Thriller writer Lynn F. Casella

I’m looking for an agent for my debut thriller The Don’s Wife, where I introduce Calabrian born Sarina Donato who is married to Sicilian American Nick Donato. My plot involves powerful personalities and juicy plot twists, heart-pounding action, plus California wine and the Mafia. When Sarina kills her husband and becomes the Don, she then betrays her lover to save the California wine industry from destruction. In my sequel Lady Don, which is currently being written, Sarina Donato is called back to Italy by her family’s mentor, Calabrian Don Francesco Luciano. While she helps him as he requests, she secretly plans to revenge her father’s murder.

I published The Man and the Mountain: Sydney Laurence’s Mt. McKinley, written by my father Cyrus Peter Francisco. Anchorage’s KAKM-TV found his handwritten manuscript and contacted me. I was surprised to see that it was written on yellow notebook paper in my father’s neat script, so I decided to publish the book to include photos of Laurence’s oil paintings. Thanks to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, I was permitted to use color transparencies of Laurence’s oil paintings on the cover of the book. Other images of Laurence and his work are spread throughout the book as illustrations. One of my favorite images I use in the book is of my father pictured writing in a black and white photo on the beach in Southern California. He worked as a civil engineer and also wrote for a civil engineer magazine.

KAKM filmed the documentary Laurence of Alaska and in conjunction with that debut, 100 plus of Laurence’s oil paintings began a West coast museum tour. I sold half the book’s first printing of a 2200-book print run in one day. I was invited to do a kick-off book signing of my own at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art on the same day that the artist’s West Coast museum tour opened. My mother Barbara Kent Francisco Lievsay and my youngest sister Debbie Hammond joined me. My mother and I signed lots of books.

I marketed my father’s book the old fashioned way by press release, book reviews, press articles, advertising and email before the Internet was popular. Then, I paid back my mother for fronting me the cash for publication. It is still in print and I’m still selling it. Now, you can purchase The Man and the Mountain: Sydney Laurence’s Mt. McKinley on Amazon.