Fast Track To Glory by Tomasz Chrusciel | Spotlight and Giveaway
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Fast Track To Glory
by Tomasz Chrusciel
Nina Monte, a well-respected professor at the University of Padua, answers an unexpected summons to a secret meeting with three European officials.
They want to hire her to verify the authenticity of an ancient artefact hidden on a forgotten galley that sank in the fifteenth century, and to this day lies buried at the bottom of Lake Garda in Italy.
She accepts the invitation to join an eccentric art collector and to examine the artefact. But before long, the Italian professor is cornered in an insidious intrigue. Her inner and outer worlds clash.
Joined by a lake-town hotelier, Alessandro Pini, Monte begins to unravel the truth surrounding the discovery. She knows the stakes are high.
Forced to abandon their ordinary lives, and dragged into a deadly race to outwit a smart, but wicked, villain, Nina and Alessandro must do everything they can to ensure freedom for all humankind.
What is 'Fast Track to Glory' about?
‘Fast Track to Glory’ tells the story of an Italian professor, Nina Monte. She’s head of the Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World at the University of Padua. When one day she receives an invitation to a confidential meeting in the Heidelberg Castle in Germany, she is too intrigued to refuse. At first, what is expected form her doesn’t seem to be extraordinary, until she examines a mysterious artifact found on a forgotten galley that sank in the fifteenth century in Lake Garda, Italy. Soon her life is turned upside down as she is whisked around the world following the discovery. From that moment not only Nina’s life is in danger – at stake is freedom for all humankind.
Why did you choose to write a fictional story like this?
One of my passions is travelling. When I visit a new and sometimes exotic country, I’m always interested in people and their cultures. I gather as many information about them as I can: I take lots of pictures, pick up leaflets from every place I go to, I speak to locals. After I return home, it’s only a matter of time before I start to draft my next novel. I find the greatest pleasure in building a fictional story around real locations. I try to add to my writing not only the element of surprise and tension; my wish is that when a reader turns the last page, they will be satisfied and happy and feel as if they also visited the places my characters’ lives revolved around.
But there’s also that deeper meaning to the story about Nina, Alessandro and what they have to go through. Their internal and external journeys are intertwined. They cannot move forward and face their enemy without conquering their personal fears first.
Along your journey to write this book, have you encountered any challenge(s) and how did you overcome it/them?
It took me a lot of time to collect all the historical and scientific data so I could smoothly introduce everything into a fictional story and still make it plausible. I believe that the biggest challenge is to come up with a captivating story people would want to read and talk about, and to create the characters readers would care and identify with.
Is writing a book easier than the process of self-publishing?
Self-publishing process isn’t difficult. Especially if you’ve done that before. What’s complicated and difficult for many writers, including me, is how to reach as many readers as we can to promote our novels. Nowadays when thousands of books are published every day, the marketing poses a serious challenge for aspiring authors. Social media come to a rescue here; after all word of mouth is a great friend of every artist.
Are you more influenced by the Irish or Polish culture?
I think that every author is being influenced by the places and people he/she encounters in their lives. I wouldn’t say that any of the cities I’ve lived in, or I’ve been to, predominantly affected my writing. My feelings, my character and perception of the world around are being shaped by everyday happenings, what I see, read, experience, with whom I speak. But above all in order to create the compelling characters, which is the very gist of being a writer, I like to observe and try to understand human behavior. Although it varies from country to country, I can safely say that deep down we’re all very similar.
They want to hire her to verify the authenticity of an ancient artefact hidden on a forgotten galley that sank in the fifteenth century, and to this day lies buried at the bottom of Lake Garda in Italy.
She accepts the invitation to join an eccentric art collector and to examine the artefact. But before long, the Italian professor is cornered in an insidious intrigue. Her inner and outer worlds clash.
Joined by a lake-town hotelier, Alessandro Pini, Monte begins to unravel the truth surrounding the discovery. She knows the stakes are high.
Forced to abandon their ordinary lives, and dragged into a deadly race to outwit a smart, but wicked, villain, Nina and Alessandro must do everything they can to ensure freedom for all humankind.
Q and A with the author
What is 'Fast Track to Glory' about?
‘Fast Track to Glory’ tells the story of an Italian professor, Nina Monte. She’s head of the Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World at the University of Padua. When one day she receives an invitation to a confidential meeting in the Heidelberg Castle in Germany, she is too intrigued to refuse. At first, what is expected form her doesn’t seem to be extraordinary, until she examines a mysterious artifact found on a forgotten galley that sank in the fifteenth century in Lake Garda, Italy. Soon her life is turned upside down as she is whisked around the world following the discovery. From that moment not only Nina’s life is in danger – at stake is freedom for all humankind.
Why did you choose to write a fictional story like this?
One of my passions is travelling. When I visit a new and sometimes exotic country, I’m always interested in people and their cultures. I gather as many information about them as I can: I take lots of pictures, pick up leaflets from every place I go to, I speak to locals. After I return home, it’s only a matter of time before I start to draft my next novel. I find the greatest pleasure in building a fictional story around real locations. I try to add to my writing not only the element of surprise and tension; my wish is that when a reader turns the last page, they will be satisfied and happy and feel as if they also visited the places my characters’ lives revolved around.
But there’s also that deeper meaning to the story about Nina, Alessandro and what they have to go through. Their internal and external journeys are intertwined. They cannot move forward and face their enemy without conquering their personal fears first.
Along your journey to write this book, have you encountered any challenge(s) and how did you overcome it/them?
It took me a lot of time to collect all the historical and scientific data so I could smoothly introduce everything into a fictional story and still make it plausible. I believe that the biggest challenge is to come up with a captivating story people would want to read and talk about, and to create the characters readers would care and identify with.
Is writing a book easier than the process of self-publishing?
Self-publishing process isn’t difficult. Especially if you’ve done that before. What’s complicated and difficult for many writers, including me, is how to reach as many readers as we can to promote our novels. Nowadays when thousands of books are published every day, the marketing poses a serious challenge for aspiring authors. Social media come to a rescue here; after all word of mouth is a great friend of every artist.
Are you more influenced by the Irish or Polish culture?
I think that every author is being influenced by the places and people he/she encounters in their lives. I wouldn’t say that any of the cities I’ve lived in, or I’ve been to, predominantly affected my writing. My feelings, my character and perception of the world around are being shaped by everyday happenings, what I see, read, experience, with whom I speak. But above all in order to create the compelling characters, which is the very gist of being a writer, I like to observe and try to understand human behavior. Although it varies from country to country, I can safely say that deep down we’re all very similar.
About the author
He loves to travel, and when he's back from another journey, the next captivating story evolves in his mind. He strongly believes that the most rewarding feeling and the purpose of his writing is to let others experience those vibrant, wonderful countries he's been too, and to introduce readers to new engaging characters born from his imagination and all those alluring locations. Then he makes that story real - it becomes a reader's story.
Fast Track To Glory is his second full-length action and adventure novel.
Giveaway
- SEVEN winners will get eCopies of Fast Track To Glory by Tomasz Chrusciel
- Open internationally!
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