"[F]ans of mobster novels will enjoy this messy, self-aware take on the genre. A fun, energetic, Philadelphia-set Mafia caper." —Kirkus Reviews (quoted on Amazon)
Release Date: January 1st, 2020
Donny Lentini is a talented young man hungry for his mother's love. To please her, he becomes guardian angel to his mob-wannabe father.
When the father is murdered and found with his hands hacked off, Donny is dealt a set of cards in a game called vengeance. The pot is stacked high with chips; the ante, his soul and the lives of loved-ones.
With the help of friends—ex-con, defrocked Jesuit Bill Conlon along with former high-school nemesis, Antwyne Claxton—he digs for whether the murder had anything to do with the mob's lust for a real estate parcel owned by the family of Donny's lover.
He's new at this game. He doesn't cheat, but plays his cards well. And he gets what he wants.
When the father is murdered and found with his hands hacked off, Donny is dealt a set of cards in a game called vengeance. The pot is stacked high with chips; the ante, his soul and the lives of loved-ones.
With the help of friends—ex-con, defrocked Jesuit Bill Conlon along with former high-school nemesis, Antwyne Claxton—he digs for whether the murder had anything to do with the mob's lust for a real estate parcel owned by the family of Donny's lover.
He's new at this game. He doesn't cheat, but plays his cards well. And he gets what he wants.
GUEST POST
Writing What We Don’t Know
How do I write characters outside of my own experience as a
white man? What can I know of being a woman, a person of color, somebody poverty-stricken,
disabled, or bedeviled by the panoply of human and social vagaries?
It’s a hot topic in the writing and publishing community,
having to do with the political and cultural expectations of groups
historically under-or wrongly-represented in the larger society, including
literary depictions.
Some suggest submission to “sensitivity editors,” e.g. if
I’m populating my story with a black character, I should submit those portions
of my book to someone from that milieu to assure I am not projecting an unfair
or damagingly inaccurate portrayal. It’s another layer of editing, but intended
to avoid alienating an entire segment of an audience, to speak nothing of
performing a social injustice.
Unless demanded by an editor, that would not be my choice for
two reasons: 1) my character portrayal needs to be judged in the total context
of my story; nor am I portraying him as a member of a class, but rather that
character in that particular circumstance; and, 2) I treat all my
characters as human beings subject to all the vagaries that entails.
To elaborate, I totally defer that there are experiences I
can at best only imagine; for example, being a woman in a world where half the
population could probably, if it wanted, physically overpower her at any moment.
I have no idea what that feels like and therefore may not know how to depict
it.
Conversely, I contend that much human experience is shared
among all people. We all share fear in the face of threat; want our children to
do well; aspire to self-sufficiency and independence; want to be treated
fairly; etc. So, when I write characters out of the demographic and other
cohort I occupy, I keep within the bracket of shared experience and probable
response.
Finally—and this is
no guarantor of getting it right—the place for the writer is not to carry
animus in his heart in the first place. And an empathetic ear attuned to the
cries of others will go a long way toward avoiding offense and damage.
About the author:
Lanny Larcinese‘s short work has appeared in magazines and has won a handful of local prizes. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He’s a native mid-westerner transplanted to the City of Brotherly Love where he has been writing fiction for seven years. When not writing, he lets his daughter, Amanda, charm him out of his socks, and works at impressing Jackie, his long-time companion who keeps him honest and laughing—in addition to being his first-line writing critic. He also spends more time than he should on Facebook but feels suitably guilty for it.
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Thank you, MB for posting my book as well as comments about writing characters outside of our direct knowledge. Writers like to talk about how we create our work. It allows our readers to appreciate that while story can be made up out of whole cloth, much energy goes into connecting it to real life experience as possible.
ReplyDeleteSounds really great.
ReplyDeleteSounds intriguing
ReplyDeleteDale & Nancy, thanks for your comments. I try to write layered stories, i.e., complex -- not in terms of following the story -- but external plot events as well as interior stuff like the inner landscape and moral implications. I try to provide mystery, tension, vengeance, friendship-love, girlfriend love, mother-love (or absence thereof), mob contention, homicide, etc...(I exhaust myself just thinking about it!) Best to you both for the new year. Lanny
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rita, I do hope you read it and take enjoyment from it. Without witnesses, art is a tree that falls in a forest that nobody hears.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the great post!
ReplyDeleteLove the cover and think the book sounds really interesting.
ReplyDeleteLove a good mob story.. this looks like a good one. Added to my TBR list....
ReplyDeleteThank you, Victoria. Yeah, I like the mob theme too. We love their instant "justice" without being hampered by, you know...actual rules and laws! They love money, so do we, except we don't risk our lives to get it. I have personally known mob guys. The lower level ones are street thugs, but as you go up the ladder, they are charismatic, funny ---- twisted and dangerous, but charismatic and funny! You will find some of this in the book, i.e., Donny Lentini's experience and assessment of them.
ReplyDeleteSounds like my kind of read!
ReplyDeleteI sure hope so. Without a reader, novels are trees that fall in the forest with nobody to see or hear them. They say writing a novel is easy: just sit at the keyboard and slash your wrist. Still, it's a labor of love with deep wishes that others will love it too.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good book.
ReplyDeleteI would love to read your book.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a gritty and original mob tale.
ReplyDeleteSounds great
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great read! I really enjoy mob books. Love the cover! ❤
ReplyDelete