Born in Rome, Italy and settled in the Chicagoland area, I’m a computer nerd by day and an author by night…
Write what you know. That’s the advice given to aspiring writers when they embark on the journey of writing their first novel. As a computer nerd by profession and both terrified and excited to write my first novel, I embraced that advice when I created the Windy City Nights series. It takes place in and around Chicago where my parents emigrated from Rome, Italy when I was a toddler – and where I live, work and play.
Chicago is a huge sports town, so I created the Chicago Cobras baseball team with Luke Stryker as its star pitcher. We have a strong military and veteran presence, so veterans are a part of the series. And since I’m Italian, I have several sexy Italian male characters in the series as well. The first to have their own story is recurring character, former Marine Rocco Moretti, but you may know him as Italian international model Luca Pantini. He’s on the cover of Hannah’s Bliss.
How did I come to “meet” and work with Luca? I met him as a result of an author Instagram challenge in late May of 2018 for book cover inspiration. I hadn’t even begun writing Hannah’s Bliss yet, but I wanted to participate in the challenge for that day so I searched Google for Italian male models. I knew the moment I saw the pictures of Luca, lounging against a tan cloth chair with a dreamy expression on his face, as I imagined Hannah would see him – that was my Rocco. I put together a collage of five pictures, only knowing Luca’s name and submitted it as part of the challenge. Needless to say, the picture was very well received.
Being the nerd that I am, I circled back online to learn a little more about him since I only knew his name. I found Luca’s official Facebook page and felt compelled to post a message since I posted pictures of him and used his name. I’d never done anything like that before and truthfully, I never expected to hear back from him, but the next day I did!
Luca has an impressive professional resume, starting with Giorgio Armani. He’s currently with Urbano della Scala, Roberto Serpentini shoes, has done commercials for Honda and BMW scooters/motorcycles and a host of others. In addition to modeling he’s a personal trainer, a sports massage therapist and is into extreme sports. He travels throughout Italy, to Spain, Greece, Brazil and beyond for assignments. The man is busy to say the least.
What Luca’s resume doesn’t show is that even though he’s incredibly busy, he’s kind, gracious and is willing to help someone he met online who is thousands of miles away. That speaks volumes and I’m incredibly grateful. I’m so proud to have Luca on the cover of Hannah’s Bliss.
Carlo Antonetti is the next Italian who will get his own story and Luca said he’d help me “find” him among his friends at his modeling agency. Carlo and his love interest were introduced in On the Ropes. I’ll give you a hint – she’s one of the stylists tasked with getting ladies ready for Cassie’s wedding.
Carlo’s story will have to wait just a little bit though. I’m going through notes given to me by fellow Evernight author Laura M. Baird for Off the Hook – When Luke met Abbey. Then I want to write Tom Murphy and Karla Collin’s story, who were also introduced in On the Ropes. The research is complete and I just have to write up the chapter outline.
I hope you enjoy Hannah’s Bliss. I had a lot of fun writing it. Ciao for now…
BUY LINKS
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Ug1GJR
Evernight: https://bit.ly/2uzA58c
Smashwords: https://bit.ly/2Ww2qrW
Nook: https://bit.ly/2V9lNGI
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2OyMT82
The making of a romance novel cover...
Meet model Luca Pantini