Maderan turns dreams into a book
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Madera’s Vince Petrucci shows off a copy of his book, “The End of the Closet: Curiosity” that is available on Amazon.com. It’s a short story about a recurring dream Petrucci was having and talks about his childhood.
What started as a recurring dream turned into a short story that Maderan Vincent Petrucci turned into a book.
Now on sale on Amazon.com ($11.65 paperback, $3.99 kindle), Petrucci’s “The End of the Closet: Curiosity” tells the story of a young boy who spends a lot of time at his Nonno and Nonna’s house growing up. It is a farm and he is always busy there with his cousins and grandparents. He loves adventure. The book is published by Inks and Bindings and is 38 pages.
“I was inspired to write it because of a recurring dream,” Petrucci said. “It was the same dream I’ve had for many years. I decided to put it to paper. I extrapolated information from my childhood. I grew up with family on the farm and put it together with some of my experiences. It ends up kind of dark. That falls in with some of the experiences I had in life with my mom and dad. It does leave you a little bit hanging. Some people who have read it say there should be a part two. I say this is where it ends.”
Petrucci originally started writing the book during the COVID-19 pandemic and took his attention from his own autobiography, “Live Until Now.”
“The autobiography got to be a little bit long,” he said. “I thought I don’t know if I’m going to get it edited. So, I took a chapter out of that autobiography and put it into a short story. It started over COVID times. I probably put in 150 hours. It became inspiration and therapy for me. Only my closest family will be able to understand the true meaning of the book.”
The book is dedicated to his parents and is illustrated by Edgar Ruiz. Petrucci said the book is aimed at young adults to adults.
“I had a little extra time even though I was working from home during the pandemic,” he said. “It gave me time to write this book. There was an individual I was talking to that was writing poems. I told him I was writing this book. There was no reason not to write. I had a friend of mine in Southern California that has a publishing company. The next thing you know, I’m talking with them and interacting with another individual and sending him a pdf. They are making adjustments. Then, it was done. It’s pretty good the way they set it up and how much it cost me. I have a little bit of money involved.”
Although he has a book, Petrucci said not to call him an author just yet.
“Someone told me I am an author,” he said. “I also said I pitched in baseball, but that doesn’t mean I’m a professional pitcher. I feel really good about this book. It increased my self-esteem and desire.”
Petrucci hopes that after people read his book, they learn a little something about themselves.
“I want people to read it and see what they can get out of it,” he said. “If they ask me questions about it, I can explain what is behind it. It talks about being a child and messing around at your grandparents playing with your cousins. There is a little bit of religion in there. It’s fictitious.”
Petrucci said the perfect place to sell his book would have been at Books and Bagels. Now, he is trying to find a place to sell his book and is also in the process of writing another book.
“I used to make biscotti for Books and Bagels,” he said. “I am determined to get that second book done. I’ve had a pretty interesting life.”
