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WORK TITLE: The Chosen Ones
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 20-Jun
WEBSITE: http://www.lisaswritingworld.com
CITY:
STATE: CT
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
https://www.lisaswritingworld.com/let-me-hear-it
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in June 20 in Westchester, NY.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, technology teacher, and library media specialist. Worked formerly in television production.
AVOCATIONS:Martial arts.
AWARDS:One Book, One Town Fairfield Public Library writing contest winner, The Chosen Ones, 2015; Trumbull Arts Festival Literary Competition award winner.
WRITINGS
Article contributor to periodicals including New York Times and International Figure Skating Magazine.
SIDELIGHTS
Lisa Luciano is a writer, technology teacher, and library media specialist. Luciano writes fiction, non-fiction, articles and film scripts. Luciano was born and raised in Westchester, New York. She has taught technology to students in grades 6-12 for over thirty years and specializes in digital literacy. She is the Library Media Specialist at the school where she teaches.
In 2015 Luciano won the win the “One Book, One Town” writing contest sponsored by the Fairfield Public Library for an essay she wrote on the topic of losing technology. She was also an award winner in the Trumbull Arts Festival Literary Competition in 2015. Luciano has written articles about figure skating for the New York Times and International Figure Skating Magazine. In addition to teaching and writing, she studies martial arts. She is a 4th Dan black belt Tae Kwon Do master, instructor, and referee, and has a black belt in Hapkido. Luciano lives and teaches in Connecticut.
Luciano’s The Chosen Ones tells the fictional story of a corruption scandal in the world of professional figure skating. Sports reporter Brody Yates thinks his reporting career is over after he is fired from his previous job for dishonest reporting. When he receives a call from his former boss, he sees a chance to reignite his career. At the office of Sam Jacobs, his old boss and friend, he learns that the story is not quite what he had expected. Jacobs plays a voice message that was left on his message machine. In it, a mysterious voice says that the life of a top male skater is in danger, and the athlete will be dead before the end of the Olympics.
Yates is the only male reporter who will take the job, and despite the fact that he does not view male ice skating as a real sport, he sees that this story could make his career. Yates goes undercover, pretending to be a trainer for male skaters. He quickly learns that despite its sparkly and delicate exterior, the professional skating world has a dark underbelly. The story delves into the lives and careers of numerous characters that represent different parts of the skating world. The reader is introduced to Glenn Chandler, the favorite of the American Skating Federation and reigning Olympic champion, who feels himself crumbling under the pressures to be perfect, both professionally and personally. Rising star Robby Donovan has the most natural talent anyone has seen in decades, but his resistance to being pigeonholed by the Federation buts him in their bad favor, and he suffers for it. Freeman Bennett is also a new talent showing promise, a black man in a primarily white sport, and his arrival on the scene exposes latent racism that permeates sections of the sport.
In addition to the stars of the sport, Yates encounters the helicopter mothers, disinterested fathers, jealous partners, secret lovers, and crooked agents that surround the skating stars. While attempting to uncover the murderous plot, he also discovers the unsavory racism and homophobia that exists in parts of professional male skating.
A contributor to Kirkus Reviews described the book as “a breezy, disposable read that will be more at home in adult sections than teen,” adding, “the author clearly knows the worlds of figure skating and journalism.” Kayla King in YA Books Central website described The Chosen Ones as “a darkly entertaining depiction of the scandal and social issues entrenched in high-profile Olympic sports,” while Emily Butler in School Library Journal website wrote, “with so many characters, heavy use of dialogue, and sometimes abrupt scene changes, this novel reads somewhat like a screenplay.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2017, review of The Chosen Ones.
ONLINE
School Library Journal, https://www.slj.com/ (October 4, 2017), Emily Butler, review of The Chosen Ones.
YA Books Central, http://www.yabookscentral.com/ (December 7, 2017), Kayla King, review of The Chosen Ones.
Lisa Luciano - author, teacher, media specialist, martial artist
If you came to this page, you want to know more about me. Thanks for your interest.
I've worked in television production, I am the author of “Ready-To-Use Literature Activities for Grades 7-12: With Techniques and Ideas for Using Video in the Classroom” (yes, it’s a mouthful, not my idea – publisher’s decision) and I have had a documentary script produced by Golden Dome Productions. I write fiction, non-fiction, articles and film scripts. My debut novel is titled The Chosen Ones.
2015 was an amazing year for my writing. I now have my first novel published. In March,
I was fortunate enough to win the "One Book, One Town" writing contest sponsored by the
Fairfield Public Library. I wrote an essay on the topic of "Losing Technology".
(Click to read the newspaper article) I also was an award winner in the Trumbull Arts
Festival Literary Competition.
