Interview with Alessio Gallerani, author of Litania

Indie Book Promo is happy to welcome Alessio Gallerani to the blog! He’s the author of many books including his latest  Litania. He is here to answer some of our questions and share about his book Litania, and about his writing. If this book sounds like something you would like to read, please find buy links at the bottom of this post and pick up a copy or two.

IBP – Tell us about your new release?

Alessio – My idea is to treat the historical novel with something paranormal.
The basic argument is a battle, an ambush really, that no historian has dealt deeply. Only Livy does, but not enough. There are many gray areas in the story, starting from the site of the battle. The “Selva Litana” is a forest, but that no longer exists. It would cover most of the eastern Po Valley, but no one knows exactly how much was covered.

If the story is not well known it is easier and more fun to insert extraneous elements. And so I did.

IBP – Tell me a little about yourself.

Alessio – I was born in Ferrara, and shortly afterwards my parents moved to a small town in the countryside of Ferrara province.  There I went to the Classical High School during the 1980s. Subsequently I graduated in Civil Engineering from Bologna University.

But I have another passion: telling stories. I’ve always had it. Illustrations for comics, painting, water colors and photography have been and are my preferred creative languages. Along with writing, obviously.
In 2008 I published the first book of ROOTWORLD, a weird-fantasy trilogy, with Domino Edizioni publishers. This is now available in digital form on Amazon.

In 2010 I had a long short story called Heroic Fantasy published in the first number of Edizioni Scudo’s MAHAYAVAN magazine.

In early 2011 I published an eBook on the Simplicissimus platform: a short science-fiction novel called IDIOTA UNIVERSO (Idiot Universe).

In 2009 I also wrote a pulp-Fantascience novel called ALIENI MANNARI (Alien Werewolves), expressing my personal vision on supernatural beings like vampires, zombies, etc. You can find this too on Amazon in digital format. Along with a thriller written in 2010 and set in the world of tennis champions, called GAME, DEATH, MATCH!  These are also available in printed form on LULU. For the moment all these other publications are in Italian but… one step at a time!

IBP – When did you begin writing?

Alessio – Since the end of the last century;)
In fact I wrote sporadically and often just to have a story to illustrate with drawings. Then I realized that I was interested in much more than the story itself. I was interested in its illustrations, and since 2005 I have been writing diligently, every day or almost.

IBP  – Do you listen to music while writing?

Alessio – Yes, it is essential.
I put on youtube and listen. Punk or pop-punk for writing humor (black humor), folk or Nordic metal for the very “serious” action scenes (even if I do not take myself very seriously, but sometimes …). The soundtracks of the films that I liked more for the scenes where I have to focus more on the plot.
For everything else, what I happen to have on hand.

IBP – State a random fact about yourself that would surprise your readers.

Alessio – I’m a Jedi Knight, but I’m undecided whether or not to the dark side.
Sometimes I am the captain of the Enterprise, dealing with the salvation of an entire planet.
I am a great architect, I design houses, cities, worlds. Often the technical department does not give me permission …

None of these things is true in its entirety. But it is true that I am studying historical fencing, it is true that I am a civil engineer. Ah, I also have a car, I am the captain of that.
Everything else, I write.

IBP – Could you describe to us your typical writing day?

Alessio – I am writing on a pc, also the notes for my stories. I write on the laptop, so I can I take it everywhere. I write at home, in the evening or at any time of the day, if work commitments allow me. Often I go to a public place to write, maybe not too loud, like a library or a bar poorly attended. In the summer, on weekends, I love going to the beach and write in the shade of a beach bar (if I were a millionaire, I would do it every day).

I like to frequently change the place of writing, even in the limited scope of my house, for more ideas.

IBP – Where do you get your inspiration?

Alessio – The plot of a novel is often linked to a character and how he behaves, so I start from an idea of ​​the plot and often arriving at an ending that even I expected at the beginning of writing.
Let me explain why.

For the characters sometimes I rely on people I know (it’s the easiest way, but not so obvious), other times they are tailored to the situation that I need in the story. In many cases, the situations that these people live within the stories are far from those of ordinary people: I can only imagine their behavior, or compare them to current events or narrated in other fiction.

For example, how would an ordinary person in an extraordinary event such as, perhaps, being targeted by gunfire, or find themselves in an alien world? The first situation can be blamed on the facts of record, but the other we can only imagine, or maybe take inspiration from another science fiction story. Often the characters in certain situations behave differently from what is their profile. This is not because “the character took my hand,” as some tell: is because in certain situations people behave differently from those who are their inclinations. The fearless hero often becomes fearful when facing an enemy much stronger than him, or die in mid-novel. It is finding behavior plausible with the situation in which the character is located.

