 |
|
While he
is still enjoying the fruits of his labors, Paul Salsini says,
"These people are still in my head. I’m thinking of a
sequel based on 10 years later. I’ll probably go back (to
Italy) in May and start writing this summer."
|
The story Paul Salsini finally wrote
simmered like a rich Italian sauce. For 20 years, he added the needed
ingredients — several trips to a familial homeland and an eye for
historical fact honed by journalistic skill. When he finally served
it, however, Salsini discovered that the true story he thought he
would tell came alive in a very different manner.
At 71, the former Milwaukee Journal
reporter and editor and current Marquette educator, produced his first
novel, an experience that continues to shape his life. "The Cielo:
A Novel of Wartime Tuscany" was self-published in 2006, two years
after he began writing.
"The characters became so real,
and I felt I was reporting what they were doing instead of creating
them," he says. Those characters were the result of Salsini’s
trips to San Martino, Italy, west of Florence, where his father was
born. From 1984 to 2004, Salsini visited more than eight times.
He was captivated by stories told to
him by relatives and others about villagers fleeing to farmhouses in
the nearby hills to hide from the advancing Germans during World War
II. The stories focused on how people from different families had to
get along with each other in these confined spaces.
At first, Salsini struggled to apply
his journalistic integrity to fictionalizing historical events.
"During my career, I never changed a quote so this was a
different experience." As he became comfortable writing fiction,
he enjoyed the freedom to create. "At times it was a very
emotional experience because I like the people in the story a
lot."
He says the experience changed him.
"I think I’ve become more attuned to how people feel, that we
have to get along with others. I realized it wasn’t a story about
war or survival but about when the characters are forced to live
together they form communities and get through things."
|
