All the Ups and Downs: Book Tour and Giveaway: Blood and Whiskey (A Scalisi Family Novel #1) by Meredith Allison

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Book Tour and Giveaway: Blood and Whiskey (A Scalisi Family Novel #1) by Meredith Allison

Blood and Whiskey

A Scalisi Family Novel #1

by
Meredith Allison

Genre:
Historical Thriller

1924 Chicago is a turf war: the North Side against the South Side. Booze, guns, money, and blood are all currency here.

Prohibition is a breeding ground for the rise of organized crime in America, and for the ambitious, it means building a fortune.

Mia Scalisi, a street-smart showgirl, has big dreams of leaving behind the small-time supper club she performs at night after night. She wants to see her name in lights—and maybe even on the silver screen. And her brother Nick, an ambitious Mafia capo determined to be the next underworld prince, promises to use the spoils of his new liquor deal to make it happen.

With the career of her dreams within her reach and friends like Al Capone and Johnny Torrio, Mia’s future has never looked brighter, and she turns a blind eye to Nick’s criminal activities and morally bankrupt ways…until it all catches up with them.

Too late, Mia discovers ambition always comes with a price, and that price must be paid—in blood.

When her world implodes, there's only one thing she cares about after the dust settles.

Revenge.

**On sale now for only $2.99!!**

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BOOK TRAILER:

Deft fingers rolled a jazzy minor scale on a grand piano, the melody distantly reaching up to the second floor of Stems Supper Club in the Levee District of Chicago.

Mia Angela Scalisi, a New York Sour in one hand and a tube of lipstick in the other, cocked an ear to the tune. It was the start of the lengthy introduction to her first number, “Everybody Loves My Baby,” and she was late—which meant she was right on time, though her brother Nick might disagree. He’d given her strict orders to turn the place upside down tonight, and he’d probably be sore at her if he found out she was still preening in front of the mirror in her dressing room and drinking cocktails instead of getting her ass on stage.

Though tonight was meant to be a birthday party for Nick’s boss, Sal Bellomo, who also owned the supper club, it was really about her brother. He was riding high after securing quite the birthday gift for Sal, in the form of a two-million-dollar investment from Hyman Goldberg, a Manhattan businessman of questionable scruples but untold wealth. The investment would allow them to finance a major liquor distribution operation in not only Chicago and New York, but Omaha, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and Canada, with plenty of opportunity for expansion.

Nick and Sal, and everyone else involved in the deal, would be very rich men inside of six to nine months. The money would be rolling in fast, and in huge quantities, according to her brother. Nick’s successes meant more power and influence for him, which meant better things for Mia.

Like moving pictures. And maybe even sooner than she’d hoped.

Mia cast one more glance at herself in the mirror and tossed back the rest of her drink. Even Lillian Gish had to start somewhere. One day, Mia would tell the story of how an orphan girl of immigrant parents had grown up on the rough streets of New York City’s Lower East Side, become a child vaudeville performer, then moved to Chicago, where she’d become a cabaret princess at Sal Bellomo’s Stems Supper Club, before one day transforming into a silver-screen starlet.

That’d make for a pretty good feature in someone’s gossip rag, she reasoned. And, hell, it was even true. For color, she might pepper in the fact that her brother was a gangster and a veteran of the Great War, and that she had done six months in a miserable dress factory while he was in France killing Jerries to make ends meet.

Nah. He’d kill me if I told anybody he’s a gangster.

Meredith Allison has embraced her nerdiness from youth, with minor jaunts of attempting to be "cool" during high school and college. Spoiler alert: she was unsuccessful at fooling anyone. After this dark period, she returned to the light, embracing her bookish nature and penchant for action and horror films, bloody survivalist video games (she's looking at you, Resident Evil and Call of Duty) interspersed with the occasional sweeping fantasy adventure RPG (Final Fantasy, anyone?). Along the way, she developed her knack for storytelling, which began when she was a mere child-person many moons ago.

Meredith is a writer (and reader) of many kinds of fiction, but in particular spy thrillers, military-esque suspense, and historical crime. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, she is by proxy a Huskers fan (GO BIG RED!), as UNL is her undergraduate alma mater, and moonlights as an obligatory Blue Jays fan due to completing her graduate MFA studies at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

When she emerges from her writing cave, blinking in dismay at having to be exposed to the cruel light of day yet again, she can be found romping with her two Pomeranians, serving her overlord cat, hanging with her husband, battling it out with the undead or practicing a new kind of magery on her PlayStation, or simply huddled in a dark corner somewhere with just enough light to read a favorite book. Other interests include baking, cooking, and blogging about new restaurants.

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Do you have any side stories about the characters?

I am planning to write a collection of short stories detailing Mia’s childhood with her brother Nick as orphans, and all of the shenanigans they got up to that shaped who they are at the beginning of Blood & Whiskey. I’m really looking forward to writing that! The first novel mentions a lot of the things they went through and experienced as kids, but this collection will be those stories. It’s titled Blood Comes First.

If Blood & Whiskey were ever made into a film, who would you want to play the lead?

If Blood & Whiskey ever got made into a film—feature film or Netflix would be awesome!—I would cry hysterically, and then I would hope that the role of Mia went to Eiza Gonzalez. She’s probably best known for playing Darling in Baby Driver. Though Mia is Sicilian and Eiza is Latina, she brings exactly the kind of spunk and spirit as well as the seriousness required for the heavier moments. Plus, aside from being drop-dead gorgeous, she can sing, which is a bonus since Mia is a singer.

What’s your favorite movie?

The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. I think this is the best gangster film that explores the psychology of how this kind of life can affect someone. It’s also got incredible acting, amazing music, and beautiful scenery. It’s a masterpiece!