Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book? When did it come out? Where can we get it?
Valerie's
Retreat follows the life of a
forty-one-year-old woman who happens to fall in love with a man sixteen years
younger. My wife is sixteen years older than I am, so that might have helped
foster this idea for a book. The jokes Valerie must endure, such as, "Do
you have to cut his meat for him?" are actual barbs my wife received
during our dating process. Like Valerie, I also worked in a bank. Unlike
Valerie, I never considered robbing the bank where I worked.
Valerie doesn't consider herself a
"Cougar". Franco, her boyfriend, happened to attend the same church
singles dance on the same night. They talked, talked some more, went on a date,
and presto- they're boyfriend/girlfriend. That's how it happened with my wife
and me. "Cougar" makes the women dating younger men seem somewhat
predatory. That isn't the case at all with Valerie or my wife. For the record,
my wife never considered robbing a bank either. Well, maybe considered it, but
never planned it out.
Valerie's Retreat
is available on Amazon in paperback and ebook.
Is there anything that
prompted your latest book? Something that inspired you?
My background
has a teeny influence on Valerie's
Retreat. Valerie meets a man sixteen years her junior at a local church
dance. My wife and I have the same age difference and met at the same kind of
place. That got me thinking about Valerie’s
Retreat, but I had to write the book after REALITY TV made the older women
in these relationships look so petty and sexually predatory. I had to set the
record straight and show an older woman whom other women her age could relate
to.
That's great!
So, when did you know you wanted to write? Or has it always been a pastime of yours?
The actual impetus for me to begin writing came
while I was reading Three Weeks With My
Brother by Nicholas Sparks. When I got to the part where he received a
million-dollar advance, I thought, “Holy cow! He’s a good writer, but I know I
can do this too.” I’ve been writing since that day in 2004.
That sounds like I’m in this for a money grab, which
money for doing this would be nice, but writing is rewarding. With Valerie’s Retreat, I hope to make Cougars
less self-serving and more relate-able. With A
Spy At Home, I hope people see those with Down syndrome, a form of mental
retardation, as individuals to be accepted and not pitied. Hazardous Choices brings to life the difficulty a gang member would
have trying to leave a gang and enter mainstream middle-class society. A Mormon Massacre follows a young man
with a strong sense of justice trying to undo the wrongs created by selfish
church leaders. All of these topics brought me joy and pain in the writing.
Writing is enjoyable, but revising it and striving for high quality work is a
hardship. Rewarding but hard.
Do you have any favorite authors?
I
really liked Gillian Flynn's Sharp
Objects, but I'm not sure she should be a favorite after only one book.
Writing a series sounds very boring, but I loved the Hunger Games series. I envy the way Stephen King subtly takes the
reader from the world one knows to accepting ghosts in a hotel closed for the
winter. The Shining sounded so dumb
when I heard the story line, but reading Mr. King’s work, it’s easy to forget
that ghosts inhabit a plane of existence, if they exist.
Do you write in a specific place? Time of day?
I really don’t understand writers
that have a specific ritual they follow. To hear some writers talk about
writing, they sound more interested in the process than the story. If an idea
hits me, I write it down whether that’s in the laptop, where it will eventually
end up, or on a sheet of paper. My ideas don’t follow a schedule, so neither
does my writing.
Are there any words you'd like to impart to fellow writers? Any advice?
A couple of pieces of advice (it’s
free, and you get what you pay for):
1.
If
you say I can - you can; if you say I can't - you can't. Either way you're
right. The biggest obstacle we have to success is ourselves. I have no idea who
said that, but I suspect it was the parent of a whining child.
2. You
really need to find someone who will tell you if your work stinks. Most people
won't. In fact, it's very hard to find someone honest enough to do that.
Lastly, to
readers: I understand people are
hesitant to give independent authors a chance. If any of the books I've
mentioned interest you, please go to the free "Click to Look Inside"
and sample the first chapter. If a book grabs you that quick, you'll probably
be glad you got it. Also, if you are in a book club that reads one of my books,
I'd be honored to join your discussion. Feel free to contact me through
Facebook or my website, www.josephmrinaldo.com.
Readers, here is the blurb for Valerie's Retreat.
Valerie's Retreat
follows the life of a forty-one-year-old woman who happens to fall in love with
a man sixteen years younger. My wife is sixteen years older than I am, so that
might have helped foster this idea for a book. The jokes Valerie must endure, such
as, "Do you have to cut his meat for him?" are actual barbs my wife
received during our dating process. Like Valerie, I also worked in a bank.
Unlike Valerie, I never considered robbing the bank where I worked.
Valerie doesn't consider herself a "Cougar".
