Alfred J. Garrotto

I invite you to visit me online at: my personal website ( https://www.alfredjgarrotto.com ) my AuthorsDen site ( https://www.authorsden.com/alfredjgarrottohtm ) and my personal blog at "The Wisdom of Les Miserables" ( https://wisdomoflesmiserables.blogspot.com/ ) on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/AlfredJGarrottoAuthor ) and on Twitter @algarrotto ( https://www.twitter.com/algarrotto ) Email: algarrotto@comcast.net I'm a native Californian now living in the San Francisco East Bay Area. I was born into a theatrical family and began my career in the arts at the age of 7, with my big sister, doing bit parts that required Italian-looking kids. My sister used her magnificent coloratura voice to pursue a career in grand opera. By my teens, I had taken a different road into academics and spirituality. Although I did a lot of writing (mostly on Christian themes), I did not get the book-bug until my forties. Once my muse bit me, I couldn't stop and have written 15 books through both commercial and independent publishing. These include both fiction and nonfiction. My most recent novel is Inspector Javert: at the Gates of Hell (2021). You and I want to know what happens next... after the instant of death. When Javert leaped from the parapet into the River Seine, we wonder, "What happened next?" And that's where the novel begins. Is there life after this life? Or is there eternal nothing. In retelling Javert's life story, I offer my own answer to what happened next... to Javert... and possibly for you and me when our time comes, Bishop Myriel: In His Own Words (2020). Writing in the voice of Victor Hugo’s catalyst character in Les Miserables, I complete the bishop’s unfinished manuscript that the Bishop outlines in Hugo’s masterpiece. My love for Les Miserables (in all its iterations) led me to write my nonfiction book The Wisdom of Les Miserables: Lessons From the Heart of Jean Valjean (2008). My novella, There’s More, explores the greatest mystery of all: what happens at the instant of death? In it, a major league ballplayer--a former Catholic priest--is simultaneously murdered and killed during a game by accident and by two different people! The plot explores questions about death and afterlife, as the ballplayer-priest reviews major moments and decisions of his life under the guidance of none other than Victor Hugo's catalytic character in Les Miserables, Bishop Charles Francois Myriel. Other fiction works include the Caribbean Tremors Trilogy: A Love Forbidden, Finding Isabella, I'll Paint a Sun (2019). The Soul of Art (nonfiction, 2016) explores the underlying spirituality that gives birth to all creative endeavors. I use the book as a source for workshops for creative people of all genres, called the "Spirituality of the Arts." Contact me for details and possible bookings (see below). Other novels include Down a Narrow Alley and Circles of Stone. In addition to writing, I am a freelance writer and manuscript editor (need help?) After 20+ years, I retired in 2018 from my day-and-night job as a lay minister in a Roman Catholic parish in the Oakland (CA) Diocese.