Interview: Giacomo Giammatteo, Author of Murder Takes Time

When he isn't writing, Murder Takes Time author Giacomo is a headhunter and searches the country to fill jobs in the medical and biotech industry. He currently lives in Texas where he runs an animal sanctuary with his wife, including 12 dogs, a horse, a three-legged cat, and 26 pigs. But his best friend is a very large wild boar who takes walks with him every day.

What was the hardest part of writing your book?

I think the most difficult part of this book, in particular, was letting my emotions out. Letting go of them long enough to get it down on paper and into the characters. This was a book close to my heart, as many of the stories in it are real, and a big part of it takes place in my old neighborhood.

When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?

Unlike many authors, I didn't start writing until late, when my youngest son was in his teens. He liked to read fantasy books, so we started reading them together. After we gobbled up a few dozen apiece, we talked about writing one. Joked about it was more like it. But as we worked on plots and storylines, I got excited about it. Soon he lost interest, but I didn't. My first book was an epic fantasy.

Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published (if any)?

I'll get back to that fantasy book in a minute. Let's jump ahead a few years. I got the idea, and the itch, to write a mystery/thriller novel. I soon fell in love with writing in that genre. I wrote the book in a little less than three months, got it to some beta readers, edited it, then more rounds of beta reading. It was a year before it was ready. I felt certain it would be snapped up by the first agent who looked at it.

Okay, you can stop laughing now. But yes, it is the same old story. And 103 rejections later, I decided that I was going to publish it myself. But self publishing, if done the right way, is no easy road either. It is painstaking, time consuming, and costly. And it is a hell of a lot of work.

Article Author: Tracee Gleichner

Tracee is a work at home mom of two little girls, ages 7 and 8. Her love of books started at an early age and has continued on into adulthood. There is nothing she enjoys more than reading and helping authors spread the word about themselves and their books. …

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