I’ve taught Technology to students in grades 6-12 for more than 30 years and currently
specialize in digital literacy. I took on a new challenge last year by becoming the Library
Media Specialist for my school.
My favorite book as a child was The Wind in the Willows. I used to take it out of the school library and just carry it around because I loved the feel of the binding. The book I read over and over again was Harriet the Spy because the main character knew who she was and didn't let anyone or anything stop her.
My dream of being a sports reporter was fulfilled when I wrote articles about figure skating for the NY Times and International Figure Skating Magazine.
Born and raised in Westchester, New York, I now reside in Connecticut.
My passion outside of the classroom (besides writing) is martial arts. I am a 4th Dan
black belt Tae Kwon Do Master/Instructor/Referee and have a black belt in Hapkido.
Best quote ever from my students: “Don’t get her mad or she’ll Tae Kwon Do you!“
Best quote from me to my students: “Don’t make me use my Tae Kwon Do voice!”
Luciano, Lisa: THE CHOSEN ONES
Kirkus Reviews. (Aug. 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Luciano, Lisa THE CHOSEN ONES Micro Publishing Media (Children's Fiction) $16.95 9, 1 ISBN: 978-1-944068-37-0
Move over Tonya Harding, there's a new figure-skating menace in town!Brody Yates, a disgraced investigative reporter, is surprised to be summoned to the offices of Sam Jacobs, his former boss and friend, who plays a cryptic voicemail message in which the life of a prominent yet unknown male figure skater is threatened during the upcoming Olympics. Since no other male reporter will touch the story, Jacobs offers the 40-year-old white man a chance to break the case by sending him undercover to infiltrate the Olympic figure skating team by posing as a trainer. This is New York Times sportswriter Luciano's first novel, and the work's awkwardly employed metaphors and sentence structure are what might be expected from a freshman debut. All of the requisite ingredients for a standard pot-boiling drama/mystery are present, from the handsome yet damaged and down-on-his-luck protagonist desperately seeking redemption to secret love trysts, ageing stars, and jealous fiancees, but the elements feel stale because the narrative whizzes too quickly through plot points to build either suspense or true reader investment in the characters. Though still entertaining, the novel violates the cardinal rule of writing, which is to show rather than tell. Despite some stumbling, however, the author clearly knows the worlds of figure skating and journalism, which the story makes evident. Given Yates' advanced age, the real mystery is why this book is being positioned for the teen market. A breezy, disposable read that will be more at home in adult sections than teen. (Fiction. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Luciano, Lisa: THE CHOSEN ONES." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A499572736/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=51175e44. Accessed 23 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A499572736
Spotlight on The Chosen Ones by Lisa Luciano, Plus Author Chat, Guest Post & Giveaway!
Thursday, 07 December 2017 Kayla King, Blog Manager Giveaways News & Updates Featured Giveaways 1769 Hits 5 Comments
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Today we're excited to spotlight The Chosen Ones by Lisa Luciano. Read on for more about Lisa and her book, plus a guest post, and giveaway!
Meet Lisa Luciano!
Lisa Luciano’s work as a director/producer in television received national recognition for excellence in educational programming. She is the author of a nonfiction book about using technology in the classroom and has had a documentary script produced. Her nonfiction pieces have won numerous awards, and she has worked as a sports reporter for the New York Times, covering figure skating. She has taught English Language Arts, Technology, and Digital Literacy to students in grades 6-12 for more than 30 years and is currently working as a Library Media Specialist.
In her spare time she is a 4th degree black belt Tae Kwon Do master/instructor and also has a black belt in Hapkido.
Meet The Chosen Ones!
CHICAGO: Brody Yates plays back the anonymous voicemail left on his editor’s machine. “One of the world’s top male skaters is in danger,” it says, “He’ll be dead before the end of the Olympics. For once, tell the real story.” Despite the fact that Brody was fired from his former sports reporting job, and despite the fact that figure skating is not his idea of a sport at all, he takes the assignment—hoping to break the story of a lifetime. What he finds beneath the sequins and thrown bouquets is more
sinister than he imagined: corruption and lies, racism and homophobia, money and murderous intentions. Quickly he realizes his task is much greater than researching the world of figure skating for an article of a few thousand words—it’s the chance
to save a life, expose delinquency at the highest international levels, and redeem himself in the process.
The Chosen Ones (Micro Publishing Media, September 1, 2017) by Lisa
Luciano is a fictionalized look behind the scenes of a cutthroat sport that presents as the epitome of grace and poise. Framed by the story of Brody and his investigation into the potential murder, the plot braids together the narratives of various athletes and skating insiders.
