By Anthony Pignataro
Well, I’ve gone and finally gotten my novel published. It’s called Small Island, and it’s and old-timey noirish tale of intrigue, violence and sex set on contemporary Maui.
I actually wrote the novel back in 2008-09, immediately after I resigned from MauiTime but when I was still living on island. I wrote it, edited it, showed it to some people, edited it more, queried some agents, licked my wounds, edited it more, showed it to more agents, became frustrated (my favorite criticism was that the story wasn’t enough like Magnum, PI) and put it away. In fact, until very recently, I hadn’t given the novel any serious thought in at least a year.
Then not long after I returned to Maui and to the MauiTime editor’s office (mid-June, 2011), I received a press release from Event Horizon Press, a small book publisher located in Palm Springs, California, asking for action/adventure manuscripts that could become ebooks. It was just a general release, not even addressed to me personally. But I remembered my manuscript and impulsively sent it off.
Joseph Cowles, the publisher, and Barbora Cowles, the owner, both read it and apparently loved it. Within a couple weeks I was signing agreements and scrambling to find a high-res image of myself and filling out detailed questionnaires about my background and marketing preferences. A Kindle version of the novel is now available for sale at Amazon and you can get a Nook version at Barnes and Noble. Both editions sell for $3.99.
A trade paperback version is in the works, and should be available for sale in late October or early November. No word yet on how much the paperback will go for.
The novel was a lot of fun to write, but if you intend to read it, please keep in mind that it is kinda, well, trashy. It contains a good deal of sex and violence and foul language. Maui is a beautiful place, but I felt it ripe for a classic noir treatment, where the island’s beauty is just a facade, masking ugliness and evil. Also, though the novel is written in the first person, it is NOT in any way autobiographical. And it is just a work of fiction: based somewhat on personalities, places and events I’ve come across on Maui (and in life in general) but first and foremost it’s a product of my own slightly warped imagination.
Well, that’s that. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do happen to read it, I would love to know what you thought of it.
Thanks!
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