Shared Sorrows

Autumn in New York always brought dread to Frank Dioguardia, a New Jersey college professor. He would relive his father's death from decades ago and begin counting the days until he lived longer than his father. This year would be different, causing him to realize that after 30 years of marriage and three children he had been inhabiting the earth for the wrong reasons. Frank's epiphany came once he crossed his moral code by committing a violent act on a stranger during the Columbus Day parade and became the focus of an exploitative media frenzy. Both events, through soul searching and action, freed him from his past forever changing the course of his life. Shared Sorrows is the story of love, in it many forms, and redemption.

Frank DioGuardia, a New Jersey college professor always feared the onset of autumn. A chill in the air and rainy skies took him back to the day his father died decades ago. It was a memory that each year caused Frank to start counting the days until he reached the milestone of having spent more time on earth than his dad. This year would be no different, bringing about the realization that after thirty years of marriage and three children he had been inhabiting the earth for all the wrong reasons. This realization came to Frank after he committed a violent act on a stranger during New York's Columbus Day parade. It also brought into his life Dr. Laurie McDevitt, the emergency room physician who had treated his injuries after the incident. When she revealed that her father died on the same night as his those many years before, Frank had a comrade in grief. Will their shared sorrows be enough to survive the media frenzy that follows? Shared Sorrows --- a story of love and redemption.

Vincent Panettiere is the author of six books. In addition to "Shared Sorrows," he has written the award-winning and critically acclaimed "These Thy Gifts," "A Woman to Blame" and "The Scopas Factor," both novels in the Mike Hegan mystery series, as well as "The Music of Women: an Erotic Stream of Unconsciousness." His only nonfiction work is "The Internet Financing Illusion," a cautionary tale about the dark side of the internet.