Between the Cracks Presentation and Book Signing

Book Presentation and Signing

The Magic of the Alchemical Process and the Courage of our Vulnerability

 

The Magic of the Alchemical Process and the Courage of our Vulnerability

By Carmela Cattuti, author of Between the Cracks

 

Having just published an historical novel based on my great aunt’s experience of the 1908 earthquake in Sicily, I started to think about the alchemical process of growth open to the human race residing on this planet. In order to open ourselves to this transformation process we must have what the Italians call “coraggio,” a quality highly regarded by the culture. The word means courage, but when an Italian says it, it is more of a blessing of confidence to transcend the obstacle or confront the issue at hand. A person with great “coraggio” always triumphs regardless of the outcome. This is especially true of the writing process, particularly when we are dealing with difficult material.

In my novel, we see the main character, Angela, moving into a time line that is regenerative and healing. Many of us currently living on this planet possess courage in spades, and are waking up to who we really are. Those who remain steeped in the constructs of religion and politics may take a few more life times to develop enough courage to extricate themselves from these paradigms. But for those of us with enough courage (energetically developed over life times) to face the amount of imposition placed upon the human race from the media, politics, and religion, our transcendence is assured. The time line is created, all we need to do is bring it into our awareness. This is the time line Angela attempts to navigate. She realizes she cannot stay in Sicily; she has to traverse the unknown.

It took a great deal of courage for my great aunt to survive that massive disaster, then marry a man she hardly knew and immigrate to a strange country. I wrote her story and I am humbled by it. Her younger sister was never found and for the rest of her life she often wondered about her fate. Many years later she and her husband returned to Messina to see if they could locate her, but there was no evidence that she had survived the earthquake. I think her story is a tribute to the indomitable human spirit.

From what I can remember of our conversations, she was very much in touch with her inner knowing from the time she was quite young. When she was a child both her parents died and she and her brother were sent to live with grandparents while her younger sister was sent to live with an aunt, so from early on she had confronted loss and abandonment. After the earthquake she was completely alone, surviving on the streets until the Americans came and took orphaned children aboard ships. She ended up in a convent and was raised by the Sisters of Charity.

Her early life was an intense alchemical experience that strengthened who she was and what she came to this planet to accomplish. A less developed soul without an abundance of courage would have perished or given up. Her relationship with the Catholic Church was superficial and the energy of her worship was focused on the Blessed Mother. Even though she was raised in a strict religious atmosphere where her behavior was closely monitored, the construct of religion was not a force behind her spiritual beliefs. She was vulnerable to criticism for her “Mary Worship” by the Italian Community, but she persisted in having an altar devoted to Mary in her home regardless. It is imperative that we as writers develop the same stamina and courage.

Angela was bombarded with family obligations and tragedy, but she persisted in her spiritual development and serving others, even when they were less than kind. Her influence on my life has been profound and when I think I am having a difficult time filling a page, I refer to her life and it puts everything into perspective.

 

 

 

About the Novel

Join Angela Lanza as she experiences the tumultuous world of early 20th century Sicily and New York. Orphaned by the earthquake and powerful eruption of Mt. Etna in 1908, Angela is raised in the strict confines of an Italian convent. Through various twists of fate, she is married to a young Italian man whom she barely knows, then together with her spouse, immigrates to the U.S. This novel is an invitation to accompany the young Angela as she confronts the ephemeral nature of life on this planet and navigates the wide cultural gaps between pre-World War II Italy and the booming prosperity of dynamic young America. Author, artist, and teacher Carmela Cattuti created Between the Cracks as an homage to her great-aunt, who survived the earthquake and eruption of Mt. Etna and bravely left Sicily to start a new life in America. This is the first in a trilogy.

