Five Before Rome: 5 preludes to the Roma Series by Gabriel Valjan

Category: Adult fiction 18 yrs +, 215 pages

Genre: International Crime Thriller

Publisher: Wild Goose Publishing

Release date: June 2020

Synopsis

These five novellas precede Roma, Underground, the first novel in the Roma Series. Meet the five men, who form the team around Bianca, and learn about their personal history, their respective parts of Italy, and why they each have a stake in the fight against organized crime.

Author Interview

There are many books out here about the mafia. What makes yours different?

My Roma Series novels and the current collection of novellas Five Before Rome are different from other books about the mafia because I situate my stories abroad. I also introduce readers to Italian culture, cuisine, and history. The most important difference is that I show how the mafia there is very different the one we have in the United States.

What advice would you give to budding writers?

• Read widely and outside of your culture.
• Write, put it down, and come back to it later.
• Criticism from editors is never personal; they want the best story, so listen, hold your breath and count to ten, and don’t react.
• Rewrite
• Nothing you write is perfect, but do your best to tell the best story possible.

What genre do you write and why?

First, try to think of a story as good writing and try to avoid labels. Labels may limit the development of your writing chops. I’ve found that foraging outside of my literary diet exposes me to techniques and strategies I can incorporate into my own writing. I tend to write crime fiction because it feels real, relatable, and, like Life, messy.

Do you write every day?

As a rule, yes, I am at the desk daily, though some days I’ll revise a passage or rework a short story I believe has legs.

How long have you been writing?

12 years. I spent a year writing short stories as a way to develop the muscles before I attempted my first novel, which I promptly shoved into a drawer. I never thought of myself as a writer. I’ve enjoyed reading all my life and I admired creative people who could translate what’s in their head to paper.

What’s the funniest thing that ever happened to you? The scariest? The strangest?

Funniest. I’m hearing-impaired and was once upon a time a competitive triathlete. One night I planned to meet up with friends. Two things you need to know first. I was limping from running long-distance and my cat had had his stomach shaved for a medical procedure. I met my friends in a very loud bar. A friend asked, “How’s your calf?” I responded, “He didn’t like being shaved.” I instantly realized from the reaction I received that my calf wasn’t my cat.

Scariest. I’m a NAUI-Advanced SCUBA diver. I did a shipwreck dive, down to the coastal tanker the Chester A. Pollig in Gloucester, MA, which is 75-feet below the surface and surrounded by sand. Shipwrecks are technical dives and potentially dangerous for a variety of reasons. Visibility was poor that day, the water cold, and my dive buddy abandoned me (a mortal sin in the world of diving). I found another diver in distress and I buddy-breathed with him with my air-supply for a timed ascent to avoid the bends. He panicked and used up my air at about 30-feet from the surface, so I had to surface on my own. Oh, there were box jellyfish in the water. Yes, the other diver surfaced okay. No, my instructor was not happy with my swim-buddy. Like I said, a mortal sin.

Strangest. I enjoyed a surreal moment during the swim portion of an Olympic-distance triathlon (Drown/Swim 1 mile, Crash/Bike 25 miles, Fall Down/Run 6.2 miles).

The water in Maine was cold, and I’d gotten into a good rhythm with my arms and legs. I swam over and under and between several hundred swimmers. I was in the top five out of the water, at 21 minutes. Trust me, it was the aquatic version of the Flight of the Valkyries.

If there is one thing you want to readers to remember about you, what would it be?

If you’ve never met me but knew me only as a writer, then I’d say that I cared about what I created on the page. If you’ve met me, that I’m a kind person and a good friend.

About the Author

Gabriel Valjan lives in Boston’s South End where he enjoys the local restaurants. When he isn’t appeasing Munchkin, his cat, with tuna, he documents the #dogsofsouthendboston on Instagram. His short stories have appeared online, in journals, and in several anthologies. Gabriel is the author of two series, Roma and Company Files, with Winter Goose Publishing. He was nominated for the Agatha Award for Best Historical Mystery for Company Files: 2. The Naming Game in 2020. Gabriel has been a finalist for the Fish Prize, shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, and received an Honorable Mention for the Nero Wolfe Black Orchid Novella Contest in 2018. Dirty Old Town, the first in the Shane Cleary series, was published in 2020 by Level Best Books. Gabriel attends crime fiction conferences, such as Bouchercon, Malice Domestic, and New England Crime Bake. He is a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime.

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Giveaway

$20 Amazon Gift Card courtesy of Gabriel Valjan, author of FIVE BEFORE ROME (ends Aug 3)

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