Featured Interview With Author Carla Conti
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I live in the Philadelphia area with my husband, who tolerates my true crime habit. I have a side hobby of pursuing dual Italian citizenship through my grandmother, and I will spin this effort into a future nonfiction story that includes a true crime committed by a relative!
I have no pets, unless you count my grand-dog!
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was a working journalist for many years, so I already had the writing bug with skills that translated to authorship. Decades ago I got pretty close to publishing a true crime story from my state of Pennsylvania, that I now plan to make my next book project. Now that I have a publisher and a platform for my debut true crime memoir Chained Birds, I can return to this old case and finish what I started back in the 1990s. I still have boxes of neatly typed interview transcripts and micro cassettes at my disposal!
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I mostly read non-fiction — lots of true crime (obviously), political books, and great mystery/thrillers. A long time ago, I was inspired to go into journalism by Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and All The President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein (the movie, in particular!).
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Before I list the Chained Birds synopsis, I want to note a fun fact about the audiobook version — I'm the narrator! I spent a week inside a Philadelphia sound studio with the most incredible sound engineer, who guided and coached me and then mixed the audio files with magic fingers, to produce an audiobook that I think will please listeners who value the authenticity of an author-narrator reading their memoir 🙂
CHAINED BIRDS SYNOPSIS:
After three years in Europe, former journalist Carla Conti just wanted to settle her family into the suburbs of Philadelphia. But her high school friend Scott Powell, a lawyer handling a brutal prison stabbing case, needed a favor. Before she knew it, Carla became part of the defense team and mired in the terrifying world of federal prison gangs, penal abuse, and corruption.
Then, when she agreed to write a tell-all book on the violent machinations behind the court case — with Scott’s client as an inside source — the stakes turned deadly. Two different prison gangs issued “hit orders” against the prisoner she and Scott now considered a friend, and the journalist and defense attorney were imperiled by association.
CHAINED BIRDS is a true crime memoir of Carla’s 10-year journey to advocate for federal inmate Kevin Sanders and help him re-enter society after prison. But the mission came at a cost as Carla struggled to balance her own, Scott’s, and Kevin’s safety while writing an exposé on the horrific conditions that led to the shutdown of an experimental prison program in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
This thrilling, frightening book depicts a journey filled with unlikely friendships, invisible victims of prison abuse, failings in our criminal justice system, and redemption through storytelling.
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