Political Thriller
Brothers: a novel of political intrigue and family turmoil.
Brothers is a fast paced political thriller. A modern-day story of Cain and Abel that asks the question, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ The answer depends on which brother is asking the question and the women they encounter.
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Speaker of the House or Representatives Gianni Simonelli is a second-generation New York Italian American hell bent on not being associated with the Mafia. The problem is his brother is a member of a New York crime family.
On the Inauguration Day, the newly elected President steps to the podium to address the nation and is shot and killed by the Secret Service agent assigned to protect him . Reeling from the assassination Gianni is called upon to help stabilize the administration.
Someone identified as the ‘Emperor’ leads a domestic terror organization known as VIPER that has infiltrated America’s national security agencies to gain control of its military power and wealth. With evidence the Secret Service and FBI may be part of VIPER, Gianni turns to CIA Director Jill Shelton to find out who’s behind the insurrection. As events spiral out of control, Gianni is left with no alternative but to seek help from his estranged brother Mario.
When the Mafia strikes VIPER in a brutal but effective way to help save the democracy from being overthrown, Gianni and Shelton face the real possibility collaborating with the Mafia could result in them becoming crime family puppets.
INTERVIEW
Introduce yourself and tell me about what you do.
I’m a 2nd generation Italian American. All four of my grandparents emigrated to America at the turn of the last century. My folks believed in the American Dream….everything and anything is possible in America.I was an average kid in high school, bored more than anything. We moved four times… 7 schools between kindergarten and high school.In my junior year, new to the school, everyone was preparing to apply to college.My guidance counselor basically told me not to apply. She told me I wasn’t‘college material’. I wouldn’t get in or if I did, I wouldn’t make it. I didn’t like someone telling me not to try.Years later I jokingly told people it was the first time I realized I was being insulted. I’m sure I had been insulted previously but didn’t realize it!
As it happened, I wound up getting elected president of the senior class. A small private Methodist college from Oklahoma had a relationship with MIT and came recruiting to my school. They were looking for ‘leaders’, and as president of the senior class, they offered me a $300 scholarship to attend Oklahoma City University. I grew up on the beach in Connecticut and Westchester County, New York. I’m not sure I knew where Oklahoma was. With few other choices I accepted the scholarship. However, that summer I was invited to attend a travel study program in Europe. We spent a few months going from university to university in about a dozen European countries. I blossomed! I actually returned from Europe too late to begin classes in Oklahoma. I arrived in January 1969….not college material. Two and half years later I graduated with bachelor’s degree and honors. I was 20.
I was offered a teaching position at an Oklahoma City area high school. I accepted the job and enrolled in a graduate program and received my master’s degree in less than twelve months. I applied to law school and the doctoral program. I didn’t expect to remain in Oklahoma and was worried partial law hours wouldn’t transfer so I enrolled in the University of Oklahoma College of Education doctoral program.
I was advised it would be a 5-year program, with 90 hours of course work and a dissertation. Three years later I became Dr. Vince Orza ( not college material). I taught high school for two years, was recruited for a professorship at a new community college, where I taught for another two years. Then a state university offered me a professorship to teach marketing. In my years at the University of Central Oklahoma became a tenured professor of marketing.
During that time, I began writing a column on economic issues which was carried by local and regional newspapers and magazines. I sent a letter to the NBC TV affiliate in OKC suggesting they add a ‘money segment’ to their local programming. I was invited to be a guest on that show. It was live television!
Years later, I would tell people as an Italian from New York, if I wanted to get on the news there, I had to do one of two things, kill someone or get killed! I’d be on the news. In Oklahoma I was on the news, not dead nor under arrest.
Over the next year and half, the CBS affiliate included me in their news and then I hit the jackpot. The ABC affiliate hired me to be the Business & Economics Editor, providing stories daily…all while I was attending graduate school and teaching full time at another state university. Within a few months I was promoted to a news anchor. I spent ten years there, and simultaneously teaching.
During that time, I also started a small ad agency, specializing in television. My clients included retailers and restaurants. ChiChi’s Mexican Restaurants was my largest account. After representing them for about six months, they offered me a job as VP of Marketing.
My university position was full time, my anchor job was full time, and the agency was the filler. I told the ChiChi’s people I’d take the job as long as I could keep my existing schedule. They agreed, and I became VP. About twelve months later they promoted me to VP Marketing and Administration, and then a few months after that, Sr. VP. I never quit the other jobs.
I spent about two years in that position. It was a public company, and I confronted the Chairman and President about being spend thrifts. I resigned and seven months later started my own restaurant. ChiChi’s went broke the following year.
Over the next 20+ years, I created, built and operated Garfield’s Restaurants. I took the company public; acquired two other small restaurant chains and grew to over 100 million dollars in annual sales.
I left and returned to TV twice during that period. As the company grew larger and larger, I grew less interested. I enjoyed creating, mentoring, and experimenting so we bought the company back private and sold it.
In the middle of all this, in 1990 I became the dark horse candidate for Governor. In a five-man republican primary I won 44% of the vote. I lost the runoff because I refused to go negative. Twelve years later I ran again but as a democrat. I won 44% of the primary vote in that race as well and lost the runoff again. I don’t know it’s like to win….but losing has been pretty good to me. Voters from both parties think I would have been a great governor, and I never got the chance to prove them wrong!
