March 2016
Photo © Sanela Danish.
Peter Danish is an award-winning author, educator and marketing consultant. His public-speaking book, I’ll Give You Exactly Five Minutes, was a #1 Amazon.com Business Best Seller. His novel, The Tenor, won the ReadersFavorite.com Best Historical Fiction Book and received an Honorable Mention for Best Historical Fiction Book from the New England Festival of Books. His newest novel, Medjugorje, takes us on a journey to a holy shrine, in a war-torn country. It is a mystery about an American filmmaker visiting Medjugorje to research a film about the extraordinary goings-on there.
Peter is also the Classical Music Editor in Chief for BroadwayWorld.com, one of the nation's most popular arts and entertainment websites.
What are you reading? What's on your nightstand?
I always have several books going at once. Currently I’m reading “Fallen Angel” by Daniel Silva, a thriller set in the Vatican. I’m also reading John Ciardi’s “Good Words for You,” to remind myself just how little I know about the English language!
Where do you go to get inspired?
I am a serious outdoorsman. I’m blessed to live only a few minutes from two state parks and I head there as often as possible to hike up into the woods with just a thermos of coffee and my laptop.
What's something that surprised you recently (in a good way)?
I began a writing school this season and I was pleasantly surprised how many wonderful writers – young and not-so-young - that I have encountered. I have personally attended dozens of writing classes and learned very little from them. I was so happy to learn that I was not alone; that there were so many just like me for whom traditional writing classes just didn’t work.
Where do you write?
Believe it or not, I wrote my first novel “The Tenor” almost entirely on a bus. I was commuting two hours each way daily to the city. I found the four dedicated hours a perfectly uninterrupted opportunity to write. When I am home, I can’t find four hours in a week! So making my travel time productive was a real gift.
What/who makes you laugh? Why?
I tend to go back to the classic sitcoms of the 70s. “The Odd Couple” is my all-time favorite. In addition, I’ve recently had the chance to introduce my wife (who is not from this country) to such shows as “The Honeymooners.” Watching her reaction to Jackie Gleason’s physical comedy is priceless to me.
Favorite fictional character ever?
Too many to mention. Ok, I’ll mention a few. Growing up, Sherlock Holmes was absolutely my favorite character, followed closely by Hercules Poirot. Later it was Holden Caulfield. But all-time favorite female character is Emma Bovary. She is deliciously awful, selfish, inconsiderate and not particularly bright, but we still love her. Favorite male character is easily Pierre Bezukhov, in War and Peace. At first he is a completely pitiful disaster, but over the years (and thousands of pages) he evolves like no other character in literary history. He eventually becomes respectable, then interesting, and finally, a beloved character whom we can’t help rooting for.
What are you working on?
My new novel Medjugorje: the Final Prophecy was just released. It is a mystery about an American filmmaker visiting Medjugorje to research a film about the extraordinary goings-on there. Little children are seeing visions of the Virgin Mary, and sick pilgrims are being cured by visiting the shrine. Soon he finds himself caught up in a plan to capitalize on a mysterious young girl who holds the key to miraculous secrets.
"Whether Mr. Danish is writing about music, history, or travel in his vastly entertaining novel, The Tenor, his words fly off the page. The whirlwind of images invites the readers into a world that will be familiar to some, foreign to others, but captivating to all. Read it!"
—Richard Sasanow, Editor-in-Chief BWW Opera
"The ORSON System is a brilliant approach to public speaking from the most outstanding presentation coach I have ever worked with. Peter Danish provides no-nonsense, actionable advice, for anyone and everyone, on how to effectively deliver a speech in order to win over an audience. The ORSON System is simple to use, yet it delivers powerful results!"
—Joe Peyronnin, former Vice President CBS News
""Bitterness, suffering and guilt are bleak subjects, yet in "Medjugorje - The Final Prophecy", author Peter Danish skillfully weaves these themes into an entertaining - and quite wise - novel about the nature of faith, forgiveness, and ultimately, hope. Like a modern-day version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales."
—Huffington Post
Medjugorje by
In 1981, two young girls in the former Yugoslavia reported seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary on a hilltop in a small town in southern Herzegovina. She called herself "Gospa." Since that day, millions of people have made the pilgrimage to the site. Hundreds have reported miraculous cures. The Catholic Church has yet to render judgment on the visions or the cures and medical science is at a loss to explain them. Pilgrims of all races, creeds, and colors continue to visit the shrine, each in hope of a miracle.
I'll Give You Exactly Five Minutes! by
A Professional Guide to the ORSON System of presenting. The ORSON System shows presenters a fresh new way to quickly organize their content into a simple logical structure that will save them time and free them from the constraints of a standard presentation format. The ease with which they will be able to navigate their information will increase their comfort with the material which in turn will boost their confidence and eliminate presentation related stress.
The Tenor by
The Tenor is a sweeping tale of historical fiction in the style of Ann Patchett's "Bel Canto" and De Burniere's "Captain Corelli's Mandolin." It swiftly moves from Pino Vaggi's youth in pre-war Italy, to his coming of age as a soldier in war-torn Greece, before ending in a shattering surprise finale at Maria Callas' historic final performance ever on the stage of New York's Metropolitan Opera House in 1965. It is based loosely on the stories and anecdotes that the author learned from several of Maria Callas' personal friends and from nearly a dozen trips to Italy and Greece to research the subject.Pino Vaggi is a child prodigy, an opera singing sensation on the fast track to a superstar international career. At the age of eighteen, he is about to become the youngest tenor in history to sing at Italy's La Scala, when, on the eve of his debut, WWII breaks out. The theater is closed. The season is cancelled. Pino is drafted. After a horrific basic training, he is stationed in war-torn Athens, where he hears and ultimately falls in love with another child prodigy, the young Maria Callas. There is one major problem: she is the enemy. However, as famine devastates Athens, (a famine created by the diversion of humanitarian aid meant for the Greeks to the Russian front to feed the German Army) the artist in Pino can't fathom the thought of the greatest singer the world will ever know perishing, especially if he is in a position to prevent it. With a firing squad in the balance, he repeatedly risks his own life to protect and feed the young girl and her family. In the process, his love for her deepens, until something tragic happens - something with devastating consequences that blows the young lovers apart.