People often ask me how Il Molo was born. My response – “with much difficulty.” It almost became a half-written novel left on my computer’s hard drive. A similar fate to the James Bond novel I started in 9th grade and never finished, the handwritten manuscript most likely ending up in a wastebasket.

I started working on Il Molo in 2010. I was sitting on the beach in Varigotti, a small village in Italy where we spend at least a week every summer.

My attention was captivated by the latest thriller I was reading – just one of two or three I would finish that week. Suddenly I had a “brilliant” idea to write my own thriller about a murder in Varigotti and more specifically on the smaller beach that’s below the crest pictured below. For me this was the perfect topography for a murder mystery.  (If you’re looking for the beach it’s tucked away under the cliff before the rock formation on the right-hand side of the image.)

By chance I had a few sheets of paper in my beach bag, and because I love doing crossword puzzles I also had a pencil. Il Molo was born! I continued it when I got back home…

Soon reality got in the way. I stopped working on Il Molo – unsure of where to take it (Italian police procedures, a credible crime story, etc.) and lack of a publisher. Then my aunt who’d already self-published two books read the prologue and encouraged me to continue. She also introduced me to CreateSpace, the site for self-publishing.

I re-booted my writing, but I was still unsure of where to take the story. Out of the blue, while I was contemplating one of my strange dreams I’d had the night before, I had a “revelation.” I was on my way!! Available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.