Straight From the Mouth of 'Napoleon' Emilia Rutigliano

Emilia I. Rutigliano scored fiftieth percentile on her SATs… and on her LSATs… and on her BAR…Sigh…

But she nevertheless survived, and seems to be doing OK. She practices Law read lore) in Brooklyn, New York (read Nu Yawk). She was born in the former Soviet Union, and emigrated in 1979. She is happily married to the same crazy Italian she’s been with since college, who suffers from a severe addition to travel (still in acute form). Together they are doing a somewhat passable job with their three precious darlings (who are now teenagers, thus elaboration is not necessary).

Which is why Emilia writes about Veronica. Veronica, though… is interesting. And Emilia knows interesting.

So she weaved the tale about the interesting characters, places and events from her own life. It is remarkable how if you choose to view a subject objectively, it becomes downright artistically gorgeous. So Emilia views and shows Brooklyn Russians as gorgeous, and the Barese intricacies as gorgeous, and she even tolerates Paris, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia for the reader’s interests.
Thank you, dear reader, for tolerating these scenes….

LAYERS OF VERONICA IS ON FACEBOOK…LIKE US.

Her first book in the Layers of Veronica series is Napoleon.

Visit Emilia Rutigliano’s website at www.layersofveronica.com.

Thanks for letting us interrogate interview you!  Can you give us a go-for-the-gut answer as to why you wanted to be an author?

I didn’t.  I’m just a good storyteller, and people were kind enough to listen to my stories.  It just happened.  I wrote the first story (book) and it kept getting passed around.  I published on kindle because it was easier for people to read. 

Tell us (we won’t tell promise!) is it all it’s cracked up to be?  I mean what are the perks and what are the demands?  

The demands are the voices in your head have a reality of their own.  They want to be heard… regardless of whether you are in a mood to sit with your computer or not.  They (the characters, I mean) also do whatever the heck they want, even when you’re sitting there staring at the typing done by your hands and telling them not to do it.  They are very disobedient.  The perks are the readers.  Always… anyone who has ever said “thank you for writing this, when is the next book coming out?” is the ultimate perk.

Which route did you take – traditional or self-published – and can you give us the nitty gritty low down on what’s that like?

I went straight to kindle.  I have a character that will NOT appeal to a a mass audience.  I knew that from the start.  I wanted a cult following for this series and that is what it’s been getting.

Tell us for real what your family feels about you spending so much time getting your book written, polished, edited, formatted, published, what have you?

My family is hysterical.  Every time something ridiculous happens in our family, the kids want to know if ‘it’s going in the book.’  It usually does.  A few months ago, a book I ordered on Kinbaku-bi came from Amazon and my 14 year old happened to have opened it.  He studied it, flipping the pages and looked at me.  “Are you into this?”  He asked, without much judgment.  “No.”  I said, as nebulously as possible.  “Is Veronica into this?” Was his immediate follow-up question.  “Yes”  I said without any emotion whatsoever.  “She’s an interesting chic.”  He deduced and handed me the book.  My husband doesn’t even ask anymore.  If he happens to get up at four in the morning and I’m writing, he just asks who is having an argument (in my head.)  I can’t sleep until I let them air it out on the page.

What was the craziest or insane thing that happened to you in the book publishing process?

The fun is yet to come.  I can’t wait!!!!

How about the social networks?  Which ones do you believe help and which ones do you wish you could avoid?

Personally, I love Facebook.  It works for me.  I use the Layers of Veronica Page as a Scrapbook/ Journal of Veronica’s World.  So the place, food, clothing and things that are pertinent or reminiscent of Layers go in there, as well as quotes and passages form the book.  It’s a fun thing for readers to see, and everyone is welcome to post.  People like to cast the characters, which is a lot of fun.

Book sales.  Don’t you just love them (or lack of?)?  How are you making the sales happen for you?

The book sales are incredible.  Every single one of them!!! FB promoted posts work for me as long as I have a specific, target audience.  It can’t be mass marketed.  The concept of ‘let’s make this appealable to as many people as possible so that they buy the book’ is abhorrent to me.  There is no reason why people should be duped into buying something that isn’t for them.

What is one thing you’d like to jump on the rooftop and scream about?

How much fun this is!  You like me… you really, really like me!!!

Okay, too much sugar for you today!  Here’s a nice cup of Chamomile tea and come on over and sit under the cabana and watch the waves roll in.  Now…can you tell us what you love about being a published author and how all those things above doesn’t matter because it’s all part of the whole scheme of things and you wouldn’t have it any other way?

I wouldn’t have it any other way!  I love every tiny itsy bitsy part of it… except Chamomile tea.  I don’t like chamomile tea…