Arthur Cola Legendary Tales

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ARTHUR COLA

arthurcola@yahoo.com

Web: www.arthurcolalegendarytales.weebly.com

Blog:www.arthurcolalegendarytales.wordpress.com

www.amazon.com/arthurcola  

Arthur Cola was born in Chicago in the “little Italy” neighborhood of the near west side of the city. His family moved to Oak Park, IL where he attended Oak Park-River Forest High School. While attending Loyola University, Chicago, he met his future wife, Donna Shields. Together they have five now grown children and four grandchildren. He, his wife and family now live in Wisconsin.

He has been an educator for 35 years. During that time he was a Teacher of History and a School Principal. Upon receiving his Master’s Degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, he also served as a Lecturer for Barry University in Florida. His post graduate work concentrated on Educational administration and theology. He studied in Rome at the Loyola University Campus while conducting research for his current work, “The Stone Cutter Genius” and traveled extensively in Ireland and Britain researching cultural sites and folklore for his other novels.

Through Bon Voyage Travel (kari@bonvoyagecruisevacations.com) readers may form groups or join a current group to accompany the author to Ireland, Britain or Italy visiting all the sites where the action, in his novels, takes place.

While performing his duties as a School Principal, he also began writing a “Movie Review” column with his daughter for a Wisconsin Newspaper. Also during those years he began adapting novels and plays for Jr. High School students to perform. One of those productions won the “Bicentennial Award” and was performed at McCormick Place in Chicago. Part of that award winning work was his original poetic reflection titled, “What is America?”

His literary works also include the children’s Christmas themed book, “Papa and the Gingerbread Man, An Adventure in America’s Oldest City©.” In this tale the famous cookie man is sought out by “Papa” through the streets of St. Augustine, Florida. He wishes to invite him to his grandchildren’s school Christmas party. As the chase takes place the children will be introduced to some of the most famous landmarks of early America such as Castillo San Marcos and St. Augustine Cathedral, unique restaurants such as the Columbia, and sea faring adventures on the schooner Freedom.

His first book for older folks is titled “Papa and the Leprechaun King, The Secret Legend of the Shamrock. ©” In this tale a group of Wisconsin tourists in Ireland find out that the Realm of the Wee Folk are real and end up embarking upon a quest to solve a 1500 year old mystery while saving the Leprechaun King. In the process the reader is introduced to the wonders and folklore of Ireland and the secret of the Shamrock which is sure to not only delight but also uplift the reader. It is also a wonderful introduction to traveling in present day Ireland.

The second book is an historical fantasy. “The Shamrock Crown (Legend of Excalibur).”© ISBN: 978-1-58982-619-9 (www.amazon.com/arthurcola). This tale takes a large mid-western family on a journey from Wisconsin to Ireland and Britain as they attempt to save two of the most famous relics of ancient Camelot. The reader will encounter the Legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in a way slightly different from that of Mark Twain in his tale of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” Arthur Cola has the family encounter the legendary characters of Camelot in the 21st Century. Together they join forces to preserve the symbol of the most important “Message” of our time and all time.

A new book trailer introduces the reader to his third novel (www.americanbookpublishingblog.com/promote-your-book-at-etnic-festivals or www.authorcentral.amazon.com/arthurcola).  It is an epic legendary tale titled, “The Stone Cutter Genius”©. This historical fiction epic with elements of the supernatural is about a teacher in Chicago, who seeks only to present the Life and Times of the Renaissance artist Michelangelo. He takes his two teen sons and his class to Italy to follow in the artist’s footsteps. Under the guise of the tour they embark on a quest to recover a missing artifact of the most famous family of Renaissance Italy while uncovering the mystery of the Legend of the Magi Ring (said to possess supernatural powers). Along the way the heroes of the tale discover how the early life of the master artist, Michelangelo, was entwined with the Medici family of Florence, Italy in the 15th-16th Centuries and now themselves…the Colonna family of the 21st Century. It is a novel blending Renaissance history, mystery, political intrigue, adventure and a bit of romance too in the present day, while finding yourself in a nostalgic romp in Chicago, a magical encounter in Wales, a mysterious revelation in London, a Hollywood type premiere in Dublin and thrilling experiences in Florence, Rome and the Isle of Capri as you’ve never seen them before.  

His fourth novel, THE BROOCH, picks up where The Stone Cutter Genius left off.

 It’s a tale of self-awareness, acceptance, tolerance, and above all love in all its forms.

“Love” comes to us in many ways. In this story we see six sons coming to grips with a collision of love, history, faith and art which had its roots in Renaissance Italy and comes to affect the lives of the Colonna family in touching, violent, intriguing, inspiring, funny, vengeful and unselfish ways. Those bonds of love and the struggles as they develop parallel one of the great artist’s of Renaissance Italy, Michelangelo. Torn between the love of his life long friend, Francesco Granacci and that of the only woman he ever loved, Vittoria Colonna, the artist, called Il Divino, must deal with his heart and his art as a reflection of love and faith. So too do the six sons reflect that same struggle as one desperately hangs on to boyhood until love hits him in the heart, another denies who he is and strives to come out of his brother’s shadow, a third lashes out at what he doesn’t understand because he doesn’t want to admit that the love he feels isn’t the normal he has been taught, the fourth uses humor to hide his feelings as he combats intolerance to prove that a gay dude can be just one of the guys, the fifth separates himself from his heritage only to come to realize through the love of his wife that it is precious and worth saving and the sixth burns with hate and revenge choosing a self-destructive path to destroy the very symbol of Divine and Human Love.

All of this is set in an adventure taking the reader from Britain to Italy as a thief must be found, a plot to destroy the very essence of love as represented in The Brooch must be foiled, a theory must be proved and a message must be presented to the world which has waited five hundred years to be rediscovered.

Author's note:
We don’t always understand how “Love” comes to us or why it’s arrives one way for one person and another way for others. We do, however, have the ability to share love, reject love, and accept love and that my friend is “amore.”

                                                                                       

Watch his CAN-TV Chicago interview by going to: http://blip.tv/avila-media-nfp/avila-irish-craic-authors-sandra-mccone-and-arthur-cola-5738822.

To view the Book Trailer for his novel: The Stone Cutter Genius, go to the following link online:http://www.americanbookpublishingblog.com/promote-your-book-at-ethnic-festivals)

Become part of a Tour of Ireland, Britain or Italy which are based on his books. Contact: kari@bonvoyagecruisevacations.com 
Watch my CAN-TV Chicago interview by going to: http://blip.tv/avila-media-nfp/avila-irish-craic-authors-sandra-mccone-and-arthur-cola-5738822 .  
To view the Book Trailer for the novel: The Stone Cutter Genius, go to the following link online: http://www.americanbookpublishingblog.com/promote-your-book-at-ethnic-festivals

Books by Arthur Cola:
Children's Book:
- Papa and the Gingerbread Man,an Adventure in Americas Oldest City. 
(www.amazon.com/arthurcola)
Novels:
- Papa and the Leprechaun King, the Secret Legend of the Shamrock. 
- The Shamrock Crown and the Legend of Excalibur. 
- The Stone Cutter Genius (An epic Historical Fiction for 2011)

Book Ordering site:

http://www.pdbookstore.com/comfiles/pages/ArthurCola.shtml
http://www.pdbookstore.com/comfiles/pages/cola.shtml

http://www.amazon.com/arthurcola