Stefania Mattana

Elias: Ciao Stefania. Happy to be here?

Stefania: I'm in awe of Mr Snazzy. You really do have the bestest moustache in the whole wide world.

Elias: I see by your name that you're Italian. Are you related to my personal chef, Gino the Slug?

Stefania: I know Gino pretty well but we’re not relatives. It might sound weird to you as Italy is quite small comparing to other countries. I come from a glorious family of kitchen wizards, so one day I’ll challenge him. I’m afraid his cabbage recipes are better than ours though.

Elias: Slugs often say you should write what you know. As your Cutting to the Chase books deal with solving crime, are you a notorious criminal and should we get ready to launch cabbages at you in defence?

Stefania: I was tempted to become a criminal. You know, like Arsène Lupin, but with less hair on my legs. Then I changed my mind, as I’d rather preferred to act in fiction like Inspector Zenigata. Chase Williams’ mate, Inspector Alunni, looks like Zenigata himself.

You can keep your cabbage for more exciting activities. (phew!)

Elias: Creepy-Crawly the Slug, a lab experiment that went wrong, escaped a while ago after I forgot to close the garden gate. Could Chase Williams track it down before it feasts on yet another human head?

Stefania: Yeah, I think so. Chase’s a natural snooper. I’m pretty sure he’ll be able to find Creepy-Crawly the Slug within a blink of an eye. Furthermore, you know how lab-experimented slugs are: so clumsy and sloppy! Plus, Chase is quite a fast runner. Creepy-Crawler’s doomed!

Elias: Is Chase Williams based on somebody you know? Would he not be better with a moustache like mine?

Stefania: Yes and no. I sketched him starting from a person very close to me, but then he developed his own personality once I started picturing him in details. I must admit he has a lot of things in common with me. Moustaches included. 

Elias: Would you consider writing a murder mystery novel starring Elias Zapple as the murderer?

Stefania: That is a great starting point for my new crime novel. The guy has the numbers for being a serial killer hard to nail. His nonsense will strained Chase’s logical mind to the limit. Challenging.

Elias: You also write blogs for the Huffington Post UK, are you the one that wrote a slanderous piece about my moustache, Mr Snazzy?

Stefania: That wasn’t me. Maybe you’re referring to my evil twin, Erania Pinnera. It must have been her. Shame on her.

Elias: What's your next book about? Something featuring my slugs?

Stefania: Your slugs won’t feature in any of my upcoming books this time, sorry mate. Despite their continuous attempts to interject, I managed to keep them out of my plots. You know, to not make the stories too complicated.

I am currently working on Volume 3 of the Cutting Right to the Chase series. It will feature ten detective short stories 1000 words length, all of them starring Chase Williams, his Inspector friend Angelo Alunni and a the city Tursenia as the main setting. 

The plot of the third book in the Chase Williams murder mystery stories is almost ready. Chase, Angelo and I are going to have a pretty awesome time!

Elias: How do you balance your time as a writer, criminal, trainee cabbage thrower and everything else you do?

Stefania: The trickiest part is to manage the cabbage thrower trainee side. I receive a lot of reservations and I don’t want to disappoint anyone. Therefore I have to reserve some extra time for that every week, sacrificing time for coding. It’s such a demanding activity.

I’m trying to keep the criminal part of my life to a minimum. London is full of surveillance cameras and life’s not easy for crooks nowadays.

As for the writing, Chase commands attention. He’s like a little boy, and you know how pesky 3 year-old boys can be. They’re exactly like 3 year-old slugs. 

Elias: You reside in London - where I too stalk. With its superior slugs, how does living there and being amongst its many slugs influence your writing?

Stefania: I like slug company. They’re way more polite than Italian slugs. Moreover, Chase’s from London, so he well knows Londoner slugs - I must admit it’s been a great advantage to me when I moved out from Italy to here. 

For those reasons, I like writing right after it stops raining, when the mighty slugs pop out and tell me the deepest secrets of London. I’ve been told lots of rumours about urban foxes, but I can’t tell you anything more, it’s classified information. 

Elias: Would you care for some spaghetti slugonese?

Stefania: Oh, yes please. Can I have also another portion to take away?

Grazie, Stefania! 

Cutting Right To The Chase Vol.1: http://bit.ly/1ns1my3 

Cutting Right ToThe Chase Vol.2: http://bit.ly/1qNO3tP 

Into The Killer Sphere: http://bit.ly/1i02sRe Pull 

The Trigger: 
http://bit.ly/1s4S12j

Twitter: @eraniapinnera
website:
www.eraniapinnera.com

Chase Twitter:
@chasewilliams78 blog/website: 
www.chasetwilliams.com

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