National Literary Award Circe 2013 Winner
Title: “NO STEPS ON THE SNOW”
Author: DANIELA ALIBRANDI
Genre: PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER, NOIR, SUSPENSE with some EROTIC and PULP passages
Release Date: JUNE 27TH 2015
STANDALONE
Francesco, a brilliant middle-aged oncologist signs in a social network while surfing the Internet. He bumps into the profile of the girl he was desperately in love with during High School ‘68, when a horrible homicide happened and the guilty was never to be found. His destiny intertwines in an unpredictable way with that of the girl, now a mature woman. Desperate passions and deep loves of a generation belonging to the past. A thriller that leads to a stunning end.
"This was a wonderful collaboration with you and thank you for letting me help you achieve your goal of publishing the English edition of this unique story. Set in the context of the turbulent times we grew up in and then forward to present day, those of us who remember how it was then and the different paths we took to where are now can relate to the complexities of choices and decisions your characters faced in those difficult years." Allison Whitmore
- Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am Italian and was born in Rome. In my adolescence I spent a meaningful time in USA, Manchester, New Hampshire. For family reasons I came back to Rome, where I ended my classical studies. I’m married with two children and my life has always been full of “duties”, like all mothers have. The house, the husband, the children and an interesting work as functionary in the Educational Field and in cultural exchanges. It was a great effort to manage all this. And in my soul I have always had inspirations that only asked to become stories, but there was never time for that. Until something happened...
- What inspired you to write your first book?
In 2008 an accident occurred to me and I was motionless for almost two months. My life suddenly stopped and, spending many hours alone in my flat, from which I could see each sunset on the Mediterranean Sea, I started to rethink about my high school time, my friends. I felt that those passions were still alive in me, together with the desperate feelings of that generation. The story came out and I wrote No Steps on the Snow with my left hand, the only one that I could move.
- How did you come up with the title No Steps On the Snow for your title?
I just thought about our life as to a great expanse of snow, that we trample on during our living, on which we fall in the worst days we live, while we walk and walk. What if, at the end of our way, turning back we would realize that we left “No steps on the snow”?
- Describe your main character in five words.
Sorry, mean, passionate, mock, naive.
- What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
An author discovers many surprising things since he/she feels that caress in the soul that is the “inspiration”. What most surprised me is how high an author is able to fly while writing. In fact, I realized that I was inside the scenes and among the characters I was creating, I saw them moving around me and I was myself part of the whole. When I wrote the final chapter of “No steps on the snow”, I wiped my tears without realizing I was crying. Writing is a magic.
- What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
My work schedule is very simple. I just imagine a situation and start creating something that gets its shape page by page. The truth is that I never know, at the beginning of the story, how it will go on and in which way it will end.
- Do you have any writing rituals?
Well, for me it’s important to write always in the same place, that is my studio, maybe because from that window I can see the Bay, with its magical scenery. When I need an inspiration I look at the sunset, discovering that each day dies in its own way, like every human being does.
- What book are you reading now?
I always read a lot, a book after another. When I was thirteen I read Hemingway’s whole collection. Now I’m reading a book of an interesting Dutch writer, Saskia Noort. The title is “The Fiver”.
- Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
A writer feels he/she has a mission, which is to convey strong emotions and deep feelings to the readers. An author stays hours and hours alone, writing and creating, sometimes forgetting even to eat at lunch or dinner, if the story requires. What is the only reward that an author needs for all this commitment? A smile from a reader that enjoyed reading the book or, as it happened to me, receiving a letter from a reader of No Steps on the Snow:
“...I want to talk about my emotions, the ones that your book has caused me. How to start? Perhaps from the feeling that has bound and imprisoned me since the first pages, from that deep sense of authenticity that I felt from the very first lines... I have seen materialized before my eyes the story described, and it didn’t matter if I was sitting on the train or standing on the subway, wherever I was, I could feel the moist air of the Tiber river, the warm rays of the sun, the scent of the sea....”.
A writer needs a return from the readers, that’s his/her only real award.
"As I wrote No Steps on the Snow with my left hand, when an accident occurred to me and I was motionless for a couple of months, Italian literary critics use to say that this book was written with the left hand, the hand of the heart."
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I was born in Rome, where I lived during my childhood. Then I moved to United States of America where I lived a significant period of my adolescence, attending St. Francis School in Manchester, New Hampshire. Then I came back to Italy, Rome, where I finished my classical studies. Even in the professional life I have lived experiences in different contexts, which have enriched my "baggage". Working in the public sector I have dealt, inter alia, with the International Relations and Cultural Exchanges with Foreign Countries. In the private life, I'm married with two children. I was always inclined towards writing and this passion has led me to take part in various literary competitions, winning many important national awards. I wrote the following books:
NO STEPS ON THE SNOW (English Edition published in June 2015)The Italian edition was published in 2010 and the book has been a cultural event for the city of Rome in summer 2012. It won the National Literary Award Circe 2013. It has been presented in the most important Italian Book Fair Piùlibripiùliberi.
A SHADOW ON MERRIMACK RIVER My first English Edition published in 2013 available in USA and worldwide, has had four/five stars review from American literary blogs and readers. It's Italian Version “UN’OMBRA SUL FIUME MERRIMACK” is an Amazon Bestselling in the genders of historical fiction and thrillers and noir.
RACHEL’S CHILD (Italian Edition) My second thriller published in 2012 and presented successfully at the Lamezia Terme Book Fair.
THE FOUNTAIN OF THE FROGS (Italian Edition) It was published in June 2015. The thriller is set in the ancient and magic centre of Rome. It won the National Literary Award Perseide 2014.
DEWDROPS SHORT NOVELS (Italian Edition) is a collection of my short novels, that investigate the intimate sphere of human feelings, and have won national literary awards.
My Italian editions will soon be translated in English. To a journalist who asked me what is writing for me, I answered: “Writing is my haven, my everything.”
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