There’s Glenn Chandler, the reigning Olympic champion and golden boy of the American Skating Federation, who feels an unbearable pressure to keep up with the demands on his personal and professional life. There’s Robby Donovan, the skater with the most raw talented, who evades the Federation’s attempts to pigeonhole him and is punished for it. There’s Freeman Bennett, one of the division’s top contenders, a black man in a very white, often racist sport. And there are the people who flock around them all: the overbearing mothers and crotchety fathers, the significant others, the shady agents.
The writing in this novel, perfectly pitched for young adults, includes both literary description and technical skating detail. And twisted around the investigation plot are a few juicy romances, some of them illicit, which keep the drama high from cover to cover.
Written by a former New York Times figure skating reporter, The Chosen Ones is a darkly entertaining depiction of the scandal and social issues entrenched in high-profile Olympic sports.
Why did it take 20 years for The Chosen Ones to be published?
Every book has a story of its own – inside and out. The Chosen Ones is no exception, though I think that its creation, death and re-birth might be a tad more dramatic than most novels.
I spent four years writing about figure skating for the NY Times. My love of the sport prompted me to produce a series of articles I hoped would help correct injustices that had gone on far too long. Figure skating was golden. The only sport that got higher ratings on TV was NFL football. It was a great time to be a skating fan. I immersed myself in that world.
Interestingly, some of the “insider” stories I was hearing were better than most soap operas. Truth was indeed stranger than fiction. Then it hit me. Why not write a novel? It would be my first attempt at it, but I wanted to stretch my writing muscles. I had no idea of the saga that was about to unfold.
I wish I could say that I struggled mightily to create my magnum opus, but the truth was that it came pouring out of me. The only way I can describe it is that it did not come from me, it came through me.
So now the book was finished and it was time to find a literary agent. I randomly picked from the Writer’s Market list and sent query letters. Nothing happened until I got to the letter “G”.
Within a couple of days of sending the letter, I got a call from Jay Garon, the head of an agency. Little did I know I was talking to the man who had made John Grisham a household name. Just as well that I was blissfully ignorant. I wouldn’t have been able to carry on a conversation had I known who he was. I still remember the brief conversation we had.
He said:
“I have 50 letters on my desk from writers just like you who want me to represent them. Forty nine of them are going back with rejections. But if your letter is any example of how you write novels, I want to read yours. Send it to me.” (Lesson learned: Put effort into everything piece of writing you do.)
I was dumbfounded. I sent the manuscript. Within days I was offered a contract and signed to one of the top literary agencies. It was surreal... and as it turned out, too good to be true.
In the days that followed, he began giving me advice about how to deal with the money that was going to start rolling in. He would get me a good lawyer. And he
told me something else. Never give up electronic rights to your work. This was in 1995, long before the Internet and digital world were having any real impact on anything including the publishing industry. A true visionary.
As for my book, he had set up an auction. He had so much faith in The Chosen Ones he would make publishers fight for the rights to the manuscript. I waited breathlessly for the phone to ring with the news that would not be if the book sold, but who bought it and for how much.
The phone did ring. But it wasn’t anything that my wildest imagination could have produced. It was someone from the agency informing me that something terrible had happened. Mr. Garon had passed away suddenly.
A deep sadness overwhelmed me not only at the loss of a great man, but also someone who would have been a mentor and a supporter - two things that are vital to a writer’s success.
The agency quickly assembled people to take over the stable of writers, but they didn’t share Mr. Garon’s passion for my book, so I left and put The Chosen Ones on the shelf and continued writing.
Fast forward to 2014. The Winter Olympics were coming and I began thinking of the book that almost was and decided I had to give it one more try for the man who believed in me and my work. I decided to join forces with Deborah Levine Herman and Micro Publishing Media, an independent publishing company, and now The Chosen Ones is a reality. It’s a story about winning and losing, finding out who you are and what you want and never giving up on your dream. And that is the same lesson I learned from writing the book I hope you will enjoy reading.
A Chat with Lisa Luciano:
1. What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
The book actually was inspired by my work for the New York Times covering figure skating in the 1990’s when it was at its peak of popularity. I realized the drama off the ice was compelling and that I could be the voice for those in the skating world regarding judges manipulating results, pressure put on young athletes, corruption, racism, homophobia and much more who dared not speak of the abuse and control they experienced.
2. Which came first, the title or the novel?
The book definitely came first. The book went through many titles. The first was Roses on Ice. I kept picturing the ice with the winners’ podium in the spotlight and flowers strewn around it from fans throwing bouquets. But the more I worked on the storyline and as reports of judges’ pre-selecting winners emerged, I realized one of the most important aspects of that world was how unless you were “The Chosen One” you could not win. That convinced me that had to be the title.
3. Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you've learned as a writer from then to now?