Franco, her boyfriend, happened to attend the same church singles dance on the
same night. They talked, talked some more, went on a date, and presto- they're
boyfriend/girlfriend. That's how it happened with my wife and me.
"Cougar" makes the women dating younger men seem somewhat predatory.
That isn't the case at all with Valerie or my wife. For the record, my wife
never considered robbing a bank either. Well, maybe considered, but never
planned it out.
Here is an excerpt.
At the dance Janet looked around
the large, open room with the DJ lights and stereo equipment lining one wall.
The vacant tile floor serving as the dance floor stretched from the DJ’s area
to the beginning of several neat rows of tables and chairs. "Why is he
playing fast songs to start with? He needs to be playing a few slow songs to
get everyone up and moving."
"Go tell him, Janet. I think
he’s new," Valerie prodded her friend. Janet had yet to miss a dance and
considered herself Director of Music at this weekly gathering.
"I will; he needs my help."
Janet went behind the stereo equipment and spoke into the DJ’s ear loudly over
the music.
On her way back to the table,
Valerie watched as Janet stopped to speak with two young men. The men, dressed
in Dockers and golf shirts, followed Janet back to the table.
Janet turned to the two men and
tried to speak over AC/DC’s Back In Black blaring through the
speakers. "This is my friend
Valerie." Janet turned back to Valerie. "This
is Chuck and uhh, what was your name again?"
"Franco Stavini," said
the six foot tall, thin but solid looking man with stylishly long hair.
"This is Valerie," she
introduced them, then, looking back to Valerie said, "Chuck works with me
at Kentucky Investment. He’s the bookkeeper."
"Nice to meet you,"
Chuck said to Valerie.
Franco nodded to Valerie, and then
said to the group, "Great dance music."
"The DJ is making a point
that he doesn’t want or need my advice," Janet replied. "I told him to play some slow songs to
get people on the floor before speeding it up."
"If you said it that way, I’d
play AC/DC too." Valerie laughed at Janet.
Back In Black mercifully
ended. The DJ played Lady In Red by Chris de Burgh.
"Dance?" Franco asked
Valerie.
As they walked to the dance floor,
Valerie realized this guy looked good and, although he was thin, he carried
himself strongly.
Franco put his arms around her
waist and noticed her pretty face when the flashing dance lights shined their
perpetually moving beams over them. Her medium size standing five foot four
inches fit nicely against him.
"So how long have you known
Chuck?" Valerie asked, leaning closer to his ear than necessary to be
heard over the music.
"Only a coupla weeks,"
he responded, also leaning in close. "I just moved here from Columbus,
Ohio."
"What brought you to
Louisville?"
"I’m an archeologist."
She burst out laughing. "How
in the world did you get a job as an archeologist in Louisville?"
He smiled. "Everyone asks me
that."
"I wasn’t trying to be mean."
"I know; people don’t think
of Louisville as an archeological hotspot." He smiled again.
Valerie noticed his crooked but
cute smile, "So what are you digging up?"
"We’re not really sure. It
might be a Hopewell or Mississippian site; we just can’t tell yet." Franco
tried to keep on topic as he looked at her eyes, reminding himself, don’t let the eyes drift to her chest;
she'll think I'm a perv. He also hoped his breath didn’t reek after
drinking that can of coke at dinner. He brushed his teeth before leaving the
apartment, but one could never be sure.
"Were they Indians?"
"Yeah."
The music stopped, and a few
people clapped. Too Busy Being In Love by Doug Stone filled the room.
Valerie headed back to her seat, assuming they were done. As the two couples
passed on their way back to the table, Janet grabbed Franco and threw Chuck at
Valerie so that they switched partners for this slow song.
"I hope everyone enjoyed
those," a booming voice came over the speakers. "I had a request for
some tender music." Everyone turned to see the DJ speaking into a
microphone. "Now we’ll pick it up a little."
The DJ re-asserted his control by
playing some hard rock tunes. No one even tried to dance to the headbanger
songs. With the heavy metal urge out of his system, the DJ played Randy Travis’
For Ever And Ever, Amen. Franco
asked Valerie to dance, which surprised her.
"How long have you been in
Louisville?" Valerie inquired as they embraced and began to sway in step
with the music.
"Only a few months. What
about you?"
"Me? I’ve been here about
twenty years. Where’re you from?"
"I grew up in Vandalia, Ohio,
just outside of Dayton, but I’ve spent the last seven years in Columbus at The
Ohio State University." Franco paused trying to think of something else to
say.
"Did you dig up Indian stuff
in Ohio?" Valerie realized this cute young fella was shy. That attracted
her; the last several guys she’d dated never stopped talking about themselves.
