“1994 came and went,
It was the year I got stuck in a vent.
It was during Lent,
I had an event.
Enough to bring forth,
Quite the lament.”
-Domenic Marinelli
The preceding was a poem I wrote when I was in the 6th grade. Not too shabby I guess, especially for a kid who planned on being the next RL Stine at the time. I certainly had quite the year that year and it was while piecing together this piece—the year in review—that this came back to me.
I went to my storage room and fished out my old notebooks from my 6th grade year at good old Gerald McShane Elementary, and this poem was what I dug out, a gold star at the top, given to me by Mr. Summers (my teacher at the time), a man who had a lot to do with pointing me in the right direction as far as what I wanted to do with my life was concerned, which was write full-time.
And for me, writing full-time had so much to do with journalism as much as my fiction and poetry did, as I’ve written before.
This year (2021) was an interesting one as far as that was concerned—journalism—as I returned to writing pieces for online publications after most of last year writing for a local print paper, where I covered crime, politics, community affairs and the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Writing for a print paper was great, and something I always wanted to do, but returning to the online publications meant that I’d be able to tackle a topic I had only been able to write occasionally about previously throughout my career, which was professional wrestling. I’ve been a fan since I was ten, really, Bret Hart being the absolute first-ever hero in the squared circle of mine. I followed him up with the British Bulldog and by the time Stone Cold Steve Austin made the scene, I was hooked.
This past year, I really bumped up my pro wrestling article portfolio and am darn proud of it and am currently writing for respected publications in the field: Ringside News and Pro Wrestling News Hub. I write for other publications of course, covering a plethora of other subjects. Ah, the life of a freelancer.
Pro wrestling is insane right now and honestly, it’s great to be able to write about the incredible things that are going on in the industry. The fans are heavily invested for sure, and wrestling pieces sell better than political pieces these days, go figure. As I’ve said so many times in my pieces, it’s a crazy time to be a wrestling fan and pro wrestling journalist right now.
Books released in 2021…
After having released 4 books last year, the plan was to tone that down a tad the following year and two books were slated for release in 2021. One was a collection of stories, poetry and a play that I had written over the years and wanted to release.
The other project was a crime novel that I had been working on for some time. I decided to have two books out that touched on many genres. The collection, as all my previous collections have also been, was a mish-mash of genres thrown into the mix…33 pieces were in that one.
The crime genre is something that I have always loved reading and writing crime stories is just as fun, and I of course have released previous crime novels in the past; perhaps most notable: Generic V (2019). What follows are both synopses of both books released in 2021.
His Old Tapes (stories & poetry) – June 2021
Dig through the attic. Let your hands rustle past the old pictures of teen idols, love letters from long lost flames, and grab hold of your dreams—your truest desires—the ones you let die and rot in the empty silence of your forgotten spaces, the dark ones, where you seldom go anymore …those spaces where you hide what you used to be. If allowed to, this collection plays much like the reels of a tape…the ones where all the burn marks and wrinkles show through, if you listen hard enough. The pain, the hurt, and yes, even the beautiful instances…those ones we let slip away amidst all the confusion that spins like a never-ending yarn throughout our lives. In this collection, author and journalist Domenic Marinelli has assembled the freakiest of multigenre stories, poetry and even a play for your delight. Delve deeply into the moments of passion, transgression, pain, regret and even enlightenment in this huge group of characters spread out across 33 pieces of work, all the while listening to some old tunes—ones you can only hear back if you find your old tapes. And when you find them, sit back and let that all too familiar fuzzy sound send you back in time the only way a tape can. But His Old Tapes (stories & poetry) tells us what can happen when looking back. In the end, looking back can be dangerous too. So beware, friends and readers. Beware. Because it’s when we dig deeply through the past that we can find those malevolent snakes waiting to bite our searching fingers from beneath the rubble, and devour our souls.
Across a Dark River in Palermo – December 2021
Join Henry O’Shaughnessy as he takes a trip to Palermo, Italy and uncovers quite the gruesome details about his new vacation spot. Henry’s not all that keen on taking the vacation (he rarely does), but he does so at his girlfriend Ruthie’s insistence. What he finds there is likely to change him and get him to recall the events and cases that shaped him as a cop and now private investigator. What does he find in Palermo? Layer by layer, brick by brick, author and journalist Domenic Marinelli builds quite the story here…one that’ll keep you guessing and turning those pages as quickly as you can. Domenic Marinelli has written 16 other books and has published over 800 articles professionally. He’s considered a multigenre writer and some of his other works include: His Old Tapes (stories & poetry), Generic V, Beneath The White Darkness, Weathered Tracks, Where It Lay Hidden, Summer of the Great White Wolf & so many others.
Going with it…
The Covid-19 pandemic changed the world. I covered it, the spread of the pandemic for the aforementioned local paper, and cover it still when it comes up in the world of pro wrestling and other sports—which it quite obviously did this month and the last with the Omicron variant—and I covered it extensively and still am as of this writing, as things are changing once again pretty quickly in our society….
And boy did all of this change how I promote my work—both at the start of the pandemic and even now moving forward.
All artists had to change the way they operated, and so did I. As you may know, dear readers, I often have read throughout my career at many local and not so local to me spots from my released books…at coffeehouses, public libraries and outdoor festivals.
I was still able to do that in small part after the pandemic hit, but not at all like I was used to, so going with the new way of doing things was something I quickly had to adapt to.
As I’ve stated, I had a late start on social media, and went with that and it brought my work to the public, which is pretty much the point for any artist, and so after the pandemic hit, I took to promoting online even more so. So since 2020, I was featured on 3 podcasts and was honored to have been. Here are two of the links:
The Indie Book Talk Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/cz/podcast/domenic-marinelli-following-the-beat-to-write-16/id1446281183?i=1000534832544
&
Stories of Starting, Episode 25
It’s definitely a new way to promote, but I’ve taken to it and like before, my work is reaching more people, which in the end is the point after all.
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See the BIO section on this site for the full Domenic Marinelli biography.
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