We had the craziest rain blast over the weekend here in
Vancouver. Looks like we might be in for a blustery Autumn. Lots of time to
curl up in a corner and read a good book. Luckily for us, we have author Matteo
Sedazzari here to tell us about his new one. Go for it, Matteo!
SC: Tell me a little bit about your main character of this book.
MS: There are many protagonists, from anthropomorphic foxes
to humans. Being a fantasy adventure story, I wanted to move from character to
character to push the book at a rapid pace, like a frantic piece of music. Yet
this is an excellent opportunity to introduce some of the key players. Charles Renard is the leader of all foxes
across Europe, who resides with his family in Fox Hill Hall in Foxham. He loves
to wear plus fours and a smoking jacket. Charles may look like aristocracy, but
he started off working on a farm. Yet, at an early age, it transpires; he has a
head for numbers. So Charles becomes an accountant before getting a job at the
Bank of England. He makes a killing from stocks and shares, takes over Boxham,
Norfolk, and renames the village, Foxham. Charles even advised the allied
forces in defeating Hitler. His leadership and bravery are paramount throughout
Tales from The Foxes of Foxham; Charles gives reason to the story.
Alberto Bandito is a young jolly Neapolitan fox born into a
crime family. His father, Mario, is a Don of Naples. Yet Alberto prefers to
draw and paint and eat pizza, rather than be a mobster. His carefree ways gain
the attention of the Witches of Benevento. The coven decides Alberto is the one
to be sacrificed, so they and their wicked friends can take over the world.
Alberto is kidnapped but rescued; however, he is now cursed. The spell has to
be broken, for Alberto will be saved and the world. He is the youthful and
naïve aspect of Tales from The Foxes of Foxham.
Saving Alberto is an essential part of the book, and two
good witches must ensure no harm comes to this young fox. Carlotta, an Italian
female witch, is trendy, rides a scooter; she is beautiful, as she bears an
uncanny resemblance to Marilyn Monroe. Carlotta was once an evil witch in the
making until she saw how the Witches of Benevento wanted to sacrifice Alberto
for a dark world. Carlotta is a true hero, fearless and strong. The other good
witch is Trudi Milanese.
A fox, with magic in her bloodline, as Trudi comes from a
family of fox witches, who were allies with good human witches many centuries
before. Originally from Milan, where Trudi excelled in sports at school, before
realising that Italian cooking is her passion. Raised by her grandparents, as
her father rejected Trudi at birth. Her grandparents owned a hip hotel and restaurant
in Milan. However, as the years have passed, the magic in her family has laid
dormant. When her grandfather dies, her grandmother, Anna, is swindled out of
the hotel by Trudi’s father by a forged will. So, Trudi and Anna relocate to
Foxham. Anna and Trudi open an Italian café and take over a care home for Foxes
in the village. Life is good until destiny knocks on her door when she finds
out she is a witch, and not only that but Trudi also has to save the world.
Trudi is comical and heroic, bossy, yet kind-hearted; she is a good and
truthful fox but will bend the rules. These four certainly give Tales from The
Foxes of Foxham a great deal of entertainment.
SC: Wow! There’s a lot going on in Foxham. Nice play on “Renard”,
n’est pas? Do you believe in the
paranormal and if so, do you have an experience you can share?
MS: Yes, I do believe in the paranormal; I have experienced
a few things. As a child, I was on a play-swing that faced the garden shed's
side window at the rear of the garden. This was a suburban town in south west
London, nothing eerie or sinister. I wasn’t using the swing; I just used to sit
there, as kids do on a summer’s evening. I told my parents that I was reading
too many horror stories, and my brother just mocked me! Anyway, as I gazed up,
in the shed’s window I saw a man, with a gruesome face looking down at me with
a sinister smile. I screamed, turned around and he was gone.
I had a recent experience on holiday in Norfolk, where much
of Tales from The Foxes of Foxham is set. I was riding a bike on an old road
from Horsham Saint Faith to Spixworth. It is an old road mainly for walkers,
bike riders, and joggers, not many cars as there are barriers on some parts of
the road. Yet as there is farmland
there, you will see the odd car or van. I was cycling along before I suddenly
felt the presence of a car behind me. Even with headphones on and music
blasting out, a cyclist develops a ‘sixth sense’ of a vehicle up their
backside! I slowly looked over my shoulder and saw the front of an old white
van. As the road is narrow, I decided to pull over and let the vehicle pass. I
faced forward and steered the bike to the side. I waited for about 30 seconds,
then I turned around, and the van wasn’t there. There wasn’t a turning off or
anything like that. It didn’t freak me out, as nothing terrible happened.
There is a common one that I occasionally experience, which
is probably more due to frequency than the paranormal. You think of someone you
haven’t heard from in ages, an old friend, and then out of the blue, you get a
call, a text, a message via social media. A few Christmases ago, on Boxing Day,
I was staying with family at a hotel in London. I woke up thinking a lot about
a particular individual, why, I don’t know, we aren’t close, and in the same
breath, we aren’t foes. Our interaction is minimal; we haven’t laughed together
or exchanged angry words. Later that day, I was sitting in a café in Soho,
London, and he walked in with his girlfriend. I was spooked and excited at the
same time. I know plenty of people have had similar experiences to the one
above.
SC: It’s weird when that happens, for sure. What titles are you working on now that you
can tell us about?
MS: The main project at the moment is marketing Tales from
The Foxes of Foxham. I have a follow-up in mind or a story I wrote many years
ago about a commedia dell'arte troupe, led by a clown, that try to bring down a
totalitarian regime in renaissance Florence. It might be the latter. I will
keep writing for my website www.zani.co.uk, the publisher of this book. We have
published A.G.R‘s thriller trilogy, The 7PS, one and two are already out. Paolo
Sedazzari’s Feltham Made Me is a witty coming of age story about three Feltham
friends in the 1970s and 1980s. Dean Cavanagh’s humorous, brutal, poignant, and
philosophical novel, The Secret Life of The Novel and Irvine Welsh and Dean
Cavanagh’s Performers, staged at the Edinburgh Festival in 2017 about the cult
film from the 1960s, Performance. Nice to have Irvine on board. I will message
you when any books from ZANI are about to go to market with pleasure.
SC: We’d love that. Thanks for stopping by. Let’s take a
look at your novel now.
Amazon UK Amazon Blackwells Hive
Excerpt 1Upon hearing the conceited tone of Andriana’s declaration, Carlotta glances at Francesco and Leonardo, and says, ‘Which one of you fancies your chances then?’Leonardo, the elder of the brothers, slowly takes off his three-button tailor-made jacket, neatly folds it, places the item of clothing slowly on the ground, then valiantly declares, ‘I do.’Then the fearless wolf runs towards the red-capped goblins, who quickly disperse upon seeing the oncoming, scary-looking animal. Andriana gazes at Leonardo with astonishment, which turns to shock as Leonardo leaps high into the air, grabbing the front handle of Andriana’s broomstick.‘Get off me, you crazy filthy wolf,’ Andriana screams, yet the courageous and strong Leonardo shakes her broomstick so hard in mid-air, regardless of his own safety. Leonardo has one thing on his mind—for Andriana to drop her leather satchel of spells.His bravery pays off, as he rattles the flying broomstick so hard that Andriana has no choice but to use both her arms to steady it, allowing the bag to slide all the way down her left arm and into the cypress trees sloping on the roadside.‘No!’ screams Andriana, as she sees her weapons of mayhem drop with so much force that they break many branches before hitting the dusty and hard soil, which explodes upon impact.
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