Thomas Quinn (born 1951) is an

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

Life

Quinn was born in Newark, New Jersey to Elmer and Barbara Quinn. He attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

1969-1973 and graduated with a degree in Industrial and Labor Relations. He worked in sales and marketing for seventeen years for

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

. Since then, he has been president of a division of the Irish Dairy Board and vice president for sales for Warner-Lambert Consumer Healthcare,

CIGNA Cigna is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Its insurance subsidiaries are major providers of medical, dental, disability, life and accident insurance and related products and se ...

Healthcare, and Travel click. Quinn lives in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. He visited

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

in 1999 and decided to write his first book when he could not find a novel set there, similar to his favorite book, ''

The Count of Monte Cristo ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' (french: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas (''père'') completed in 1844. It is one of the author's more popular works, along with ''The Three Musketeers''. Li ...

''. The first book in the trilogy, ''

The Lion of St. Mark ''The Lion of St. Mark'' ( it, Il Leone di San Marco) is a 1963 Italian adventure film co-written and directed by Luigi Capuano. Plot Venice, about 1620. The Doge attends a nightly ball to celebrate the betrothal of his son Manrico with Lady ...

'', took him four years to write and publish. It begins in 1452 with the attempt to save

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

from Turkish siege and ends in 1472. Much of the book concerns the rivalry between two powerful patrician families, the Zianis and the Soranzos and Venice's savage war with the

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

. His second book, '' The Sword of Venice'', spans the years 1473-1484 and chronicles the

Ferrara War The War of Ferrara (also known as the Salt War, Italian: ''Guerra del Sale'') was fought in 1482–1484 between Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and the Papal forces mustered by Ercole's personal nemesis, Pope Sixtus IV and his Venetian allies. H ...

that pitted Venice against virtually all of her Italian rivals. The third book, working title: '' Venice Stands Alone'', will continue the saga beginning in 1494 with French King Charles VIII's invasion of the Italian Peninsula, opposed by a Venice-led coalition of Italian states. Both are available in hard cover and eBook formats. Quinn has recently completed his third novel, a modern-day political-action thriller entitled, '' The Machiavelli Letter''. It was released in May 2012 as an eBook. The first two books were published by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of

St. Martin’s Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

The Venetian Trilogy

* ''The Lion of St. Mark'' (2005) * ''The Sword of Venice'' (2007) The first two books were published in Spanish: El león de san Marcos and La Espada De Venecia. The first book was also published in Greek: To Λιοντάρι του Αγίου Μάρκου.

References

*Author Interview at Historical Boy

*CAM Online, Cornell Alumni Magazine, January/February 2008. *Wilson, Frank “The Proud Republic of Venice is the True Protagonist of `The Lion of St Mark’ by Thomas Quinn” The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 19, 2005.

External links

*Author web sit

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quinn, Thomas 1951 births Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations alumni Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages Living people American male novelists