149: JoAnn Catania- Author of A Scarcity of Virgins

Resurrecting a 30-year old manuscript loosely framed around the novel Madame Bovary by Flaubert, JoAnn set about shaping into a workable novel with help from various sources including webinars from WFWA. Working in details from her own Sicilian heritage, JoAnn fashioned a story of a woman’s reawakening in middle age to all of life’s wonder and possibilities. She took the hybrid press way to publishing and is well on her way now to a full-time career as a writer. JoAnn Catania was born in Sicily and immigrated to Canada at the age of seven. Her writing often relates to her Sicilian roots. She has a Modern Languages degree from the University of Toronto and a speaks four languages, as well as the Sicilian dialect. She is a former freelance journalist for Macleans and the Toronto Star. A Scarcity of Virgins is her first novel, and has also been released as an audiobook narrated by Audie award-winning narrator, Cassandra Campbell. She is currently working on an historical novel that takes place in Sicily during the Unification wars led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. She is member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and the Canadian Authors Association. She is the mother of three and grandmother of seven, and currently lives in the beautiful Georgian Bay area of Ontario.  To learn more about JoAnn, click