Before writing any manuscript, I do a tremendous amount of research to make the experience for the reader as authentic as possible, going to each locale mentioned (with the obvious exception of North Korea, Iran, etc.). An essential part of my writing process is selecting locations that fit the story, which is difficult when you step off the plane and all you know about a place and its people is what you learn from a Google search. Since no one knows an area better than those who live there, I frequently engage a local photographer to take me around an area to capture the essence of these locations, referring to these photos when I describe a town, building, the people who reside there, and so forth.
In my pre-writing research for The Puppeteer, no one has taken me to better locales in Taormina and Sicily, most of which I would never have discovered on my own, and captured its authenticity better than photographers Giuseppe Torretta and Giuseppe D’Amico (www.glam.vision/), their Taormina pictures appearing in the photos section of my web site. My thanks to Giuseppe and Giuseppe, the best photographers in Sicily, for their fantastic pictures and the kindness they extended this author as they took me to places off the beaten path. Grazie mille.