We always like to give each other coauthor gifts for the holidays. Last year we bought each other chickens through UNICEF (the chickens didn't go to us of course but to those in need elsewhere in the world). This year we decided to fund an entrepreneur via Kiva. Given some of the themes in Ciao Bella, we chose a female entrepreneur with many children - her name is Ndeye Dione. She lives in Senegal, has eight kids, is in agriculture, and has just recently been fully funded. We wish her well!
In this season of giving, please consider sharing with those who need it most. Happy Holidays!
11/28/2009
11/22/2009
Featured in Vancouver Province's Opening Lines
One of our favorite things is Ciao Bella sightings - reviews and other news about the novel that we didn't know about, sent in by friends and readers. This item, in a section the Vancouver Province calls "Opening Lines," just came in from a family friend in the Lower Mainland. (It also appears on Kelowna.com, a website of the Okanagan.)
Janice interviewed in Kingston Whig
Greg Burliuk sat down with Janice to talk about Ciao Bella, writing, and history in this interview for the Kingston Whig-Standard.
The Kingston Whig-Standard has also put together a 2009 round-up of books by Kingston authors, calling it a literary feast. We are very proud to be part of the list.
11/19/2009
Wonderful review from HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW!
Corelli’s Mandolin meets The Bridges of Madison County in this WWII tale of a love affair between an American soldier and the wife of a member of the Italian resistance.
Graziella lives in war-induced poverty with her senile father-in-law in the northern hills of Italy. Months have passed since the Allied troops swept the Germans out of the country. Yet her beloved husband, Ugo, still hasn’t returned home, and no one has heard from him since a disastrous raid on a German arms cache several months earlier. When an American soldier is stranded on the mountain after his motorcycle dies, he exchanges his labor for room and board in Graziella’s hayloft. Handsome and empathic, the soldier soon charms not only his hostess, but also her somewhat vicious in-laws and all the neighborhood children. Graziella still loves her husband, but can’t help her growing affection for the American—an affection complicated by guilt as news arrives of Ugo’s death. Her situation becomes even more complicated as terrible secrets from the war come to light, forcing Graziella to make an impossible choice.
A wistful story about the difficult decisions people must make in both love and war, Ciao Bella is drenched in Italian sunshine. The authors have penned a sweet, nostalgic story about how good people struggle to do the right thing, even when there are no good choices at all.
--Historical Novels Review
Graziella lives in war-induced poverty with her senile father-in-law in the northern hills of Italy. Months have passed since the Allied troops swept the Germans out of the country. Yet her beloved husband, Ugo, still hasn’t returned home, and no one has heard from him since a disastrous raid on a German arms cache several months earlier. When an American soldier is stranded on the mountain after his motorcycle dies, he exchanges his labor for room and board in Graziella’s hayloft. Handsome and empathic, the soldier soon charms not only his hostess, but also her somewhat vicious in-laws and all the neighborhood children. Graziella still loves her husband, but can’t help her growing affection for the American—an affection complicated by guilt as news arrives of Ugo’s death. Her situation becomes even more complicated as terrible secrets from the war come to light, forcing Graziella to make an impossible choice.
A wistful story about the difficult decisions people must make in both love and war, Ciao Bella is drenched in Italian sunshine. The authors have penned a sweet, nostalgic story about how good people struggle to do the right thing, even when there are no good choices at all.
--Historical Novels Review
11/16/2009
Reading in Cambridge, MA this Wednesday November 18
If you're in the Boston area, please come hear Gina read in Cambridge, MA this upcoming Wednesday November 18 at the Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue (at Harvard Square), downstairs in the children's section at 7 pm - see you there!
11/10/2009
Bloody Bad gives great review
The blog Bloody Bad gave Ciao Bella a great review, saying the story had "a true sense of a loving and chaotic Italian family." She loved the ending as well: "The story would have never been complete with out the perfect finish that the epilogue provides to this sweet tale." Read the complete review here.
11/06/2009
Photos and music from our Toronto book launch party
We followed our Kingston book launch party with another one in Toronto at Ben McNally Books on Wednesday November 4 - and it was a huge success! Music was again one of the big highlights and we were very lucky to have four extremely talented musicians playing for us - Jamie Thompson on flute, Max Scheinin on violin, Ronen Segall on accordion, and Sergio Restagno singing. Thank you to Jamie for posting both photos and sound files from the event!
11/02/2009
"Bella Ciao" sung at the Kingston launch
We had our launch party for Ciao Bella in Kingston, Ontario yesterday at the lovely Marine Museum of the Great Lakes. The party was a great success with wonderful food and we were lucky to have two talented musicians play for us - Jeremy Ennis on violin and singer Dympna Radford (who is currently working on a new CD). Dympna sang a rendition of "Bella Ciao," the Italian resistance and folk song (translated, it means "Goodbye Sweetheart"). It tells the story of a partisan leaving his sweetheart to fight against the Nazi invaders. If he is killed, he asks her to bury him in the mountains and plant a flower on his grave.
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