Having sold the company, I was too young to retire and serendipitously, Oklahoma City University was looking for a new business school dean. I was approached about the position and spent the next five years as Dean. I was back in my element of helping people see what is possible if you’re willing to work hard, long hours and risk failure because that’s the price of success.
Lucky again, a locally owned Oklahoma City TV station was looking for a president who could turn the operation around. I resigned my Dean’s position and became president of KSBI TV. My charge was fix it and sell it. I did both and five years later I retired at age sixty-five.
My early years in Europe opened my eyes to the world. I promised myself I would see the world and over the last fifty plus years I have visited more than 120 countries on all seven continents. My resume reads like someone who can’t hold a job but if you dig deeper, I have lived the American dream.
We’ve owned a second home in Scottsdale for nearly 25 years. We planned to retire here. Three years after retiring our American dream turned into a nightmare, when my wife Patti was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. During those long months while caring for my wife I sat at my desk and wrote “Brothers”.
Tell me more about your journey as an author, including the writing processes.
I started writing op-eds when I joined the faculty at Oklahoma City Community College. I mailed them a few local newspapers and to my surprise, they published them. I was about 23 years old, thrilled to have my name on the editorial pages. I continued writing for the rest of my professional life, on topics dealing with business, education, economics, family, and politics.
The columns resulted in invitations to speak at civic clubs, professional organizations, other colleges and universities. Free speeches lead to paid speeches, which lead to commencement addresses and corporate conventions.
I have done keynote addresses at conventions in Chicago, Orlando, Las Vegas and about a dozen states. In addition, after the keynote address at my own company’s annual manager recognition convention (which I held on cruise ships), a cruise director asked if I had an interest in becoming a lecturer for cruise lines?
That gig required two forty-five-minute lectures a week. As compensation, my wife and I enjoyed the cruise for free! This entire journey started because a high school guidance counselor underestimated, or more precisely provided the incentive to prove her wrong. College opened the door to communicate with others, which resulted in a few columns in local papers, then a career in television news, national conventions keynote addresses, and politics. All for a kid who wasn’t supposed to go to college.
Tell me about your Book
Writing “Brothers” was kind of a progression from news and public speaking. I taught and wrote in a way that made difficult and/or uncomfortable topics easier to understand. I’m not an ivy leaguer, but over the years my education and travel, coupled with my experiences has provided me a much broader than average understanding of people.
I am open to differing opinions, faiths, lifestyles, because I grew up around a variety of different cultures, religions, families and world views. At age 18, on that trip to Europe, I saw a WWII concentration camp. My travels across the world took me to villages throughout Europe, Africa, South America and all across Asia. I had dinner and debates with communists, socialists, good and bad democrats. I had an ‘audience’ with Pope Paul, met a few presidents, great corporate executives, been on three African safari’s, gone gorilla trekking in Uganda, lectured at universities across the U.S. and in South America, China and Vietnam.
All of these experiences gave a perspective to write because I’ve enjoyed a living encyclopedic life.
“Brothers” comes in part from my two gubernatorial campaigns. I had competitors who believed they were entitled to win because of their wealth, family heritage, went to a big-name school. In some cases, they believed it was their turn.
I debated people who were dogmatic in their beliefs, said what the party told them they had to say, not what they believed. I met individuals who offered their financial support, if I guaranteed I’d do something for them. Advisors told me that was how the game was played. I refused to play and turned down large cash contributions. I was offered a cash contribution by a close ‘friend’ who didn’t want his name associated with my campaign. I’m no choir boy, but I knew the moment I did something that could make beholding to someone, subject to blackmail, I was no better than the politicians I criticized.
As an Italian, especially one who moved to Oklahoma, there were rumors about my mafia connections, my business, and who might be behind me. Never mind that I worked 60-80 weeks, seven days a week, year after year. My main character, Gianni Simonelli, was the first Italian American Speaker of the House of Representatives. His brother Mario was a member of a New York crime family.
Gianni didn’t know until later in life, his initial election to congress was in part, the work of the Mafia. Two other characters in the book are also brothers who both been elected Governors. Part of my political experience opened my eyes to petty jealousies between candidates.
Finally, I learned how dangerous and ugly people can be about politics. In my years as a reporter and anchor for ABC TV Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO I did a series of investigative reports on a quasi-government public trust that had been operating illegally for years. The Chairman of the Trust was the publisher of Oklahoma’s largest newspaper. My reporting earned the station and me several awards and as a result of what we exposed, the State Supreme Court ruled unanimously, what the Trust had done was illegal.
Eight years after those stories, I ran for Governor. The publisher was not a fan of mine. After my surprise primary victory, the Sunday before the Tuesday runoff election, the paper published a front page, above the fold editorial entitled “ORZA THE WORST”. It referred to me as a ‘pretty boy, saloon keeper’. Pretty much any analysis of my loss was attributed to that editorial.
In short, the press can be used for good or evil, retribution, legitimate and illegitimate reasons and smear campaigns. In a twist, “Brothers” makes the Mafia the good guys by coming to the aid of a president trying to stop the overthrow of America’s democracy.
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