I'm happy to welcome Traci Andrighetti back to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Traci writes the Franki Amato Mystery series. Galliano Gold is the fifth book in the series and was released on the first of this month.
TA: I concur with Franki Amato on this point—I don’t believe in ghosts, but I’m open to being wrong. So, when I go to a place that is alleged to be haunted, I keep my eyes and ears open—just in case.
Kathy: The Captain happens to be a Mark Twainophile. Are you a fan of Mark Twain?
TA: I try to be a fan of Mark Twain? The question mark is intentional because I’m not sure how I feel about him. Earnest Hemingway once said that all modern American literature comes from Huckleberry Finn, and I don’t doubt it. But Twain wrote to be controversial (as well as funny), and some of his stuff makes me cringe.
Kathy: The only Sicilian lemon tradition I know about is limoncello. Can you tell us about the proven tradition that didn't work for Franki? How did you become aware of it? Or is it solely fictional.
TA: Great question! Sicilian-Americans, particularly those in New Orleans and New York, have a fascinating lemon tradition related to St. Joseph’s Day that I just had to put in a book.
On St. Joseph’s Day, March 19, Catholic parishioners create altars to the saint (known as “tables”) filled with bread, fruit, and meatless dishes. Food from these church altars is given to those in need. Legend has it that if a single woman steals a lemon from the altar without anyone spotting her, she’ll receive a proposal of marriage within a year. And some say that the tradition can be extended to getting pregnant. I have always thought it was both bizarre and ironic that women would be encouraged to steal food that is intended to feed the poor in a house of God. But who am I to judge?
Kathy: Was there a specific inspiration for this story?
TA: Galliano Gold was born of my many trips on the Steamboat Natchez in New Orleans, and parts of the book were based on what I now call my “no good, very bad trip” to the city in 2018. I was invited to do a book signing for Campari Crimson, the Halloween-themed fourth book in the Franki Amato mysteries, at Boutique du Vampyre in the French Quarter. And a series of events took place that were just unbelievable.
For starters, the house I rented wasn’t properly air-conditioned. When I told the owner I wanted my money back, she chased me around the bed and then locked me out of the house with half of my luggage still inside! I ended up getting a hotel room in the French Quarter, where I got caught in a flash flood in a dress and high heels. I was at a restaurant, and the water was coming inside, so the hostess told me to put umbrella bags on my legs because, as she put it, “there are diseases in that water.” I called an Uber driver who promised me that he could take me the mere four-tenths of a mile from the restaurant to my hotel, despite the knee-deep water. The ride took 51 minutes, and during that time my husband called to tell me that our 14-year-old dog had died. I all but cried on the driver’s shoulder.
When I got home to Austin, I told my newsletter readers about the trip, and one of them emailed me and said that it sounded like something that would happen to Franki Amato. So, I included one of the things that happened on the fateful trip in Galliano Gold.
Kathy: When it comes to writing I understand there are 2 general camps-plotters, who diligently plot their stories, and pansters, who fly by the seat of their pants. Are you a plotter, a panster, or do you fall somewhere in between?
TA: I like to call myself a plotster. I start out with a plot, but I leave a lot of gaps in my outline to allow some pantser magic to happen. As I write, I do research. In the process, I stumble across thingsthat make the story better.
In Galliano Gold, for example, I was several chapters into the writing when I stumbled across the Dancing Hand Grenade (pictured), who is the only known mascot for an alcoholic drink in the United States (the Tropical Isle bar on Bourbon Street sells a drink called the Hand Grenade in a green plastic cup that resembles an elongated grenade). I showed his picture to my husband, who said drily, “I remember that guy.” I started laughing because it sounded like he’d had a run-in with the mascot, but I didn’t ask him about it. I just decided in that moment that the Dancing Hand Grenade had to be in the book, as a potentially nefarious character.
Kathy: Authors are required to do a lot of their own marketing, especially for a new release. What's your favorite part of marketing your work? What do you dislike about marketing?
TA: I’m an extrovert, so I love events that bring me face to face with readers. In January, for instance, I went on the Barbara Vey Reader Appreciation Cruise, and it was such a blast to hang out with people who are so passionate about reading. Ironically, the part of marketing that I don’t like is talking about my books! In fact, a lot of the readers I had dinner with on the cruise had to ask me to talk about my writing, LOL. I truly enjoy interacting with people on a personal level, and pushing my books seems fake, which just isn’t me.
Kathy: Are you able to share any future plans for Franki Amato?
TA: Sure! I’m tossing around the idea of a jazz-themed Franki Amato mystery called Marsala Maroon. I’m not a big jazz fan, but there is a fascinating true crime story that involves jazz in New Orleans in the early 1900s, and it’s unsolved. So, the plotting wheels in my brain are turning…
Kathy: Will you share any other upcoming books?
TA: If I can find the time, I’d like to write a cozy-ish mystery series set in Italy. I have some ideas for the protagonist—maybe a teacher, maybe a tour guide—and some great titles. The titles for me are everything. If I don’t have a title I’m excited about, I simply cannot plot-pants a book.
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Galliano Gold (Franki Amato Mysteries) by Traci Andrighetti
About Galliano Gold
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Limoncello Press (October 1, 2019)
Print Length: 327 page
It’s Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, but PI Franki Amato has too many problems to celebrate. A proven Sicilian lemon tradition hasn’t landed her a proposal, so her nonna has amped up the meddling to get her married, and pronto. Franki’s also under pressure to solve the strange murder of a family friend’s nephew, Nick Pescatore, who was found on a Mississippi River steamboat rumored to be haunted. When the sinister old boat sets sail on an overnight gambling cruise, Franki goes undercover with a motley crew, including a Mark Twainophile captain with a murderous past and a slimy galley chef with a mobster brother, not to mention an ex-stripper landlady with a newfound career as a memoir writer and all-too public speaker. Franki has to figure out what missing Civil War gold, a playing card, and a mysterious woman on roller skates have to do with Nick’s death. If she doesn’t, it’s anchors aweigh for Franki—down to Davy Jones’ locker.
About Traci Andrighetti
Traci Andrighetti is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Franki Amato Mysteries and the Danger Cove Hair Salon Mysteries. In her previous life, she was an award-winning literary translator and a Lecturer of Italian at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics. But then she got wise and ditched that academic stuff for a life of crime--writing, that is. Her latest capers are teaching mystery writing for Savvy Authors and taking aspiring and established authors on intensive writing retreats to Italy with LemonLit.
Author Links:
Webpage: http://traciandrighetti.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/traciandrighettiauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TAndrighetti
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7383577.Traci_Andrighetti
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/traci-andrighetti
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Traci-Andrighetti/e/B00GL3SN3G?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000
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