Read more about the interesting tale (of both the story and the genesis of it, below).
Dec. 7, 2022
Center and right- Agatha and Robert McCall.
UPDATE: The novella stories are now being released weekly on Wattpad and are FREE to read! Signing up on Wattpad is easy & takes about three minutes to complete. Patrick’s rankings are impressive for new content. As of Dec. 7, Trinicria was #238 out of over 11,600 stories tagged in the Epic category, and #948 out of 63,000 stories in the Suspense category. As the number of readers increase, those rankings will, too!
Patrick’s plan is changing a bit in a very interesting way. He’s planning to incorporate more fictionalized versions of people, places and stories from the local area into the universe of the novels. He says don’t be surprised to read about local historical happenings and people, but with a Mafia twist.
Now, here’s the original story…
In 2021, Patrick Fertitta came home, as many good children will, to help his mother after her husband fell ill and eventually, passed away. For more than 43 years, his mom Agatha Fertitta McCall had run the popular Fertitta’s Deli at 1124 Fairfield Ave. It was the place of Patrick’s childhood, and he was needed there again. He now works at the deli Monday through Friday, side by side with his mother. For some, that is where the story might have stopped. Loving son returning to help family- a noble tale, certainly, but not extraordinary. Luckily, it did not end there.
Agatha and son Patrick.
To be able to return home to Shreveport, Patrick had to leave full time ministry and a job that he loved. But in doing so, he has found the time, energy and support to begin ticking goals off a life Bucket List that, instead of getting shorter, is growing ever longer.
His initial success was helping the historic Fertitta’s, which was the first Shreveport neighborhood grocery store to import foreign foods, return to its roots. His line of Padre Fertitta meats and olives, olive oil and Balsamic vinegar, pickled vegetables and sauces, paid homage both to his palate and his Sicilian heritage and have been a hit.
The Godfather. It’s an offer you can’t refuse.
A new menu item, The Godfather (now a trademarked sandwich name), which uses some of Patrick’s imported meats, is a sell out each time it is offered.
Fertitta recently purchased a stake in a thoroughbred, a racehorse named Country Grammer, a big, beautiful bay that is running in the money at tracks in the United States and abroad. His success with Country Grammer has led to even more, and recently he and family members formed the Omerta Thoroughbred LLP to expand their holdings in horse racing. Throughout all his endeavors, Fertitta has remained an avid cinephile and lover of books, and this year, he found a way to combine those loves with his desire to tell the story of the fictional Balisteris and Messinas, two Mafia families from Cefalu, Sicily.
The Mafia has been a part of the history of Sicily since the early 1800s, and Fertitta’s family, also from northern coastal city of Cefalu, was a part of Sicily’s history, too. Patrick wanted to take some of his personal family history and tell it in a way that would reach people today. His Mafia tale combines dark and light; the dark of human nature, worldliness and revenge and the light of grace and elements of theology. It is a tall order, but a story Fertitta is comfortable weaving.
His first three novellas of Trinacria: The Blood Washes Blood Chronicles are being released weekly on Wattpad, an on-line book platform that allows you to read the chapters on your Kindle, smartphone, or home computer. New episodes will be released each Saturday, and Patrick says should take 5-10 minutes to read. All episodes are free to read.
“Blood Washes Blood refers to a Sicilian proverb,” says Fertitta. “Vengeance for vengeance. If someone harms you, you have to give it back in equal measure. Initially, the families represent the (Biblical) fall, the falling to sin, blood washes blood. We later move to the gift of forgiveness and grace- God’s plan. Man broke everything, but God planned a way for us out of it.”
Blood Washes Blood follows the story from the early part of the Twentieth Century to modern day, and Fertitta hopes the families and the story they tell will resonate with audiences who have followed The Godfather movies and the recent popular series about the making of the Godfather movies called The Offer.
The Fertitta family crest includes the Trinicria- the three-legged symbol which refers to the points of the island of Sicily.
Fertitta says a screenplay of the novellas will be next, and interest sparked by the releases of the story could help get a movie version made. He already has an idea of who he would like cast for the main characters. “I have probably been thinking about this for 20 years,” says Fertitta, noting that it was the change in his life that allowed him to finally tackle it. “Being home has re-energized me. I have a little more time, and doors have opened for me.”
Agatha celebrating a recent birthday.
He credits his energy and work ethic to his mom Agatha. “Everything that I do – how driven and focused I am- comes from my mother. She is one of the hardest working, most driven people I know. She has always told me to ‘take the bull by the horns’ and wrestle it and don’t give up” and that he is doing.
He urges everyone to give the story a try, especially if you are from Shreveport. He hints that there may also be some stories of people from- and places in- Shreveport, both famous and infamous, that find their way into the world of Trinacria. ” Who knows?” Fertitta says. “You may even find yourself in the pages. Don’t take it personal if you get whacked, it’s strictly business!”
This is not the last for Patrick, not by a long shot. He hints that even more bigger things are in the works, so let’s stay tuned for the next chapter.
