by Patricia Bellomo | Jul 10, 2013 | Mob Blog
Politicians & Prostitutes, July 10, 2013
In Louie Morelli’s words …
My favorite politician has been in the news lately. He was caught having sex with a prostitute. I’m not the least bit surprised. In fact, I’ve fixed him up on several dates throughout the years. But the senator puts on the good-ole boy upstanding citizen act, and now he’s blubbering away on the news. Making a damned fool of himself.
What is it with politicians & prostitutes?
What is it with politicians and prostitutes? I’ve never known one who didn’t pay and play. And this guy paid and played so much it’s a wonder he didn’t get caught before.
They’ve been showing pictures of the prostitute—a low-grade escort with a fake rack. Not even a looker. My favorite politician gets on the phone to me. “I’m flying down this weekend,” he tells me. The senator has a place in Palm Beach. We sometimes do lunch or a game of golf, when the cameras aren’t spying, that is. “I’d like to talk to you.”
I tell him I’m busy. He senses my coolness and starts to explain about the scandal. He apologizes to me. I could give a damn what he does, but this politician is in Washington because of me, and he knows he’s messed up. And I really am angry. I’ve got a lot invested in him. And now he’s involved with this bimbo prostitute. He has the nerve to tell me that he cares for her.
“She might not feel the same way,” I tell him. “She’s talking to the media.”
The senator admits this could be a problem. “She wants to be famous,” he says.
“Too bad for you.”
“I might have to pay her off. Or something like that,” he says. “How much … er … uh … would something like that cost?”
For a minute I don’t say anything. I can’t believe he just said this. And on a cell phone! I’m thinking … didn’t he give a news conference last week condemning the NSA for spying on us? Now I know I’ve bet on the wrong horse. I hang up without saying a word.
Patricia Bellomo is the author of the crime and mob thriller books, Louie Morelli’s Mistress, Stella di Mare, and Louie Morelli’s Daughter. Politicians & Prostitutes was written in the voice of her main character, Louie Morelli.
Books available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Amazon.UK & Amazon.EU. Books are also available in digital formats.
by Patricia Bellomo | Jun 29, 2013 | Mob Blog
[dcs_p]Mob Blog: Miami Beach, June 29, 2013[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
In Louie Morelli’s words ….[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
I’m in Miami Beach with Victor. It’s the weekend before the 4th of July. We’re on the Stella di Mare, which is in a slip at the Miami Beach Marina. Storm clouds are bunched up on the edge of the horizon, blowing up from the Caribbean, but this doesn’t deter two bikini-clad young women from sunning themselves on the deck of my eighty-foot Hatteras. The girls just want to have fun.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
The ladies are thirtyish. One of them—Victor’s date, Molly—works at Franco’s, where we went last night. Molly introduced me to her friend, Heather, a recent transplant from Kansas City. Upon introduction, Heather gave me a meaningful little smile and said, “I just love Miami Beach.” [/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Heather has fulfilled her purpose for being on my boat. She’s a nice girl, although she’s a little anxious. Trying too hard, I suspect. Heather has made it clear she wants to see me again. She knows I have deep pockets. She’s heard a well-founded rumor that I signed over a chunk of prime Miami Beach real estate to my last girlfriend. “Baby, don’t believe everything you hear,” I told her. “There were extenuating circumstances.”[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
It is true that I bequeathed the renowned Walker Hotel on Miami Beach to Tara. She is a very lovely lady with whom I had a very hot affair. (Stella di Mare) The transfer of Miami real estate to Tara was a rare occurrence. In fact, I can emphatically state that it will never happen again. But this doesn’t mean that I can’t show a girl a good time.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Heather and Molly are drinking Bloody Mary’s. Victor’s reading the Miami-Herald, the edges of his newspaper flapping in the breeze. I’ve been on the phone, talking business. Now I hit the End button on the smart phone my daughter insisted I upgrade to, and which I really can’t stand, and look upwards. The clouds are moving in. It’s time to go.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
“Victor,” I say. “Tell them we’re ready.”[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
The Stella’s engines are already running. Victor goes inside to tell the captain I’ve given the word. Molly pouts. She’s due on shift at Franco’s in a few hours and can’t go with us. But Heather will travel as far as Fort Lauderdale, where we’ll stop for lunch. From there I’ll send her home in a cab.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
I glance at my watch. It’s high noon on a Saturday in Miami Beach. My wife doesn’t expect me home until midnight. I have the whole day to play.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Patricia Bellomo is the author of the crime and mob fiction novels, Louie Morelli’s Mistress, Stella di Mare, and Louie Morelli’s Daughter. Patricia lives in the Detroit area with her husband, Vince, travelling frequently to South Florida and less frequently to New Orleans, the settings for her novels.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
This blog was written in the voice of her main character, mobster Louie Morelli.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Patricia’s books are available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Also in digital format for all e-readers.
