I have a fairly good recall of places I’ve visited, and I meld them into my books. For example, I fell in love with Lake Lugano in Italy and Switzerland so that is where the serial killer from Intercession John Deegan made his hide-a-way. It sure beats Crotona Avenue where the Professor, the assassin in On the Side of the Road lived. I spent a lot more time on Crotona than Lago Lugano.
My first book Fish Farm was born is a very strange spot in Ammaganset, New York in the Hamptons. I was at an actual Fish Farm, and I got an impression it would be the perfect place for murders. That place got me started to the chagrin of the owners of the fish farm after the book was published.
I sometimes use Google Maps but there is nothing like actually being in the places I write about. Flying to Sicily and visiting the now defunct sulfur mines in Lacara Friddi and near Agrigento was a trip to remember. The result of my trip is Carusi: The shame of Sicily.
I got to visit my ancestral home and connect with some of my Miceli cousins. I met some elderly men who were boys when they, because of poverty, were forced to work in inhuman conditions in the mines.
I don’t often talk about my 2 poetry books, Anxiety’s Nest, and Anxiety’s Cure but of late I am actually enjoying reading my thoughts from when I was 18 years old. Nest was written when I was in middle age and I can see myself growing as a person.
I remember the NYC subways, the danger of nighttime in the projects and the great times at the Bronx Zoo, Yankee Stadium and other places I stomped around as a teenager,
There is something special about writing that brings one’s experiences and lets the world read them.
In my career selling fuel oil and diesel products no one gives a damn anymore about how many gallons I sold of how many therms, or BTU’s I moved. People can however get a glimpse of my life and my thoughts through my work.
Someone once told me I was immortal because of my work. I never thought in those terms, but it makes sense now that I’m so long-in-the tooth.