Perseverance. Never give up on something you believe in. Yes, you need to be honest with yourself and take feedback seriously, but in the end, you have to approach your writing career like a parent raising a child. Disappointments and joys. Tough decisions. And lots of love and attention given to your creation.
4. What do you like most about the cover of the book?
I love how the designer captured the essence of the skating world. He read the book and came up with the concept of three young men who represented some of the characters, all handsome, but all who look like they have a story to tell. I thought that perfectly captured the idea that there is something dramatic behind the glitter.
5. What’s up next for you?
I’m working on a “based on a true story” book about a woman who was born in a Communist country and whose family endured the brutal persecution of dissidents by the government, her escape to America and her life as an immigrant. It is the true tale of someone who experienced unspeakable challenges and survived.
6. Is there anything that you would like to add?
Writing this book was unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced. I can’t explain it, but while working on it, time seemed to stand still. I would look up from my computer to discover hours had passed. To this day, there are parts of the book I don’t remember writing. It was almost as if the story wasn’t coming from me, but through me. Did I channel the spirit of a former skater or tap into some collective creative consciousness? I’ll never know. What I do know is that this will always be a very special chapter in my writing career.
7. Which was the most difficult or emotional scene to narrate?
The most challenging scenes to write were the ones that involved the actual competitions. I had to find a way to avoid it being a laundry list - “he did a jump, then he did another jump”. I decided that the best way to handle it was to go inside the characters’ minds and hearts, not only the skaters but the people around them. I hope that it gives the reader a front row seat.
8. Which part of the writing process do you enjoy more: Drafting or Revising?
I find drafting the toughest part of writing. But once you have a structure and a storyline, I think revising is the most interesting aspect of being an author. You have an opportunity to shape and refine everything - the description, the dialogue, the word selection. The trick is to know when to stop. At some point you have to step back and say “I’ve done my best” and accept that no matter what others think, you have achieved success.
9. What would you say is your superpower?
I believe teaching martial arts is a superpower because you give someone the power to change their lives. I started as an adult who just wanted to get some exercise and 12 years later I am a fourth degree black belt Tae Kwon Do master. I like to be an example of “don’t judge a book by its cover” as well as how if you have a passion for something, anything is possible. I also feel it is important to be a role model for girls by proving size and gender don’t matter. It is courage and strength of character that will allow you to handle any challenge. Martial arts develops your body, mind and heart. No matter where you start from, you can achieve things you never thought possible.
10. Is there an organization or cause that is close to your heart?
A cause I feel strongly about is our veterans. They give their all to defend and protect our lives and way of life. The least we can do is respect and support them. I think the experience that brought this cause to my attention was when I was in high school I wore a metal bracelet with the name of a U.S. MIA soldier from the Vietnam War engraved on it. Once the war was officially over I took off the bracelet, but always wondered what happened to that serviceman. After the Vietnam War Memorial was created, I looked up his name to find out that tragically, he never returned home. I often think of him - a man I never knew or even met and thank him not only for his service, but for instilling in me a respect and gratitude to all who serve our country through their sacrifice. Some of the charities I think are doing good work are Wounded Warriors Foundation, the Gary Sinise Foundation and the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation.
The Chosen Ones
By: Lisa Luciano
Release Date: September 1, 2017
YA: Love Across Dimensions, Strong Female Protagonists, & Leigh Bardugo’s New “Language” | October 2017 Xpress Reviews
By SLJ on October 4, 2017 Leave a Comment
LUCIANO, Lisa. The Chosen Ones. 344p. Micro. Sept. 2017. pap. $16.95. ISBN 9781944068370.
Gr 10 Up –A fast-paced, cinematic look into the world of professional figure skating. Disgraced sports reporter Brody Yates is offered the chance to turn his career and life around, disguising himself as a trainer in order to uncover layers of corruption in the skating community. Luciano’s work is critical of the often racially homogenous culture of figure skating. The author also covers in detail the difficulty of coming out as gay when you work in the public eye. While teen readers may relate to several elements of this book, such as the presence of overbearing parents and the pressure to succeed, the “young adult” distinction may puzzle librarians. This novel does not have a teenage protagonist, and while the syntax is relatively simple, it can be difficult to keep track of the plot which includes more than a dozen significant characters and interwoven conflicts. Luciano writes with an omniscient point of view, revealing the thoughts of even minor characters. With so many characters, heavy use of dialogue, and sometimes abrupt scene changes, this novel reads somewhat like a screenplay. Athletes may enjoy this book which takes the typical sports narrative and adds a twist of journalistic mystery. VERDICT Librarians should be aware that although this is marketed as young adult, it features several adult characters and themes, and will be a challenge for young or reluctant teen readers.–Emily Butler, Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School, Easthampton, MA