IBP – Which genres do you prefer to read?

Alessio – I like science fiction, fantasy (not “classic fantasy”), the thriller and the novel action / adventure, mystery, etc. What I write is a consequence.

I like almost everything that has something paranormal or parascientific. Actually, no. Everything I like is mandatory to have something paranormal or parascientific.
No, it is not true either. But often what I like has these things;)

IBP – Where can your fans find you ?

Alessio – Mainly on FaceBook (with my name), but there I write in Italian. On Twitter (search: alegallerani) often I post things in English. But everything I put on Facebook I put also on Twitter and vice versa. Become all my friends (please send me a message first, if I do not know you)!
Oh, yes, I’m also on Goodreads, you can contact me there too.

IBP – Vampires or werewolves?

Alessio – Ah, ah! Just wanted to get here.
I write for fun and I enjoy writing many genres. Fantasy, science fiction, thriller, noir, history, novels for children and teenagers. I like to do these things, but I also like to mix them up!
So, to the question “vampires or werewolves,” I say: both. And even zombies, ghosts, and, damn it, aliens!
Together to slaughter each other and to endanger the human race.
The novel I wrote (loosely inspired by the films of Robert Rodriguez) on this subject is: Aliens werewolves.
Unfortunately it is only in Italian because I’d like to let you read.

IBP – What piece of advice would you give to your readers?

Alessio – Do you like something strange, out of the ordinary, but without going into the surreal at all costs? If I did not write, I’m probably writing.

Alessio can be found:

Facebook   *   Twitter   *   Goodreads  *   Website

Litania can be purchased:
Amazon.com eBook   *   Amazon.com Paper

Amazon.co.uk eBook   *   Amazon.co.uk Paper

LITANIA
A STORY LASTING 23 CENTURIES OF PASSION AND DEATH
A PARANORMAL THRILLER NOVEL
Alessio Gallerani (Author), David Haughton (Translator)
216 A.D. is the year of Rome’s dramatic defeat by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae. In the same year, in the Litana Forest, in the Po Valley: Rome faces another “problem”…
We’re in 216 A.D., but we’re also in the present day. In a small village in the Po Valley, not far from Bologna, Laura possesses a rare ability: by simply touching an object she can summon up its distant past from the mists of time. Every night she is assailed by horrendous nightmares. Her gift only brings her anguish, which is why she doesn’t want to use it.
Gianrico, her ex-lover, a penniless archeologist, immerses himself in his work partly in an attempt to forget her, but deep down he is unable to resign himself to losing her. In a different time-span, but in the same place, a terrible violence unfolds: a massacre in the dark depths of a forest.
An epic battle, over which history has drawn the veil of “damnatio memoriae”, its only trace a brief passing mention by Livy. A tragedy in the LITANA FOREST, whose distant echo brings horror to the present…

Alessio Gallerani – bio
I was born in Ferrara, and shortly afterwards my parents moved to a small town in the countryside of Ferrara province.
There I went to the Classical High School during the 1980s. Subsequently, in an unhurried fashion, I graduated in Civil Engineering from Bologna University. But I have another passion: telling stories. I’ve always had it.
Illustrations for comics, scripts for comics, painting, water colors and photography have been and are my preferred creative languages. Along with writing, obviously.

In 2008 I published the first book of ROOTWORLD, a weird-fantasy trilogy, with Domino Edizioni publishers. This is now available in digital form on Amazon: you can either choose the whole trilogy or the three volumes separately. In the same year I published a short story in the Resto del Carlino, the main newspaper of Emilia Romagna, and then later, in 2009, a short story in the anthology titled PROGENIE (Progeny), a tribute to Lovecraft published by Edizioni Scudo.
At the end of 2009 – as the final act of a course in creative writing at Bologna’s Zanna Bianca (White Fang) School – I published a short story in the literary review Tratti, published by Moby Dick.
In 2010 I had a long short story called Heroic Fantasy published in the first number of Edizioni Scudo’s MAHAYAVAN magazine.
In early 2011 I published an eBook on the Simplicissimus platform: a short science-fiction novel called IDIOTA UNIVERSO (Idiot Universe).
In 2009 I also wrote a pulp-Fantascience novel called ALIENI MANNARI (Alien Werewolves), expressing my personal vision on supernatural beings like vampires, zombies, etc. You can find this too on Amazon in digital format. Along with a thriller written in 2010 and set in the world of tennis champions, called GAME, DEATH and MATCH!  These are also available in printed form on LULU. For the moment all these other publications are in Italian but… one step at a time!