Claudio Bolle
For the very few who might be interested in me, please find here some personal details.
I was born and have always lived in Vicenza, in the North-East of Italy. When I got married I moved to Altavilla, a neighbouring village.
I was a top administration and control manager in some famous companies from our area, with additional tasks ranging from HR to IT. I then worked as a consultant.
And since the beginnning of 2022 I enjoy my deserved retirement.
You can find the story of my works in the appropriate pages.
This, as of March 2022, is an important update to the English side of my site, since I finally managed to see my first work translated and published in this language. Now, on March 2024 I'm adjusting it.
Music is one of my passions: I have always played keyboards or guitar in some bands from my area – I’m a rocker to the bone.
Since I was a boy I have always been a passionate reader: Salgari, Kipling, over the usual comics. Afterwards I took an interest in science fiction and its several faces: classic, technological, social, strange.
I also read thrillers, detective and spy stories, not too committing, I was still a student at the time. Then I fell fond of adventure books, in particular by Wilbur Smith and Ken Follett.
I have always kept away from other genres, that I feel are much more imagination-based than science fiction. Of course, this is my personal opinion, I doubt I will ever change it. Does that sound insufficiently intellectual? Too bad.
I have another, more recent, passion: strategy games. I am a real expert and have a good reputation on international sites. I also published some game “mods” that met with good though unexpected favour.
You may ask: “what does this have to do with the book?”. It does, if it all combines with a passion for history and a vivid imagination, so vivid that I pictured myself dealing with different situations in different historical periods. Bored with fantasizing, I decided to write my own story and expected not to exceed fifty pages, one way or the other.
I had to decide characters, setting, time and place. So, I studied carefully, to identify a historical period and setting which would fit perfectly with the story I had in mind:
Rome under Tiberius.
I conceived the opening – that was the hardest part – and then the story rolled out almost by itself. When I reached two hundred pages, I actually was at the beginning: ideas were coming, dialogues were flowing in, characters became clearer and clearer, to the point that they were taking the upper hand.
When I reached four hundred pages, I started the second book because the first one was becoming too long for a newcomer. I was starting to believe in this project and a friend who has been there forever encouraged me to go ahead.
After many revisions, I decided to submit it to some publishers but got no response for approximately six months. Then a small but determined publishing house made a proposal to me. That, along with some copy sold and some positive review encouraged me to keep up the work.
I submitted the first novel to more revisions, then I've seen the follow-ups published and welcome by readers and critics.
Well, this is how my career as a writer started. Since then, I adventured myself in different genres and with encouraging results.