Rictor J.S. Riolo

VEHEMENCE​

This is Rictor's second book which was really hard for him to write. The events of September 11th affected all of us and writing this book was his therapy. Rictor finished it in 2004, and shelved it for 14 years. It's a very dark, tragic story, as you are probably well aware of. It's 403 pages long, detailing an Italian family's life or death struggle to get through that vehement day. It's told in three acts. Act 1 being the events that lead up to Tuesday, the 11th. Act 2 being the entire day of September 11th, and act three is about what happens days, weeks, months, and years afterward.

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One of the unexpected benefits of shelving it for so many years was what we take for granted today. When Rictor wrote the book in 2004, there is a chapter at the end with the characters living modern day and how they have changed over the years. Children on 911 are now young adults today and have iPhones and Facebook...so Rictor was able to edit in a few modern day advancements we knew nothing about in 2004. Rictor said, "That was fun to do. One of the unexpected benefits of time passing."

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Rictor said, "When the attack occurred on our country, I felt helpless living in Las Vegas. There was nothing I could do to help. I just graduated with my Associates Degree and had a mediocre server job. So my only therapy was to write. And an Italian family from Brooklyn came alive in my mind—something I could somewhat relate to, being from a loud Italian family myself.

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"I had a lot of research to do and fortunately there were a lot of resources available to me at the time. DVDs, magazines, documentaries, newspapers, the Internet...all fresh with information; including the terrorist's paper trails, interviews with eyewitnesses, etc.

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"For those of you too young to know what it was like that day...it can be compared to all the President Trump drama happening right now in the news and media. Except with horrible sadness and heartbreak with a heaping dosage of fear thrown on top. People were afraid to fly, afraid of their Muslim neighbors....

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"No, there is no conspiracy distractions. The family, the characters trying to survive that day, did not concern themselves with such petty malarkey we have the unfortunate luxury of witnessing today. "It was an inside job!" or "President Bush planned this!" blah blah blah....

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Two words. Not necessary."