About

While living in Sicily, Christopher grew increasingly curious about his family history. All he ever heard was that his grandfather came from the island. So, he and Joanna decided to do a little digging! They met a nice man at the records office in Termini Imerese, a smallish city sitting just outside the giant shadow cast by Palermo. Hours later, they left armed with documents and other hints and clues, and he thought he had a decent but still incomplete understanding as to why his grandfather left Sicily at the age of eight without his parents. Here is Christopher’s grandfather, Tommaso, as a young man.

The new-found knowledge that his Sicilian ancestors were desperately poor, and no gravesites or markers of any kind existed to mark their time and existence was a powerful impetus. It led him on a quest to document what he could, and in doing so, it would be a way to honor them. That effort is leading to Leaving Marinella, a fictionalized account of the story to be published by Black Rose Writing in July 2026. A special emphasis was placed on Tommaso, the young Sicilian boy who left the island with nothing more than the clothes on his back—but someone who eventually would achieve the American Dream. The book cover will be posted here as soon as a copy of the image is available.

Christopher has a new book coming out in April 2026, An Author’s Dozen, a collection of short stories: When ordinary lives meet extraordinary moments, magic happens. Embedded in thirteen stories are journeys through imagination and delight, transporting readers into the lives and experiences of diverse characters. With various genres and themes, this literary feast is for anyone who loves the art of the short story.

Before Leaving Marinella, Christopher drew on his years of work in law enforcement and wrote two police crime thriller-type books. In the first one, Shadow Investigation, DEA Agent Sam Dahl gets more than he bargained for helping a friend find her missing parents who disappeared while boating in the Gulf of Mexico.

Peace River Village followed in which four retired detectives living on the same cul-de-sac in a retirement village in Florida take action when the neighbor’s seventeen-year-old granddaughter goes missing and the local police conclude she’s just another runaway. The cadre of detectives launch their own investigation — a wild ride ensues, careening from tension to hilarity to horror.