Life and Writing

One of the questions that often comes up when a podcaster interviews me s is: where did this story come from? what inspired you? Sometimes, I hesitate in responding. I don’t know what to say. More often, though, my answer is: life. Where did the character of Giuliano Materassi come from? From the heroic life of the young Italian journalist Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorrah—an expose’ of the Neapolitan Camorra—which also became a film by the same title.

The backbone of a short story is emerging in my mind. I’ve been visiting a close friend in the hospital. She’s receiving care for a life threatening disease. She’s also receiving daily verbal abuse from her daughter. She does nothing to block her daughter from abusing her. The daughter has stripped her from all her belongings, her modest financial savings, her car, her power to decide for her own life. There is nothing that we, friends, can do. At least, so far we’ve been unable to help her. In any case, my friend will not let us do anything. She is terrified. She is afraid that her daughter will refuse to ever see her again. I’m heartbroken and frustrated. That’s the backbone of the short story. That’s what feeds fiction. Life.