By GAIL LOWE
WAKEFIELD—The dark cloud that hovered over the entire world during the coronavirus pandemic was not without a silver lining—at least for Jerry Giuliano, a former resident of North Reading who now resides in Wakefield.
Over a two-and-a-half year period, Giuliano, using JR Giuliano as his pen name, wrote his first novel. After at least 10 rewrites and twice as many revisions, he finally sent his manuscript to publisher Austin Macauley in January 2022 and received a response six weeks later. The company wanted to publish his book.
Giuliano, who will turn 86 on September 25, couldn’t have been happier when he saw his novel in print. For the cover, family member Caroline LaBranti-Giuliano designed the original art. Giuliano held a book signing on Monday, Aug. 14 inside his condo complex at the former Franklin School on Nahant Street in Wakefield with the help of Gayle Merrithew and Julie Ahern. Sales were good.
“The Rock in Our Story,” released in June this year, details the story of Maria della Notte, a young girl whose desire to become a missionary leads her to a convent in La Valle, a village in the province of Avellino, Italy and later to America. The story begins in 1923 during a time of Fascism and corruption and also details the story of Luca, a young boy and son of a sharecropper who lives on the opposite side of La Valle. Maria and Luca first meet aboard a ship sailing from Naples to America and again in their teen years. What follows is their sweet and tender love story.
Giuliano and his wife Audrey have been married for 66 years and it was Audrey he turned to when he needed to discuss ideas for the book. They talked about both plot and characterizations while out on their many walks in their Nahant Street neighborhood. She even suggested that he change the ending to something less predictable. They also discussed the title of the book, which changed five times before Giuliano decided on “The Rock in Our Story.”
“Audrey has been my rock for 66 years, my girlfriend for three years before that and my best friend for all of those decades,” he said. The couple have four adult children, 14 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren and live with their ragdoll Siamese cats Kati and Traci.
Over the years, the couple’s daughter Terri told her father that he had a book inside of him. On birthdays, she would give him blank diaries with the hope that he would “scribble” something in them. Terri didn’t stop there. On one occasion, she gave him a six-week course that taught him how to write essays. Also hopping on the bandwagon was granddaughter Natalie, who challenged him to write a memoir.
In the author’s notes section of his book, Giuliano wrote, “Natalie provided a list of questions that I answered in an unstructured, incorrectly punctuated, grammatically questionable manner.” A dozen copies of his memoir were printed and he still has a copy in his closet.
“It’s a silent reminder of why I never wrote a book before,” he said. Now, rather than viewing his published novel as an accomplishment, he takes it all in stride. A voracious reader and lifelong learner, it was Giuliano’s goal to write a book that would teach something to his readers.
Before his retirement, the Pennsylvania native enjoyed a career in manufacturing. Most recently, he worked as a real estate sales agent in North Reading. His colleague Lisa Santilli said about the book, “It left a smile on my face.”
Today, Giuliano and his wife live in the slower lane. “Audrey and I move into the day slowly and then go into our normal routine,” he said. At the moment, he has no plans to write another book.
If you’re curious about how the story turns out, order a copy of “The Rock in Our Story” from www.austinmacauley.com/us, amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. Price: $14.95.