MAMA LIVES ON IN SISTER SERIES

I really miss my mother everyday but this past Mother's Day I thought how great it would be if I could talk with her. She was so special and such a strong influence in my life and in the lives of her seven children. Being what I like to a call "a typical Italian mother," she loved us, wanted us to be successful, marry well, give her grandchildren and above all, show her the respect and love she believed she deserved. Mama will be forever in my heart and immortalized in my books. I introduced a mama character and her fictionalized children, the sisters, in Taxing Tallula and she remains a minor but strong character in The Sisters: Ten Days in Sicily. And because my books are all humorous, I have taken the liberty of exaggerating my mama character's domineering ways and in other aspects, making her character larger than life. And in fact, my mother was larger than life. Happy Mother's Day, Mama. I love you and wish I could read excerpts from The Sisters: Ten Days in Sicily to you. You would absolutely love it.