This blog is about popular fiction from a European-Mediterranean point of view. I witnessed its evolution, mostly in Italy but also in Spain, for about fifty years. It’s an interesting subject which I guess is not well known elsewhere, except basic terms such as giallo and spaghetti western. That’s why I decided to write a few notes about it.
Let me introduce myself. I’m an Italian thriller and sci-fi writer with over fifty published titles, plus a hundred short stories or so. I live in Italy, where I was born in 1964, and in Spain, where I set foot for the first time in 1973. My name is Andrea Carlo Cappi. In Italian “Andrea” is a male name, as well as “Carlo”. I started using my full middle name thirty years ago: I was trying to be acknowledged as a mystery writer, but nobody seemed to be interested in what either “Andrea Cappi” or “Andrea C. Cappi” was writing. The first time I wrote as “Andrea Carlo Cappi”, in 1991, I was immediately hired by the Italian public radio network to work on a mystery fiction series. So I thought: “That’s the right name.”
Later, for various reasons, I had to use pen names. One of them, François Torrent, has gained some fame of its own in Italy since 2002. On social networks I often go by “K”, since Cappi (which means nooses in Italian), is similar to kappa, the letter k. Hence the name Kverse for the universe shared by many of my characters. I’ve also been working on other series of mine, as well as non-fiction, tie-ins and more. A member of IAMTW, winner of Premio Italia 2018 for best Italian fantasy novel, I’ve also been working as editor and translator. I know a few backstage stories and I’m going to share them with you.
Do you know, for instance, how detective novels are called in Italy and Spain?
Do you know that, since thrillers were censored in Italy in the late 1930’s, local mystery writers were almost ostracized for half a century?
Do you know that, long before pulp magazines existed in the US, an Italian writer created pulp-style heroes that shaped generations of readers and writers in Italy and in Spanish speaking countries?
And that some of Italy’s bestselling thrillers are unknown to most readers, but they’re bestsellers anyway?
There are stories behind the stories. Follow this blog and you’ll discover a few of them.
Andrea Carlo Cappi, born in Milan, 1964, has been living between Italy and Spain since 1973. As a writer in Italy he's currently publishing the thriller/spy/noir series Nightshade and Medina, Agente Nightshade and Sickrose, Toni Black and Dark Duet; the erotic urban-fantasy vampire series Danse Macabre; awarded sci-fi/thriller tie-in novels based on the comics series Martin Mystère; caper tie-in novels based on the comics series Diabolik; and more, including the sexy/sci-fi/noir LUV co-authored with Ermione. Editor of book series and anthologies, he's also known as a translator from English and Spanish. He co-wrote the RAI radio series Mata Hari. Find him on his Facebook profile, Facebook official page, on Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube. Also in the blogs (in Italian) Il Rifugio dei Peccatori, Borderfiction Zone, Kverse - Il mondo thriller di Andrea Carlo Cappi and in the website of Premio Torre Crawford.
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