"I did," Franco said,
with his mind focused on her warm soft body gently pressing against his. "I,uh,
went around Ohio digging into Hopewell Indian burial mounds."
"I work at a bank, so I hope
this doesn’t sound rude, but, who pays you to do that?"
"That’s a good question
Valerie, and not rude; I get asked that from almost everyone I meet. I actually worked for Ohio State as a
graduate assistant for the Department of Archeology. Going out to sites was
just a part of that job. Now I’m doing the same thing for the University of
Louisville."
"You must be a Nosy Parker,"
she kidded, "wanting to pry into those dead people’s lives."
"I promise not to tell
stories out of school about those people," he played along. "Now tell
me what you do at the bank?"
"Well, I work at an in-store
bank branch. An in-store means we’re in a grocery store. Know what I mean?"
"Oh yeah, I’ve seen those."
"I’m the Head Teller for the
one in Food Kingdom on Outer Loop."
The song ended, and they went back
to the table to find Chuck sitting alone.
"Franco," Chuck said as The
Heart Of Rock And Roll by Huey Lewis began, "I’m sorry, but I have to
take off."
"That’s cool," Franco
said to him before speaking to Valerie. "I rode with him so I gotta go,
too."
"If you want to stick around,
I can take you home."
"You don’t mind?"
"Not at all."
"Chuck, I’m -"
"I heard. See you later."
Chuck brushed by Franco and said in a low voice, "Janet’s driving me nuts."
He quickly headed for the door, escaping before Janet came back to the table.
Returning from the bathroom, Janet
asked, "What happened to Chuck?"
"He had to go," Valerie
replied.
"That’s too bad. We were
dancing just about every dance," Janet said with a disappointed
expression.
The DJ played several more songs
before he decided to pack it in for the evening. Janet and Valerie took Franco
home. Valerie walked with him up to his apartment door.
"Would it be all right if I
called you sometime?" he asked nervously.
"That would be fine,"
she smiled. "Do you have a pen to write down my number?"
"Come on in, I’ll find one
real quick so Janet doesn’t have to wait very long for you."
"Relax, Franco, she doesn’t
mind waiting."
He held the door for her to enter
first. To her relief and surprise, this bachelor pad struck her as being as
clean and tidy as her own apartment. So far, no red flag with this guy, she
thought.
He grabbed a pen and paper off the
coffee table and took down her number. They lightly kissed good night.
The instant Valerie shut the car
door Janet practically screamed, "What the hell are you doing?! He’s about
fourteen years old!"
"Oh, puh-leez!" a giddy,
giggling Valerie shot back.
"You’ll have to teach him how
to drive in a few years!"
"Janet, you’re just jealous."
"Damn right I’m jealous! Did
you make a man of him while you were in his apartment?" Janet howled with
laughter.
"Not yet." Valerie
smiled.
"So when are you two going
out?"
"He said he’ll call me."
"You know what that means
Val. No man ever calls when he says he will."
"I know. Whatever; if he
calls, great; if not, no big deal," she said, resigned to the truth of
Janet’s words.
"Did you ever find out how
old he is?"
"No, Janet." She looked
at her friend with mock disapproval. "I couldn’t think of a way to bring
it up tactfully. How old’s Charlie or whatever his name was that you threw
yourself at?"
"I don’t know, but he’s
obviously a few years older than that child you clung to."
"I bet he’ll be man enough
for me," Valerie giggled again.
"With that school-girl
squealing, you sound as young as he IS!"
Janet pulled up in front of
Valerie’s apartment, and Valerie got out. "Thanks for dragging me to that
dance. It was fun."
"No problem, chicky, we’ll
just have to wait and see if your young forbidden fruit calls you."
"Well, Janet, in the unlikely event he calls, his fruit
won’t be forbidden." Valerie smiled, shutting the car door.
Author Bio
The protagonist in Valerie's
Retreat runs off with a man sixteen years her junior. My wife is
sixteen years my senior, so many of our triumphs and trials have made their way
into this book. Our relationship provided a good foundation for the two main
characters’ lives together. The way his and her friends react to their age
disparity also derives, at least in part, from my own experience.
For approximately one year I labored as a Head Teller at a bank.
This employment history enabled me to create a believable bank robbery. The
theft described in Valerie's Retreat
is easy to conceive and execute, but leaves a very clear path to the
perpetrator. That is why the characters had to immediately run.
If you are part of a book club, I would be more than willing
to be a guest at one of your meetings where any of my books are discussed.
Please feel free to contact me through my website (www.josephmrinaldo.com) or
on Facebook.
Author Links:
Website: http://www.josephmrinaldo.com
Amazon Author Central: http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-M.-Rinaldo/e/B003APFY62/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmrinaldo
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