Tonya Macalino's Blog: The Story of Place

For your convenience, I put together this quick catalog of everything The Macalino Authors (a.k.a. my family) has published, so that you could access all of our books from one page. Thanks so much for staying in touch and supporting our work!

*The family pictures are from the early days of our author adventures--a little nostalgia on my part. 🙂 Tonya Macalino The Shades of Venice ...

Thank you so much for supporting local artists this holiday!

When you support local authors like these, you aren't just buying a book. You are helping boost creativity and connection in our community. These writers give back in the best ways:writing mentorship,community panelists,speakers for libraries, museums, and other organization,coaching local creative entrepreneurs, signings and literary events to boost local businesses,and so much more!
Buying (and reviewing!) their books is powerfu...

Thank you so much for supporting local artists this holiday!

When you support local authors like these, you aren't just buying a book. You are helping boost creativity and connection in our community. These writers give back in the best ways:writing mentorship,community panelists,speakers for libraries, museums, and other organization,coaching local creative entrepreneurs, signings and literary events to boost local businesses,and so much more!
Buying (and reviewing!) their books is powerfu...

In a pre-apocalyptic world, I set aside a bit of money to get out of the house each week. I wrote in a coffee shop just to reconnect with humanity for a little while. And I met a friend for lunch to shake the rust off the ol' social skills. I doubt my $20 was a make-it-or-break-it investment in my community, but my $20 along with everyone else's kept our social centers thriving and supported more jobs than I think any of us realized at the time.

That was February 2020.

This is now: Now,...

Normally, when asked to contribute a short story to a collection, my first response is to scramble for a polite way to decline. So, when Maya asked if I would be interested in putting together an illustrated anthology about a cigarette ghost, no one was more surprised than I to find myself saying yes. And I wasn’t the only one. Everyone I approached about the project found themselves immediately intrigued. The ghost and the cigarette. It is a collection of symbols that pulls at the...

Dark designs, midnight trysts.

Alyse's Venice seethes with shadows and not-quite-forgotten demons ready to rise from the crumbling mortar of the great city's ruin. And the Venetian's themselves? There is no more need of masks. There is no one left to spy them slipping through collapsed hall on their way to satiate their darker desires.

The Venice we know today lost its masks once, too. Carnivale was outlawed in the 1700s. In 1979, Venice decided use the ancient festival as a locus for its...

Hidden identities, secret intrigues.

Venice, once the golden seat for the conspiracies of an Adriatic empire, slowly declined into the European center of debauchery for generations of disillusioned wastrels flaunting the strictures of the world beyond its waters. By the time Alyse Kate Bryant steps into the island’s ruins in FACES IN THE WATER, Venice has little more left than the legends of what she once was. But those legends grow restless and unwitting accomplices breathe life into those...

Wonderfully talented illustrator (and recently also turned author) Maya Lilova and I have been working together for nearly three years now. Together we've created the world of The Gates of Aurona and we now have two collaborative projects coming up: THE LEFT BEHINDS and THE GHOST AND THE CIGARETTE. She's also helped me redesign THE SHADES OF VENICE series and SPECTRE OF INTENTION. I thought it was long past time to give her a proper introduction! Hi Maya! Some of our readers don’t know...

The desperation and the joy: endless hour of the last minute is up on us! I've put together this quick list of my favorite books from this year. Perhaps you will find a bit of inspiration within these digital stacks for your own shopping. If you have suggestions of your own, please leave the titles and authors in the comments section! All images link to Amazon. Graphic Novels Some of these my kids introduced me to. Some I stumbled onto at comic cons. Each of them showed a flair for st...

The Macalino Authors (a.k.a. my family) publish under the imprint Crystal Mosaic Books. While we have a collective website at www.macalino.com, I put this quick catalog together, so that you could access all of our books from one page. Paperback links will take you to Amazon print and Kindle. Ebook links will take you to a page where you can choose your favorite platform. Thanks so much for staying in touch and supporting our work! Tonya Macalino The Shades of Venice...