Featured Interview With Rich DiSilvio
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Yonkers, NY until age 5, then in Seaford, NY. It was a great little town to grow up in. I have had numerous pets, from dogs, hamsters, rabbits and fish to even a quail, which I incubated and hatched.
Nowadays, I only have a cat, but she’s a sweetheart and all I need. Between you and me, if she heard me say anything other than that, it might get ugly. Very ugly! She can be quite jealous. So, yes, she’s the one and only! And you all can quote me on that!
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
As a young boy and young man, I had dabbled with writing short stories and poems, yet my focus was diverted by other things, such as art, music, architectural design, and construction.
When my children were young, I had dabbled with children’s stories, but never published them. During those early child-rearing years, I had become a voracious reader of history and biographies, which has lasted ever since.
However, I truly began to write seriously when my eldest daughter was going off to college. I wanted her, and my younger children, to have a clearer understanding of history, rather than much of the misinformation posited by reckless revisionists or the misplaced emphasis in schools and museums that likewise distorted history. As such, my first published work was my largest. “The Winds of Time” was an analytical study of the titans who shaped Western civilization, which took almost five years to write and ended up being a 750 page tome.
Soon after, I began writing articles for magazines on topics ranging from historical, art and music, to military, political and architectural. Simultaneously, I had decided to veer into writing novels of historical fiction, thrillers and mysteries.
My solid foundation in history, coupled with my life-long endeavors in fine and commercial art, music, architecture and new media have added greatly to my fiction writing, which has yielded many accolades and awards, even an international Gold award.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I truly have too many favorite authors to mention in both nonfiction and fiction. Yet I do gravitate primarily to nonfiction. I draw inspiration from all sources; written, visual, audio, film, real life etc.
As for some trivia, Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code,” and “Angels and Demons,” offered some inspiration for me to write “Liszt’s Dante Symphony,” which was a spy thriller/mystery with ciphers, that was written well before Dan Brown turned his pen to Dante in his most recent novel, “Inferno.”
Meanwhile, Nelson DeMille’s “Plum Island” offered some inspiration while writing “My Nazi Nemesis.” DeMille’s witty and cocky character, John Corey–and a federal marshal friend of mine–helped to give Jack Goodwin, in my novel, his feisty traits.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
“My Nazi Nemesis” is a fast-paced thriller/mystery that won the RF International Gold Award and is also a finalist in the Goethe Award competition. It features a cocky, and quite humorous, CIA agent, Jack Goodwin, who enthralls his fifteen-year-old daughter by revealing adventurous and harrowing tales of his past during WWII. Besides the amusing way in which he met and married her mother, Jack also reveals a shocking fact; her mother did not die of natural causes, she was murdered in cold blood. The culprit; Nazi SS officer Alois Richter. Fueled with revenge, father and daughter join forces to hunt down his long-time nemesis, as a fast-paced and riveting tale unfolds, leading to a shocking conclusion.
This novel, while being very entertaining, and focusing on the private lives of the main characters, also delves into some lesser known facts about WWII that readers will find quite interesting. Meanwhile, other scenes will rekindle fond memories from the 50s and 60s or even nosedive into some uncomfortable and thought-provoking areas, hence being a true roller-coaster of actions and emotions. I entreat readers to give it a shot. Thank you.
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