Featured Author

Michael Arnone

Father of eight, grandfather of 17, a second generation American born in Chicago and transplanted in 1953 to Los Angeles at the age of 10. Catholic high school education at Mt. Camel, Quarterback and Student Body President, I married my high school sweetheart at 21 had two sons and two daughters we divorced in 1981. I remarried Karen, my bride and her three daughters and son in 1983.

We moved from Dana Point to Concord, California and I began a long career in real estate sales and loan origination. Still working, Karen and I are empty-nesters, living happily in Vacaville, enjoying our grand kids. At seventy seven, this is my first attempt at writing a well written literary work with the goal of publishing. Other novels are in the works.

Pray the audience appreciates the Christian themes my story professes…

You see, I am a devout Christian, and a believer in my Lord, Jesus Christ. Possessing a great adoration for John Steinbeck’s work, my journalist nature led me to write this historical narrative in a setting in and around San Simeon, a county away from Steinbeck’s beloved Salinas, the location of East of Eden, his greatest work. My love of California history determined the Rancho backdrop setting and the tortured legacy of Pablo the protagonist versus Annabella the scourge. Mix in her devilish workings in alliance with the evil village curandera and out comes the story of Pablo’s search for his legacy fending off the advocates of witchcraft, greed and treachery.

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Title by Michael Arnone

The Virtues of Writing…..

Hero’s telling their story is what storytelling is all about.  As an old guy, the virtues of honest writing helped me maintain for the reader, a realistic lid on the characters and prevent miss-direction from the action. Taking it slow and easy, I intended a comfortable pace I pray the reader finds satisfying, while still enticing him to peek over the  edge, expecting a kaboom to come at any time. Trained as a journalist, way back in the day of non partisan reporting, I left it to the reader to separate good from bad and holy from evil.

With a lifelong love for historical fiction, plot lines were designed to  flow smoothly into humorous situations that depicted believable characters humble and self deprecating.  With his listeners begging for more, Pablo “gathers in his chicks,” making readers hungry too, for what’s next in his colorful narrative.

  • Master of the Waterways…God of the Creeks Master of the Waterways...God of the Creeks

    by Michael Arnone

    • Released: December 2021
    • Genre: Novels

    Master of the Waterways…God of the Creeks 

    This historical narrative recounts the romance of Rancho Piedra Blanca and three generations of the de Leon family.  What is Pablo’s legacy? Can he save beloved brother Vincenti and the de Leons from the treachery and curses of Annabella and the curandera. Who is Flores de Flores and how can he restore the Rancho’s fortune?

    Romancing California Rancho life 1840 to 1947, a three generational epic of the family de Leon and fabled Rancho Piedra Blanca, the highly prized land grant, Mexico gave to military hero General Santa Ana.  Who, the night he received the grant, lost it in a gentlemen’s poker game to Piedra Blanca’s founding Patron, Alphonse de Leon.  Owned, managed and maintained by de Leon family for more than 100 years, the enormous land mass of Piedra Blanca, swept up California’s northern coast from the rolling hills of San Simeon to the rugged cliffs of El Sur Grande.

    From his life’s journal, the eighty year old Pablo, narrates to his faithful listeners, the Rancho’s history and the search for his lineage.  Miracles of miracles, orphan Pablo is adopted as brother to his beloved classmate Vincenti and second son to Don Joaquin and Mama Dolores de Leon. Bonding families, the de Leon and Estrada long standing pact pledged their first born son and daughter in marriage.

    Turning their back on family tradition, independent Annabella Estrada rejects the prearranged marriage to Vincenti choosing instead to first spy on and then seduce Pablo, Vincenti’s adopted brother. Loyal to family de Leon, Pablo breaks off his misbegotten affair with Annabella, creating in her a hateful determination for revenge. To spite Pablo, Annabella, ambitious for power, wealth and independence, marries Vincenti then allies with Josefina Espinoza, the Rancho’s curandera, to place the curse of death on all that stand in her way.

    To Save the innocent and those that he loves, Pablo denies himself and gives up his life by faithfully keeping Annabella’s “three little conditions,” and in the end, discovers his long lost lineage.

    In this morality play, a battle rages between good and evil.  Characters in this fictional narrative are reminiscent of these in Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flats.  Determined to write worthy prose,  Michael Arnone finds inspiration in Steinbeck’s recurring theme, “man giving his life up for his friends,” profoundly personified in the Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden.

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Reviews

  • Taleflicks

    TaleFlicks
    Lead Characters are very believable…Unique Story…This could be a rare gem…As film (screenplay) would require top dollar talent all the way across the board…Writers, Directors and Actors would have to be seasoned professionals.  Possible formats… Film…TV Series…Cable TV Series…Network Series…Mini Series

  • Paul Collins...Editor

    Home Run!

    First time novelist hits it out of the park.  His narrative takes you in and keeps you wrapped warm in the vivid word pictures the author, Michael Arnone,  paints… the tempo and flow spurs the reader to turn the page…and see what’s coming next…and they are not disappointed.