 

Bio

Carmela Cattuti is a writer, visual artist, and teacher. She is the author of Between the Cracks, a novel based on her great aunt's inspirational journey from Sicily to the U.S. Carmela is a graduate of Boston College master’s program in literature. Join her Facebook community and visit her on her Twitter and Pinterest for event updates and articles. Visit www.betweenthecracksnovel.blogspot.com for your free chapter.  The novel may be purchased on amazon.com.

Book Signing in Salem MA.

Hello All,
I will be signing books at Wicked Good Books, 215 Essex St, Salem MA. from 2-4pm on Sunday, May 15th. If you're in the area drop by and say hello.

One Immigrant's Legacy

One Immigrant’s Legacy

By Carmela Cattuti, author of Between the Cracks

 

Growing up in a small city along the Hudson River gave me easy access to New York culture. The hour’s train ride to Grand Central Station gave me ample time to plot my day’s activity. My uncle lived on east 57^th St., between Lexington and 3^rd Avenue, a stone’s throw from Bloomingdale’s Department Store. He had an elegant abode with a signed Picasso print and a plethora of other modern art that hung in traditional New York style from the bottom to the top of the wall in his fabulous Manhattan apartment. I spent a significant amount of time there during the 1960s, and was inundated with emerging New York gay culture.

Being gay then meant you hid your sexual preference from your family, but he and my mother became life- long friends. My uncle often told the story about the first time he met my mother. My father brought her to New York to meet his brother. She stood behind my father until she was introduced then stepped out and my uncle said he fell hopelessly in love. They were both filled with vitality, extremely opinionated, with a love of the extraordinary. They were kindred spirits and I think he felt she could be the link he needed to the family. From what I observed he didn’t hide his life style from her, in fact, she quite enjoyed our visits with him. His partner was always included in the conversation and my mother kept him up on family drama. She invited him to all the family gatherings and encouraged him to participate whenever possible.

 My parents married before my uncle lead a trendy New York life-style and when my mother found out that he could not travel to Boston for their wedding due to his financial circumstances, she sent him money for the train ride. She wanted him there and that created an unbroken bond between them. As I grew up I noticed that I had a sensibility similar to my uncle’s. I have to admit I was more comfortable in an upscale Manhattan apartment surrounded by art than I was hanging out with my friends. As soon as I was able to travel independently, I took every opportunity to go into New York and connect with the city’s vitality.  I became a visual artist partly because of the paintings that hung on my uncle’s wall and because of my great aunt Angela’s influence on my life.

 My great aunt, Angela Barone (heroine in Between the Cracks), raised both me and my uncle. My paternal grandmother died an early tragic death. After this happened my uncle said his family fell apart; my great aunt was the solidifying element in the family. She not only raised me, my father, and my uncle, she partly raised my grandmother. When Angela arrived in this country from Sicily my grandmother was nine years old and in desperate need of attention. She injected three generations with her artistic and creative sensibility, European manners, love of good design, and fierce self-expression. Angela made manifestation of creative vision look easy. She was a superb seamstress and made all my clothes. In fact, I did not completely buy off racks until I was thirty years old.

Angela’s contribution to her family and community was far reaching. She was well-respected among her peers and was a driving force in the Italian American community in our small city. Angela was a survivor of the 1908 earthquake in Messina, Sicily. Before the earthquake Messina was a city of about 150,000, sadly, after the earthquake 100s were left. She was the only one in her circle of Italian friends who had experienced this tragedy. Her need to tell her story was dire so she chose me as a repository for her story’s safe keeping. This was her gift to me. I wrote Between the Cracks to not only share her story and honor her history, but to demonstrate the magic of determination, persistence, and vulnerability in the face of insurmountable odds.

 

Book Club Skype

Greetings Readers,

If you are part of a book club and want to read Between the Cracks as a selection, I offer a half hour free Skype to answer any questions your group may have. Also, click on the page that lists book club questions. Thanks!

New Review for Between the Cracks-enter sweepstakes and review a free kindle!

Check out a new review of my novel at  http://backporchervations.blogspot.com/2015/02/book-reviewkindle-giveaway-between.html