The Writing Life: Mary B Gennusa Patterson

Author of the novel Franco and Anna Gennusa:Their Journey, artist, poet, answers the Proust Questionnaire, and the answers are revealing!

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We recently reconnected with Mary B Gennusa Patterson and thought that Proust Questionnaire would be an excellent way to see how this artist, poet, and now novelist was thriving. Mary was born in Sicily near the end of World War 2. She is the youngest of six sisters, and her parents — Franco and Anna Gennusa were the inspiration of her first novel. She has several sequels completed.

Ms. Patterson has been an artist for years and has a home filled with her paintings and collages. She became a poet and then turned her hand to writing prose. “I never studied, I never had ambition. I read a lot, and not find something to read, I decided I could do this, and I did. I decided to write about what I knew best and that was my family. When my oldest sister told me the story about the German plane strafing us, and my father was pushing us up a tree, I knew I had the beginning of a compelling book.”

Mary continued, “When I told my sister that I was going to write a story about our family, she told me a story about the German pilot circling us and how she had gone through so many emotions.

From the Introduction to Franco & Anna Gennusa: Their Journey

My oldest sister Terry was telling stories about our early life in Sicily during World War II during dinner one evening in her home. This was the subject of so many wonderful evenings we regularly spent together.

“Mary, she said, “you were just a baby on a on a cold autumn day, riding in our cart, going to our village home from our country farm. Suddenly, father abruptly stopped the cart. He screamed for us to get out. Mother jumped at his command, and the rest of us did the same. Father demanded we run to a tree that stood alone a short distance away. I heard a loud roaring sound and looked up to the sky. A German plane was coming towards us. Mother was holding you in her arms as we all ran together. We got to the tree and father yelled for us to climb to the highest branches.”

My sister told that story filled with fear, a bit of humor and so much confusion. She looked at me, puzzled and asked “what was father thinking? Did he really think that the tree was going to protect us?”

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Paula M Amaras & Paul T Driggere

Owners of Scribes Unlimited, LLC, and co-authors of 7 books. New works on the horizon!