Mountains of Dawn

Why did I write Mountains of Dawn?
When I was a little girl my house was destroyed, causing my parents to take us to live in the countryside; for a while we were short of everything, including toys. The change was paramount. This event inspired my story, many years later. I asked myself, ‘What if I had lost, not only my house and my toys, but also my parents?’ I would have been shuffled around--from foster to foster home. And then, ‘How would a little orphan, raised up to the school age in comfort, react to this tragic situation?’
This is how the persona of Tanya Caldwell was born.

How did I build Tanya’s character?
As a writer of fiction, I had to give Tanya some good qualities and some weakness. Since she was going to be the main character, I also had to give her some latitude. So, Tanya is a talented painter, a fact that opens the door to a scholarship; she also naive and prone to trust people without questioning. When a big sum of money, set up as a trust fund by her late parents, comes to light, the people who were responsible for her parents’ death enter in action. And they are not alone, as their associates are linked in various fashions to other criminal rings, one of which is a cosca mafiosa.
The story starts in Vermeil, Ontario, a fictional town near Toronto, and wanders in Italy and...Brazil! When her life is threatened for the third time, Tanya resorts to the protection of the Invicta, a private company that provides her with a bodyguard and strongly suggests her to relocate. Since she has inherited a very old mansion on the Italian Riviera, Tanya moves there—canvas, brushes and easel with her. Her artistic life continues, but she has to leave her friends behind.
A publisher of art books, Kevin Matwin, and a friend of his, Luigi Amedeo, Count of Monteturro, enter the scene and, at first, they are only good neighbors offering help and empathy. But then...
Now, what Tanya does while living on the Mediterranean shores? Does she stay secluded or dare to go out and make new friends? Will the criminals who took advantage of her parents surface again? How would they find her? Will innocent Tanya trust the worst killer of all? Would she find love in her forced retreat? Would the Invicta help her once again?
I will answer these questions as the plot of Mountains of Dawn unrolls—not one chapter without suspense or a gripping action.

For what audience?
The novel falls into the romantic suspense genre and therefore may attract more women than men, but the plot and the mafia intrigue may interest male readers as well.

Where did I get the information I needed?
A substantial amount of research is always needed to immerse the reader in an environment that is actual and as close to reality as possible. I found information on the customs of the cosche mafiose in the reports of several trials (also in the Italian newspapers of the eighties and nineties); the description of the art of painting goes back to the seminars of one of my teachers; for the information on explosives and assault weapons I relied on a friend of mine and on the Internet.

Now, I have said all I could without giving away the story…