by Patricia Bellomo | Jun 18, 2013 | Mob Blog
[dcs_p]Mob Blog: My Summer With Jimmy Hoffa, June 18, 2013[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
I was fourteen the summer Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. Before his disappearance I knew of him … vaguely. I grew up in a suburb of Detroit, and only the tone-deaf or very young had never heard of Jimmy Hoffa. I’d heard the name on television and seen it in the newspapers, but it held no significance for me. It was background noise. After all, I was fourteen, and it was summer.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Like Coleman Young and Walter Reuther, Hoffa was mentioned in adult conversations and on the evening news. This was the seventies, and we didn’t have the twenty-four hour news cycle that we do today, but I’d heard enough to know that Jimmy Hoffa was a bigshot.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Then one morning I came downstairs for breakfast, and my mother said, “Jimmy Hoffa’s missing.”[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
It was big news. I didn’t quite understand it. No one had ever really explained to me what the Teamsters were, although the Teamsters and UAW were code words for those boring news cycles I regularly tuned out. But now my mother explained the details to the best of her ability. As I understood it, there was no great mystery. Everyone assumed that Jimmy Hoffa had been taken by the men who’d given him his power—the mob.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Now someone had to explain to me what the mafia was and how it operated. But I was confused, particularly since I was hearing the surnames of family friends and acquaintances on the evening news. Familiar names, more familiar than Hoffa’s had ever been.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Eventually, the Hoffa story dragged on, and the rest, as they say, is history. But I’m bringing this story to you today because the FBI is digging again in Oakland County. It’s the third or fourth dig in recent years, and it’s the lead story on the local news. Naturally, I understand everything a whole lot better now.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Hearing the details of Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance again, with flashes of photo’s of the Machus Red Fox, which is now an Andiamo’s—a local restaurant chain that my husband and I occasionally frequent, brings to mind that late summer of my youth when world events crept in and left a defining moment, in much the same way Nixon and Watergate had marked an earlier summer.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
For me, it’s a bit nostalgic. Those seventies summers were gorgeous, the days when I knew leisure untouched by work or responsibility. For the Hoffa family it was the beginning of a long, lingering nightmare.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
For all the media hype accompanying this latest dig, I’m skeptical. A farmer who raised livestock on the property claims he buried dead pigs on the land so the FBI may turn up a few bones. I’m sure they’ll know if they’re human or not.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
So the dig continues today, with the media and a crowd of spectators watching from a distance.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
If they find Jimmy Hoffa’s body, you’ll know. It will be all over the news for days and weeks to come. And then I’ll have another summer of Hoffa.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Patricia Bellomo is the author of the crime and mob fiction novels, Louie Morelli’s Mistress, Stella di Mare, and Louie Morelli’s Daughter. Patricia lives in the Detroit area with her husband, Vince, travelling frequently to South Florida and less frequently to New Orleans, the settings for her novels.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Books available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Also available in digital format for all e-readers. Available on AmazonUK & AmazonEU.
