Alice Manica of Greenfield wanted to write a book for decades. Life, travel and her work as a nurse got in the way.
At long last, she became a novelist last year with her debut book, “Finding Alma: An Italian Journey.”
Manica will speak about the book and her writing process at the Greenfield Public Library’s Thursday Morning Club on Aug. 23 at 10 a.m. Her talk is free and open to the public.
The book, which Manica described to me as “inspired by real people,” tells the parallel story of Alma, an American woman coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s, and the female Italian cousins she first meets while visiting Europe as a young woman.
After an initial description of Alma’s life leading up to, during and after this visit that shapes her life, Manica devotes a small section of the book to each cousin. These individual tales tell the stories of the lives, families and careers their heroines build.
All are interesting, and taken together, the stories show the ways in which Italy’s culture and view of women changed over the decades from the 1970s to the 2010s.
“It actually was a story that was in my head for about 30 years,” Manica said of her book. “It kind of was inspired by my travels in Italy. I, in fact, did go and visit relatives in Italy, found some cousins there. … I always thought our life story would make an interesting book.”
She was quick to add that the book is definitely fiction, not her cousins’ story or hers, although she ran it by the cousins to make sure they didn’t mind serving as models in some cases.
With a smile, Manica said that once she started and put her mind to writing, the book took about a year and a half to complete. Once she had a rough manuscript, Manica had to figure out how to edit it and get it into print.
“I knew nothing about publishing. I had published a couple of articles in publications, but that was it,” she said.
On the advice of writer friends, she opted to publish the book herself through CreateSpace, Amazon’s independent-publishing platform.
“It was quite a learning experience that I actually enjoyed,” Manica said.
She added that she felt fortunate for the people she found to help her. She chose local consultants.
“I didn’t really want to have an anonymous contact. I wanted someone that I could work with face-to-face,” she stated. “I was lucky enough to find local people who were really talented.”
Ellen Eller of Shelburne Falls edited the book, collaborating with Manica about the characters and the flow. Maureen Moore, also of Shelburne Falls, created the attractive cover art — which features women linking hands in front of the colors of the Italian flag — and helped prepare the manuscript for submission.
CreateSpace did the final formatting, and “Finding Alma” was ready to face the world.
“When you finally press that ‘send’ button, I compare it to watching a little child grow up and go to kindergarten. You have to send them out into the world,” Manica said with wonder in her voice.
Writing the book wasn’t always easy, Manica noted.
“The hardest thing probably was feeling comfortable that I was representing the story well enough and doing justice to the characters. … Did I tell the whole story and did I do a good job?”
Nevertheless, she added, she enjoyed weaving her narrative together.
“Mainly I wanted to show that it was a story about families. Women, in spite of where they live or what period they live in, have the same problems of family and stress and finances and children.”
Manica isn’t rushing into another novel, but thinks she may put together a collection of short stories next.
Meanwhile, she enjoys speaking about “Finding Alma” to groups such as the one at the Greenfield library. She will bring books to sign for anyone interested in purchasing one.
Tinky Weisblat is the author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook,” “Pulling Taffy,” and “Love, Laughter, and Rhubarb.” Visit her website, www.TinkyCooks.com.