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My name is Maria Pisciotta-DellaPorte. I live on Long Island, New York, where I was born and raised. I am the youngest of seven children brought up in a traditional style Italian home. My family engaged in beautiful traditions that included wonderful food and gatherings around the table. Parents. Grandparents. Aunts and uncles. Siblings. Cousins. Spirituality. Love. Christmas. Summer BBQs…There are countless good memories to draw upon, and as time has gone by, unfortunately too there has been great loss that has impacted my heart. These are things that have contributed to my writing style. I am thankful for the many treasured experiences and memories I have of my childhood that have helped shape my interpretation of things, creativity, and imagination. There are so many adventures I can recall of times spent with good friends. The great outdoors…we’d play from morning till night. Our teenage years followed and expanded imagination and playing into experiences that carried with them life lessons.

Today, I am a mom to a beautiful daughter, Laura Marilyn. She was given the name, Marilyn, in loving memory of my sister and dearest friend. My daughter is now in her twenties, and I will attest to the notion that time does fly. The two of us together have shared immeasurable tendernesses in our daily routines to the momentous occasions. A favorite pass time of ours was to read together. We also enjoyed taking walks together just talking, and on those walks began collecting memories that we kept in a box marked special. Some of them have become stories. I am in the process of developing a children’s series based on the idea and playtime shared with my daughter. One of my greatest heartaches that still evokes tears if I allow myself to dwell in the thought for more than a few moments, was losing many of our photographs, books, films, handmade drawings and crafts, when we were devastated by Hurricane Sandy.

After I graduated from high school I lived in California for a couple of years but could never quite adjust to the L.A. vibe to call it home. However, after years of cold winters in New York I do think of returning someday to a year round warm climate. For now, however, Long Beach, New York, is abode to my soul. The ocean is magical and healing.

I’ve had varied professional experience. I began working in the jewelry district in California where I learned a great deal about the precious metal market and sales. From there I moved back to New York and worked for a brass import and export company, under the legal counsel where I was first introduced to litigation. I then moved into legal real estate closings where I learned to read and asses title reports, certificates of occupancy, notes, bank commitments, and prepare clients for their closings. Then I moved on to working for partners of the top Intellectual Property firms in Manhattan doing patent prosecution and trademarks and that’s where I settled for most of my career.  Always with a love and flair for writing since I was a young girl, as noted in the following paragraph, the attorneys started using me to draft their letters, etc., and I truly loved and enjoyed my years as a Legal Administrative Professional.

I later became owner in a franchise shipping business in addition to taking care of a home and raising my daughter. It is at this time that I had more freedom to venture into my creative side. I had always written poetry and kept personal journals. I went back to school and took courses in memoire, short story, novel, poetry, screenplay, and publishing. I went to the New School in New York, Gotham, and Molloy College. I also started two of my own business websites during this time.

As a young child first able to write I would copy stories from my books onto paper, decorate a fancy cover, then proudly hand them over to my mother claiming to have written a book. At the age of twelve years, I wrote my first poem expressing love for a boy that ran away with my heart.  Following, through years of teenage turbulence I filled notebooks with pros. Love and romance defines much of my writing to this day. I sometimes can challenge people by writing in a stream of consciousness. My professor stated that it’s far and few between but that I do it well and should continue.

I am emotionally driven often throwing caution to the wind taking a leap of absolute faith and heart.  When not writing or falling in love (and I can do this a thousand times with the same man), I do my best to make people laugh with outrageous stories, pranks, and silly antics. A good sense of humor coupled with spiritual faith has saved me in this life many times over. I’m thankful to God for giving me the gift of expression whether it be cooking a good meal for loved ones, writing, painting, taking photographs, or simply in conversation (and I like to talk a lot!) My beau has nicknamed me Yip-Yap.

In 2007 I wrote and published my first book of poetry, The Sum of Something Meaningful.  “Expressing one’s self is a beautiful release.” A quote from my book that my daughter had tattooed on her inner forearm, and what could I say?

My first children’s book, Magical Heart, published in 2011, and was written in memory of my late sister, Marilyn.

My latest work, Life in Between, is a collection of poetry and photographs published 2016. I am profoundly excited about this project.

Future works include a children’s book series, my novel Anaїs, and my memoire that I am currently writing. My dream project is completing a screenplay and seeing it brought to life on the screen.

Thank you for reading my bio. I am grateful to those of you who subscribe, follow, drop by, read, comment, share a laugh, or shed a tear, and that take part along with me in my creative endeavors.

Peace, love, joy,

Maria Pisciotta-DellaPorte