Debra Zannelli Author

Does any other author cry when they kill off one of their characters. (I’m not telling you who, there are 7 books and plenty of characters to kill). Please don’t tell me I’m alone. I miss the characters I no longer write about, hoping to find someone I like/hate or both, as much as the ones I left behind. Then I get a review like this and I find myself smiling. “Started reading Dark Night of the Soul last night. I was ‘hooked’ in the first pages.” I can only hope that’s true for all my readers. The reviews I’ve gotten have all been good. Please keep reading and sending in those reviews. I’d like you to know there’s a lot of talk about making Dark Night of the Soul into a movie. The problem is it’s only me and my husband doing the talking. He wants the Ferrari I told him I’d buy him, if it were a hit. Me, I just want to see Marcus brought to life.

The first of the Darkness and Light Series is now available through Amazon in hard copy format. I know my mother’s smiling, just wish she could see it. I got my love of books from her. I’d watch her caress the hard bound book as she read to my sister and I, and I knew I would love books forever.

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup water 2 eggs

1 cup butter (2 sticks) 1 tsp vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

and approximately 3 1/2 cups flour.

Mix all ingredients except flour. Add flour a little at a time, until dough is stiff, amount varies.

Roll dough onto a waxed paper and cut into circles. Place on slightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees until edges are golden brown. About 10-20 minutes. Cool completely.

Topping

Orange icing One – fifty count black candy, many use licorice, but my favorite is black candy melts.

Cut some of the candy into V’s

Spread icing to the outer edge of the cookie . Using candy V’s make jack-o-lantern mouth and nose, use rounded candy for eyes.

Eat the remaining candy

I’M SURE YOU’VE ALREADY MARKED YOUR CALENDERS, BUT JUST IN CASE:

I’ll be at the RHODE ISLAND COMIC CON on the 4th, 5th and 6th of November. It’s a fun way to meet some of the authors from the Association of Rhode Island Authors. Shopping from other vendors, meeting the attending stars, and seeing the visitors with their original costumes is a real treat. I hope to see you there.

THE RI AUTHOR EXPO is a great way to either start or finish you Holiday shopping. I’ll be there, I hope you will be too.

I will soon be releasing a hardcopy version of Dark Night of the Soul. I’ll let you know when the process is complete.

It’s almost here. September 24th is the date of the Exeter Fall Festival. It’s held at Yawgoo Valley Ski Area, Exeter, RI. It starts at 10am and ends at 3. For entertainment there’s Matt Roberts, famous RI magician, music provided by the RI Bluegrass Alliance,Balloons by Bjorn, Kool Kat Face Painting, Pumpkin Painting and a K9 Demonstration. Hungry? Visit Nonnie’s Kitchen, Joes’ Snack Shack, The Cupcakery or The Milk Cafe. Baked goods will be provided by the excellent bakers of Job Corp. Vendors include local RI authors, Thom Ring, Mary Catherine Volk, and Gary Benassi. They’ll be signing and selling their original works. There’s LJ’s Jams and Jellies,Newman Candle Co., Simply Stitched by Lou, Tastefully Simple, J & T’s Seaside Treasures, Sewing for Infants and young children, Never Enough Purses,Lighthouse Fiber Arts, Bent Bow publishing, Cindy’s Workshop, Lavender Waves Farm, Harry Here Farm, and Simply Fun Games. There’s carnival games with prizes. The state is sending a representative of the Unclaimed property department, Renewal by Anderson, the Rythmn Dance Center and the Exeter Fire Station will be represented. Then there’s the friendly people of Exeter. All proceeds go the support the Exeter Public Library and it’s community program. Come for fun, come to support and since it’s my 43rd wedding anniversary, stop by and say hello. Please forgive me if I missed something. My son is getting married this weekend and I’m a bit flustered. I hope to see you there.

To all you trivia lovers, I have a question for you. There’s a $10.00 Amazon Gift card prize going to the first person who answers the question correctly, but first, let me explain.

I may not have posted on my website that I have been collecting stuffed animals since I was a child. They can’t just be teddy bears though I do have a few. Many of my animals I’ve been given or bought myself are tied to an event, an important person in my life, or something I loved when I was a child. Their names have meanings. Sometimes they represent places I’ve visited; the state animal or an animal I encountered in one way or another. The shark came to me when my son went to Biomes with his boy scout troupe and I got to hold a Sand Shark. The manatee came from the gift center near Silver Springs park in Florida, where you can still see them. I love wolves, always have. I got to walk with one in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado. One of the things on my bucket list.

To give you an example of how I choose the name, my first wolf is Amadeus, for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Of course I had to have a Chaka Cow. Now I come to the question of the month. I just got a Manta Ray from St Johns. I decided to call it Fay, yes it rhymes and that helped me choose the name, but can you tell me what brought it to mind? Don’t forget this is a trivia question. Post your reply on my Debradarknight Facebook page. Guesses will be accepted until my birthday, October 18th, and I am not going to tell you the year, though you might get a sense of when by the answer. I think that’s a big enough hint.

Dark Night is available in all formats. I’ll have a supply of the updated books and the few remaining old ones with me for RI ComicCon (November 4-6) and the RI Authors Expo, Saturday December 3, 2022 from 10:00 AM – 5:00PM The Expo will be held at the Crowne Plaza, Warwick- Grand Ballroom – 801 Greenwich Ave, Warwick, RI 02882.

