Member Since: March 01, 2009
Catherine Mambretti
Biography
I'm a melting-pot American, with Sephardic Jewish ancestors and Native American ancestors and many, many Celtic ones. My last name is my husband's, but like him I have a fair number of Italian ancestors, too. My historical fiction draws on all these roots. "Painter of the Seven-eyed Beast" and "The Mute Monja" (short stories published in AHMM) are set in 12th century Catalonia (two centuries before the Inquisition banished my ancestors from the Iberian peninsula). Sleuths Ramon and Ermessenda are fresco artists, whose works I wish I could have studied in college, when I minored in Art History. "The Dead of Winter" (short story published in AHMM) draws on my Native American roots and love of 17th century England and its colonies. And in "The Juror Investigates" (my WIP novel) I plunge into the weird 1950s when I grew up--and into elegant, tough Chicago.
The Chicago suburb where I write is the site of the Marx Brothers' Farm and perhaps was the first rail-commuter community in the U.S. It was founded after the Great Chicago Fire by a brick manufacturer who was afraid of the fire-prone city. My house is over a hundred years old and haunted by interesting spirits (not the least of which are my husband and my pet Greek tortoise). I've lived in "this old house" almost since receiving my Ph.D. (in 17th century English literature and bibliography [a.k.a. non-forensic document analysis]) from the University of Chicago.
Hobbies? Well, anyone who writes fiction has to admit that their vocation and avocation are rather too closely allied. However, I have many interests. In fact, my interests are so wide-ranging that I have difficulty focusing. Among my recent passions are: Japanese language and writing systems, ancient writing systems from Sumer to Egypt and the Etruscans, sumio-E, tea ceremonies, vipassana (mindfulness) meditation, bookmarks, pens, cyphers and encoding, paper and papermaking, tasty wine, tasty food, aromas that don't make me sneeze, therapeutic massage, the relationship between the paranormal and the subconscious. . . .
The Chicago suburb where I write is the site of the Marx Brothers' Farm and perhaps was the first rail-commuter community in the U.S. It was founded after the Great Chicago Fire by a brick manufacturer who was afraid of the fire-prone city. My house is over a hundred years old and haunted by interesting spirits (not the least of which are my husband and my pet Greek tortoise). I've lived in "this old house" almost since receiving my Ph.D. (in 17th century English literature and bibliography [a.k.a. non-forensic document analysis]) from the University of Chicago.
Hobbies? Well, anyone who writes fiction has to admit that their vocation and avocation are rather too closely allied. However, I have many interests. In fact, my interests are so wide-ranging that I have difficulty focusing. Among my recent passions are: Japanese language and writing systems, ancient writing systems from Sumer to Egypt and the Etruscans, sumio-E, tea ceremonies, vipassana (mindfulness) meditation, bookmarks, pens, cyphers and encoding, paper and papermaking, tasty wine, tasty food, aromas that don't make me sneeze, therapeutic massage, the relationship between the paranormal and the subconscious. . . .