Welcome to the 2024 ARIA Author Showcase and Giveaway Event! 

  

  

How to enter – Comment on the daily showcases to enter the daily giveaway. Comments close four days after the initial Showcase post. GRAND PRIZE drawn on Dec 5th (1 -$250, 1 -$100, or a 1 -$50 Amazon gift card. One grand prize pp) – For every showcase you post on, you automatically gain one entry to the grand prize. 30 Authors = 30 entries.    

Charlene J. Centracchio  will be at the Rhode Island Author Expo   

On to the Showcase! 

 

What name do you like to write under? Charlene J. Centracchio

Where do you call home? North Providence, Rhode Island

What genre(s) do you write? Historical Romance

What genre(s) were you drawn to when you were younger? Was there a reason that genre(s) appealed to you the most? Historical Romancer

What were some of your favorite books growing up? Why?

I have read an enormous amount of books, with some of my favorites being Hemingway’s A Farewell To Arms, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, Margaret Craven’s I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Hans Ruesch’s On Top of the World, and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. However, around 1973, I purchased a copy of The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. I was mesmerized by the historical romance genre from that point forward. I am an extremely fast reader and sometimes would read a novel with 500 or so pages within two days. I literally could not read enough in this genre. I have read all of the novels by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Rosemary Rogers, Celeste DeBlais, Day Taylor, and many more. I would definitely say these grand dames of original bodice-ripper historical romances influenced me. In terms of why I liked any of these books, I would say no one specific reason except I am a reader and I enjoy a good story. 

What are some of your favorite books today?

I still read historical romance and that is a problem when you are writing historical romance. I am working on the second novel so I am not reading anything in my genre as I do not want to be influenced in any way by someone else's writing. Thus, I do not have a favorite book today.

What inspired you to become a writer?

Writing has always been a part of my soul; it has always been inside of me. I am extremely creative and writing was an avenue to express my creativity—whether it was to handcraft a birthday card/special birthday story for a milestone birthday for friends/relatives or to write short stories, poems, and, obviously, The Pirate’s Conquest.

In order to write, one must first be a reader themselves, followed closely by creativity, and lastly by dreaming/visualization. Inspiration came from being an avid reader and a love for well written stories that entertain people. Additionally, because I am a good writer I also do technical writing for education and have done that for many years. 

 

The Pirates Conquest

Two lives, two hearts, one timeless love…..  Timothy Lockwood, respected shipbuilder or extremely dangerous Captain of the Moonlight? He has a vast knowledge of the sea, clipper ships, and an uncanny knack to create detailed sailing maps. He conducts his business in two completely different circles of individuals, those respected and those not. Behind those golden eyes are many secrets known by only one group of friends. Headstrong Jennifer Weatherly reeled when she found out that her father promised her in marriage. Determined to not honor her father’s wishes, she contracts with the Captain of the Moonlight to help her disappear. Upon meeting her on his ship, his golden eyes locked with her sea green ones. He felt an electrifying shock go through his spine instinctively knowing she would cause a problem in his life and future plans. Miss Weatherly had no idea that her escape plan with Captain Lockwood would ultimately take her across the world. He didn’t realize that she would drown him in unbridled passion; distracting him from his ultimate plans and revealing his secrets.  Warning: Adult content that contains triggers such as sexual assault, slavery, violence, miscarriage/infant loss.

Tell us a little about how “The Pirates Conquest” came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else?

 I am psychic and have done psychic work for a very long time. The Pirate’s Conquest was fed to me psychically through a form of automatic writing. Not one piece of the book was planned out. Many authors plan out chapters, but I don’t. I literally pick up the pen and write. I actually hand-write in notebooks, doing my initial corrections as I go along. I absolutely cannot write creatively on the computer. It must be written in a notebook with a pen. The Pirate’s Conquest was written when I was between the ages of 22 and 24. I wrote it, copyrighted it, and sat on it for 40 years. I did that because I was a public-school teacher and felt that I could lose my job if it were published due to the content. The book is violent and sexually graphic, including assault and many other triggers. I am writing about pirates and, generally speaking, pirates are not nice people.  I have had a fascination/obsession with pirates since I was about 10 years old.

Which scene, character or plotline changed the most from first draft to published book? 

This is difficult because I wrote the novel 40 plus years ago and I had edited it about 15 times when I initially wrote it. When I took it out in the fall of 2020, I typed it into the computer (because it wouldn't scan correctly as it was originally done on a typewriter) and to be honest there were very few major changes, perhaps a sentence or two. Because I am a pantser versus a planner, I just write and let my characters take off and tell their story. So to give a scene, character or plotline changes from the first draft to the published book is virtually impossible to do because all of those things were done back in 1982. 

Which character was the most challenging to create. Why? 

The character which was the most challenging to write/create.....I would say there are two, the two lead characters. In terms of Jennifer, I had to show that she was innocent, yet bold and a risk taker. Then when her passion was ignited and everything that she had to go through (and some of it was horrible) she still had to have some innocence yet demonstrate not only her growth as an individual but also her strength. Timothy, from the beginning was very difficult to write because he literally has two personas, the pirate and the businessman. He walks a thin line between the two personas through the entire book. He could switch rather quickly from being a very dangerous man to showing a very soft side. Jennifer is in many ways his Achilles heel.

What do you like best about being a writer?

Writing is something that comes easy to me. Very simply I enjoy it. In addition to being a creative writer, I also do educational writing for various individuals. I am so good at creating curricula, lesson plans, rubrics, etc., that I can churn them out rapidly. Many young educators have asked me to help them with these projects. Overall, I think what I like best about being a writer is my ability to tell a story or create an educational document. Truth be told, I consider myself an educator first and a writer second.  

If you could collaborate with any author past or present, who would it be? What would the title of the book be? (If possible) - Give us a one sentence blurb. 

This is simple, I would love to have been able to collaborate with the late Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, as she by far is my all time favorite historical romance writer. Title of the book that we would collaborate on would simply be "Season" (if you read The Pirate's Conquest, Season is a female pirate who is already deceased that is connected to Timothy Lockwood having given him a son, Lion). A one sentence blurb for "Season"....The famous female pirate Season, dupes the most dangerous pirate on the seas, Captain Bloodthirsty (aka Timothy Lockwood) by drugging him and taking over his ship (this is actually remembered by Timothy in The Pirate's Conquest). 

You can follow Charlene J. Centracchio here - 

Website - https://amazon.com/author/charlene.centracchio358  

FaceBook - https://www.facebook.com/charlene.centracchio/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/charlenecentracchio 

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@piratesconquest?

 

Charlene  is giving away a copy of The Pirate’s Conquest

To enter, comment below → Romance, Dark Romance, and Romantasy are popular book genres now. Have you read any books from these genres? What's your favorite? If not, what is your favorite genre?

 

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