If you’re like me and love a good horror or science fiction/fantasy novel, ComicCon is the place to go. There’s lots of things to do and a great group of RI authors. The Darkness and Light series is complete. All five books are available. If you’re looking for Horror, Psychological horror, romance, and a crime thriller, you’ll find them all in the Darkness and Light Series, as you follow Marcus’ evolution from victim to survivor, from a man alone to a man able to enter the world he thought would never welcome him. Of course there is a sprinkling of humor for that’s one of the ways we survive the horrors we all face.

I’m not sure Sister World, Back to Terah will be completed in time, but you can’t rush genius. If you haven’t started reading the trilogy, now is the time to begin. Science fiction with many science facts mingle with the people of two worlds as they fight together to save one and free another.

If you have an interest in books of every genre, whether it’s for yourself or to give as a gift, the Expo is the place to go. Many talented Rhode Island Authors will be there and you’re sure to find something to put under the tree or beside your bed. I like to read sitting in my rocking chair. Of course they also make long trips in crowded airplanes less painful.

I hope to see my old friends and make new ones.

I think it’s time I tell you a little more about me. Neither of my parents finished high school, still both them eventually got a college degree. It wasn’t easy. They were young when they got married, 16 for mom, 19 for dad. They worked hard to support the children they loved, finally buying a converted hunting cabin, they turned into a home. We knew how much they loved us. We saw their struggle, the complaints they never said. I can still hear my mother singing, my father playing his guitar. With my father working two jobs, mom going full time, they were able to get a bigger house. My short story, No Green-eyed Monster, published in Green, an ARIA Anthology, explains how I felt about the new house. I started working full time at 15, continuing through out my Junior and Senior High school years. I was seventeen when I met the man I was to marry. He worked full time as a maintenance man while going to college. Our exciting dates included watching him snore at the drive in, helping him clean offices (dusting while he vacuumed) and doing the typing for his college papers. We saved every penny we could and when he completed his degree in Electrical Engineering in four years, quite an accomplishment working full time, he got an apartment, we got married and began our new lives. Our first house, a small raised ranch, was the first house any in his extended family had been able to buy. We hoped to start a family. It took almost eight years before we had our son, our only child. I was finally able to earn my degree, graduating on his first birthday. He was four when the doctors found out I had a brain tumor. I wasn’t as scared as you might think. I was determined. My son was three, the doctor – the third best brain surgeon in the world – made me feel as sure as anyone could that I would survive. During my recovery, we had to keep my son in day care and there was very little I could do. My head hurt with each movement and I couldn’t chew anything harder than ice cream. It could have been worse. I could, however, sit, That was when I wrote Dark Night of The Soul. About my desire to survive, how important it is to be seen as who you really are, I hoped people would recognize the bit of themselves in its many characters. I tried to get it published, then life once again intervened and the hand written book was put in a box undiscovered until I retired. My husband’s job moved to Rhode Island, of course my son and I went with him. I became a certified teacher assistant, the best job I ever had. Retiring from that job I finally published Dark Night, the first of 8 books (I’m hoping there’ll be more). I get to travel to the places I read about. As a kid, on a good week I read three books, two if I had a lot of homework. Marriage and motherhood brought the number down to one, when I’m writing it’s down to none. I’m still married to the man I met when I was seventeen. We’ve had our problems but loving each other was never one of them. My son is soon to be married. The number of days I’ve lived is longer than those I have left. I hope those who read this see how important are the people we love to the people we become. Face your challenges, you are stronger than you think. This is written with love, and a hope you all get to move beyond your Dark Night, whatever it may be.

It’s early but I’m doing my best to think ahead.

FIRST: THE EXETER FALL FESTIVAL

Coming on September 24th is the Exeter Fall Festival. For people who like to have fun and shop from local (Rhode Island) craftsman, this is the place to go. There’s carnival games, a Magic show, blue grass music, face painting, and lots of talented vendors and local authors. We have two food trucks and the best cupcakes I’ve ever had. I’ll eat what doesn’t sell. Though I don’t sell books there, as I man the pumpkin painting venue, (the drought has put this event in peril), I will bring a few of my books. The festival is held at Yawgoo Valley Ski Area, Exeter, RI Come have fun, check out the crafts and the terrific RI authors. Feel free to stop by and say Hello.

SECOND: RI COMIC-CON

Once again I’ll be selling and smiling at the RICC, it’s always a pleasure to go and see the wonderful vendors and shoppers who make this such a fun event. It’s being held November 4th, 5th and 6th. I’ll be bringing my books, including, the updated version. I hope you’ll stop by, visit me and the other talented authors.

THIRD BUT NOT LEAST: THE 10th ANNUAL AUTHORS EXPO

It will be held at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick, RI. Santa will join the many authors selling and signing their original works. There will be guest speakers, raffles, panels and presentations. Held on December 3rd, it’s a great way for late Christmas shoppers to begin and early shoppers to cross off the last people on their list. It opens at 10:00, ending at 5:00. I hope to see you there.

Though I’m not asking you to come to all the events, I’m hoping you can make it to one of them. There’s something special to be found in every one, all being different in their own way, but each one a truly special and enjoyable way to spend your day.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW, THE BUSY SEASON IS ABOUT TO BEGIN