“Whence The Italian Chronicles”

by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD, MFA

What do you think of when you think of Sicily? Do you think of pizza sold by the meter, or lush lemon groves, or the world-famous playwright, Luigi Pirandello? Do you think of horses decorated with ornamental harnesses of brightly colored plumes, or picturesque coastal villages with magnificent beaches lining emerald-blue seas, or generous people offering you a helping of delicious Sicilian cassata?  Sicily is all of this, and much, much more.

Sicily has always fascinated me because my paternal grandparents emigrated to the United States from Sicily. In fact, I still have relatives in Sicily with whom I communicate regularly. When I visited Sicily and got to tour the island for myself, my fascination turned into love and admiration for the people whose steadfast tenacity and courage to dream big have deeply affected the life I live in America today.

So, my ties to this beautiful island are strong and intimate. It was those very ties that led me to write my trilogy titled The Italian Chronicles. The three novels of the trilogy—The Madonna of Pisano, A Sicilian Farewell, and Return to Bella Terra—all take place, for the most part, in Sicily. The part of the island that most inspired my novels is Agrigento, a province in the southwestern part of the island where my ancestors lived for generations and where the life of my heroine, Maria Landro, unfolds.  

Sicily’s uniqueness derives from its history and its location as a cultural crossroads. Located between the Italian mainland, from which Siciliy is separated by the Strait of Messina, and northern Africa, Sicily has, for centuries, been a melting pot of disparate cultures, ranging from Phoenician to Byzantine to Greek and Roman. The Normans ruled Sicily for a while, as did the Spaniards. In 1860, Sicily officially became part of Italy. On May 15, 1946, Sicily was given official status as an autonomous administrative region under the Italian State.

While Sicily’s physical beauty is breathtaking, what I love most about the island is its people. Warm and big-hearted, Sicilians are very caring, hospitable, and generous. One of the ways Sicilians best show their hospitality is through their cuisine. When you visit a Sicilian home, you will be offered so much food and so many varieties of food that you will feel overwhelmed. One thing is certain: You will never go hungry in Sicily.

Despite all the talk about the Mafia, Sicily is considered the safest place to visit in all of Italy and has a very low crime rate. Indeed, the Mafia forms only a very small part of the Sicilian population, and most Sicilians are opposed to this criminal organization and want to get rid of it.

Sicilians want foreigners to think of their island as a place where art, music, philosophy, and science have flourished and have made great contributions to the world. It is against this backdrop of rich historicity that I have created my stories and trust that they will bless all who read them.

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Copyright 2018 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD, MFA.  All Rights Reserved.

Dr. MaryAnn Diorio is a widely published, award-winning  author of fiction and non-fiction for both adults and children. She is also a Certified Life Coach, a Certified Biblical Counselor, and a Certified Behavior Consultant.

You can find Dr. MaryAnn Diorio on her websites:

http://www.maryanndiorio.com

http://www.maryanndiorioministries.com

 

The Madonna of Pisano - “A young woman, a priest, and a secret that keeps them bitterly found to each other…”

A Sicilian Farewell - “A young woman, a new land, and a dream that threatens to shatter everything she holds dear…”

Return to Bella Terra - “A woman, her son, and the man who threatens to come between them…”

by Carol James

I remember the first thoughts I had when my husband and I arrived in Atlanta, Georgia from Fort Worth, Texas. We’d driven for sixteen hours with our cocker spaniel, a Styrofoam cooler full of tropical fish, and enough plants to start a small nursery in the back seat of our compact car.

As we made the final leg of our journey around the Atlanta perimeter to our new home, I stared through the window into the pitch black, fighting to stay awake in the early morning hours. And that’s when I first noticed them. Even though “Everything’s bigger in Texas,” the stars outside my window were larger and brighter than any I’d ever seen in Fort Worth.

Suddenly I realized the stars weren’t stars at all. They were streetlights and porch lights—diamonds shimmering through the forest of majestic trees that blanketed the hillsides of Atlanta. Trees. Hills. Rarities for a girl from Fort Worth. And I thought, “Father, please don’t let my eyes ever stop seeing this magnificence. May this beauty never become commonplace or invisible to me.”

While I’ve always loved the splendor of the tree-covered hills in Georgia, with each return trip to Texas, I began to see a stark beauty in the flat, almost treeless landscape around Fort Worth. An allure I never saw when I lived there. An openness that called to my heart. And in the midst of the simplicity of central Texas, the fictional town of Crescent Bluff, the primary setting for my novels, was born.

In a pivotal scene in The Waiting, Katherine, the heroine, realizes she’s lived most of her life in bondage to an idea she now believes is false. The setting for that scene needed to be different from the rest of the novel. It needed to paint a powerful picture of the freedom she’d found. Yet nothing my mind conceived felt right. So I did what I always do when I hit a roadblock. I closed my laptop and took some time away. 

We headed out on a camping trip to Cloudland Canyon in north Georgia. And there, hiking along the rim of the canyon, I found my setting. I looked twice for a “Setting Reserved for Carol” sign, because this was what I’d been searching for—exactly where Katherine needed to be. I snapped a picture. Texas is a big state; surely I could find a comparable location.

Enter the perfect place—and only a few hours from Crescent Bluff. Cloudland Canyon was about to be transformed into Balcones Canyonlands in the Texas Hill Country.

And although she didn’t yet know it, Katherine was going on a road trip.

Carol James is an author of inspirational fiction. She lives in a small town outside of Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, Jim, and a two-year-old Jack Russell “Terrorist,” Zoe. An English/education major in college, she has taught students as young as kindergarteners and as old as high school seniors. 

Having always loved good stories with happy endings, she was moved to begin writing as a ministry––to encourage others as she’d been encouraged by the works of other authors of inspirational fiction. 

Retired from her "real" job, she enjoys spending time with her husband, children, and grandchildren, traveling with friends, and serving in the production department at her church. 

And, most days in the late hours of the night or the wee hours of the morning, she can be found bringing her newest novel to life.

You can follow Carol here:

www.carol-james.com

Facebook.com/CarolJamesAuthor

Instagram: cjames5119

The Waiting

Katherine Herrington has her life under control—just the way she likes it—until she loses her mother, her boyfriend, and her job. When she was a teenager, she made “The List” and believed God would bring her the husband she desired. But after years of praying and no husband, she’s ready to accept the probability that God’s answer is “No.” That is, until she goes on a blind date with Sam Tucker.

​“You have a question you want to ask me,” Sam whispered.

“Oh, I do? And what would that be?”

“You’re wondering why I haven’t tried to kiss you.”

Ktherine’s face was on fire as she stepped away. There’s no way he could have possibly known her thoughts.

“And you think it might be because I’m not attracted to you.” He entwined his fingers with hers and then raised their clasped hands to draw her back to him. “But you’re wrong.”

“Why haven’t you tried to kiss me then?” Katherine asked. “Every other man I’ve ever dated would have at least tried by now.”

“I’m not every other man.”

He was right about that.