Here are two sketches from my travel journals of years past. Neither is in the book, but if you like either and are so inclined, please "like" this post on your Facebook page.      Grazie mille     (click to enlarge)

It has been years in the making and over a year in waiting. Like birthing a baby, all one can do is wait. Except nowadays, there is work to do while waiting: the preparation of the book's social platform. What does that mean? It's like preparing the nursery for a newborn except instead of a cradle, diapers, baby clothes, and stuffed animals, you need a website, a blog, blurbs, reviewers, a media kit, early readings, and books that guide you. The Frugal Book Planner by Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a favorite. With the birth of Salento By 5 imminent, we five authors are ready (sort of) to launch it from its social platform. Now what's a media kit again?

​As you may know, I am a songwriter.  My songs are about Salento, its people, the way we fall in love surrounded by a nature like the one you can only find  travelling to the south-east. The sun is always with you, reflecting your soul; the sea changes  its mood every time you change yours; the wind  brings you every single sigh and tear shed by your beloved. The sun, the sea, the wind: the master keys to open Salento’s real soul, the very cypher key to my new album, “Lu Mare tu Salentu”. 

In the Fall of  2006 (ten years ago), the fourth year in a row that we found ourselves back in Salento, we sat around the Sunday dinner table at Carlo and Lucia's summer home in Mancaversa.

Someone said, "We should write a book—a book together."

Maybe it was the wine, the afternoon sun, our satisfied bellies. Let's blame Lucia's homemade limoncello.

"Sure, let's write a book together," we answered in chorus.