Coming from a traditional Italian family who gathered for pasta dinners every Sunday, I developed a love for reading and writing at a young age, and I knew that when the time came to write my own stories, the influence of my culture would be at the forefront.

Such is the case in my debut novel, The Owner & the Wife, an operatic, nostalgic Italian American love story for the ages. Set in 1980s New York City, the novel mirrors my real life as both restaurant owner and wife, but these parallels between fact and fiction weren’t by design.