It's a bronze!

Half Italian (and then some) has won a Readers' Favorite bronze award in the Nonfiction - Cultural category; I got the email this morning. So that's a big woohoo, for today.

More thoughts, later. Now I'm off to my cousin's home for a Labor Day weekend pool party. Those of you who've read the book would know this Italian cousin as the one with whom I shared a warm moment, the day of my great-aunt's funeral. Also, his dad is the one who created the homemade electric chair!

Here's brownies with peanut butter frosting that I'm taking to the party.

- Joe

Half Italian (and then some)  on Kindle,  on Nook,  on Kobo.  For iBook and others, click here.

I've been interviewed

September 1st is just around the corner. On that day, winners will be announced in the 2013 Readers' Favorite contest, and my book is a finalist in two categories. 

In the meantime, I've been interviewed -- here's the link:

Today, I'm off for a week or so to visit wine country, Napa and Sonoma.  

- Joe

Half Italian (and then some)  on Kindle,  on Nook,  on Kobo.  For iBook and others, click here.

Finalist

There’s more news to report. I didn’t mention this before, but I entered Half Italian (and then some) in a book contest. I met deadlines for 2013’s contest by the “skin of my teeth” as they used to say.

Finalists have been announced, and the book made two of three categories into which it was entered.

Considering I’d thought this manuscript’s permanent home was on a shelf in my closet, this progress seems significant. 

- Joe

Half Italian (and then some)  on Kindle,  on Nook,  on Kobo.  For iBook and others, click here.

Memoirs Only

Half Italian (and then some) is now on memoirsonly.com and you can read an excerpt from the "Showcase" page.

- Joe
Half Italian (and then some)  on Kindle,  on Nook,  on Kobo.  For iBook and others, click here.

Cover with RF emblem

A view of the book's cover, now with the Readers' Favorite 5-star review emblem. RF gave Half Italian (and then some) five 5-star reviews, and two of them included the cover which was designed by Get It Together Productions. Thanks, Kae.

- Joe
Half Italian (and then some)  on Kindle,  on Nook,  on Kobo.  For iBook and others, click here.

Reviews

Reviews have come in and here are some.

My head is spinning, once again. Seems each bit of progress opens more promotion avenues, via online social platforms. My Italian grandmother, with her sketchy English, never used the word "dizzy"; instead, she translated "Mi gira in testa" literally, saying, "My head, it going around in circles." What an image that was, for a kid!

For those who enjoy sketchy English, there’s more in the book as you can tell from the reviews.

- Joe
Half Italian (and then some)  on Kindle,  on Nook,  on Kobo.  For iBook and others, click here.

Gnocchi

Yesterday I made a hearty vegetable marinara sauce, my first, to help prepare a friend who’ll soon travel to India where he’ll eat a complete vegetarian diet for nearly two weeks. He’s been warned to “prepare” his non-vegetarian body for the “shock.”

Coincidentally, someone from India recently asked, on a Goodreads discussion, how to make vegetarian Bolognese (meat sauce). Well, you can’t, because then it’s not a Bolognese. But last night’s chunky vegetable sauce came out so good that I didn’t miss the meat. I used it on gnocchi. Here’s an excerpt from Half Italian (and then some): 

“Gnocchi are thick ropes of pasta, cut into bite-size pieces. My family has always made the kind that’s potato-based. Gnocchi are well known in Italy, perhaps not as typical as the hot dog in America, but I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t like them.”

Here’s the gnocchi, being made:

Here they are, boiling:
 

Adding boiled gnocchi to the pan with the chunky marinara...

 

…and ready to eat (with some chopped avocado, a California touch that my immigrant relatives made to nearly every salad, many sandwiches, even avocado pie -- but never to gnocchi!).

  

But now that the book is out, what’ll I do with this great sauce idea!?

 - Joe

Half Italian (and then some)  on Kindle,  on Nook,  on Kobo.  For iBook and others, click here.

iBook

People have asked me if Half Italian (and then some) is available as an iBook. Click on the “For iBook and others” link in the box below, and you’ll arrive at Kindle’s free reading apps page. There, select the free app for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android Tablet, and others. Enjoy.

- Joe

Half Italian (and then some)  on Kindle,  on Nook,  on Kobo.  For iBook and others, click here.

Kobo

Half Italian (and then some) is now available on Kobo, a popular eReader in Canada. Click here.

- Joe
Half Italian (and then some)  on Kindle,  on Nook,  on Kobo.  For iBook and others, click here.

And...

Half Italian, now officially Half Italian (and then some) is available.

Here are the links for Kindle, and for Nook.

