Monday, September 7, 2020

*Book Tour & Giveaway* The Pizza Chronicles by Andy V. Roamer-GUEST POST


Why Can't Life Be Like Pizza? 
The Pizza Chronicles Book 1 
by Andy V. Roamer 
Genre: YA LGBTQ Contemporary 


RV is a good kid, starting his freshman year at the demanding Boston Latin School. Though his genes didn’t give him a lot of good things, they did give him a decent brain. So he’s doing his best to keep up in high school, despite all the additional pressures he’s facing: His immigrant parents, who don’t want him to forget his roots and insist on other rules. Some tough kids at school who bully teachers as well as students. His puny muscles. His mean gym teacher. The Guy Upstairs who doesn’t answer his prayers. And the most confusing fact of all—that he might be gay.Luckily, RV develops a friendship with Mr. Aniso, his Latin teacher, who is gay and always there to talk to. RV thinks his problems are solved when he starts going out with Carole. But things only get more complicated when RV develops a crush on Bobby, the football player in his class. And to RV’s surprise, Bobby admits he may have gay feelings, too. 





Why Can't Freshman Summer Be Like Pizza? 
The Pizza Chronicles Book 2 


RV, having successfully completed his freshman year at the demanding Boston Latin School, is hoping for a great summer. He's now fifteen years old and looking forward to sharing many languid summer days with his friend Bobby, who's told him he has gay feelings too. But life and family and duties for a son of immigrant parents makes it difficult to steal time away with Bobby. 

Bobby, too, has pressures. He spends part of the summer away at football camp, and his father pushes him to work a summer job at a friend's accounting firm. Bobby takes the job grudgingly, wanting to spend any extra time practicing the necessary skills to make Latin's varsity football team. 

On top of everything, RV's best friend Carole goes away for the summer, jumping at an opportunity to spend it with her father in Paris. Luckily, there is always Mr. Aniso, RV's Latin teacher, to talk to whenever RV is lonely. He's also there for RV when he inadvertently spills one of Bobby's secrets, and Bobby is so angry RV is afraid he is ready to cut off the friendship. 






Andy V. Roamer grew up in the Boston area and moved to New York City after college. He worked in book publishing for many years, starting out in the children's and YA books division and then wearing many other hats. WHY CAN'T LIFE BE LIKE PIZZA? is the first novel in THE PIZZA CHRONICLES. The books follow the exploits of RV, the teenage son of immigrants from Lithuania in Eastern Europe, as RV tries to negotiate the four years of his demanding high school, his budding sexuality, and new relationships. To relax, Andy loves to ride his bike, read, watch foreign and independent movies, and travel. 


GUEST POST

Mr Aniso – My Favorite Character in The Pizza Chronicles

I’m sometimes asked who’s my favorite character in THE PIZZA CHRONICLES. Obviously, I love things about all of them, but if I had to pick one, I’d say Mr. Aniso.

Mr. Aniso is the Latin classics teacher RV, the main character of the series, has during his first year in high school. At first, trying to fit in and avoid the class bullies, RV makes fun of Mr. Aniso and his supposedly stereotypical gay mannerisms. Slowly but surely, through various events, Mr. Aniso becomes not only a mentor but a treasured friend to RV. As RV learns and then remarks to another character, “Mr. Aniso may appear soft on the outside, but he’s very strong inside.”

It’s not only me, though. A number of people have told me how much they like the friendship between RV and Mr. Aniso. It’s not something that’s often found in books, but a topic that I think is very important. How many adolescents and teenagers growing up wish they had someone older and wiser to turn to when they have questions about so many things in life? I certainly was one of those kids.

Sadly, my father was never the friend or mentor I was hoping to find in those days. He was a good, hardworking man. But as an immigrant from Eastern Europe to the U.S., he was consumed by his own issues of fitting into the country he often found strange and off putting. Plus, his son seemed so different from him. I think my father tried as best he could -- and these are themes I explore in the books – but I had other things on my mind.

Questions of sexuality, for example, so important to me, were not on my father’s radar. It was a gulf that was too difficult for us to cross. I suspect it still is for many young teens and their parents. How many of them wish for someone older and wiser to go to with all their questions about life, one of the most important of which is sexuality? So I think that’s where the character of Mr. Aniso has come from. He was born from my own wish fulfillment, having someone like that to go to as a teen when I was slowly, very slowly, coming out of the closet.

As RV gets to know Mr. Aniso better and slowly opens up to the world, Mr. Aniso becomes a role model to him. He is openly gay, successful, and admired as a teacher at RV’s high school. RV realizes that’s how admired gay people can be if they stay true to themselves and don’t compromise their values. Not that Mr. Aniso doesn’t have a darker side. In their discussions, he hints to RV that he, too, had to overcome some difficult things in his past to get to where he is today. I think that helps deepen the bond between RV and Mr. Aniso. By hearing about Mr. Aniso’s difficult past, RV realizes it’s okay to go through difficult times. A lot of people do, and they come out of that difficult time stronger and happier.

I guess, too, Mr. Aniso is not only a role model for RV the character in the book, but for those of us who want to be mentors in turn. As I write the books, I often ask myself, what would I want a mentor tell me if I were a teen in a particular situation? What advice would I like him to give me? What could he say that would be make me feel better? So I’m hoping it may help anyone older reading the books and trying to decide how best to deal with a teenager questioning his or her sexuality and place in life.

These people, too, could take some lessons from what Mr. Aniso says and does. He can be a role model for so many people. I just hope someday there will be more people like him.



$25 Amazon 

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