by Patricia Bellomo | Jun 13, 2013 | Mob Blog
[dcs_p]Mob Blog: Writing Mob Fiction, June 13, 2013[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
I never thought of myself as a mob fiction writer. In fact, when I was younger, I aspired to be a great romance novelist. Mightily influenced by Gone With The Wind, I longed to be a belle of the old south. But, alas, I was an Italian-American girl growing up in the suburbs of Detroit.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
To be honest, I didn’t really want to be Italian. Almost everyone I knew was Italian, or half-Italian, and I wanted to be different. I wanted to be southern, like Scarlett O’Hara. I wasn’t too keen on being Catholic either. But I was Catholic and half-Sicilian and hot-headed and impulsive and way too emotional.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Fast forward a few decades and guess what? I’m still Catholic and hot-headed and impulsive and way too emotional. But I’ve long since resigned myself to the fact that I never was southern belle material. I’m too independent and opinionated and too much of a Yankee girl. Then again, I’m Italian.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
So why am I writing mob fiction? I certainly didn’t intend to. When I first met my husband in the mid-nineties, I was writing or attempting to write romantic suspense. I was working on my eighth or ninth novel, having written ten books before publishing Stella di Mare in 2010. In these earlier works Louie Morelli was a shadowy side character. Not at all the main player.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
How did Louie become the ultimate bad-boy, the dark hero my female readers love and my male readers admire? I’m fairly sure Louie’s promotion had something to do with my growing up Italian in a very Italian neighborhood. I mean, I’ve known a lot of Louie Morelli’s and wannabe Louie Morelli’s. Because they were so familiar and so much a part of my local scene, I never realized what great characters they were.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
My husband—who is second generation American—and one-hundred percent Sicilian, might even qualify. He’s a good deal older than me, and he certainly is a character. When we were dating, he took me on trips to Fort Lauderdale and Vegas. Sometimes his buddies went along on these holidays. “Boys” trips: Girlfriends only, no wives. When my husband and I were married, I was told—only half-jokingly—that I couldn’t go on the Florida trips anymore. It was girlfriends only. But then somebody must have decided I was grandfathered in because it was never mentioned again.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
For a couple of years I continued to go on trips with the group—which were a blast. And, oh, do I miss them! But one year, when we were down in the Keys, the Feds showed up. Eventually, some of our friends went away and those who didn’t went broke, and now the trips are officially over.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Life’s a little boring now. I’m writing mob fiction—and make no mistake, it is fiction—and that’s exciting. But I’ve had moments of great inspiration. Therein lies the difference.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Patricia Bellomo is the author of the crime and mob fiction novels, Louie Morelli’s Mistress, Stella di Mare, and Louie Morelli’s Daughter. Patricia lives in the Detroit area with her husband, Vince, travelling frequently to South Florida and less infrequently to New Orleans, the settings for her novels.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Books available on Amazon.com & Barnes & Noble. Also in digital format for all e-readers.
by Patricia Bellomo | Jun 8, 2013 | Mob Blog
Mob Blog: Free Kindle Book, June 8, 2013
Patricia Bellomo’s sexy South Beach thriller, Stella di Mare, is Free on Kindle!!![dcs_p]
Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to read Patricia Bellomo’s sexy mob book, Stella di Mare. Starting today, Saturday, June 8 and running through Monday, June 10, 2013, Stella di Mare is free on Amazon Kindle. This is a one-time only promotion, offering you the full, updated version of Stella di Mare. [/dcs_p][dcs_p]”Stella di Mare is a bit like The Soprano’s meets South Beach, except that Louie Morelli is the mobster you’ll fall in love with.”[/dcs_p][dcs_p]As one of Bellomo’s reader says, “Louie is the kind of man we all wished we knew.”[/dcs_p][dcs_p]”Ms. Bellomo, I am now a fan. You should market “Stella di Mare” as a screenplay!”[/dcs_p][dcs_p]”Great characters. A fun read.”[/dcs_p][dcs_p]”Lots of twists and turns … sex, money, murder, mystery, love, money, yachts, the mob, Florida sun and nightlife. Can’t wait to read the next one.”[/dcs_p][dcs_p]Download your free kindle book here (Amazon. com/Stella di Mare)
Stella di Mare by Patricia Bellomo[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Tara Evans loves working at Miami’s swank Walker Hotel. The only problem is Tara’s boss, Franco Santia. When he’s not hitting on her, he’s hustling hot diamonds and snorting lines with his creepy pal, Manny Bommarino. He’s also borrowing heavily from savvy investor, Louie Morelli.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
When Louie assumes control of the Walker, Tara’s life takes an exciting turn. Louie’s a charmer, and she’s hot for him even before he seduces her on his yacht, the Stella di Mare. Tara soon discovers Louie is married, and that he is not just connected to the mob, he is the mob.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Tossed from his hotel, Franco is desperate to get back in. He’s hidden a stolen Blue Diamond necklace in Room 313; a necklace Manny will do anything—including committing murder—to get. Convinced Tara has it, Manny starts stalking her.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Nobody touches Louie’s girl. Employing old-fashioned mob tactics, Louie persuades Franco to betray Manny. Then he devises a scam involving a famous producer, an eccentric diamond dealer, and his lovely mistress, Tara.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]
Caught up in a high-stakes world where power and money rule, Tara faces shocking new truths about herself and her lover. And now, as her fate and Louie’s becomes even more entwined, Tara makes a decision that will drastically alter their relationship and put her life in danger.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]Patricia Bellomo is the author of the mafia fiction books, Louie Morelli’s Mistress, Stella di Mare, and Louie Morelli’s Daughter. Books available on Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble. In ebook & digital format for all e-readers.[/dcs_p][dcs_p]Books available on AmazonUK & AmazonEU. E-books in US, UK, DE, FR,ES,IT,JP,CA, BR.