My head is spinning. I didn’t expect this, at all. What was simply a personal thank-you for years of reading enjoyment, less than a month ago, from me to the author who told me to PERSEVERE, led to life for a project I thought was dead. My head is spinning from the speed of getting the book online and profiles created.

I know there’ll be nasty remarks; I’ve read plenty on Amazon, even for bestsellers. They’ll hurt, of course, but that’s part of a project’s life. Alive!

And so, with all this, I now move from “PJ” to “Joe”.

 - Joe
Half Italian (and then some)  on Kindle,  on Nook,  on Kobo.  For iBook and others, click here.

Moving right along

Things are happening. I received a first draft of what’ll be Half Italian’s cover. While I work on that with my contact and set up accounts, I’m learning bits about the ebook world.

Facebook moves fast! The page I created to promote the book is also an overwhelming platform of communication – so much that I simply say “enough” after a bit and log off, to keep pace with life. I still have a flip-open cell phone that I never turn on, so Facebook’s type of fast is both intimidating and exhilarating. But so far, connection to people from my past is rewarding. Last Sunday afternoon I had a phone call with a friend who moved out of state years ago. High School classmates have been kind.

Today I’m tackling Goodreads.

More, soon, on when and where the book will be available.

- PJ

News

There’s news to report. After giving up last year, I re-read a few books from the author who told me to PERSEVERE. Having enjoyed her writing for nearly forty years, I decided to send her a short email. In the last sentence I mentioned I’d given up trying to get Half Italian published. She suggested publication via ebook and offered me a contact who could get everything set up, including a cover design, should I decide to go that route.

Well, I did and here I am. While the contact does her work, I’m setting up the necessary accounts. Here’s the beginning of a Facebook page I’ll use to promote Half Italian.

- PJ

Last post

And, here we are. No response, to my Travelers’ Tales submissions. No response, to my U.S. and UK newspaper submissions. Nothing from the agent, my cousin’s acquaintance. Nothing from my cousin in London. And nothing, yet, from the magazine that was to publish a piece, albeit reduced to a reader’s letter.

I’m almost fifty-six. My little Tuscany is disappearing, first one cypress and then another, while other trees grow higher, closing its view. Like that view, disappearing, so are my hopes of getting Half Italian published.

I’ve PERSEVERED, tortoise and hare style, even reaching to the UK. Little by little, here I am, nowhere, as far as getting published. You need to know someone, or be someone; how would editors otherwise pick, with so many submissions? My newspaper queries probably weren’t even read. My last bit of hope remains with Travelers’ Tales, an anthology to be published in 2013.

Half Italian’s permanent home appears to be a shelf in my study. No regrets; I have, on record, a document that saves a precious period of life.

I’ve enjoyed this blog and it’s nurtured hope. But this is my last post, unless there’s success to report. (It would’ve been fun if I’d received just one comment from Russia.)

This truly has been fun. I didn’t need to be so nervous after all.

- PJ

Nearing the end

I spent U.S. Thanksgiving in Vancouver, Canada. Two days rain, two with sun, all about forty-two degrees Fahrenheit. For a native southern Californian, wearing a below-the-knee raincoat and bundling up in scarves is fun. With a wise eye-glint, one local man said that novelty would probably wear off after a day or two.

Canadian Thanksgiving is second Monday of October and not a big deal, compared to U.S. Last Saturday, however, my Canadian in-laws prepared one of the best Thanksgiving dinners I’ve ever had. Oh, how good stuffing is when made with a fresh baguette, torn to pieces.

Here’s the turkey, just out of the oven. 

 

And the apple crisp, being readied for the oven.

The holiday season has begun; this Thanksgiving post is simply for fun; responses to my getting published are none.

Nearing the end, and that’s okay.

- PJ

Tickets and Teeth

I got another speeding ticket in France, it turns out. This one came in the mail, after we returned, unlike the one I received on the road, four years ago. Someone in Los Angeles with whom I share a first name received the same, from the same town in France, just one day before I received mine, although he recalled seeing a traffic camera go off.

I didn’t mention before, but on this trip my travel companion lost a tooth, a front tooth, while eating a croissant one morning in Alsace. A day or so later, someone here in Los Angeles with whom he shares a first name also lost a front tooth, while lunching in a deli. What’s up, with all that?

You’d think when something official is sent from one country to another, the sending entity would write it in the language of its destination, particularly when money’s demanded, with threats for late payment. But it was in French. A google search, however, indicated the person with whom I share a first name and I are not alone – a link in English is out there that says, in essence, if-you-received-one-of-these-here’s-where-to-pay-it.

Oye.

- PJ