there is already a date for the next release, and unfortunately, I have to say that there isn’t. I aim to publish it between the end of this month and the end of May, but if you keep following me, I will keep you all updated!
Stay tuned and have a great weekend!