Inside the Mind - Silvano Stagni

The first book I published was about a story I did not want to die with me. I based the plot on the stories about World War II I heard from previous generations when I was a child and teenager. You see, my mother's family were Venetian Jews, and my mother, my grandmother, and various great-uncles were in the resistance. As I was revising the book, I had the idea of turning the character inspired by my grandmother into an investigative lawyer (she was one of the few women practising law in pre-World War II Italy) so I moved to writing historical crime fiction

My latest book, Venetian Gold, is a story set in Venice in 1930. It is the third story in the pre-World War II series "Rachele Modiano Mendes - the early years." Rachele Modiano Mendes, a lawyer working at the Venier-Zanin law firm, revises three contracts with the same clause. Borrowers had to use a specific shipping company, Fonda Trasporti, until they had fully repaid their loan. She is trying to figure out the reason behind the clause when the managing director, Enrico Fonda, is found dead the day her brother and one of her clients met him. Rachele must find out who killed Enrico Fonda. It is the best way to protect her client and her brother. Meanwhile, she receives a phone call from a Swiss police inspector asking for her cooperation. The contract and the Swiss police inspector are the key to the real crime discussed in the book.

A lot of my fixed characters are inspired by people I met growing up, so that is easy. For the others, I start by creating at least a page for each character, writing down their physical appearance, their personality, their life story, likes, dislikes, and quirks. This is a process I call 'Having coffee with my characters', and it starts before I write a sentence of the story. Once I have sorted out the characters that appear in the plot, I start writing. Sometimes a new character 'appears' and before I continue writing, I have coffee with him (or her), going through the same process.

My day is divided into sections. I start the day working on the book I am writing. That usually happens between eight to ten in the morning, or at least for two hours. Then I dedicate two hours to the business of writing, promotion, and organising events (virtual or in person). That takes up another two-hour slot. The third section is dedicated to editing, if I have something to edit, or working on some paid assignments, either writing or formatting books. The fourth slot is dedicated to catching up working at the items on my to-do list I haven't ticked yet.

The constant creativity. The manuscript is the creative process; then I have to turn it into a product, such as a book, which has a title, a cover, a brand, etc. It is a distinct creative process, but equally exciting. I call myself an author-publisher.

I write historical crime fiction. I spend a lot of time figuring out what was available in 1930 or 1953. For instance, how did people copy documents before photocopiers? When did room telephones become common in hotels? When did police start using fingerprints? Sometimes research forces changes in the plot.

Try to navigate the tightrope between impostor syndrome and overconfidence. If you can't afford an editor, ask a friend to read your book; an outsider's opinion can be invaluable. Ask yourself two questions (1) Who will read my book? (2) How will I sell my book? Last but not least, don't rush it. Try to achieve a quality product and remember that often, perfect stands in the way of good enough. Experience will help you identify the good-enough.

Promotion is the most difficult thing for me, and I am constantly learning. I use social media a lot, and I try to be my publicist. I also organise events (both virtual and in person) to introduce my books to people. I am getting better at approaching independent bookshops to see if they want to host a book-signing, or organise a virtual open mic with other authors to read excerpts of our books.

I am promoting my latest book, my sixth, called Venetian Gold, and I started writing my seventh, working title Cafes and Murders. I have plotted half the story. At the moment, I am trying to figure out how many deaths there will be in the story.

As I mentioned earlier, my first book, "The Dressmaker's Parcels", was set in Venice because the real-life story that inspired it was centred around Venice. The other books sort of followed because my grandmother, who practised law in Venice, inspired the investigative lawyer in the two series. My maternal grandparents lived in Venice. I use the city as a resident rather than a visitor. I live in London (UK) and when I write, I am transported from the banks of the river Thames to the Venetian lagoon, one of my favourite places in the world.

Yes, of course. However, I tried to write a contemporary story set in the banking world (a world I know very well, because I worked in the financial world for many decades), taking place between London and New York and set just after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I wasn't having fun writing it, so I stopped. I extracted two short stories from it, and there may be more hidden in what I wrote.