Sam Rizzo, a football star and class president at DuPont High, and his older sister Francine, a tough girl who loves kickboxing, are born children of a premonition. Their single mother believes she will die giving birth to Sam, and that’s exactly what happens. Without a mother or father to care for them, they end up as foster children raised by their Aunt Clara, a failed nun and their late mother’s sister. Clara must give up God’s call and enter a convent because she cannot overcome the sins of the flesh, although she tells everyone she had to quit the novitiate to care for her late sister’s children.
Deep down, Clara harbors such deep regret and self-loathing that it manifests itself in her determination to make Sam and Francine saints so that she can make amends for her life and that of her deceased sister. She is determined to send Sam to a convent and his sister to a nunnery. She vows to do everything she can to keep the boy and girl as pure virgins because she wants their vocation to a religious order to be free and clear of those carnal sins that have distracted her.
Before joining the faculty at South Georgia State, author Andrew DiNicola lived what he calls “a writer’s life”: He worked various odd jobs and spent several years as an adjunct professor at local colleges. His life is filled with enriching experiences that inspire his writing, and his stories are born out of memories of the people he worked with and the places he lived. Like Trembling Birds is a snippet of the spiritual journey that has filled his life with many of these enriching experiences.
Associate Professor DiNicola earned his BA in Geography from SUNY at Buffalo and his MA in English from the University of North Florida. Since earning his master’s degree, he has taught college writing courses and sees teaching as God’s first calling in his life and writing Christian fiction as God’s second. He looks forward to the days ahead when more of his memoirs will find their way onto the pages of books so that readers of his stories can gain insight into God’s infinite love for humanity, despite the problems of sin and evil that still permeate the world.
DiNicola begins: “Coach Ramsford – although he was no longer a coach, having had three open-heart surgeries and the scars on his chest to prove it – stared at Sam that morning like a laser aimed at a target. The moment of silence had just begun, and in that moment, when all hearts and minds should be focused on charity and gratitude to the Creator, whoever He was or should be, Coach broke the silence by bellowing out a declaration with the sound of a trumpet and the certainty of a prophet. Ramsford believed that everyone’s life has a motto, a slogan that sums up the entire experience of being a human being. He believed that Sam Rizzo had one – one that Ramsford had chosen for the boy one morning during opening announcements in his homeroom teacher’s class.”
Andrew DiNicola’s gripping tale, published by Page Publishing, traces Sam and Francine’s spiritual journey as they embark on the religious life their aunt has chosen. What their abusive aunt doesn’t realize, however, is that God has other plans for them both. And although they endure harsh treatment from manipulative Aunt Clara, each of them finds love in the end. Francine falls in love with a girl she meets at work, and Sam falls in love with a girl who tries to ruin him but then finds her savior in Sam. Each sibling’s spiritual journey ends in joy, but it is a joy that defies comprehension and blossoms only through the mysterious work of God.
Readers who wish to experience this unforgettable work can purchase Like Trembling Birds in all bookstores or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play or Barnes and Noble.
For more information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.
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