Books and Booze

Mob Blog:  Books and Booze, September 5, 2013

        Books and booze go together like … whoa, wait a minute. Books and booze don’t go together at all. Or do they?

      Well … sometimes. Let me explain.

      You’ve had a rough day. You come home tired and pour yourself a Pinot Noir and arrange for a soak in the tub. You might even light a candle. Now you’re in the mood to read.

      Read? You might be in the mood for something else … sleep perhaps. Let’s start over. Books and booze go together when you’re reading one of my books. Not that I’m encouraging drunkenness, but a glass of wine or an extra-dry Stoli martini with olives beats Diet Coke any day.

      I’m not a lush. Two’s my limit. On the rare occasions when I have three, my husband’s driving and my next day’s aerobics class goes out the window. Honest. I’m a writer, after all, and I need my brain when I sit at the computer. But, as I’ve spent many evenings sitting on a barstool, I feel qualified enough to speak about books and booze.

      Now, I don’t like seedy barrooms or dingy saloons. No, I’m an uptown girl, and I like upscale eateries with cushioned stools and granite-topped counters. Piano lounges and Italian restaurants, a little calamari or frutti di mare before me with a basket of hard-crust bread, the kind true Italians eat. And yes, I like to eat more than I like to imbibe. I’m also inherently social—and I love to meet people. I always ask them, “Do you read?”

      Yes, I meet my readers in bars. My fan base likes books and booze. I don’t suppose this would be true if I wrote cozy mysteries or bodice rippers or sci-fi. But I’m writing crime fiction: Thrillers, with a mob-related theme. It’s not The Soprano’s, and they’re not mob stories, per se. But my characters are mobsters. And while I’m baring it all, I’ll be completely honest and admit that I’ve met a few real live ones in my time.

      But my mobsters are make-believe. Bad-boy Louie Morelli couldn’t be real. Nobody in real life could do what he does and get away with it. But Louie’s very charming, and my female readers love him. My male readers like Louie because he is just so cool.

      Just to be cautious I always tell my fellow imbibers that when they make Stella di Mare into a movie, it’ll be PG-13 or R rated. We’re dealing with infidelity and murder here. So go ahead and pour the bubbly … it’s time for a good book and a little booze.