Monday, May 12, 2025

Virtual Book Tour: Love Before Covid by Greg Scorzo #dark #drama #thriller #giveaway #interview #rabtbooktours @gregscorzo

EverLeigh 8:08 AM Blog Tour, Dark, Drama, Giveaway, Interview, Thriller

Dark / Drama / Thriller

Date Published: July 28, 2023

Publisher: Troubadour Books

“Love before Covid - A raw, philosophical dive into love’s messy reality—unflinching, dark, and unapologetically human. Unlike typical romance novels, LOVE BEFORE COVID is a dialogue-driven exploration of human flaws and ideologies, blending fiction with metaphysical inquiry. It’s not about comfort; it’s about confrontation and insight.”

Laced with dark humour, it is best described as traumatic (sur)realism. Love Before Covid takes the reader on a journey through the mind of Joe Pastorius - jazz fan, poet, and victim of horrendous sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of his mother.

The real-time dialogues between the characters that emerge from Joe’s unconscious come via arguably corrupted memories and dystopian dreams. They tell us more about Joe than he could ever know, and perhaps more about our world than you could ever imagine.

Dialogues entail an exploration of clashing perspectives and opinions, that cause reflection. Today though, our world has been infiltrated by online dialogues that tend to feel like wild unfiltered streams of human thought, raw, chaotic and often polarising and devoid of much reflection. Arguably that attitude, and lack of reflection is mirrored by the characters you will encounter. The reflection comes from the reader as the situations unfold. Your moral boundaries will without doubt be pushed to the limit.

You will meet an altruist who can’t stand up for himself, a charming but violent public intellectual, a beautiful dancer who hates fat people, a flirty and gregarious bartender who will do anything to get pregnant, a traumatised art historian who never wants to be a mother, a successful intellectual Mexican writer who is secretly disapproving of her childhood friend’s career as a pornstar, the teenage genius son of that pornstar who has sexual fantasises about his mother, a woman who is pressured into cutting off her penis and a successful therapist who has a habit of ruining people’s lives.

And yes, before you ask, some of the characters in this book eventually catch Covid 19. However, there is always hope. For Joe Pastorious, that comes in the form of the psychopath named Janet Waverley.

Interview

What is the hardest part of writing your books?

The hardest part of writing my books is the first and last drafts. The first draft is the most primitive, unfocussed version of the ideas. And the final draft is a typos check. The fun drafts are the middle drafts.

What are your most played songs?

When writing Love Before Covid, I listened to a lot of Frank Zappa, The Beatles and Knower. And I was also playing modern cinematic jazz that reminded me of film noir; everything from Kit Downes to Mark De Clive Lowe and the Bernard Hermann soundtrack from Taxi Driver. And I was also listening to what Joe and Janet listen to (Kneebody, Eric Dolphy, John Zorn). And the whole Janet and Joe romance probably came from the Kenny Kirkland song “Dienda.” That song to me is Joe and Janet.

Do you have critique partners or beta readers?

My two editors were Louise Roberts and Lizzie Soden. Louise helped with the continuity and contemporary lingo of the book. And Lizzie helped with the emotional rhythms of the book, as well as the authenticity of much of the dialogue.

What book are you reading now?

I’m reading White Knight by my friend Mara Rotundo. It’s a film noir/romance set in the pandemic era.

How did you start your writing career? I was running and online magazine called “Culture on the Offensive”, between 2015 and 2020. I started writing Socratic dialogues on the subject of romance, procreation and sex. These dialogues, when juxtaposed against each other, seemed like they were part of a larger story. And this story slowly became my first novel, Love Before Covid. The first dialogue, written in the spring of 2014, was about a man who dumps his psychopath girlfriend, despite the fact that his girlfriend is really loveable, and the audience would rather have him stay with her. That become the core of the book, which was eventually finished and released in October of 2021.

Tell us about your next release.

I am writing a novel about two women who love in London. One if an incel who is a dwarf that’s obsessed with a porn star named Lily Parkington. The other woman is Lily Parkington herself, a woman who is not only a porn star. She’s a podcaster who plays cruel and sadistic pranks on people who are brazen enough to try and seduce her. Lola is Lily’s favourite writer. But Lily knows nothing about what Lola looks like. Or the fact that she might be the victim of one of Lily’s cruelest pranks.

About the Author

During the pandemic Dr Greg Scorzo completed his first novel ‘LOVE BEFORE COVID’ as well as producing an innovative radio play based on 6 chapters from that book, also called – LOVE BEFORE COVID. available on our YouTube Channel. and via Audioboom with links to all major podcast platforms.

Greg says, “I was interested in the challenge of writing a novel that was formally experimental, while still being easy for a mass audience to read and understand. I love the idea of a piece of philosophy that is simultaneously a work of fiction, and a philosophical thought experiment which can function like a great, twisty roller coaster of a story that asks the reader many questions. Unlike traditional philosophy and many fashionable works of literature, this book purposefully asks questions without giving answers, encouraging readers to think (and emote) for themselves.”

Since gaining his PhD in Philosophy in 2011, Greg Scorzo has aimed to find creative and original ways to take philosophical thinking outside of academia. By using modern accessible philosophical dialogue inpublic talks, podcasts and his novel Love Before Covid, Greg explores clashing perspectives and opinions that cause reflection. Based in Leicester, he was a founding member of Culture on the Offensive and runs the podcast The ‘Art of Thinking’.

Dialogues entail an exploration of clashing perspectives and opinions that cause reflection. Statements and declarations can close minds.

The ‘Art of Thinking’ with Greg Scorzo podcast is available on YouTube where he does friendly philosophical interrogation of ideas with many interesting thinkers. Also available via Audioboom linking to all major podcast platforms.

His extended essays on Arts and Culture as well as Cultural Issues are available on this platform www.gregscorzo.com

He has a passion and extensive knowledge of film and music.

From 2017 – 2020 Greg Scorzo was active in running over 60 engaging voluntary community sessions, centred around ‘The Art of Thinking’ The focussed on universal philosophical themes, arts and culture and cultural issues. The ethos behind these events was to encourage the use of EMPATHY, CLARITY and COURAGE in ensuing dialogues with the audience. These were organised by COTO.

He also took up invitations to partner and run sessions at other events, including the Battle of Ideas Festival at the Barbican London, the Philosophy Now conference, Leicester Comedy Festival and DeMontfort University’s Cultural Exchanges festival. He is always interested to partner up with other like minded people.

Contact Links

Purchase Links

https://mybook.to/LoveBeforeCovid

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo