You settle down with a good beach or leisure-time read and do a double take as the words jump off the first few pages of the whodunit novel, Vanished: Of course, I checked NCH Downtown and North, Lee Memorial, Health Park, even Physician’s Regional though he’d never go there…
and a few pages later: I shaved and put on a nice pair of jeans and a new shirt I’d gotten at a Waterside Shops boutique.
What fun it is to get into a fictional world where the characters’ actions are chronicled in the haunts of your hometown. Naples resident Dan Petrosini, a prolific author primarily in the thriller and mystery genres, did just that, setting the narration in two of his series against the backdrop of Collier County and Southwest Florida locales, and thus making his work decidedly unique and entertaining for local readers.
Romp through area streets, retail and other well-known spots in his Luca Mystery series, a pentalogy plus two prequels written from 2015 to 2023, and his latest pair, The Art of Payback (2023 and 2024). The former follows the exploits of detective Frank Luca, who finds himself entangled in intrigue and plot twists that beg to be solved. They have been appealing enough to solve that eight of the Luca series are also now in Spanish and 12 are available as audiobooks.
The other series focuses on the mechanisms of one of humanity’s most destructive weaknesses—the overpowering need for revenge. But Petrosini develops that compulsion “not as an eye for an eye, but in a creative way,” he said.
Petrosini’s impressive library of 30 fulllength novels also includes a trilogy, the Suspenseful Secrets series. Its protagonist, Cory, is a struggling Manhattan musician on a quest for success. But Cory has a secret, and faces tough decisions as the consequences of it. Rounding out Petrosini’s works are a handful of stand-alone books.
Petrosini has accomplished things many only dream about. He was able to parlay his passion for writing into a full-time career for which he has achieved No.1 bestseller status some 25 times on Amazon in the U.S. and several other countries.
The New York City native’s literary pilgrimage didn’t begin during his early 40s, however. For some at the jarring precipice of mid-life, the stability of an established career holds them. Petrosini, who was ever aware of his attraction to writing, felt the realization of things yet to be accomplished and took the leap into the unfamiliar.
We wanted to know more and sat down for a chat.
The Naples Press: What was the genesis of your writing career?
Dan Petrosini: I actually wrote my first story at age 10, and later, writing as a teen and into my 20s, I started to feel the pressure. I figured that I owed it to myself to write, and I asked myself if I was doing what I really wanted to do; I wanted to live with no regrets, and I began taking myself seriously.
It was a gradual transition from my job in international transport; I worked a few days and wrote on the others. Generally, you have a great idea, and you’re all charged up, but when you get into the middle, you have plot problems, and it becomes a mess. … You shove the project into a bottom desk drawer and move on to the next idea—it’s common with writers.
However, at age 35, I was determined to complete what I had started and slowly gained the confidence to see the project through.
TNP: When did you realize that language had power?
Petrosini: When I was 12 or 13, I read The Hardy Boys series about teenagers and books about sports, so I knew the power of a story to take me places. I also liked books that were transformative, such as The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, and those by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Russian dissident, such as The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I read Johnny Got His Gun (by Dalton Trumbo), and I can still see myself reading in my bedroom and realizing how it could pull you in and blow you away. A story can be powerful and convey both a situation and pain.
TNP: What are your best efforts yet? Petrosini: A Luca Mystery series is probably my biggest claim to fame. I was going to do seven or eight books, but it caught on. And then I wanted to cap it at 10. But then my readers began asking for another book. I then wrote the Art of Payback ( Race to Revenge and Beyond Revenge), which is not your traditional retribution type of story; I was always intrigued by the obsession with revenge and its ill after-effects. I then took a little time off of that series to finish the latest Luca story—I’m about 75% of the way through the first draft.
TNP: How would you describe your writing style?
Petrosini: Generally, there are two main types of writers—the outliner, somebody who plots everything, and the pantster, those who go by the seat of their pants. I call myself a discovery writer. I have an idea for a story, and there’s going to be some sort of exciting incident that kicks the story off, and I know three or four things that are going to happen, so I put them on paper. It’s like you’re driving
at night with your headlights on and can see a little way ahead but have no idea what will happen down the road. When I started to do this, I got myself in trouble and painted myself into many corners. Now, I have a better formula and a process that generally works.
TNP: What is the most difficult part of the artistic process for you?
Petrosini: These days, in the general culture, in terms of people consuming media, everyone’s looking for the big twist that has to be surprising, and you have to see if it will work. When I create, the stories are in my head, and I know things that the reader doesn’t know; it’s always difficult to weatherproof the idea and come up with the twists.
TNP: How long does it take to write a book, and how often do you write?
Petrosini: Generally, I can get a book written within six months. It may only happen a few days, but I write over 1,000 words some days. If you write in 93 days, that’s about 90,000 words. You take that 90,000 words, pare them down to 72,000, and self-edit. Then, it goes to your editor for the rest of the processproofreading, cover design and formatting, and everything else.
I write every day whether I feel like it or not, and most times I don’t feel like it. It’s hard work, and you have to sit there and sometimes force the words out.
TNP: What’s the most difficult challenge that you face as a writer?
Petrosini: While I am doing well sales-wise, it’s difficult to get visibility. Selling books requires a lot of advertising, and the profit margins are poor, which can be very discouraging. Marketing is really difficult and distasteful because it takes time away from writing and is expensive.
TNP: Which authors of the mystery thriller genre do you admire, and do you have a muse?
Petrosini: I read every day, and two or three books at a time, and I
read nonfiction, as well. I just finished Wine and War, by Donald Kladstrup and Petie Kladstrup, and I enjoy the fiction by James Patterson, John Grisham, Michael Connelly and James Baldacci. I don’t have a particular muse; I have a highly active mind.
As for an external prop that helps me to write, I have a favorite place—a certain chair at a certain table on my lanai that helps me get into the zone. And I don’t sit in that chair when I am on the lanai and not writing.