Backstory
I was born and raised in California. My mom was Chinese-American and my dad was Italian-American. I graduated from the University
of California at Davis in French Literature with a minor in International Business. I work as an independent Web developer and
database programmer and continue to pursue my dreams of writing novels and short stories.
I initially came to Florence for two reasons: to learn Italian and to find my inspiration to write. I lived in Paris for 6 years while working for a French software company back in 1990. I started writing short stories when I was living in Paris in 1994, but never dared to publish anything. I thought I needed some great "push" to make me a writer, so I decided to wait some more. I moved to England for a few years and continued working and writing.
In England, I had my own consulting business and was quite successful. After putting in long hours each day, I realized that I could do my job forever and nothing would ever change. I would still try to fit in my writing each morning and night, but never felt like I was doing what I really wanted to do in life. Right before I turned 30, I decided that I wanted more. And writing, I thought, would be the answer.
My initial plan was to live in Florence for a few months, to learn the language and to get "inspired." But, as life would have it, things did not go as planned. After being in Florence a couple of days, I knew that I wasn't going to go back to my old life in England. I told all my friends, my clients, and my then-boyfriend that there'd be no coming back to England for me.
I lived in Florence quite happily, learning Italian, making new friends, and working as an English teacher and freelance database developer. It was great fun for me as a single woman (I almost wish I had a blog then...). I made enough money to live, but nothing more. I was writing a lot, but still didn't feel "ready" to publish. I let myself get transported by my emotions and the day-to-day life I was living. I wasn't planning for the future back then and I was just enjoying each day as it came.
Two years later in August 1999, everything changed. My mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and I quit my job and left my life in Florence to be with her. It had been 9 years since I last lived in the US. I stayed in her California home to take care of her and to spend as much time with her as I could. She passed away on June 1, 2001. I got married a few weeks after my mother's passing (and a few days before her funeral). I couldn't wait to go back to Florence, but unfortunately, I felt that I wasn't ready to move. Only a few months later while I was visiting my father in Oregon did I find out that he was diagnosed with cancer as well. He passed away almost two years later in 2003.
In 2004 when I started this blog, I had just arrived to Florence with my now ex-husband. We lived in my friend Simone's apartment near Piazza Santa Croce for two years. While we lived together, we slowly discovered more about ourselves and he decided to move back to the US in April 2007.
Currently I'm living with my husband Alessandro in a new apartment along the Arno behind the Uffizi. I work as a web developer in both Italy and the US and in my free time I continue writing fiction. My desire now is to publish a few of my short stories and possibly a novel that I've been working on.
I designed this Website with photos I took of Florence and developed a database back-end with PHP/MySQL. You can view the portfolio of my work on my work-related website, ganzina.
