Category: Excerpts in Progress

Anthony Raggio, 34 year old descendant of the Family Raggio, wants nothing more than to participate shallowly in his life, letting it unfold around him. Fate has other plans for him, as he discovers the ghosts of the past, secrets buried, and an urgent need to solve a medical problem before his Godchild dies. Stem cell research is buried in laboratories, and children are dying all around the world without recourse to medical intervention. The past is coming to greet Tony and demand that he do something, or live with the consequences.

In 1860’s Italy, only the capture of Rome would make the Risorgimento complete. Giovanni Raggio’s young life holds many new experiences as he yearns to become a part of this momentous event. The people in his family, his home town, his priest, all have their own beliefs. He has yet to test his own. The excerpts from this work can be viewed, incomplete, and on their own, much like Giovanni’s own life, as he travels through Italy, determined to support the revolution.

Quiet. It is all around me. No presents. No need. No urgency. No plan. Just enveloping my morning warmth in a steamy cup of tea, and pleasurable lassitude.

What is this? The phone rings, trilling its insistent demand. I wait. Perhaps I don’t have to answer it, I am not a machine to be ordered about, a slave to jump to the chirping of digital crows. Am I? No, I am not.

I continue my tea.