Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Maria P Frino of Sydney, Australia

We recently had the chance to connect with Maria P Frino and have shared our conversation below.

Maria P, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: When was the last time you felt true joy?
I’m generally a happy person, so joy is part of my life (thankfully). Recently my nephew married and it was a day of pure joy spent with family and friends. We are a close family and these moments are precious.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am an author, I write fiction stories under Maria P Frino. My stories are uniquely Australian as I’m based in Sydney and I have stories in a few genres – Historical, Contemporary, Young Adult and Fantasy. My website – Writing Rite by Maria P Frino showcases all of my books (except audiobooks) – www.mariapfrino.com. Audiobooks are available on audio sites.

Recently retired from my day job of writing corporate copy and being editor of a newsletter, I spend more time writing, organising events with my group – Sydney Authors Inked, sleeping in (I’m really enjoying this!) and spending time with my family. Writing has been my job since my 20s, now it is my passion and this shows in my stories.

I write novels, novellas, short stories and have had two of my books produced as audiobooks. Weaving Words by Women About Women, written during COVID, is a popular anthology. Fame & Other Disasters, my latest contemporary novel, is also available as an audiobook now. I produced this one with the help of a narrator and an audio engineer, both are locals to my suburb. It was a proud moment when Fame & Other Disasters was uploaded by Authors Republic in 24 hours. Retail audiobook stores uploaded it within a week.

My stories have themes of family and friendships.

My stories are available on Amazon (some on KU), many other online sites, direct from my website shop, various bookshops in Sydney and local libraries.

Okay, so here’s a deep one: Who taught you the most about work?
My parents taught me about work. Hard work in particular. Growing up in a migrant family, my first language was Italian. Once at school, it was me teaching my parents English. Being migrants, my parents worked 7 days a week in shops for 25 years, it was long days dealing with customers and I helped out after school and on weekends.

They taught me not to be scared to put the effort in, especially when it is something you enjoy doing. Rewards may be slow coming at times, but you will be rewarded for your efforts, just keep working at it.

Australia is a country where you can succeed when you put in the work, which is the case of many countries, I’m sure.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Don’t be scared to try. I was a shy child but being thrown into working at a young age – helping my parents in their shop, I did learn to deal with people and have used this throughout my career.

I would also say – start writing at a younger age. Even though my career has been in writing, I didn’t start writing for myself until I was in my 50s. I am now a successful author and am grateful for this, but it would have been nice if the younger me had been more proactive.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Writing. Without writing I don’t know who I’d be. Also, my family takes priority too. Then my closest friendships. These are all important things to me and my friends know it. I am lucky to have a close family and wonderful friends. Being an author is a bonus of all of this.

Also, my friends know I will use their conversations in my books. Many of my characters may (or may not) be based on my friends.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If you retired tomorrow, what would your customers miss most?
I have recently retired from my day job. I miss my colleagues but not the corporate writing. When and if I retire from being a fiction author, I would hope my readers (customers) will miss my stories.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Maria P Frino.
Photos provided are mine.

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